Friday Stuff

(For what it's worth, I was able to post for all five days this week, but that will probably be the exception going forward and not the rule.)

Lawrence O’Donnell informs us that Trumpette short-time spokes-liar Karoline Leavitt is at it again, telling us to ignore reality and give her boss credit for our supposedly booming economy (sorry to mention her on consecutive days)...according to a USA Today survey in June, 30 percent of those polled said they use a credit card to pay for groceries and other essentials, and if that isn’t a blaring siren, I don’t know what is (along with the destruction of needed services such as Medicare/Medicaid, SNAP, etc.)...I know Nicholas Kristof is kind of hit-and-miss when it comes to reporting, but when he’s on the mark he really nails it IMO, as he does here meeting with people victimized by our end stage capitalist economy, including Latoya Foster in Pine Bluff, Arkansas...more on “The Other America” by Michael Harrington is here...



...and I’ll turn to TYT once more for the story of sailors on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln deployed in the Gulf apparently trying to throw themselves overboard...in addition to the ridiculous over-extension of the deployment of our military, some are also racked with guilt over the bombing of civilians; wonder when we’re going to hear about this on Fix Noise? I would guess at half past never...I realize Cenk Uygur is being tongue-in-cheek asking why Israel doesn’t help out our military, but even though there’s likely no practical way to do that, he has a point (oh, riiiight – I forgot about this)...I didn’t know about the suicides by our cyber personnel, on top of all of this misery...I would respectfully remind everyone that one of the first things our utterly lawless regime did when they seized power in ’25 was to fire scores of our senior military officers overseeing our service branches, which rated hardly a mention in our beyond useless corporate media, and I would argue that we now get sucking up to Israel at the expense of our own safety as a result...I remembered the ’83 bombing of our Marine barracks in Beirut (which we responded to by attacking Grenada), but I’d forgotten about Israel bombing the U.S.S. Liberty...good commentary IMO from Elliot Morgan also...additionally, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln was where Dubya had his “Mission Accomplished” moment – a bit tangential I know, but just pointing that out...



...and in today’s chapter of “gee, how can our rotten regime find a new way to piss off another one of our allies?”, this report from CBC News lets us know that 60,000 Canadians have signed a petition to expel Pete Hoekstra as U.S. ambassador to Canada...maybe it wasn’t a good idea for Hoekstra to retweet that “51st State” garbage, huh?...



...and I stumbled across this clip a day or so ago...it looks like Arkansas farmers are having a particularly tough time along with farmers across the country...energy costs from #47’s war of choice in Iran along with Ukraine/Russia are ultimately eating into whatever profitability they’re eking out (not much it seems), along with impact from those stinking tariffs...I would also include the effects of the climate crisis as a factor affecting how successful a season our farmers have (though I’m not an expert on farm policy I admit)...I realize no political party is blameless on this issue, but I cannot imagine why anybody would think Republicans, particularly in Arkansas, give a damn about them...more here (and you KNOW how they voted two years ago, right?)...



...and speaking of hard labor, Mr. Newberger gives Not Your Father’s Republican Party the shot they deserve over their obedience to Our Ochre Abomination...



...and here’s some good news – we’ve got a fall recording to look forward to from this guy ("Hippies, Thugs and Heroes")...here is the first single.

Thursday Stuff

Kenny Hesse of Really American gives us the latest on Mango Mussolini’s plane switch– OK, so I want to make sure I have this right...so the Gropenfuhrer was due to leave a summit in Turkey last month on AF One, but ended up escaping with the aid of a catering cart and taking a secret plane instead, with the press assigned to cover him being potentially exposed to attack from Iran if that country decided to take a shot at the presidential jet (which I definitely DO NOT condone of course)...and oh yeah, that Laura Loomer bit is funny for all of the wrong reasons of course...also, I don’t know if that Lego video came from Iran or not, but if it did, I definitely have to give them props for turning around so fast on this (though I really don’t want to, but I guess I have to)...former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall weighs in also; Kendall indeed has sued our outlaw administration to restore his security clearance...glad Hesse ends this clip with a comment on that ridiculous statement from #47 about Communism...more here (looks like Little Marco ended up not making the cut and was exposed on AF One to a potential attack along with everyone else – normally I would just be snarky about this, but even though I detest these people, I won’t make a joke about endangering people’s safety...more here)...NSFW/H...



...and Brittany Page talks about all the ways Cheetoh Hitler is screwing over kids, starting with proposed cuts to SNAP causing more of them to go hungry, with the dough used to fund yet another forever Mideast war and cover monuments in D.C. with gold leaf...lines grow ever longer at food banks with more and more families having to choose between food and medications in what purports to be the richest country on earth...oh, and it looks like #47 will skate on a proposed IRS penalty of $100 million...and did I mention that Dementia J. Trump is going after Head Start also (taking a page out of Project 2025, yet another reason to excoriate that contemptible Russell Vought)...glad that Page went through the proposed awful changes from the Trump gang – with all of the outrages from these cretins, I temporarily forgot about trying to withhold Medicaid payments to blue states...“Nazi sh*t” indeed...slightly NSFW/H also...



...and John of The Damage Report discusses the proliferation of Flock cameras, gathering all kinds of data whether we want them to or not...looks like those fine words about unnecessary surveillance were spoken by a gentleman at a town hall meeting in Findley, MN...and 90K cameras across 6K communities, huh? I must have missed the robust public debate that preceded this grotesque invasion of our privacy...apparently, Flock is turning over info to government and law enforcement, leading to misidentification of people and subsequent arrest – I’m sure there will be lawsuits aplenty over this madness...oh yeah, it looks like cops have also been using Flock cameras to track their former relationship partners, just for sh*ts and giggles I guess...also, this leads back to the plague of VC investment run amok (to the tune of $1 billon), which shouldn’t surprise anybody either...fortunately, it looks like 60 municipalities have forced their local governments to cancel Flock contracts – just need to keep up the fight here...



...and when even Sen. Foghorn Leghorn of Louisiana says that the scam SAVE Act is dead, I think you can believe it (though the Gropenfuhrer will continue to play his stoo-pid games up until and after the election of course...and leave it to some Fix Noise hairdo to laughably call it “an election integrity bill”)...and I realize characters like Sean Inanity don’t give a damn about the hardship this creates for workers at the polls, who FREAKING CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE REGISTERED ANYWAY BY YOUR SIGNATURE (at least, that’s the way it works in Doomsy-land)...as David Shuster of Rebel HQ says, non-citizen voting is extremely rare and is caught by the poll workers (along with the fact that those trying to game the system this way are usually Republicans – one example is here)... and “Manhood Meltdown” when referring to James Talarico at the Roger Ailes BS Factory? Yeah, that attack line will work...SMDH...



...and I’m not sure how I missed this from Jimmy Kimmel, but I’ll add it now (YouTube seems to have an issue with Kimmel’s clips for some reason – I’ll see if this gets some kind of TOS violation also)...



...and here is another seasonal number.

Wednesday Stuff

Rachel Maddow lets us know that it appears that the Repugs didn’t foresee the push-back against their gerrymandering BS...looking at South Carolina first, where they tried to eliminate the seat of Dem U.S. House Rep James Clyburn, though it seems like minority voters in that state commendably pushed back, forcing the “R” team to scrap their awful plan... apparently this scene was also played out in Georgia, where Repug governor Brian Kemp tried to disenfranchise minority voters, but folks in the peach state commendably rose up there as well...they actually went through with this garbage in Tennessee, however, despite folks in the sole black district in that state commendably going to work to try and prevent it (phone calls, knocking on doors, and other means to coalesce folks to protest this)...Maddow speaks with the Rev. Earle Fisher of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Memphis, who was one of the leaders of the mobilization effort to protest the Tennessee redistricting scam (sounds like the odds are long for Justin Pearson to retain his seat, but it’s better to “die on our feet than live on our knees,” figuratively speaking, you might say)...I realize Maddow believes she needs to be a little polite about criticizing the national Dem political establishment about not getting involved with this fight in Tennessee, but I feel no such obligation about softening my rhetoric towards those clueless bunch of election losers in our political/media/industrial complex...”the antidote to despair is action” indeed...



...and Ali Velshi takes a look at a ballot measure in Missouri that fortunately didn’t pass; it would have made it harder to pass future ballot measures (Amendment #4), since Heaven knows that Not Your Father’s Republican Party doesn’t want to hear a damn thing from the rabble they allegedly represent (segment aired on 8/5)...easy to focus on Michigan, and yeah, that deserves to be looked at I realize, but it’s important to keep the “big picture” across the country in mind also...oh, but somehow Repug-sponsored ballot measures would have been just dandy in “Mizzou,” huh? Funny thing, that...sounds like a similar BS amendment about forcing judges to run for election (and yes, on balance, I think that’s bad) failed in Kansas fortunately (and yep, the thoroughly odious Kris Kobach was right in the middle of that one)...Velshi takes a look at the latest insane speech from Our Ochre Abomination on the economy (and God almighty, the freaking accordion hands again!), but to his credit, Velshi responds a bit to that madness (more feedback on that is here)...Velshi speaks with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell...



...and it looks like FCC chairman and human thumb Brendan Carr managed to get some screed published on Breitbart recently about restoring “balance” (code to squashing voices of dastardly lefties) in TV news (not sure who this gentleman is who’s presenting)...also, apparently there was a vote on August 6th to eliminate the nationwide ownership cap saying a broadcaster cannot reach more than 39 percent of U.S. households (here), which will likely lead to even greater media concentration (cough, Nexstar, Sinclair, cough) than we have already, and if you think that’s good news for lefties and progressives, then you must also believe in cotton candy elves and the Easter bunny...the 39 percent cap had been in place since 2004, and of course there was no logical reason to mess with it except to further consolidate the conservative voice of Big Brother...



...and Logical Leftist Jeff Waldorf brings us the tale of a guy named John Gannon who voted for Bronzer Beelzebub to “get the criminals out,” but ooopsie!... ICE took his fiancée instead (Yasmin Carolina Suarez Reyes)...oh, and it took EIGHT allegedly manly men to apprehend this lady, who apparently was “guilty” only of having too dark of a skin color...she applied to have her visa renewed two days before it was to expire in ’24, and thus far hasn’t received word on her status, so the Trump gang automatically assumed she was somehow here illegally – typical...oh, and she was pursuing a particular type of visa for someone who had aided law enforcement, which makes this even MORE appalling somehow...and yeah, the immigration court also didn’t set a bond in her case because they apparently thought they didn’t have the authority to do that...and 20-40 people a day getting detained at airports by ICE thugs? Sounds about “white”...



...and Mr. Newberger gives Max Miller the treatment he deserves at a minimum IMO...gee, it looks like the Repugs are stuck with this lunatic; I’m old enough to recall all of the pearl clutching about Graham Platner and forcing him to exit the U.S. Senate contest in Maine (still waiting for charges to be filed against him), which needed to happen I realize, but as far as Miller is concerned (who’s accused of stuff definitely worse), IOKIYAR...



...and it looks like Tom Waits is going to release a commemorative 50th anniversary vinyl LP of his recording “Small Change” based on this, including this timeless number.

Tuesday Stuff

This news report informs us that, apparently, Cantaloupe Capone wants to post signs outside of the Smithsonian saying to anyone entering the museum that there is “inaccurate information,” as if Our Bulbous Orange Fool of a *preznit would have any clue whatsoever about that...



...and Farron Cousins lets us know, in case we had any doubt, that King Elon lied about everything concerning DOGE, according to a GAO congressional watchdog...I definitely get Cousins’s point about so damn much corruption from our cretinous regime of bottom feeders that would have to be investigated by a Dem U.S. House (if, God willing, we end up with that), but Apartheid Clyde would most definitely deserve his “time in the barrel” also (along with Russell Vought)...



...and speaking of people in this regime trying constantly to peddle BS, it looks like Don The Con is LYING AGAIN, this time about guns and drugs allegedly coming into this country from our northern neighbor, according to this report from CBC News...truth be told, about 90 percent of the guns used in crime in Ontario come from the U.S., and there’s heavy drug traffic from this country into Canada also...



...and keeping with our northern neighbors, John of The Damage Report tells us that Canadians support a “dollar for dollar” tariff response to Our Globulus Orange Maniac...and oh yeah, they made 10 million fewer trips to this country over the last year, with us losing out on $4.5 billion in revenue and 140K jobs lost in hospitality...”none of this needs to be happening” indeed...



...and returning to this country, leave it to Lewis Black to give us a singular take on Texas politics, reading some online fan comments...nice to know there are some sane folks in that part of the world (NSFW/H)...



...and two days ago marked the 40th anniversary of Queen playing what would be their final live concert at Knebworth Park, Stevenage, England in front of 120,000 fans, building from the momentum of their legendary performance at Live Aid the year before...I would say that their legacy continues to endure.

Monday Stuff

I honestly don’t know who the alleged Republican messaging genius was who came up with this bit about saying Democrats and their supporters are “Communists” and they’re supposedly worse than World Wars I and II and 9/11, but this is truly the most idiotic attack line from the “R” team that I’ve ever heard, and believe me when I tell you that I’ve heard just about all of them at one time or another (David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about it)...of course, being Republicans, all they know to do is keep repeating this idiocy over and over...good for Mike Barnicle to pick up the challenge and throw it right back at Our Ochre Abomination...I’m not familiar with Michigan Dem U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s prior comments or positions, though I’m QUITE sure Not Your Father’s Republican Party will be focusing on them ad nauseum since they have NOTHING ELSE to run on, in Michigan or anywhere else; what matters to me is what El-Sayed says and does now...I’m sure El-Sayed has an uphill fight in terms of electability in Michigan, but a lot of candidates have faced that in the past and overcome it; I don’t have any intel “on the ground” in that state, but El-Sayed must have known what he was doing to get this far – we’ll see...



...and Jesse Dollemore informs us that #47 has been dropping more hints (the latest in an interview with Punchbowl News) that he doesn’t plan to ever leave and will indeed have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of “the people’s house,” maybe trying to run in ’28, which, as Jesse notes, is a violation of the Constitution Our Treasonous Orange Pustule took an oath to “preserve, protect and defend,” though, as noted previously, he didn’t put his hand on the Bible when he did that...and yeah, it does tell you something that Andy Ogles lost his primary, though in that area of what purports to be civilization, the sheeple will likely just send back some other doofus from the “R” party instead to Congress...oh, and by the way Cantaloupe Capone, you won “Pennsyltucky” in ’24 by about 120K votes as noted here (and while running against the “B” team to be honest, with Biden out of it); you didn’t win “easily”...also, the issue of the US competing against China for the computer chip market (mainly for AI) is a complicated one (more information here)...one reason why is because we keep trying to find ways to deny China our technology (though they’ll likely get it anyway through the Saudis), but China is playing the long game on this as they do with just about everything else, so we’d be smart not to but heads with that country quite so much on this (not saying to “give away the store,” though...as I say, this is a complicated issue – if anybody thinks the Gropenfuhrer grasps this, then you need counseling)...kind of unnerving to hear the vision of unreality from these jackals (“Oh, manufacturing hasn’t been this good in years!”) – once more, heckuva job, all you numbskulls who made sure we’d be stuck with these cretins by wasting your vote in November ’24 (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and this video from Status Coup informs us of ICE prisoners served food with “worm-like creatures” in it and other refuse in the water (along with a foul odor) at the Adelanto (CA) Detention Center, courtesy of GEO Group (testimony from detainee Richard Parias based on a discovery by someone in his unit at Adelanto), according to immigration attorney Margaret Hellerstein...report by Michelle Dao...the food is apparently contaminated also...there’s also the issue of Parias not getting the treatment he needs for his wounded arm...ICE targeted Parias because he was recording their activity, which doesn’t make ICE any less culpable IMO...and yeah, as far as even having a need at all for ICE detention, the cruelty truly is the point...



...and gee, it appears that Our Ochre Abomination is actually lying again, this time about data centers – color me (not) shocked...and when even Greg Abbott, of all people, can read how mad people are about these monstrosities, that tells you how wrong anyone is who may support these quality-of-life-destroying behemoths (witness the myriad health ailments linked to these places, as we find out about)...negative polling is up 21 percent on this issue over last year, as we also learn, which is pretty damn dramatic (John and Sharon Reed of The Damage Report tell us about it...I know I pick on Reed a bit at times and it definitely isn’t personal, but I don’t know how else to say it; she really doesn’t bring much to these videos)...



...and Tennessee Brando brings us the news that it looks like our alleged Democratic senator from PA is at it again, bashing the DSA and helping to create a divide between them and these mainstream corporate DNC ELECTION LOSERS who seem to have no other response but “I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids”...and OF COURSE John Fetterman, in a recent interview with Jon Stewart, basically said, yeah, let’s let “Bibi” and Israel do whatever they want, which 1) Is disgusting in humanitarian terms, and 2) Flies in the face of where the rank-and-file of the political party he allegedly supports stands...I liked Brando’s tale of his mean dog Samson and drawing the equivalency with Fetterman, Carville and the completely-beyond-useless Bill Maher (somewhat NSFW/H)...



...and here is another seasonal tune.

Friday Stuff

Chris Hayes brings us the story of outgoing Repug U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis caving over the nomination of Trump fixer Todd Blanche as Attorney General...looks like Blanche came up with two memos which were pretty much fig leafs without much substance in the matter of Our Treasonous Orange Pustule suing the IRS for $10 billion for some alleged defamation (which exists only in the calcified cranium of #47 and not in the real world in any way whatsoever), and also, this $1.8 billion insurrectionist slush fund is apparently not happening, maybe (though payouts are going to 1/6ers as Hayes notes), and it looks like that was enough for Cornyn and Tills to abdicate any responsibility whatsoever...oh, and did I mention retroactive immunity for Trump, his family/sons and his business, which was part of this disgusting deal also? (pretty much drowning in corruption at this point)...”it’s not just Trump – the whole party is rotten” indeed (an important update is here)...



Update: Yeah, this figures – Cassidy, Cornyn and Tillis have nothing to lose politically, but they still couldn’t muster the courage to stand up to Combover Caligula on Blanche.

...and this clip is a little behind the news cycle I’ll admit, but I think it needs to be mentioned – as we learn in this Ring of Fire segment, #47 endorsed Amir Hassan for the Repug nomination in the contest for Michigan’s 8th district U.S. House seat; Hassan probably had some political baggage if he got the nod from the Gropenfuhrer, but Hassan apparently raised about $750K, which isn’t chump change, and Hassan also served our country in the U.S. Navy (he's also a self-professed Christian)...none of that was apparently good enough for Repug voters, however, who let their intolerant freak flag fly a couple of days ago and voted instead for a guy who had dropped out of the contest weeks earlier, proving once more that racism and hatred of brown-skinned people, for the most part, is truly the factor that animates Republican voters more than anything else (here and here)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us that Trumpster Matt Whitaker recently went on Fix Noise and tried to spout this BS that we’re negotiating with Iran – uh, no; there apparently are negotiations going on with Oman, though...CNN’s Harry Enten brings us more polling data on how unpopular Dementia Donnie’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran is (minus 40 at the moment)...also, the numbers are somehow even worse when you compare this mess to the last forever Mideast war under Dubya in Iraq...good point about our current economic stagnation also...on top of that, apparently the global gas supply is running dangerously low also, with gas potentially hitting $7 a gallon – are you tired of the winning yet? Oh, and Rand Paul sounds a bit logical on this issue, as opposed to the caterwauling lunatic he acted like at that mess of a hearing with Dr. Fauci...we’re also reminded once more what a lying weasel “Human Capital Stock” Kevin Hassett is (4% growth imagined versus 1.5% actual growth, which is barely anything), as if we didn’t know that already...



...and Farron Cousins informs us about red state food shortages tied to the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck and even more strict work requirements for SNAP benefits, which were already at the Dickensian level of about a couple of hundred bucks a month...all of this has made it harder for food pantries, funded by the states and the feds (particularly in West Virginia), with that awful bill cutting the amount of food going to these places as Cousins points out...another “miracle” of Repug governance, people...

...and Luke Beasley brings us this video of Stephanie Penn, communications director for Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, running away from and stonewalling a reporter when Penn was asked about “Weekend at Bernie’s” McConnell’s health (maybe Penn thought she was trying to perform a Jedi mind trick or something...”this is not the Kentucky Republican senator you’re looking for”)...oh, but McConnell just released a statement saying he's heading home, huh? Well, I'll believe it when I see it...



...and Tennessee Brando gives us his take on that numbskull James Carville carrying on about not being in the same political party as Hasan Piker, or something, and I know I touched on this already but I wanted to hear Brando’s take on it...1) Carville spouts this nonsense on Fix Noise, which checks a big box for conservative “moderate” suburban boomers of course, and 2) If Carville seriously thinks that the DSA wants to seize the means of production or whatever nonsense he comes up with, then he needs to reserve his place in an old age home right now...I forgot about Carville pushing out David Hogg from Dem party leadership, which on balance is another mark against Carville IMO...and oh yeah, Laura Ingraham of all people cares SO MUCH about the future of the “Democrat” Party, doesn’t she (SMDH)...NSFW/H...



...and as we know, our ruling cabal has no problem whatsoever throwing its female cabinet members under the proverbial bus, and it looks like Judge Winebox may have her turn coming up soon – with that in mind, Mr. Newberger gives us the following...



...and I think we should likely bring the week to a close with a newer and more positive musical number (about a year old) – I hope you agree.

Wednesday Stuff

Tennessee Brando gives us a commentary of how “trickle-down economics destroyed my hometown”...yep, the minimum wage at “the buckle of the Bible belt,” as Brando puts it, is $7.25 an hour...I didn’t know that James Talarico said that trickle-down “isn’t a theory, it’s a theft”; damn straight!...”if they let you get ahead in this world, they’ll cut you down to size to stop you from getting ahead in this world” – hard to argue with that...interesting Ali/Frazier story also IMO (NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins discusses “Dr. Crudite” deciding to increase the monthly cost of Medicare health and drug coverage for seniors by getting rid of subsidies for Part D...I thought this was a pretty good analysis by Cousins about why, even though we do indeed hate insurance companies, we’re stuck with them until the blessed day comes when we have single payer at the point of service for health care (and yeah, I know it’s a pipe dream, but we need to keep beating that metaphorical drum for it anyway)...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us that the Consumer Product Safety Commission under the leader of Cult 45 wants our ER records now; what a mental patient this guy is...clip starts with an overview of the importance of the CPSC, so now, our ruling regime is going to take the commendable mission of that important government agency and twist it to suit their nefarious ends...



...and I know we’re focused on elections in this country now, and rightly so (and congratulations to Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and get ready for a never-ending onslaught of garbage like this now), but this report from ABC News in Australia presents a profile of the British bi-election in Clacton-On-Sea between Nigel Farage and Count Binface (definitely reminds yours truly of that old Monty Python bit)...looks like the Count would have to “un-bin” himself were he to actually win, however...I know I had this yesterday, but I pulled it for the Damage Report clip on El-Sayed and Haley Stevens...



...and Steve Harness of Really American informs us that some protest art against Our Ochre Abomination is making an impact globally, including an image in horse manure (the “Don of Dung,” which sold for about $1,800...spot-on)...also, there are what look like blow-up figures of #47 and his Russian benefactor, among MANY others works lampooning Cheetoh Benito (NSFW/H also)...



...and here is another seasonal selection.