Saturday Stuff

Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for holding Generalissimo Trump up for the ridicule he deserves here; as people smarter than I have already said, if the Trumpsters were looking for ways to avoid publicity for the book, this wasn’t the way to do it (and “Fifty Shades of Orange” - hilarious)…



…and I thought this was a great “A” block from Rachel Maddow about how the Repugs on Capitol Hill have done all they can to blow up any possibility of investigating #StableGenius and his pals for the likely crime of collusion with a hostile foreign power in our election two years ago - leave it Huckleberry Graham and Grassley to go after the only person who did the right thing in this mess…



…and as Kyle K. tells us, the typical political suspects want doctors to force-drug-test you…figures (NSFW)…



…and here is the latest in another country pursuing common sense clean energy initiatives, as opposed to us of course…

This city runs entirely on electric buses pic.twitter.com/kMQmrprlaC

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 3, 2018

…and here are more patriotic millionaires (“beacon of greed” for sure)…

Mr. Trump, listen to these Patriotic Millionaires who want their taxes raised, not cut. pic.twitter.com/heoPX7VWkV

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 4, 2018

…and I’m sorry it took a while to get around to this great tune from Little Steven (has kind of a “Southside Johnny” feel to it, which is cool).

Friday Stuff

John and Cenk of TYT provide analysis of the new book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff, about the back-story stuff with Generalissimo Trump; the segment mainly has to do with the stuff about Steve Bannon (NSFW – great analysis by Cenk in particular…and in a related story, I was amused by this)…



…and there’s a little repetition between this segment with Stephen Colbert and the prior clip, though I think the explanation of how Number 45 really didn’t want to be preznit is a choice item in particular…



…and it looks like Trump’s “immunity gnome” had a bit of a show down with these DOJ interns – typical stupid dig at Berkeley and other snarkiness from this utter mistake of an AG; if Tricky Dick were alive, he would be snarling in approval...and concerning that typical Sessions lie about how the Trumpsters supposedly aren’t cozy with the private prison industry (and why the hell is that still a “thing” anyway?), I give you this……

Watch these DOJ interns school Jeff Sessions on his marijuana, guns and transgender policies — right to his face pic.twitter.com/fzGHpVVLv2

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 4, 2018

…and kudos to Iceland for getting serious about equal pay for equal work here…

Iceland just became the first country in the world to make it illegal to pay men more than women. In the United States in 2016, black women made 62.5 cents on the dollar compared to white men and hispanic women made 54.4 cents. That is a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/y2sxSWYVrm

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 3, 2018

…and as noted here, last Wednesday was the 80th anniversary of the founding of the March of Dimes (and don’t even goddamn think about it NOW OR EVER, wingnuts!...clip is from last June)…



…and last New Year’s Day was the 60th birthday of none other than Grandmaster Flash – belated best wishes; hope it was a bangin’ time, so to speak.

Thursday Stuff

So it looks like “Saint Orrin” Hatch is going to cash out retire after having played a pivotal role in passing the Repugs’ utterly ruinous tax bill gleefully signed into law by Generalissimo Trump (clearing the way for "Mittens," who I believe will be just as big of a total fraud); yes, tell me again what a Godly man Hatch supposedly is for doing his best to steal health care and increase the tax burden for millions in this country - makes me recall this revealing moment where he's held to account by Dem Senator Claire McCaskill…

This senator ripped Republicans for trying to rush their health care bill without a hearing pic.twitter.com/i7yKtNNOMt

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 9, 2017

…my personal Hatch favorite moment (one of them, anyway) was this one when he sponsored an amendment to what became known as “Obamacare” for a state with the letter “U” in the name (umm, want to me MORE obvious that you’re a total fraud? More here.)…



…and the prior clip showed some legislative shenanigans by Repug Sen. Chuck Grassley on health care reform years ago, and this shows that he’s up to the same nonsense, this time on the question of making the so-called “Steele Dossier” public…



…and I thought this was a great clip brought to us from Sen. Bernie Sanders about just how much the stock market is rigged in favor of the “one percent”…

Don't be fooled by Trump when he talks about boosts to the stock market from his tax plan. That money is going to the wealthy and large corporations. pic.twitter.com/ps6VBeaPlj

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 3, 2018

…and I definitely wanted to include this before January 21st…

The #resistance continues in 2018 — here are all the marches you can attend in the upcoming year pic.twitter.com/O5GM9oOUGa

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 1, 2018

…and given yesterday’s Carlos Maza clip about the comedians, I’m probably about a day late with this video, but here it is anyway.

Wednesday Stuff

I know we’re a few days into 2018, but I don’t think it’s too late to revisit a couple of clips featuring folks who were prominent last year, including those whose job it is to find humor somehow amidst all of this madness (NSFW)…

This year, late-night comedians often did a better job covering the Trump administration than serious news networks did. pic.twitter.com/YhTnxyBG2F

— Vox (@voxdotcom) December 30, 2017

…including Jimmy Kimmel, featured in both this clip and the one that precedes it (and when it comes to news trends in 2017 that I personally would like to see disappear, I think Hunter at Daily Kos nails it here)…

These are some of 2017's biggest heroes pic.twitter.com/hOCBHsHAv0

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 1, 2018

…and Michael Brooks of The Majority Report talks about a recent interview with former DEA agent David Schiller, who talks about what he alleges was drug maker McKesson's role in the opioid crisis...



…and I thought this was a nice segment of former VP Joe Biden discussing what this country, despite all of the garbage from the “party of Lincoln,” is SUPPOSED to be all about…

It took only one word for Joe Biden to summarize what truly makes America great pic.twitter.com/znPYYNCoxg

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 3, 2018

...and with the weather particularly cold in these parts, you may hear something like this from the usual suspects, as it were...



…and I thought I’d update my musical selections to start the year with something more current, and I settled on this neat tune.

Sunday Stuff

Joy Reid talks with Michael Beschloss about this horrible recent interview given by Generalissimo Trump with Michael Schmidt of the New York Times (more here, here, and here)…



…and I have to admit that I’m still pondering these recent words from Howard Dean about the Democratic Party fielding younger political candidates (here); yes, I think he has a point, but I wonder if some of this isn’t to keep people like Bernie quiet – yes, he’s in his 70s, but so is Dear Leader, remember? And I believe that when Bernie talks, his supporters don’t hear a septuagenarian…they hear someone speaking to the issues that matter to them (and I don't believe that Dean included Elizabeth Warren in the list of potential candidates; if so, I think that's an interesting omission)…

If Congress does not get its act together, we're going to have 800,000 bright young people with no legal status who will be subject to deportation and thrown out of the only country they have ever known. We must protect the DREAMers and move them towards citizenship. pic.twitter.com/owIUzkw3My

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 29, 2017

…and I think Kyle has some of the names of the Koch Brothers messed up (Bill?), but yeah, I think that video of the Koch son is beyond parody…can’t blame Kyle for being a bit flummoxed here (NSFW)…



…and what the hell – I might as well close the year with another installment of Hasan Piker vs. Ben Shapiro, because why not (NSFW again...and I still think it’s unintentionally funny to hear men talk about abortion – if we got pregnant instead of women, there would be so many “morning after” pills on the market you wouldn’t be able to turn around without seeing an ad for at least one of them, and in Maxim Magazine and on ESPN of course.)…

Instead of a year end review @HasanTheHun delivers another takedown exposing the dumb arguments @BenShapiro fans love. pic.twitter.com/Pc7vE5MkEm

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) December 29, 2017

…and when it comes to milestones, I know I’ve recognized some notable departures, but let’s now recognize the opposite, and that would be the recent 70th birthday of Jeff Lynne…



…and every year, it gets more and more challenging to do this – I wish I had a nickel when I thought to myself, “Hey, I’d like to do a blog post like I used to do on this subject instead of putting up a video instead,” but that’s pretty much impossible anymore; if circumstances ever change somehow and I CAN do that again, I certainly will. And sometimes, I barely have time to find the video for the topic I want, but fortunately, there is usually someone on our side of the political spectrum doing that and I can find something.

Now as always, all I’m trying to do here is promote informed dialogue somehow, however imperfectly I go about trying to do that.

And with that boring “meta” stuff out of the way, I’d like to thank anyone who has spent any time at this site whatsoever over the past year, and I wish you all good things in 2018, a year in which we will have our work cut out for us like never before, but also one where we could reap huge rewards too. It’s up to us (a theme echoed in the birthday video for Patti Smith to close out 2017).