Saturday Stuff

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the passage of the utterly wretched Hyde Amendment named after a serial philanderer who served for entirely too long in the U.S. House of Representatives. Its existence is yet another reason to vote out Republicans and vote FOR Democrats, including HRC who has promised to repeal it; of course, she’ll need a Democratic Congress for that.

Oh, and please spare me the “you call yourself a Catholic but you support murdering zygotes” garbage.

The Hyde Amendment is all about sticking it to “the poors.” Abortion has existed since the time of the cavemen (I would guess), and it will always be with us. Besides, if the “pro-life” party really cared about ending it, they would be advancing pre-natal and early childhood care, which, for the most part, they never do. That famous right-wing philosopher Bill Clinton once said that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” and that’s good enough for me.

Besides, if the Repugs really cared about banning abortion for every woman regardless of economic status, they would have found a way to pass a law that abortions can’t be paid for through health savings accounts (which, overwhelmingly, people of high net worth can afford), and as far as I can tell, such a law has never been passed.

More on this subject is here, here and here (and if you want to consider this an "in your face" citation aimed at this guy, be my guest)…



...and more on this subject is here...

Trump admits he "can't say" he treats women with respect. https://t.co/SHQ7zfatMp

— #StrongerTogether (@Vote4HRC) October 1, 2016

…and do you REALLY think “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey is different from “Fergus Laing” on this issue as well as many others? To send Toomey back to private life for good, click here…



…and I guess this may be overkill at this point, but why not…

#RT @HillaryClinton
Donald Trump may lie, but the tape doesn't. pic.twitter.com/N8HTibZraa

— McSpocky™ 👽 (@mcspocky) October 1, 2016

…and K.O. tells us about another “wall” that “Donald Drumpf” may contemplate trying to build…



…and best of luck to the Philadelphia Orchestra in light of this story; definitely not an expert on this issue, but from what I manage to read, it sounds like people running a not-for-profit public trust are trying to run it like a corporation, and of course the notion that there’s a difference seems to be utterly foreign to the Philadelphia Orchestra Association…opposing viewpoints are welcome of course (given that, I think it’s time for a bit of culture).

Friday Stuff

I think that $1.6 million payment to Trump noted here should be kept at least until this cretin reveals his tax returns at long last…



…and K.O. is back to tell us ths story of Carter Page, another member of the “Donald Drumpf” campaign whose influence needs to be looked at, possibly with disinfectant…

…and you just KNEW that Samantha Bee would have something to say on the debate, didn't you (fortunately for us all - here)...



…and I think John Oliver did a service for us here; as far as I’m concerned, there are “scandals” related to HRC and there are SCANDALS related to “Fergus Laing”…



...and as I watch this hot mess (re, video below), all I can think of is this tweet from Bill Maher (sorry if it's hard to read - he's basically blaming the voters saying this election is closer than it should be, and he's right)...

…and Sam Seder tells us about this idiot Robert Pittenger in North Carolina and his response to the Charlotte protests (NSFW – oh, and by the way, don’t do us any favors, OK?)…

…and here is an ad for Katie McGinty, running in the U.S. Senate race against “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey (R-Elevator) of course (to help her, click here...more wretched Toomey stuff is here)…



Update 10/03/16: To quote that noted philosopher Howard Dean - YEEAAAARRRGGHHH!!! (here).

...and happy birthday to Trey Anastasio.

Thursday Stuff

Hey, The Big Orange Cheetoh said it, not me...

#RT @prioritiesUSA#Trump brags about not contributing to vital programs that help millions of Americans. He’s unfit to be our president. pic.twitter.com/OPDBn0nzlF

— McSpocky™ 👽 (@mcspocky) September 29, 2016

...and kudos to Thom Hartmann for unearthing this nugget from Monday ("Trumped-up trickle-down" indeed)...



…and I thought this was some interesting analysis from Jimmy and Cenk about Hillary’s performance in the debate (NSFW)…



…and I would call “Fergus Laing” a delusional narcissist for this, but I think that’s giving delusional narcissists a bad name…



…and Kyle tells us about a YUUUGE tax break “The Donald” got for a political donation, though I think Kyle is waaay too hard on The Clinton Foundation…



…and for the benefit of anyone who didn’t know about this (or if you did), I offer the following tune.

Wednesday Stuff

I’m not sure we need any more evidence to dramatize what a contemptible pig “Fergus Laing” truly is, but here is some anyway (here)…

Tremendous clip of Trump interrupting Hillary 28 times during the debates and pouting like a child pic.twitter.com/f3fGMwa5gd

— Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) September 27, 2016

…and if this clip doesn’t scare the hell out of you, then something is wrong with you…



...and as always, I wish Number 44 would utterly blast our corporate Beltway courtier media...but maybe it's just as well that he didn't; they know what they are, and they're not going to blow their cushy gigs by actually afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted, when they've in fact been doing the opposite all along (here - this clip is a couple of weeks old at least, but I think it bears repeating)...



…and K.O. is back with some much-needed perspective again on just how racist the Trump campaign really is (NSFW - and by the way, speaking of you-know-who, isn't this precious?)...



…and in keeping with the prior topic, albeit in a much more positive way, I should note that the National Museum of African American History and Culture just opened (I hope to visit the next time we journey to D.C.)...



…and I had a clip from Butch Trucks’s former band yesterday, so I guess it’s only fair to give him and Susan Tedeschi a shot here with this great tune.

Tuesday Stuff

I guess this is the post mortem that matters (and yeah, these quotes are clipped a bit - acknowledged at the end of the video - but really, are they that much of a stretch?)...

Hello America, this is what @realDonaldTrump thinks of you. The corporate media won't tell you, so I will.
You're welcome. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/aMTk7pPY3J

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) September 26, 2016

…oh and, by the way, if Trump drones on that Hillary is wrong about something, chances are that an independent verification will find out that she’s telling the truth (see?)…



(And I guess Lester Holt did a good job by all accounts, mainly because no one is bitching too much about him letting “The Donald” get away with typical Trumpian BS.)

And speaking of the debate, I need to let you in on something that I think is pretty funny (well, maybe not THAT funny since we’re paying for it).

In these parts, the Bucks County Courier Times is the local newspaper that covers our area (for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t picked up on that by now even though I’ve made repeated references to the paper at this site). Despite the ridiculous right-wing tilt of the Op-Ed page, I should add that there are more than a few beat reporters working for the paper who do legitimately good work.

The paper also has a history of late deliveries (issues with printing and such, or so we’re told) that seemed to be timed towards anything related to good news for Democrats. We ended up with late next-day delivery of an issue on at least one occasion during the Democratic primary debates, and another time, I said that the paper ignored coverage of a debate entirely (the headline of that issue had to do with how valuable pets are as companions…), when in fact, someone from the paper got back to me and said that there was about a paragraph of coverage on page A-18 of the debate in question.

I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, so I’ll just cut to the proverbial chase and let you know that we didn’t receive an issue of the paper this morning. We’ll see if we got the issue later or will get it tomorrow, or if I’ll have to call the paper and have our bill adjusted again.

As I said, too funny…

Update 9/28/16: We got the paper this morning with a headline of “Clinton, Trump Battle Fiercely,” which I suppose was true. The explanation for the missing delivery was an outage at their local print production facility in Falls, Pa., which seems to occur pretty frequently.

...and K.O. tells us here of Trump's lies in this month alone (and I think the number was about 80 million, by the way, which still broke a record, apparently)...



...and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich helps us keep our eye on the ball, as it were, concerning this election…



…and again, even though Lester Holt was OK (let’s see what happens next with our corporate media frauds), I definitely agree with Sam Seder on his remarks about the LWV moderating the debates (and how big a wackadoodle is Gary Johnson anyway?)…



…and despite how well everything went last night, I think we ought to pay close attention to the title of this song.

Monday Stuff

(Hat tip to Kriston Capps and John Fugelsang on Twitter for the pic, which speaks volumes as far as I'm concerned - here...)

Yeah, keep telling me how successful a businessman “Fergus Laing” really is…

NEW VIDEO: @realDonaldTrump is a failed businessman.#TrumpBusinessFail #TrumpTaxes pic.twitter.com/XpcMviDdq0

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) September 24, 2016

...and I thought he kind of whitewashed, if you will, the Crips and the Bloods (they aren’t “groups,” they’re gangs), but otherwise, I thought this was some pretty worthwhile insight from Harry Belafonte, who speaks with Rev. Al…



...and more good stuff from Stephen Colbert on the recent protests is here...



…and as a lead-in, I want to note that, while I definitely disagreed with him more than a few times, I always thought it was smart on the part of the late Arlen Specter that, when he ran a campaign, he always featured ads with testimonials from others who he’d helped, and I’m glad that HRC is doing the same thing – that’s political capital, and you might as well use it in a campaign…



…and what a shame that another Alex can't run for president – yet (here)...



…and happy 71st birthday to Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music (“throwaway lines often ring true”).