So it now looks like we are engaged in the ritual courtesy of our political/media/industrial complex of redeeming a controversial individual (he was at least to me anyway) who has recently passed, and this time around, we’re talking about Huckleberry Graham, who has departed after a brief illness (here)...to begin, I’d like to ask if we can please dispense with the fiction that Graham was some kind of a military expert? Yes, he served in the JAG office, and that’s better than I did I admit, but then again, I never passed myself as an elite warmongering Beltway insider either...Graham never met a conflict he didn’t like, being continuously generous with the blood of other people’s kids...switching topics a bit, in this clip from TMR, Graham tried to get his own anti-abortion bill passed, which pretty much blew up in his face...interesting how quickly a “state’s rights” issue morphed into a “human rights” issue as far as Graham was concerned...as Sam Seder says, it was a typical lie from Graham to claim that 47 of 50 European nations ban abortion at 15 weeks...oh, and did you know that California and Oregon were adopting a “Chinese” abortion policy? Nothing like a little xenophobia from Graham on top of the sexism, is there (Graham segment ends at about 5:25, and then they go to Ronna Romney McDaniel, who’s just as bad, maybe worse)...”due date abortion” isn’t an actual thing, and neither is “gender selection abortion,” at least not in the U.S...and I know the Repugs will be screeching about “DEMS ARE SOFT ON CRIME!!!” heading into the fall, but they’re really going to end up twisting themselves into knots if they try to make this election about Trump’s wretched economy...
...and John and Aida Rodriguez of The Damage Report discuss the killing (in all likelihood) of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE...oh, this man was trying to use his vehicle to hurt an ICE thug (where have we heard this before? And with not a shred of evidence of course)...as we learn, Araujo had picked up some co-workers and was on his way to a job site when the shooting took place... John and Aida’s barely controlled rage and disgust is commendable; would that we all felt that way...more here...
...and as we learn in the following clip, these “Freedom Fuel” gas stations are apparently popping up in PA...the last guy interviewed is nuts IMO, but I thought the other two were pretty clear-headed...I definitely would like to know how the cheaper gas is subsidized also (maybe if, God and the voters willing, we have a Democratic House and/or Congress, then maybe they could investigate with subpoena power)...and the fact that this is happening a few months before the election should tell you just how much of a play for suckers this really is...
...and Farron Cousins informs us that the “party of Lincoln” is collectively freaking out because they don’t have enough money for campaigning, supposedly (barring that sweet, sweet dark dough that always seems to arrive at the last minute courtesy of Hangin’ Judge JR and Citizens United)...however, they could seriously be looking at a money issue this election cycle, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch...those crocodile tears from this Repug strategist are unintentionally hilarious, I have to say (but the “D” team had still better be prepared for the inevitable wingnut BS of, “oh, the Dems are soft on crime and they want open borders and transgender for everyone...and oh yeah, high taxes also”...more here)...
...and Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show gives us an update on what AI is doing to our political campaign ads (I know I had that Sean Astin clip a few days ago, but this is of course a more humorous take)...boy, this Mark Coester sure sounds like a prize, running to replace great Dem U.S. House Rep Becca Balint in “Varmont”...the prize for the stoo-pidest AI slop, though, has to go to Repugs in “the land of the yellow rose” for that James Talarico/”Sound of Music” mess...also, that Julia Letlow flip flop ad, weird as it is, was apparently featured in a Repug primary contest for Letlow’s Louisiana seat in Congress...
...and this great newer number should help us all ease into the week, highlighted by the MLB All-Star Game in these parts tomorrow – wonder if a certain Ochre Abomination will make an appearance? Hopefully not, because that will automatically mean that the NL will lose...we’ll see.
When last we checked with Big Hair Blackburn in Tennessee, it appeared that she was running for governor, which tracks pretty much for that state, unfortunately...sooo, cranking the xenophobia up to 11, she’s trying to present herself as a dedicated ally of Bronzer Beelzebub...I didn’t know fortune cookies were made in this country (but more so Japan as it turns out, and DEFINITELY NOT in China), probably because my brain was hurting too much from viewing this idiocy to take an impartial look at this whole thing – Jesse Dollemore gives us his report (more here)...slightly NSFW/H...
...and Thom Hartmann informs us of our FDA rejecting limits on forever chemicals in food...gee, maybe when Bri-Fi isn’t trying to run scare ads about Bob Harvie as supposedly the subject of an FBI investigation (despite a cease and desist order requested by the Harvie campaign), our wet noodle PA-01 rep could show a bit of a spine and ask his boss why #47 is flipping off this country about doing something about this garbage (the chemicals I mean – more here)...our FDA used to look for PFAS in food since they’re linked to various diseases, and as Thom says, there was a petition in ’23 to get the FDA to look at 30 of these compounds – there are about 16,000 of them apparently, but three guesses what happened to the petition, and the first two don’t count...sewage sludge is apparently used as plant fertilizer, and these garbage chemicals are apparently getting into our food THAT way also...we also get an update on Combover Caligula’s war of choice against Iran with “Bibi,” our “ally” – I didn’t make the connection between SecDef Kegseth and our ruling regime potentially using Grok (from King Elon) to plan that attack that blew up that Iranian girls school, but that tracks also, tragically...I’m sorry I don’t know how to sugarcoat this unbelievable torrent of bad news except to present it and let us all make of it what we will (glad to see New York pushing back on this here)...
...and this More Perfect Union report from Alzo Slade discusses “waste, fraud and abuse,” as in the type associated with school vouchers...this focuses on Arizona, but it could definitely apply elsewhere also as we learn, with vouchers “cannibalizing” the money that should be spent on public schools (including the ones forced to close in that state)...sounds like “other educational expenses” need to be monitored for sure, including $30K on Legos as well as a harp (I realize there could be an educational application for perhaps some of this stuff, but that justification needs to be made for sure)...this Tom Horne character looks like an idiot as far as I’m concerned...”oh, we can’t audit everything” – WHY THE HELL NOT??!!!...oh, and Flori-DUUUH also apparently can’t track $270 million in voucher funds...as with other school districts around the country, tuition rates are getting “jacked up” as the “other educational expenses” from ESAs continue to rise...also, as spending increases for vouchers, special needs students are getting hurt, which is probably part of this insidious plan also, especially since private schools don’t have to take those types of students...and why am I not surprised to see that Milton Friedman figures into this somehow (also, in the economic world, I know Alan Greenspan shed his mortal coil recently, and as far as I’m concerned, he was partly to blame for this whole mentality of “oh, let the ‘magic of the marketplace’ take care of society’s ills” also)...Friedman’s supposedly brilliant idea of school vouchers were used for “segregation academies,” as we learn, though they ended up losing in court, causing the whole voucher idea to get the inevitable rebrand...also, I know Dubya just had his 80th birthday, and I could write multiple posts of his screwups if I had time and if I could control my gag reflex, but I can’t tell you all the times I heard him utter the phrase “failing public schools” – one of the reasons it nauseates me to see that he skated right into the “ex-presidents club” with no problem whatsoever...glad to see this get traced back to the usual wingnut suspects (Chucky Koch, Betsy DeVos, Jeff Yass, etc.)...
...and I know I’m behind on some stuff, and one of those items is this clip timed for a week ago from Robert Reich drawing a parallel between Bronzer Beelzebub and the last king of America, citing how the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence echo our present calamity, which, again, was totally self-inflicted by idiot voters...
...and speaking of Great Britain, Jonathan Pie tells us about wingnut Nigel Farage facing off against a trash can (yes, I’m serious) in a bi-election for the district of Clackton, apparently (here)...so Farage resigned, but he didn’t???....oh, but he’s “against the establishment”...suuuurrre (definitely NSFW/H)...
...and this isn’t the most recent “Daily Show” clip with Ronny Chieng, but I wanted to include it all the same...we learn more on what went down on the 250th and AI apparently is coming for our toilets, which to me is apropos...and of course, leave it to you-know-who to turn the demagoguery up to 11 at least for the holiday...oh, and we’re also reminded of the dustup with the US soccer team, which ended up being all for naught of course...can’t think of a word for the irony of Folarin Balogun, who basically was naturalized by default by being born here, being defended by Cantaloupe Capone, of all people (and nice job by the winning Belgian soccer team to mock Bronzer Beelzebub with that stoo-pid YMCA dance)...mildly NSFW/H also...
...and it only seems like a week or so ago when I wished Bonnie Tyler a happy birthday, but sadly she has now left us (here)...this is definitely “against the grain” I know, but I honestly thought “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” was over the top; personally, I preferred some of her less-over-produced tunes like this one, but that’s just me I know...RIP...
...and here’s a newer tune to help us glide a bit into the weekend – should be nice weather in these parts, and hopefully for you also.
David Pakman reports here that, according to his source, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao has been unconscious for three weeks since he was admitted to the hospital...obviously, this hasn’t been confirmed by anyone so take that for what it’s worth, but it only backs up my suspicion...and I’m sorry (well, not really), but I don’t believe characters like Thune and Barrasso one bit when they say, “Oh, I just had a 20-minute conversation with him”...there’s a REALLY EASY way to confirm that, and that of course is to SIMPLY TELL THE DAMN TRUTH and have McConnell appear onscreen to end all of this speculation...personally, I think we’ve got a “Weekend at Bernie’s” thing going on here because Kentucky Repugs don’t want Dem Governor Andy Beshear to try and appoint a Dem to take McConnell’s place (which I don’t think he can do anyway, since that state passed a law tying Beshear’s hands on this) and want to run out the clock as much as possible to get to a special election where they have an advantage (I’m admittedly neither an expert on Kentucky politics nor am I one on medical practice)...and boy, is Pakman ever right to point out how sketchy this is since the “R” team lost their collective sh*t over Joe Biden’s medical issues (and Laura Loomer is certifiable as far as yours truly is concerned)...
...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us that it looks like actor Patrick Dempsey might (?) declare himself as a candidate to succeed Graham Platner as the Dem U.S. Senate nominee to run against Susan Collins in Maine (and Dempsey is right about men’s health screenings – women’s also...I also wouldn’t blame Dempsey if he stayed away from this, to be honest)...I don’t know exactly what Platner is up to at this moment, but for him to still be hanging on reflects equal parts egomania and masochism – beating Collins was going to be difficult anyway, and unfortunately it will be damn near impossible now with all of this...also, it looks like, though Vlad The Butcher has been dealing lethal blows to the brave people of Ukraine, he’s getting more than a taste of his own deadly medicine – good!...
Update 7/9/26: It isn’t often when I feel like I need to pick a fight with folks on our side, but this is one of those occasions.
If you want to criticize ANY politician (including Bernie Sanders), fine. No one is exempt I know. But last I checked, I didn’t see that it was the job of Bernie Sanders to vet political candidates. He gravitates to politicians based on whether or not they profess to be an economic populist, and we have too damn few of those folks as far as I’m concerned. John Fetterman claimed to be that, though he’s totally flipped the script at this point. Platner claimed to be that also (and Daily Kos diarist Emily Singer also mentions former Dem Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum along with “Tokyo Rose” Gabbard).
As far as I know, though, it’s the job of national Democratic party organizations (such as the DNC, DSCC, and the DCCC) to go over these candidates and make sure they’re battle-ready. It isn’t the job of any Dem (or Independent) politician on the local, state or federal level.
Actually, I think it’s kind of bitchy to single our Sanders here (especially since he said that Platner should now step aside). I don’t see where he’s responsible for the failures of political candidates who didn’t see the attack coming at them and ended up betraying the causes they professed to support.
...and John of The Damage Report lets us know that guv #DeathSantis in Flori-DUUH! got slapped down by a US Court of Appeals in the effort to ban teaching of race and gender in that state’s public schools (and the “chef’s kiss” is that one of the judges ruling against him was appointed by the Gropenfuhrer)...echoing John’s point a bit, I think #DeathSantis is indeed going to take another shot at the big chair in ’28 and try riding his “anti-woke” hobby horse, so to speak, but I have no doubt that that will lead to the same result as before (though God knows who will get the nod instead – possibly “Couch Boy” I guess, which would also be horrific)...
...next, I give you actor Sean Astin’s wonderful speech before Congress about the NO FAKES Act (more here)..as is so often the case, we plunge forward with technology without having the robust public debate that we need about the costs as well as the benefits...
...and on this day in 1976, Richard Nixon became the first president to be disbarred over his involvement in the Watergate scandal – makes me recall this novelty number from awhile back (and that’s John Denver in the middle before he rose to fame)...
Jen Psaki takes a look at #47’s “sketchy” profiting from his presidency...looks like the Gropenfuhrer made 327 stock purchases after he made the announcement of his tariff “liberation day” and tanked the market (buy low, sell high of course), so OF COURSE he cleaned up when the market rallied...and oh yeah, the “First Family” has made $2.3 billion in crypto while the other investors in World Liberty Financial have been left holding the metaphorical bag by approximately the same amount...Psaki also discusses that scammy crypto business with Uday Jr. and the UAE...nice finish by Psaki here IMO...
...and Kyle Kulinski discusses the most recent allegation against Graham Platner, which does indeed sound bad...he pretty much has to drop out at this point while this claim of sexual assault gets sorted out...I agree with what Kyle says about pearl-clutching Repugs along with Neera Tanden (I also agree with Kyle’s genocide take at the end)... (NSFW/H)...
...and Belle lets us know that the “red scare” rhetoric from the “R” team isn’t really landing with younger voters; everything that bunch does is meant to scare their Fix-Noise-watching core boomer demographic...among other things, it tells you how utterly bereft of any ideas the “party of Lincoln” is for them to think that accusations of “communism” would mean anything to a younger voting demographic...important history here on the “socialism” dog whistle used by the wingnuts ad nauseum...Belle is right of course about the polarization on the part of people who don’t think that the other side are “real Americans,” and as far as I’m concerned, that all got turbocharged after Obama was elected, which of course was an utterly stoo-pid attitude (Lord knows I have plenty of disagreements with the wingnuts, but I wouldn’t say that they’re not “real Americans” unless – possibly – if they’re convicted of doing something illegal, such as Jonathan Ross, who, in a sane world, should stand trial one day for the murder of Renee Good)...I agree with Belle that the Gen Z-ers and millennials should have their say on whatever the next economic system is, because rapacious predatory greed-head capitalism sure isn’t cutting it these days...
...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ lets us know that it looks like Ken Paxton was caught with his mistress or something related, flying out of the U.S. on July 4th presumably to have sexy time in Iceland, since nothing screams “I Love America” like an extramarital affair on our nation’s 250th birthday (as Shuster notes, divorce proceedings are underway, to present more of the whole story)...and man, does James Talarico know what to do with stuff like this!...”a lot of crazy things going on in Texas,” but to be fair, that’s replicated across the country too (if Dems are returned to power from the hard work of people trying to make that happen, voters have to remember who broke everything in the first place and stay the course with the “D” team come hell or high water)...
...and what a shame that the FIFA U.S. men’s soccer team didn’t learn the lesson that Everything That Trump Touches Dies, as noted here (when was the only time the Knicks lost a game during their NBA championship run? When you-know-who attended)...this item from Mr. Newberger includes the usual political suspects intervening in that red card business for the American soccer player (Folarin Balogun) during the tournament...I guess this is the only way that the Gropenfuhrer would give a damn about a person of color who wasn’t a Republican (as far as I know anyway)...
...and here's a mellow newer number to help us cope with the summer humidity settling in once more, which forces everything to slow down a bit (which is a good thing, basically...actually, the humidity is better than I thought; I guess I need to get out more :-).
CBC News: The National lets us know that Bronzer Beelzebub has refused to extend our CUSMA agreement with Canada and Mexico...it looks like CUSMA will continue for a good while yet, but Our Treasonous Orange Overlord wants to abolish it of course (which Daddy Vlad would like to see also I’m sure), though other members of our regime want to modify CUSMA because it would make business happy, as opposed to everyday Americans who this regime most definitely couldn’t give a fig about...commentary by correspondent Peter Armstrong...
...and apologies for being a little late with this clip timed for July 4th, but I wanted to include it anyway...this CBS Sunday Morning segment features historian and author Douglas Brinkley discussing all of the challenges this country has faced in the past as a bit of an inspiration for dealing with our present misery...
...and this MS NOW clip talks about white nationalists marching in D.C. over the recent holiday; the legacy of this country is indeed in full view, more or less...with Eddie Glaude, Jr., along with Michele Norris...clip discusses that Reuters pic of the black girl on the D.C. metro surrounded by the racist clowns who are too afraid to show their faces...good for Glaude to mention both David Duke and “Uber Alles” Buchanan...also including Jonathan Capehart and Eugene Daniels (don’t know the other correspondent)...good point also by Norris to point out that these racist pukes will go back to their lives, take off their cowardly masks and melt back into our workplaces, our communities, etc...and leave it to Couch Boy to hold up his own mirror of sorts which reflects everyone and everything else but the utterly wretched presidential administration of which he is a HUUUUGE part...also good for Glaude to make the association between Vance’s ridiculous words and the “blood and soil” rhetoric of Dementia J. Trump...I honestly wish they wouldn’t show a second of the latter’s ridiculous blatherings, but I suppose attention must be paid sadly (every f*cking word out of his treasonous orange maw reflects grievance and virtually nothing else...good for Norris for not wanting to give it any credence)...
...and this report from Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union discusses the movement by tech elites to replace governments with corporations (bringing the original intent of the Powell Memo to its truly hideous end result)...that would be ”privatized societies run by CEOs”...we know this is the neocon wet dream courtesy of DOGE and Palantir, but sadly, it may be closer to realization than we realize (and I didn’t know the plans for a “New Gaza” were underway...yeah, let’s just glass everything including the people so we can build another Trump Tower)...this madness dates to 2008 with Peter Thiel as the originator because of course...this is the first I’ve heard of the Seasteading Institute run by Patri Friedman (grandson of neoliberal icon Milton), but I HAVE heard of Joe Lonsdale, FWIW...author Gil Duran (who has also been following this stuff) is interviewed also...and oh look, Ghislaine Maxwell has popped up in all of this also...and I have to admit that I have no desire to visit Sandy Springs, Georgia, especially because I’m sure their municipal services that are fully privatized are awful (though credit to them also for un-privatizing)...it seems that these localities run by corps are popping up all over the country, sadly...”tech instead of politics” are four words that should scare the fertilizer out of everyone...I also had a feeling that we’d get around to The Cicero Institute attacking the homeless and forcing them into hard labor (which Thiel and his ilk should be experiencing instead IMO)...in a related story, I know San Francisco has a homeless problem, but unless you’re talking about Housing First, then you really don’t have a desire to address the issue...looks like the reach of these cretins is indeed global, with Patri Friedman investing in Honduras as we learn, as well as Lonsdale traveling to the Philippines (and it looks like he was responsible for Diaper Donnie’s idiot musings about Greenland)...and again, we can’t forget about Couch Boy’s role in all of this, as much as we’d like to I’m sure...and “privatized foreign aid” with our tax dollars is also part of this wretched scam (slightly NSFW/H for a moment)...
...and Stephanie Ruhle of MS NOW interviews Ben Collins, who is overseeing the transition of Infowars into The Onion, with Alex Jones FINALLY forced to pay some of the dough owed to the Sandy Hook families...not surprised that it’s taken Collins 18 months of wrangling with Jones to get to the point where the families attacked by Jones and his minions will start to get what’s owed to them...
Brittany Page discusses Apartheid Clyde threatening to sue and jail anyone (including Dem U.S. House rep Ro Khanna) talking about the “many millions of deaths,” particularly kids, because of the beyond-heartless decision of the Ketamine addict to destroy US AID (about 14 million by 2030, as we learn)...oh, and he thinks that MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion “makes the world a worse place” – truly a subterranean level of evil here (and not from Scott of course)...of course, it’s apparently beyond the capability of THE WORLD’S FIRST FREAKING TRILLIONAIRE to ACTUALLY GO VISIT THE PEOPLE IMPACTED BY HIS HORRIBLE CUTS if he’s looking for FREAKING EVIDENCE!!! (this too)...and I know I kind of blew off Dubya’s positive impact with PEPFAR in the past, which was definitely my mistake...apologies (slightly NSFW/H)...
...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that, when it comes to Repug greed and stoo-pidity, Troy Nehls definitely deserves a place of infamy, telling voters to shut up and work harder, like Nehls supposedly (for $175K a year on our dime, let’s not forget)...oh, and Nehls may end up handing off his congressional seat to his identical twin brother (from the “land of the yellow rose”)...and once more, for the zillionth time, Iran DIDN’T HAVE A GODDAMN NUCLEAR WEAPON BECAUSE OF THE OBAMA/JOHN KERRY DEAL!!!...oh, and Diaper Donnie is the “second coming”? Wow, that Trumpist Kool-Aid sure has a hell of a kick to it, doesn’t it? (and one day, I hope and pray that we’re all done with the bleeping accordion hands, along with everything else)...oh, and the stock market is up 85 percent? In his slimy, s*xually abusing dreams (the reality perspective is here...NSFW/H also)...
...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that it looks like those MAGA-t sympathizers on CNN are getting a heaping helping of STFU from the lefty panelists on that network...kudos to Charles Blow for “bringing the heat”...I didn’t know 742 hospitals were going to close as a result of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck (which this guy supported, let’s not forget...and yes, he cast plenty of YES votes while it worked its way through the House); I knew the health care facility closure situation was bad (including Chandler Hall in Bucks County, PA) but I didn’t know it was THAT bad...I really don’t know anything about “Politics Girl” either, but good on her for naming the “elephant in the room,” which of course is the fact that we should have told “Bibi” and Israel to step the f*ck off decades ago...kudos to Kyle also for this whole clip, and I would ask if IDF snipers targeting journalists and doctors (and kids of course) is considered “tactical” also...better preserve clips like this in case somehow David Ellison gets his grimy hands on the brainchild of Ted Turner and turns it into the same blazing trash fire that is now CBS News under Bari Weiss (very NSFW/H also)...
...and the stock of Truth Septic continues to collapse since the invasion of Iran...stock was worth $33 a share when #47 was sworn in, and it’s now worth about a quarter of that as we learn from John Iadarola...the net worth of Cantaloupe Capone’s outfit continues to plummet as he keeps trying to reinvent it, which is typical for a scammy grifter like Our Ochre Abomination...also, the aforementioned King Elon’s Tesla stock is going down also, though not as badly as Dementia J. Trump’s...I also think there’s quite a bit of room for Tesla’s stock to fall – we’ll see...
...and this clip from the German news service DW talks about how the U.S. shapes the world over 250 years of power and policy (commentary by scholar Sidita Kushi on just how “isolationist” the U.S. truly is, as well as political scientist Calvin Thrall)...clip takes a look at the total number of U.S. military interventions, which currently stands at about 500...according to data, the only year we DIDN’T have a military intervention was 1974...there could probably be a whole other clip by itself on our LATAM interventions on behalf of United Fruit...to be fair, clip also discusses U.S. diplomatic efforts, though we’ve definitely fallen down on that lately while China has ascended, on that front as well as others...
...and for the upcoming holiday, I’d like to present this clip once more, which is a bit dated by now I know, but I really haven’t seen anything to refute much of what is said here...
...and I hope everyone has a happy, relaxing and fun-filled Fourth, and please be careful in the heat.
Farron Cousins lets us know here about Anna Paulina Luna-tic using Claude AI to write an amendment to legislation, presumably because doing the work she was elected to do (along with her staffers) was apparently too much of a hardship...the giveaway was leaving the AI prompt used by Claude in the draft of the legislation – just say “oops” and get out (and I LOVE the completely grown-up explanation of “Oh yeah? Well, EVERYBODY ELSE is doing it,” which I also don’t believe along with Cousins)...oh, and the amendment she either did or didn’t use Claude to draft had to do with sending our military to the southern border, so there’s that level of idiocy also...
...and on that subject, J.T. Cestkowski of Status Coup tells us that Ford was forced to hire back 300 engineers who were fired to make room for AI, which failed to match quality checks (the rehired engineers will “train up” AI and younger workers)...looks like Ford workers were forced to accept the same wage they would get for slinging burgers based on that on-the-ground interview...”AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind,” according to Ford’s CEO, revealing the dirty little secret no one in corporate leadership wants to acknowledge...not surprised to hear that Ford had to issue the most recalls of all carmakers; I once owned a Ford, and I’ll never make that mistake again...
...and I guess these first three clips have a bit of a theme, and in keeping with that, John Iadarola tells us about more and more opposition to data centers, including in Virginia...I could probably include clips on this subject every day if I wanted to...looks like our oh-so-august-in-their-imaginations tech overlords are starting to get a hint on how fed up people are with these monstrosities...part of me wonders what the hell some of these damn Republican voters were thinking when they cast their ballots for Cheetoh Hitler and the “R” team, but on the other hand, it’s more important to find a way to work together with these folks and try to bring an end to this “divide and conquer” BS from the one percent...and I don’t know who this Texas knucklehead is who’s prattling on about “drone warfare,” but if he thinks that’s a plausible reason to sink people’s retirement funds into these damn data centers, then he’s got more than a single screw loose (and “tech extremism” is indeed right out of the idiotic Trumpist playbook, assuming anybody knows what that actually means)...
...also, the “Logical Leftist” Jeff Waldorf gives us an update on Target killing their DEI initiatives to try and placate Combover Caligula, and by at least one measure, it ended up costing the company about $12 billion...also, the NY state pension fund (which held Target shares for its pensioners) issued a no confidence vote against former Target CEO Brian Cornell in response (a boycott by Georgia pastor Jamaal Bryant was the primary push-back against getting rid of the DEI initiatives)...I have to admit that I’ve never heard the term “rainbow capitalism” before...I thought this breakdown was pretty good in talking about how the shareholders treated the DEI matter versus how the customers treated it (mattered to the latter group but not the former, which is why gutting the initiatives blew up in Target’s metaphorical face)...
...and Trae Crowder gives us an update on the madness with the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool – I hadn’t seen that pic of the guy whose job it was to clean the pool, but he does indeed look like he just walked off a soundstage with Mumbles, Flat Top and Tess Trueheart (Dick Tracy refs, BTW)...also, I really could care less about the FIFA World Cup, partly because the head of that org has sucked up to Cheetoh Benito so shamelessly (though I agree with Crowder’s sentiment that the overall World Cup experience has been positive for this country because our *preznit has decided to keep his tiny, ketchup-stained hands out of it, so far)...I’d also heard about the infatuation with ranch dressing by those World Cup fans arriving on our shores, as well as the Scottish fans drinking Boston pubs dry except for Bud Light, which is pretty damn funny IMO (NSFW/H)...
...and I now give you today's regional weather forecast.
