Wednesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore brings us the latest on Mango Mussolini threatening to sic the military on his political opponents in an interview with that shrieking harpie Maria Bartiromo, who engages in some typically disgusting demagoguery on her own to set up Bronzer Beelzebub for his “slam dunk” (and Bartiromo is too far gone to care about the clear and present danger posed by Our Ochre Abomination of course)...and even with Biden’s admitted diminished capacity, I would LOVE to watch Cantaloupe Capone try to go bike riding with “No Malarkey Joe,” assuming Our Treasonous Orange Man-Baby could keep his bulbous butt on the seat without sliding off (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and David Shuster tells us about Jessica Tarlov continuing to dish out some reality to those hyenas on “The Five” in the matter of President Biden supposedly not providing relief to states hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton...I didn’t know that about the Gropenfuhrer just about totally denying relief funds to Roy Cooper of North Carolina, but that sure fits the profile...and “Tampon Tim”? Coming from “Diaper Boy”? Truly, it is to laugh (at Our Treasonous Orange Pustule, I mean)...



...and don’t look now, but Combover Caligula recently stranded individuals who decided to attend a recent Bund rally at Coachella in California, as Ben Meiselas of The Midas Touch Network tells us...and by the way, I’m waaay past the point of actually feeling sorry for these Trumpist life forms who get stranded after #45’s ridiculous hate-filled rallies of his...yeah, blame the mayor of Coachella; that’ll work (and kudos to actor Bryan Cranston for standing up)...



...and this “60 Minutes” segment profiles Al Schmidt, who is the current Secretary for the Commonwealth of PA. regarding the question of how secure voting is in PA (spoiler alert...EVERYTHING IS FREAKING FINE!!!)...I don’t know who this reporter is, but I think either her or her producer dropped the ball on this story; she didn’t even mention Act 77, which reformed mail-in voting in PA (more here) – Repugs supported it because they wanted to get rid of straight-ticket voting, and Dems agreed to that because it expanded mail-in voting...and by the way, Dems are trying to advance a bill in Harrisburg to allow for counting mail-in ballots prior to election day (here), but it probably won’t go anywhere because PA Repugs want their bogus voter ID requirements to be enshrined in PA law (and once again, voter ID is a “solution” in search of a problem... in case you think there ISN’T a purely political motivation behind voter ID in our beloved commonwealth, I would ask that you read this)...



...and RIP Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for equal pay for equal work led to the paycheck fairness law that bears her name...

...and I have to admit that I went back and forth on this next item a bit, but I decided to include it, and please allow me to “go meta” again with this explanation (hope it’s not too boring).

When I started doing this forever ago, it wasn’t to show the world how allegedly brilliant my prose is. It was (then as now) to promote informed dialogue. If I thought that I could add some explanation to clear up any possible misunderstanding about an issue, I thought I had a right to add it, and I still feel that way. And one of those issues has to do (a bit tangentially I guess) with the incident pictured above, which took place on this day in 1968 (and which led to this idiocy from Brent Musberger, and as far as I know, Musberger has never apologized for it).

To me, there is a direct line between the 1968 Olympic protest of John Carlos and Tommie Smith and that of Colin Kaepernick, taking a knee during the anthem as he did because of police violence which overwhelmingly impacts African Americans (and no, he wasn’t disrespecting our military). The latest example of this is this madness around the police stop of Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins (and not for nothing, but if anyone thinks the NFL didn’t collude to keep out Kaepernick for his protest, then you must live in a magical land of cotton candy, elves and unicorns; I’ve seen so much mediocrity in the allegedly wonderful NFL that I find it impossible to believe that Kaepernick could not have gotten a job as a backup quarterback AT LEAST for SOMEBODY).

(By the way, if you want, you can consider this a bit of a “make up” for the fact that I pretty much ignore Black History Month in February, largely because I think people of all nationalities, ethnicities and gender preferences should be celebrated all the freaking time and not just for a single month. And no, I'm also not saying you have the right to argue with cops when they tell you to do something...I'm just looking for good judgment and common sense on the part of everyone.)

Feel free to disagree of course, on this item as well as anything else (which comes with the territory when you put your opinion out there like this I know), but I think this needed to be said (and I think this tune fits for this topic also).



Update 1: And no sooner did I put this out there when this appears (h/t Eschaton), which reinforces the need for Smith/Carlos/Kaepernick’s protests as far as yours truly is concerned.

Update 2: More food for thought on this topic is here.

Tuesday Stuff

Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report tells us about Bronzer Beelzebub calling into the program of the also-thoroughly-odious Hugh Hewitt, with 45 slobbering over potential new real estate in Gaza...yeah, let’s just build skyscrapers on top of the bodies of dead Palestinians, including kids – what a plan!...and you can indeed argue that the ongoing genocide in that region is built on the model we used against the Native Americans, and other countries used against other indigenous populations, to be fair.

(And by the way, please allow me to articulate the following once more...yes, we should do all we can to bring home any hostages from Hamas’s beyond-cowardly 10/7/23 attacks that can still be rescued and provide a decent burial for those who have perished, and the vile Hamas cretins responsible should be brought to justice and tried in an international court...and THEN we need to step up and lead talks with EVERYONE in the region including Palestinians – spare me this “Abraham Accords” business! – about ending those damn West Bank settlements, rebuilding Gaza and sharing land between Israel and the Palestinians in as non-punitive a way as possible for all sides. Oh, and I wouldn’t mind seeing “Bibi” facing charges of crimes against humanity either.)

With that admittedly boring pretext out of the way, here's the Majority Report segment (NSFW/H)...



...and in response to the Gropenfuhrer’s disparaging comments about Detroit, the Harris/Walz campaign released the following ad, which is spot-on (as usual for the campaign...and yeah, I know I’m biased a bit...and by the way, the MLB club ended up doing pretty well this year also)...



...and playing off that, Tim Walz brings some of his typical energy to these remarks about manufacturing jobs lost under Cantaloupe Capone (and oh yeah, ask the Carrier employees in Indiana about how well 45 “protected their jobs”...he actually did for some, but most of the jobs went offshore, and the remaining employees had to work 8-10 hours a day, 7 days a week...here)...



...and most of our corporate media is definitely waaay too goddamn slow when it comes to “getting the memo” about Our Ochre Abomination, but not Chris Hayes, quite rightly calling what’s taking place a “slow motion insurrection”...yeah, Couch Boy has made it pretty clear that he’ll do the bidding of The Gropenfuhrer without question, as he does in that New York Times interview...also, it seems that 97 election-related lawsuits have been filed by #45 and his allies, to “seed the ground” (as Hayes aptly puts it) to challenge the upcoming vote...Hayes speaks with USC law professor Franita Tolson along with Ian Bassin of the group Protect Democracy, and I know the Stephanopoulos segment with “MAGA Mike” Johnson is a repeat, but I think it’s still timely...and boy, is Bassin ever right to call out our “fourth estate” when it comes to the danger posed by Our Demented Orange Toddler...



...and when it comes to journalists who didn’t put up with any BS (as opposed to the individuals now who make “access” to newsmakers their highest priority as opposed to educating and informing their audience...and gee, who might I be referring to? It’s on the tip of my tongue), a true role model as far as yours truly is concerned was Donald Barlett, who just left us (one example is here)...I thought this clip contained some interesting insights into the New York Times (which isn’t surprising as far as I’m concerned) and the issues that corporate America wants reporters to cover and which ones it wants reporters to leave alone...by the way, the Center for Immigration Studies is a wingnut outfit; I have to admit that I’m surprised that they produced this clip...



...and I don’t see any local area stops for this band on their tour schedule (unless they dropped by already), but if I find one or more, I’ll update that here...like the sound of this newer tune.

Monday Stuff

(This pic was from 3/13/20, lest we forget...and I would ask that you take a minute or two to contemplate the COVID-related horrors that we would face after that date.)

Jesse Dollemore discusses the latest demented musings from Our Ochre Abomination, which leads into a discussion about Bronzer Beelzebub’s utter fumbling of the COVID outbreak, as long as #45 decided that he would make jokes about the Biden circles (which, as Jesse explains, were something Biden instituted because he gave a damn about keeping people safe during a global pandemic, unlike Our Treasonous Low Energy Orange Man-Baby)...



...and as long as we’re mentioning COVID, I think it’s apropos to bring back this clip from nearly four and a half years ago...



...and apologies for being a week late with this clip of George Stephanopoulos questioning “MAGA Mike” Johnson on whether or not Trump lost the presidential election four years ago, and of course Johnson (who led the U.S. House effort to undermine the vote in 2020 for his boss as noted here) refuses to answer the question, as David Shuster tells us...and gee, Uday Jr., don’t you mean the “Democrat Party”? Or, as Joe McCarthy once said, “always emphasize the ‘rat’”? (removing my tongue from my cheek)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen (speaking with attorney Marc Elias) tells us that it looks like the SCOTUS has shown a sliver of a conscience by denying a suit by PA Repugs on behalf of the bogus Independent State Legislature theory (more here)...if God forbid that were ever enacted, it would lead to unregulated gerrymandering and election subversion...and I cannot possible see how this WOULDN’T lead to MAGA mania in the majority of our state legislatures, any of them run by Repugs anyway...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 10/14/19...I believe it was Crooks and Liars who unearthed this clip back then from the 1961 movie “Judgement at Nuremberg” based on the Nazi trials after World War II, with Burt Lancaster as Ernst Janning, one of the 4 judges on trial – in case anybody wonders where MAGA mania would take this country if unchecked, I think this gives you a pretty gut-churning indication (or something hideously like it anyway)...



...and today marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. release of "Pulp Fiction," with this number kicking off the opening credits.

Sunday Stuff

John and Francesca of the Damage Report bring us this nonsense with Jesse Watters and some Trumpist lackey (Jason Miller I think) telling us that they believe that there’s something up with Dem VP candidate Tim Walz, and that is superimposed with this utterly cringe video of Xitter King Elon pretty much acting like a cranked-out fool at another one of these hate-filled rallies for Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...I think “unsalvageably uncool” is pretty on the mark...



...and Jesse Dollemore lets us know that Gen. Mark Milley warned Bob Woodward that Bronzer Beelzebub is the “most dangerous person to this country,” also reported in the previously mentioned upcoming book by Woodward (and again, I guess we have to wait until books are written for these revelations instead of reporting them in real time)...and as far as I’m concerned, this clip provides yet more evidence that Merrick Garland is totally overmatched by the job of Attorney General (NSFW/H)...



...and don’t look now, but guv Ron #DeathSantis of Flori-DUUH! is threatening not to air an ad for that state’s pro-choice ballot measure, with the FCC reminding that gubernatorial asshat that, no, you can’t act like a tin pot dictator in this country without repercussions...



...oh, and here's a reminder that our wet noodle PA-01 U.S. House rep wants to deny women their bodily autonomy also...

Brian Fitzpatrick cares more about his MAGA buddies in Washington than for the people of PA-01.

We can't let him get away with trying to strip us of our reproductive freedoms.

One month until Election Day! pic.twitter.com/9mlcPpWd9h

— Ashley Ehasz (@ashley_ehasz) October 5, 2024

...and it would be nice if Bri-Fi could get asked about that in a candidates debate, but noooo...it looks like he’s bailing on that as noted here...and as far as I’m concerned, that means that it’s a good excuse to play this clip once more (and to help Bri-Fi's Dem challenger Ashley Ehasz, click here)...



...and happy 80th birthday to keyboardist Robert Lamm of Chicago.

Friday Stuff

This Lincoln Project clip informs us that those remarks that are kind of casual asides from Byron Donalds and other Trumpist stooges (“yeah, what matters is Inauguration Day, not Election Day”) let you know that these characters will indeed keep trying to overturn our democracy in favor of Our Treasonous Orange Pustule regardless of the electoral outcome...



...and Miss Beau lets us know about our latest grievance from Our Treasonous Orange Man-Baby – you know, it’s almost funny to hear #45 whine about Kamala Harris and “60 Minutes” because, in the process, he gives away everything he tries to do for himself, namely, to have interviews edited to try and make him sound intelligent...and OF COURSE that means, as far as Combover Caligula is concerned, that that program must be “investigated” (that is, kicked off the air)...and since he’s running away from Fix Noise, yeah, I guess he’ll be trying to get air time from OAN and Newsmax next...nice job to work in that line about the pets of Springfield, Ohio...



...and Chris Hayes tells us about the “party of Lincoln” “suddenly” seeing disinformation in the hurricane crisis...oh, so NOW that PEOPLE ARE FREAKING DYING AND LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOW you decide to push back against the outrageous garbage from Marjorie Train Wreck Greene, Ronna Romney McDaniel and the rest of their foul, fetid ilk? Forgive me while I ask a bit of an impolite question...WHERE THE F*CK HAVE YOU IDIOTS BEEN FOR AT LEAST THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OR SO? LIVING UNDER A ROCK??!!...



...and Thom Hartmann brings us the story of Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, California, an allegedly Catholic institution, which is so “pro-life” that they almost let a woman die who needed a medical abortion since her water broke at about 15 weeks, and the twins she was carrying would not survive...take a bow, you criminal SCOTUS, for trashing Roe and enabling this garbage (and kudos to California AG Rob Bonta for going after these criminals as noted here)...sorry Thom’s video is a little choppy...



...and this latest “Classroom” segment from Sean Morrow and More Perfect union discusses microplastics...and yes, unfortunately, we’re just going to ingest some of this garbage as we live our lives, but it definitely doesn’t help when unregulated manufacturing is responsible also...I’d heard of PCBs, but I’ve never heard about PAHs until now, and I’m not one bit surprised to find that Monsanto is part of this mess also...and calling something a “nurdle” sounds a bit benign, but in this case, it’s anything but...and Diane Wilson is my new heroine for her battle against Formosa Plastics in Seadrift, Texas, which as you can guess is a foreign-owned company manufacturing plastics and nurdles without end, and leaking vinyl chloride which can cause cancer, along with all of the chemical manufacturers mentioned in the video and probably many others also...terrific...



...and I ask myself the title of this song most every day (along with the lyrics a bit also), and I’m sure I’m not alone on that...if you’re reading this, I have a feeling you do too.

Thursday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski gives us an update on Trumpist Royce White in Minnesota, running against Dem Amy Klobuchar in that state’s U.S. Senate contest...I have issues with Klobuchar, but definitely not enough to not support her in her re-election bid (sorry for the double negative)...yeah, White is pretty much a piece of sh*t for saying “the bad guys won” in WWII, which of course spits on the sacrifice of my father along with millions of others who served our nation...and this from some guy who appears to be addicted to porn of one type or another, as if he would have any grounds whatsoever to try and make a charge like that (NSFW/H)...

...and speaking of the leader of White’s party, Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that (according to a soon-to-be-published book by Bob Woodward), Trump sent COVID testing equipment to Vlad The Butcher that WE FREAKING COULD HAVE USED HERE DURING THE PANDEMIC, YOU TRAITOR!!! (and apparently it was needed in particular by hospitals at the time - it wasn’t the testing kits where you swab inside your nose, stick the swab in the card and look for the result)...and I guess we just live in an era where stories like this apparently will NEVER be reported in real time, but only as part of a book deal for some well-heeled scribe like Woodward... and what does it tell you about how dumb 45 is that it took Putin having to warn him about the blowback over the testing equipment? And as far as I'm concerned, the question about who was worse, Trump or Nixon, was settled long ago...glad to hear Harris keep hammering home the point that, at these fascist Bund rallies of his, Mango Mussolini only prattles on about himself and definitely NOT your kids or your family, which, in addition to being completely true, is a great campaign message...also, good for O’Donnell to work in Medicare and that Harris/Walz is proposing expanding coverage to include long-term home care...



...and Jesse Dollemore reminds us that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is still “blowing kisses” to Orban, Erdogan, Duterte, and other dictators, including Putin and Kim Jong Un of course...THIS should be the blaring red siren when it comes to our elections as far as our utterly useless corporate media is concerned (and I know I alluded to that yesterday), as opposed to saying, “oh, 45 is changing because of cognitive decline”...and oh yeah, Cantaloupe Capone said he’d be trustworthy as dictator to Sean Inanity; what could go wrong (removing my tongue form my cheek)???...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report bring us the news that, apparently, Combover Caligula told the FBI to spike the investigation into “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh (here) – yeah, this sure fits the profile for the Gropenfuhrer, doesn’t it?...this leads into another chapter in the annals of white grievance culture from the previously mentioned Sean Inanity; yeah, they’re trying to find some way, somehow to offset the likely electoral impact of trashing Roe v. Wade and coming up with this nonsense like “OH YEAH? WELL, WHAT ABOUT THE DRAFT AND HOW THAT IMPACTS MEN???!!”...also, they mention 45's beyond ridiculous watch scam (here)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner tell us about some rare good news from our thoroughly corrupt SCOTUS (as long as we just mentioned Kavanaugh), namely, our Philistines in robes told both Bronze Beelzebub and Xitter King Elon I to pound sand and keep #45’s electronic communication under seal for 6 months as per a lower court order (and in accordance with Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's investigation)...I’m inclined to believe that #45, in collaboration with Xitter, would indeed want this 6-month info to determine the parties in communication with Our Treasonous Orange Man-Baby so they could either lean on them and harass them or get $$ from them of course or try to subvert our government with them...



...and today marks what would have been the 78th birthday of John Prine, who ended up as a COVID casualty, sadly... would he have been saved if he’d gotten tested for COVID earlier, using the equipment that was sent to Russia instead by you-know-who? We’ll never know.

Wednesday Stuff

Miss Beau informs us that it looks like Hurricane Milton is barreling its way towards Ft. Myers in Flori-DUUUH!; hope everybody has gotten the hell out, and if not, what on earth are you waiting for? Oh, and #45 was yapping about supposedly never hearing of a Cat 5 hurricane before...um, Hurricane Dorian was a Cat 5 that happened while he was *president (leading to the whole “sharpie drawing on the map” thing, as pictured) and Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico (leading to the whole “watch me pitch paper towels to these people whose homes have been destroyed” thing...and it looks like guv #DeathSantis isn’t taking calls from Biden and Harris, as noted here? What a jagoff...and I guess U.S. House Speaker “MAGA Mike” Johnson couldn’t fund FEMA because he was too busy monitoring his son’s porn intake as noted here)...



...and Trae Crowder gives us some perspective as only he can on how much the wingnuts caterwaul about big gumint, though they want it to do everything they want and be completely available for them 24/7/365, though they’re too dumb to realize that (in light of the ongoing effort to clean up from Helene’s devastation, and with Milton on the way also as already noted...NSFW/H)...

...and here is my occasional reminder that a sizeable portion of this country is nuts and willing to “stand back and stand by” for Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (to do something about that, click here)...



...and Jumpin’ Judas H. Priest On A Pogo Stick! The “Old Gray Lady” FINALLY discovers that #45’s brain is turning into pudding...but OF COURSE they STILL treat Combover Caligula with kid gloves in the process – David Pakman gives us more info on that...



...and today marks what would have been the 84th birthday of John Lennon...



...and happy birthday also to Jackson Browne.