Saturday Stuff

I know I mentioned that I would replay Jason Kander's GREAT ad, so I'd better do it before the year ends (he was the Dem running against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate from Missouri, a contest Blunt won but by a tighter margin than the so-called experts predicted)...



…and with the spirit of that ad in mind, Kyle K. tells us here that Bernie Sanders is telling all of us to stand up on January 15th to protect our health care (NSFW)….



...and Chris Hayes talks with Rick Perlstein, author of “Nixonland,” about parallels between Number 37 and the demented child-king about to take the reins of power on 1/20/17 (God help us – thanks once more, everyone who voted for this assclown, Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, and also to the “Bernie or Bust” crowd)…



…and kudos to Cenk and TYT for raising a half mil from their audience to stand up for actual quality journalism; excellent (and here is yet another example of corporate media stupidity)…



...and I also failed to note the passing earlier of Al Brodax, responsible for "Yellow Submarine"...



…and yeah, I think I’ll let John Oliver have the last non-musical video word here (incredibly NSFW – some good things happened for yours truly this year, and I’m grateful, but overwhelmingly I share these sentiments)…



…and did you know this year that almost an entire band died? That would be Keith Emerson and Greg Lake of EL&P (best wishes for a long and happy life to Carl Palmer)…



…and what else can you say about 2016, the year that (thank God!) is about to come to a close?

Remember the actual hope and optimism last summer, when we were talking about the better-than-even-money chance that the Dems had of taking back the Senate? Including the return of Russ Feingold in Wisconsin? I mean, they CAN’T POSSIBLY return that big stiff Ron Johnson for six more years, could they?

Well, they did, incredibly enough. And by the way, as a resident of the commonwealth of PA, I know I have no gloating rights whatsoever in that we had the chance to do the same thing to that corporatist fraud Pat Toomey, and he won another term also. In fact, the only Repug U.S. Senators who got sent packing (in what should have been a “change” election for real, since it was also a presidential election of course – and the less said about that, the better, I know) were Repugs Mark Kirk in Illinois and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, hardly right-wing firebrands (Kirk went down in no small part because he made fun of the ancestry of Tammy Duckworth, a decorated veteran maimed in the Iraq war, and Ayotte’s political demise was aided by the presence of a third-party candidate and an incredibly popular Democrat and former governor in Maggie Hassan, who won).

Oh, and remember the fleeting moments when – what do you know? – the Dems, according to some statistical models, actually had a chance, however slim, of retaking the House depending on the margin of a projected Clinton presidential win? And we know what happened there also, particularly in PA-08, where the voters, in their utterly dunderheaded stupidity IMHO, refused to vote for a great progressive, Dem Steve Santarsiero, and instead chose to fill “Mikey The Beloved” Fitzpatrick’s vacant seat with his brother, who has no experience holding elected office (as opposed to Steve, who served for four years on the Lower Makefield Board of Supervisors and four years as a PA House Rep).

Yeah, it sure was ugly. The whole damn thing was drowned in dark money payoffs, voting machine malfunctions and other forms of suppression, a tidal wave of fake and orchestrated news against Hillary Clinton (to say nothing of negative ads, some of which were true and many of which were bogus), the supposed revelations from James Comey about alleged Clinton Email illegality based on Huma Abedin’s server that her then-husband Anthony Weiner used for porn (to say nothing of the supposed Clinton Foundation “scandals”), and dutiful stenography on the part of our utterly bought-and-paid-for political/media/industrial complex, the net effect of which was to thoroughly regurgitate all Republican-friendly talking points with hardly any push-back in response. And oh yeah, this was aided by the actual, documented, mind-numbing incompetence of the Hillary Clinton campaign. And all of this led to the voters making the most horribly uninformed electoral choices possible, including electing (again, notwithstanding voter suppression and actual fraud for real) Donald J. Trump as president.

Well, I’m going to have a good, stiff drink on New Year’s Eve, take some down time at some point, and then try to figure out how we’re going to attack this mess all over again. But before I do, I want to thank everyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this site over the last year and extend my wishes for all good things in 2017 (and never forget the words to this song - for the belated 70th birthday of Patti Smith).

Friday Stuff

(By the way, keep this image in mind as the Repugs do their best to privatize Social Security and Medicare and try to utterly destroy the Affordable Care Law - from here.)

While other Dems cower and lick their wounds, leave it to Sen. Elizabeth Warren to put down the right marker to the p*ssy grabber-in-chief here…



…and with that in mind, kudos to former Rockette Autumn Withers for speaking out against performing at the inauguration for President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh here (as far as I’m concerned, Steve Kornacki is nothing but a corporate media hack)…



…and Kyle K. does another great job here IMHO, this time pointing out the idiocy of “Bibi” and his little temper tantrum over the U.S. abstention over the recent UN vote against Israel and those damn settlements (NSFW)…



…and today marks the 80th anniversary of the sit-down strike in Flint, MI in an effort to get recognition for the United Auto Workers union (here – the strike was successful, in no small part due to the sympathies of Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy; good luck trying to get that kind of support now from the individual who, as far as I’m concerned, had more to do with the poisoning of Flint’s water than anyone else – here…a cautionary lesson for us all on pretty much what it takes to win concessions for rank-and-file workers)...



…and there have been so many celebrity and/or musical passings this year that I know I’ve missed a few, and here is one, and that would be guitarist Rick Parfitt of Status Quo (this was a YUUGE hit back in the hippy, trippy ‘60s)…



…and call him Ziggy Stardust, The Think White Duke, or whatever, but I think the death of David Bowie this year was the biggest musical loss of them all.

Thursday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us that Baby Newton Leroy is running his mouth against Obama again - typical...and by the way, here is more on the "Caucus Room Conspiracy"...



…and yes, Repug U.S. House Rep Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv really is that big of a dick, people…



…and I give you another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from The Young Turks at 12/23/13 (that’s when I put up the video, which is actually closer to four years old as it turns out) – yeah, I know it’s another video about the importance of saving our climate (more here from that time also), as important as that is, but I think it’s important to revisit this story in light of this typically stupid development here from the pretender about to take the reins of power (ugh – yeah, try telling me how committed somebody like Rex Tillerson actually is to saving our planet - here), as well as this – no more “oh, other countries that are polluting as much as we are won’t do anything, so why should we?” excuses…



...and sticking with the climate, with the cold weather this time of year, I have a feeling you may hear this a time or two...



…and happy 80th birthday to boomer icon Mary Tyler Moore – with what’s been going on with celebrities from that era lately, we’d better cherish the ones we have left (the “It’s A Long Way To Tipperary” clip was the literal end of the series, for anyone who somehow doesn’t know that)…



…and speaking of milestones, we can’t let this year wind down without remembering Glenn Frey one more time – wish I could put up the awesome video, but this great tune on its own will do for now I’m sure.

Wednesday Stuff (updates)

RIP Carrie Fisher…



Update 1 12/29/16: You know, I get really steamed when Bill Maher lectures lefties about political correctness, but then I read about something like this and I see that he’s getting more ammunition from our collective side.

How could anyone think that Steve Martin – Steve Martin, of all people! – could say something in response to the death of Carrie Fisher that would be anything but an endearing and heartfelt tribute??!!

Oh, for shame! He actually complimented her looks, as if that’s somehow sexist or something. Fetch the fainting couch!

Ridiculous (and why do I have a feeling that, were she still with us, Fisher would be laughing her ass off in response?)…

Update 2 12/29/16: Hat tip to Joe Conason on Twitter for this...

…and normally I wouldn’t pay a lot of attention to those zany Brit royals at this site, but I think Prince Charles is pretty spot-on here; I get it that people vote for their pocketbook as it were and are too busy living their lives to take the “long view” from time to time, but I think that’s exactly what we need to do here…



...and I give you Kyle Kulinski on corporate media stenographer Dana Bash and her notions of "bipartisanship" (very NSFW but right, what Kyle says I mean)…



…and in a year of what I guess you could call a more normal or typical amount of musicians who have left us, I think this would be a more notable milestone, but with all of the others who have gone in 2016, this might have been obscured somewhat, but I don’t think it should be – cutting to the chase, you can consider this to be a tribute to Paul Kantner.

Tuesday Stuff

Yeah, I think President-Elect Fergus Laing needs a little psychoanalysis at a minimum, and probably a straight jacket too while we’re at it…



...and dude, there’s nothing “satirical” about genocide, regardless of who you’re talking about – listen, I love free speech as much as anybody as long as no one is being physically hurt, but this comes fairly close to the “shouting fire in a crowded movie theater” test for my money…



…and yet again, it’s all about jobs! Jobs! Jobs! for Not Your Father’s Republican Party (NSFW)…



…and with the time left before the end of the year, I’d like to pay tribute to artists who left us in 2016, which was a particularly horrendous year on that front as well as others of course – I thought I’d kick things off with an homage to “the purple one.”

Monday Stuff

I know we have to try and finish off the post-mortems of the Hillary Clinton campaign, but I thought this was a particularly good one from Cenk Uygur…NSFW; basically, the Bernie Sanders people were trying to help her and were rebuffed…unbelievable; probably the most damning commentary I’ve heard yet on what happened, and I can’t imagine how it’s untrue in any way – yeah, the Comey stuff and the Putin leaks were awful (as well as the Kris Kobach garbage and all the other stuff that went on since the Voting Rights Act has basically been gutted), but the campaign was digging its own metaphorical grave leading up to that…again, I don’t personally blame Hillary Clinton, but her advisers did a horrible job – as Cenk explains, they COMPLETELY missed the boat on what this election was all about…



…and Seth Meyers brings us the following on Trump and climate change (I know he’s trying to make some serious points with humor, but I think it’s getting harder for him to do that given what we’ll be facing after 1/20/17, and I don’t blame Meyers one bit for it - here)…



...and Chris Hayes talks with Dem Secretary of State Jason Kander of Missouri about the nominees from President-Elect Fergus Laing, including climate change denier Scott Pruitt (noted in the Seth Meyers clip also) to head the EPA (Two things: 1) Kander is absolutely right at the end over the betrayal of soon-to-be #45…the Repugs of course are partying now, but that will come to an abrupt end, and sooner than they imagine and possibly for good, and 2) Kander ran what was easily the BEST POLITICAL AD of the abysmal 2016 election season, which I’ll put up again soon – it turned what was looking to be a snoozer of a U.S. Senate race against Roy Blunt into something hotly competitive, and Dems everywhere should use that as a template for any political campaign from now on)…



…and with this, I bring down the curtain, as it were, for the seasonal tunes - hope everyone's holidays are enjoyable.

Merry Christmas 2016

Just for the record, I should note that we lost JB 10 years ago today…



…and I still think this tune hold up after all this time, which I guess is a little sad in a way…



…as does this – I think its rather trenchant observations are eternal…



…and by the way, Merry Christmas from me and Nat.