Friday Stuff

I know I had a clip earlier with Douglas Brinkley, Charlie Pierce and Chris Hayes about “The Donald,” but I think Brinkley’s appropriate context needs to be presented again, as he does here with Rev. Al…



…and Trevor Noah responds to this country’s right-wing freakout over the Belgium attack earlier this week (here); yep, telling that the rest of the world knows how to handle this stuff as opposed to Republicans and their followers in this country…

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…and for those of you who think I only bitch about Republicans, I give you what I consider to be a cautionary tale of cozy Dem media/political antics; I know I alluded to Tweety earlier this week, and here he is again (terrific job of following the money, as they say, from Cenk Uygur)…



…and I have to admit that I really didn’t have much of a clue as to what is going on in Brazil (other than they supposedly make a gang of coffee, and I guess whatever Lula wants, Lula gets…OK, so much for “Damn Yankees”); fortunately, John Oliver is all over it here…



...and Thom Hartmann gives us economic and labor news for the week...



…and happy belated 85th birthday to “Captain Kirk.”

Thursday Stuff

For everyone out there bitching about Number 44’s tango in Argentina, as noted here (give me a freaking break), I “see” you that and “raise” you this (here)…



…and It’s hard to find a more deserving scumbag for something like this besides Repug Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (tape included here is below in video, to go with this, this and this - can hardly wait to see how this all plays with those evangelical saps)…



…and this report tells us of the utter “cluster” voters in Maricopa County, AZ experienced when trying to vote the other night (some valuable perspective on that is here)…



…and even though this clip about U.S. gun violence is about a month old, I think it’s important for a few reasons, one of which is to point out that suicide by gun is statistically more of a threat than mass shootings; I honestly didn’t know that, but it figures…



…and I think this is way too damn funny; George Will is worried NOW about the Republicans becoming the party of white people…news flash: THEY HAVE BEEN FOR YEARS!!!...



…and kudos to the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band for this.

Wednesday Stuff

It shows you just how far Not Your Father’s Republican Party has strayed from reality when Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History actually looks like a statesman, timely in particular for the recent attack in Brussels (more here)…



...and Rev. Al talks to former Ohio governor Ted Strickland, running against Rob Portman; the main issue here is the Scalia vacancy on the Supreme Court of course (more on Portman is here, and on the whole "Reagan Democrat" thing noted in the clip, I give you this)...



…and in keeping with the Judge Merrick Garland thing, Samantha Bee has some fun over the latest Repug idiocy, as noted here (OK, sooo, they don’t want to consider Obama’s nominee because of the so-called “Biden Rule,” in which Biden is alleged to have said that a presidential nominee for the Supreme Court can only be considered during the lame duck session of the final year of a president’s term – and by the way, he didn’t actually say that…big surprise I know, but the quote was clipped…even though considering Obama’s nominee only during the lame duck session is EXACTLY what the Repugs want to do if, God willing, a Dem wins the White House…).

Memo to the American sheeple – the “party of Lincoln” is going to continue pulling this shit unless you get your asses to the voting booth (and unfortunately, because of the gutted Voting Rights Act, even THAT might not be enough, as noted here...here, however, is some GOOD news about Democratic voter turnout for a change)…



…and here’s a tune to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (noted here – and by the way, it’s not an act, it’s a federal LAW…the Dems continue to be behind the curve when it comes to messaging, and this is a prime example).

More Tuesday Stuff

By the way, I didn’t say anything about the latest horrific terrorist attack, this time in Brussels, not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t think I had anything terribly important to say.

However, I turned on my teevee earlier today and watched Tweety talking with Jonathan Capehart, who I pretty much respect, and some lady who worked in counterterrorism whose name escapes me, and the charter member of our Beltway courtier media was basically waxing along the lines of, gee, isn’t it interesting how terrorism can bring people together? Why, prior to the Iraq war, we didn’t like the French, with all of that “freedom fries” stuff, but after last year we united with them, or something.

Leave it to Chris Matthews to sneak in a plug for Former Commander Codpiece, trying to come up with more propaganda at the expense of a country which, actually, turned out to be right all along about Number 43’s mess in Mesopotamia (and by the way, my feelings for France have remained unchanged throughout).

(Also, this latest attack should put to rest the whole question of Apple and data encryption as far as I’m concerned. Yes, this creates an opportunity for abuse by the telcos, which they’ve been guilty of all along anyway, but when technology starts obstructing law enforcement, then, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve reached the water’s edge, as they say.)

I thought I’d offer a departure on this story from the typical media idiocy in this country and turn to our neighbors to the north instead…



…and, as I recall, RT wrote this song as sort of a spoof on the mind of a terrorist – with today’s events, I felt like hearing it again.

Tuesday Stuff

This was a truly outstanding report last night by Rachel Maddow on what it took to get a U.S. president to set foot on Cuban soil for the first time since 1928 yesterday – someday, someone or something is going to write the proverbial book on Number 44, and they’re going to have a hard time trying to figure out how he was able to manage so many momentous accomplishments in the face of such relentless and utterly juvenile obstruction…



…and this report from Seth Meyers helps to uncover the utter fraud of voter ID laws, which, now as always, serve only as obstacles to keep Democrats from legally voting (here)…



…and Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk takes a withering look (completely justified) at that waste of space Blaine Luetkemeyer in the U.S. House and his typically ludicrous (and misogynist) comments about Sen. Elizabeth Warren – NSFW…



…and I don’t know how on earth this has only less than 15K total views, but I hope I can help change that.

Monday Stuff

The Repugs like to point to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago as the nadir of the “D” party; well, they ended up shooting themselves in the foot a bit, as it were, in 1976, as Chris Hayes tells us here with Charlie Pierce and Douglas Brinkley (didn’t know about the Ford/Reagan animus, but it doesn’t surprise me – even though he had a rep as a bit of a klutz, Ford was so much more of a man than Number 40 that it wasn’t even funny)…



...and it's time once more for another installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" from 3/22/10 (K.O. vents on how the Teahadists lost on health care reform; they would of course retake both the U.S. House and Senate even though I think Olbermann’s thesis here is still spot-on over the long term…anyone who thinks Donald Trump spontaneously arose from a vacuum should definitely pay attention to this clip)…

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...and Trevor Noah struck back here at Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao over McConnell's obstruction against Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland (in particular, I love the bit at the end with the megaphone)...

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…and here is a neat new tune to remind us (well, me anyway), that it’s officially spring and better weather days are coming.