Monday Stuff

Speaking of presidents (though I know this day is mainly for Numbers 1 and 16), Rachel Maddow brings us a clip of JFK talking about what should be the role of the press in our country, and often it is, though there are always exceptions (kind of a clumsy cut to the video at the end)…



…and you can agree or disagree with whether or not Jeremy Scahill should have bailed on “Real Time” over the presence of Milo Yiannopoulos, but I think Maher made up for that a bit with this great “New Rule" (NSFW)...



By the way, I basically side with Scahill. Yes, there is a principled argument to be made about Scahill appearing and confronting all of the garbage from this latest wingnut, made by Kyle Kulunski among others…and apparently, in response to Scahill not appearing, Maher said something about liberals continuing to lose elections unless they face up to radical Islam, or something, which to me is horseshit…but here’s the thing: it won’t matter one damn bit to Yiannopoulos or anyone of that ilk. Sorry to go “meta” on this, but speaking only for myself, I spent YEARS going to The Weakly Standard, Irrational Spew, clonwhall.com, AEI, and of course Fix Noise and the WSJ to find garbage from their sites that I refuted as best I could, and it didn’t matter ONE DAMN BIT how much I tried to blow up their idiotic and frequently insane talking points with the actual facts…they just came back a few weeks later with another wingnut spouting the same wingnut garbage over and over.

So good for Scahill (and by the way, with the focus on Yiannopoulos, it’s easy to overlook how Maher keeps bringing back people like former GA U.S. House Rep Jack Kingston, a pal of Number 45 and someone who has spouted garbage on that show for years but keeps getting booked anyway)…

Update 2/22/17: And after reading this, I'm even MORE convinced that Scahill was right.

…and continuing, Chris Hayes tells us about Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt, the new head of the EPA who is definitely NOT OK, as the song goes (and this is typical)…



…and speaking of that senatorial waste of space from Kentucky, here’s wishing the worst possible 75th birthday to Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao…



Update 2/21/17: He does KY proud once again here...

…and it’s safe to say that our elected representatives in our beloved commonwealth are definitely acting like towers of Jello during this week when they’re supposed to be meeting with constituents, and that goes for Repug U.S. House Rep Brian “No, I’m Not My Brother Mike, Honest” Fitzpatrick and “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey of the same party, which makes me recall this less-than-courageous Fitzpatrick moment last year (to find out about a Resistance event in your area, click here)…



(Oh, I’m sorry…”Bri-Fi” no doubt will hold a “tele” town hall where he and his campaign people can screen out people they don’t want to talk to on the phone. You know, the same ruse his brother used, and the same thing “Mikey the Beloved” criticized former rep Patrick Murphy for when Murphy held the position.)

…and I know I put up a Supertramp song last week, but here’s another one for the occasion for Toomey and “Bri-Fi” (and with the McConnell turtle metaphor in mind too).