Monday Stuff

I’ll lead off with Ari Melber yet again, talking with Dem U.S. House Rep Steve Cohen about Generalissimo Trump’s typically delusional notion that the shutdown will hinder investigations into his administration, which is probably why Number 45 has no desire to try and resolve it (and good job to invoke Warren Zevon)…



…and Farron Cousins tells us how the congressional Repug lemmings may end up taking the proverbial plunge off the cliff along with the Gropenfuhrer, and they’re predictably losing what’s left of their minds (and speaking of Repugs losing their minds, in response to this, please read “The exit” from here)…



…and kudos to Jayar Jackson of TYT for dragging Orrin Hatch as this colossal fraud slithers out of the spotlight of the U.S. Senate…



…and speaking of exits (well, sort of), I usually “go meta” at the end of the year like this and extend my appreciation to anyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this site during the year, and I do so again now.

This time, though, it’s a little different. I want to emphasize that, while I’m not giving this up entirely, I plan to step WAY BACK from posting as I have. I have at least one other pet project that I want to devote time to instead. As of now, it looks like that will consume a lot of my time for 2019. I don’t know how it will go, but the only way I’ll find out is to give it my best shot. To the extent that I have a plan, it is this – to work on other stuff and return to posting more frequently later in 2019 when (God help us) the 2020 election cycle starts to heat up (as Farron Cousins noted above). And at that time, I’ll try to mix it up a little more between written content and videos – sites like TYT, Ring of Fire, Secular Talk and others will do just fine without me putting up their stuff as often as I have.

Besides, I need a break. I’ve been doing this to one degree or another since 2005, and I think I’ve earned it. I originally started doing this because Dubya gave a speech in April 2005 created by Michael Gerson that, in typically obsequious and cowardly language, tried to elevate what was once called the “Global War On Terror” at the expense of the 60th anniversary of VE Day. Don’t ask me to track down any links about what exactly was said – I don’t intend to debate that all over again. All I know is that, whether he knew he was doing it or cared, Former Commander Codpiece was impugning the sacrifice of my father, to say nothing of the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of other men and women who served in that theater, and I have to admit that something inside me snapped a bit.

Of course, I (along with probably every other liberal blogger who has ever done this) ended up cataloguing what turned out to be a volume of conservative right-wing lies, propaganda and nonsense that was stunning even to an admittedly jaded individual like yours truly after I started this thing up. I also ended up putting videos here just about every day except for most weekends to try and hang onto whatever views I managed to get and keep everyone coming back as much as I could. I particularly tried to do that for the 2018 election cycle because I felt it would be particularly important to keep as many people engaged as I could (“Z” list blogger that I am, I know there was only so much I could do about that). But I think I had some measure of success, and fortunately, we were able to achieve the electoral result we needed (yes, losing ground in the Senate hurts, but we HAD to win the House, and that happened thank God).

So I’m going to offer this video and then take a bit of a break. Usually I put up “People Have The Power” by Patti Smith, but instead, I’ll note that somehow I forgot to observe the passing of longtime Elvis drummer D.J. Fontana earlier this year (with this year also being the 50th anniversary of Presley’s comeback 1968 TV special), and offer this instead.

Let’s all do what we can to keep up the fight. Also, best wishes for all good things in 2019.

And rest assured that you’re not rid of me yet :-).

Saturday Stuff

In this video, Ari Melber debunks the Trumpian claim that “nothing matters” – it took awhile for me to track this down, but I’m damn glad I did…terrific stuff and oh so true…



…and yeah, Trumpian DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen really is that horrible of a monster; I wasn’t aware that a third child had died, tragically, (and speaking of monsters…NSFW)…



…and even when The Gropenfuhrer actually does something right, which is so infrequently I know, he actually ends up putting his foot in it big time (and speaking once more of Generalissimo Trump putting his foot in it)…



...and the title of this tune must be the motto for the Trumpian gang.

Thursday Stuff

Cenk and Ana tell us that Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv, on his way out the door, is trying to make it easier for Irish immigration into this country, which I would be fine with if we would also take care of the DREAMers, who of course are utterly repellent to the “party of Lincoln” (of course, if we were talking about a century earlier, the Irish would be demagogued just like non-white people are now, as evidenced by the sign in the pic, kind of destroying the irony meter as far as I’m concerned…looks like the deal was killed, however)…



…and Farron Cousins reminds us about the cost of the latest government shutdown by the Repugs – yep, this is what happens when voters in the country actually DON’T elect adults to govern…



…and kudos to Kansas State Sen. Dinah Sykes for switching to the Democratic Party; I’m sure the guy interviewed for the story is right about it not being a “sea change,” but it’s definitely a step in the right direction…



…and likewise, good job by Chris Hayes and the “All In” panel here to remind us all about the “red state teacher revolt” – and yes, it resulted in positive change…



…and speaking of positive change, Robert Reich tells us here about the importance of a “green New Deal”…



…and here’s an upbeat little tune that is ACTUALLY NEW for a change; guess the whole roller-skating thing is kind of an ‘80s Venice Beach kind of jawn.

Wednesday Stuff

Chris Hayes and the “All In” panel, with Joy Reid and Sam Seder, talk about some of the moments where Generalissimo Trump proved himself to be manifestly unfit for the office (and yes, I know the stock market has been tanking lately, but fortunately it appears to be rallying today)…



…and Hasan Piker tells us about Tucker Carlson and the “War on Christmas,” featuring “gingerbread people” (almost too dumb for words – I guess it’s too much to assume that Carlson’s audience would know that Scotland has its own parliament)…



…of course, if the wingnuts are looking for a REAL controversy, I offer this (a second child dying in our custody at the border)…



…and this tune brings down the metaphorical curtain on the holiday selections – hope everyone has had a nice break from the insanity that surrounds us all.

Merry Christmas 2018

All the best of the season from me, Nat and the gang...





...and this is the 60th anniversary of this item, which, for what it's worth, is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

Monday Stuff

Yeah, it looks like Mick Mulvaney is absolutely a great pick for Chief of Staff reporting to Generalissimo Trump for all of the reasons Cenk gives us here – and I think the snark is perfectly appropriate…



…and David Pakman tells us that the Trump slush fund Foundation is getting shut down and what that can mean for our ruling cabal of criminals…



…and Ali Velshi tells us about proposed Trump changes to SNAP recipients, with Andre Perry of the Brookings Institution...and speaking of Sonny Perdue, what a major tool this guy is! (here)…



…and Farron Cousins speaks with Scott Hardy of Top Class Actions about holiday gift card scammers (mentioning Walmart, but it probably affects other big box retailers as well as smaller operations…basically, anyplace you can buy a gift card is at risk of this - terrific)…



...and we're winding down with the seasonal selections - here are some more favorites.

Friday Stuff

Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (and sorry, Cenk – though I definitely don’t claim to be an expert of course and it’s good to get our military out of harm’s way anywhere, the people I read who know this stuff say the Syria move is bad on balance because we’re turning our back on the Kurds, which has bad implications all over the place…I think Cenk is right from about 9:25 to 13:25, though, and Ana is spot-on also)…



Update 12/22/18: Uh, yeah, I would say that it's time to "break the glass" also (here).

…and Seth Meyers gives us another “Closer Look” segment on the shutdown, the wall (which will never happen, by the way, nor should it), Laura Ingraham, Rudy 9iu11ani, and the Moscow Trump Tower letter that the Gropenfuhrer claims he didn’t sign…ooopsie!…



…and Farron Cousins tells us that Tucker Carlson is continuing to lose advertisers over his racism and xenophobia – womp, womp (and I know Cenk has defended Carlson, but I respectfully submit that Cenk is wrong…Nate Silver also)...



…and just in time for the holidays, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 12/22/08, in which we learn about Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History and so-called “midnight regulations,” and apparently 43 got more passed than any other president in history, many of which were gifts to energy industry lobbyists at the expense of our environment of course, a tactic also employed by his recently deceased father – oh, but we’re supposed to love 43 now because he ate candy from Michelle Obama at McCain’s funeral…yeah, right…and as noted here, Congressional Republicans attempted to pass HR 4361 to prevent the then-departing Obama Administration from issuing its own version of “midnight regs”…typical…



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Thursday Stuff

Rick Sanchez (now on RT America) tells us about the teacher fired in Texas for not taking the pro-Israel loyalty oath (more here…and yes, I have issues with The Putin Network to be sure as well as Glenn Greenwald lately, but unfortunately I think they’re spot-on here…also haven’t forgotten that Sanchez was fired from CNN years ago for invoking Judaism in criticizing Jon Stewart – I’ve gone back and forth over that decision ever since…and I don’t give a damn what the law says about this ridiculous oath in our beloved commonwealth of PA, just to let you know)…



…and as long as I’m referring to Russia, I think that’s an appropriate segue into this story from Rachel Maddow about Generalissimo Trump deciding to pull our troops out of Syria (with Rukmini Callimachi, foreign correspondent for The New York Times)…I think this is exactly what Putin wants, which is disgusting, but if it means fewer of our military are in harm’s way for reasons that have never been even partially explained, then on balance it’s a good thing (I’ll leave the geopolitical stuff to people who know a hell of a lot more about that than I do)…



…and Cenk and Ana tell us about the Syrian high school student getting beaten up in Texas (apparently though, this had more to do with the attacking girl wanting to vape than the fact that the Hijab-wearing girl who got attacked in response was from Syria, though I’ll admit that there are still some unknowns here…at this moment, I’m inclined to agree with Cenk)…



…and when it comes to the Gropenfuhrer, I guess the question is who are you going to believe? Number 45, or your own lying eyes? And yeah, I also don’t think this will make much of a dent when it comes to those humanoids who ingest Fix Noise on a fairly regular basis, but all we can do is try to put the truth out there and see what happens (Sam Seder and the rest of The Majority Report crew tell us more)…



…and here are more seasonal selections as I make my way down the list in anticipation of the big day.

Wednesday Stuff

Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC report on what Judge Emmet Sullivan told Trumpster traitor Michael Flynn at his sentencing hearing yesterday, which was postponed (the sentencing, that is – more here…yeah, I would say that Flynn and his legal team “badly miscalculated” also)…



…and CNN’s Erin Burnett speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep Raul Grijalva about the typically classless and disgusting tweet that outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke posted about the Dem congressman…I think Burnett was trying to bait Grijalva a bit here, but to his credit he didn’t go for it – Zinke is the one who is thoroughly compromised; as far as I’m concerned, if Grijalva had lost the trust of his constituents, he wouldn’t have been returned to office (more here)…



…and Seth Meyers tells us about Dark Sith Lord Stephen Miller and the “Mayor of 9/11” continuing to flail away over that STOO-PID wall, Michael Cohen’s testimony and the potential for a government shut down – yeah, I think it’s pretty plain who would own it if the feds close up shop for any period of time (here)…



Oh, but here is an update – yeah, once again, because Senate Republicans know who is going to get blamed for a shut down, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao introduces another BS stopgap spending bill – of course, we could actually have Democrats in charge who would manage our tax dollars responsibly, but quite to the contrary, the “party of Lincoln” will actually increase its Senate majority in January…

…and once again, heckuva job for letting THAT happen, voters in North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri and Florida!...

…and Pap and Farron Cousins tell us that “No Labels” are being sued for stiffing contractors – figures; I know the whole “Wall Street running the Democratic Party” thing is largely true, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean that we should just roll over and die, as it were, in response – just means that we have to keep working to bring the party and this country to the left more and more, and I DO NOT ACCEPT FOR ONE MINUTE that the Democrats are the same as the Republicans as Pap alleges; you may have a slight shot at transformational change in a good way with the Dems, but you have NO SHOT with the Repugs…



…and here are more seasonal selections, starting with a number from the funniest math professor of all time (here), who turned 90 last April…hope it was a festive occasion.

Tuesday Stuff

This Now This video from Casey Michel tells us about the alliance between U.S. evangelicals and Russians via the highly-inaptly-named World Congress of Families (as if we didn’t need MORE of a reason to detest evangelicals…the Russian version at the very end of “We Are The World” was, I thought, a particularly repugnant stroke given the context of this report)…



…and Farron Cousins gets around to the utterly idiotic ruling by the Dubya-appointed judge against the Affordable Care Law, which, by the way, has been affirmed by two Supreme Court rulings (the law, I mean…I thought this was an excellent analysis...more here)…



…and don’t look now, but it seems that Fix Noise has premiered its streaming service, which, to me, meets the standard of cruel and unusual punishment banned by the U.S. Supreme Court (Samantha Bee applies the proper ridicule, periodic audience groans and all)…



…and RIP Nancy Wilson (the jazz singer, not the Heart singer, I wish to emphasize), with one of the greatest “you’re busted” songs of all time…



…and here are more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff

Ali Velshi, sitting in for Lawrence O’Donnell, tells us about the report in the Murdoch Street Journal that the Feds are doing some digging into the inauguration of the Gropenfuhrer to find out where the money has all gone, including Ivanka Trump – good luck with that I know…with Joyce Vance and Harry Litman…



...and Cenk and Ana of TYT bring us the latest on the NC-09 U.S. House election (somebody named McCrae Dowless apparently dimed out his fellow Repugs, and kudos for that...will they actually redo the election? They SHOULD!)...



…and turning from Republican nonsense in North Carolina, we now go to Ohio, where, in that state, they apparently are going to allow fracking chemicals to be used again to de-ice the roads…what could go wrong, I wonder?...



…and Francis Maxwell of The Breakdown tells us about Cyntoia Brown, a victim of sex trafficking who was convicted of killing a man who bought her for sex when she was 16 – the Tennessee Supreme Court said she’d be eligible for parole after 51 years, though Gov. Bill Haslam is considering clemency for her (here)…as Maxwell says, this stands in stark relief against what happens to hi-rollers who run into legal problems for related offenses…Exhibit A here is Jeffrey Epstein, represented by Kenneth Starr and Alan Dershowitz – pardon me while I retch…



Update 1/9/19: Excellent! (her freedom I mean).

...and for a definite change to a more upbeat holiday mood (more or less), I give you the following selections.

Saturday Stuff

This story from CBS News marks the 6th anniversary of the Sandy Hook gun slaughter which I alluded to yesterday (and this tells us what has transpired since - of course, as we know, there has been no action on the federal level...but plenty of this, of course)...



...and by including this video, my intention isn't to go for a cheap laugh in response, but, among other things, to point out the utter idiocy of those who resist us the most on this issue (Dan Bongino was dropped by NRA-TV, as Sam Seder tells us...womp-womp)......



...also, Hosni Mubarak Walker signed off on all of that garbage in Wisconsin, which I guess should surprise exactly no one (here and here...and this "new tradition" is coming from one side only, let's not forget)...



…and John Iadarola and Brett Erlich tell us the horrible story of the 7-year-old girl who died in border patrol custody (and yeah, I think this about says it…I glanced at the YouTube comments per John’s request, and many were thoughtful but many were also the typical “bot” hate dreck BS, which isn’t surprising I know...do you honestly think, however, that we'd be having a discussion like this if she were white and well-to-do in, say, Norwich, CT?)…



...and here are a couple of more seasonal tunes ("palate cleanser" time again).

Friday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that the Gropenfuhrer will have to tell more lies to his utterly deluded followers who are still left about the debt – again, if our corporate media with initials for names had held this utter fraud of a presidential candidate to account two years ago, it would have been plain to the entire world that he was nothing but a narcissistic maniac who was in waaay over his head…but…



…and Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Fix Noise host Marie Harf who held that moron Jason Chaffetz to account recently (here), and was slapped down for her commendable effort by this life form named Harris Faulkner…



…and Kyle K. (NSFW) tells us about the 5 U.S. House Dems who recently voted against the resolution to stop our involvement in the Yemen massacre on behalf of the Saudis, and their failure ended up being critical since the final vote count was 206-203…and check this out – the maneuver to block consideration of Ro Khanna’s commendable effort to end our cooperation with the Saudis on this slaughter was buried in a farm bill, and in case you’re wondering, Bri-Fi voted in favor of continuing this insanity (here)…this may end up as the final legislative move by Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv as U.S. House speaker, and it is every bit as disgusting, foul, fetid…and yes, deplorable…as you would expect from someone who claims to be a Roman Catholic (here) – at least the Senate did the right thing, and I GUARANTEE you this will be revisited when the Dems take over in January, and Khanna’s bill will pass (of course, more people including kids will die in the meantime...if Ryan had a molecule of humanity, maybe he would ponder that while he attends Sunday services - naaah)…



…and I know when I do the holiday music thing like right now, I kind of skip new tunes and musical milestones, but as far as the latter goes, I DEFINITELY did not want to miss this one…happy belated 75th birthday to Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band (and speaking of milestones, I know today is an important one for a particular news event - I think we all know what it is - and I'll have something on that soon)…



...and speaking of seasonal tunes, here are four more (well, the last one is open to interpretation I guess :-).

Thursday Stuff

I had some videos about climate change yesterday, and for the alternative STOO-PID point of view in support of dirty energy (or maybe "dirti-est"), I give you this from The Majority Report (at COP24, which apparently was the forum where the latest Trumpster BS was exposed..."clean fossil fuels" is a ridiculous lie even for them)…



…and Ali Velshi filled in here for Chris Hayes on “All In” about the Google CEO testifying before some of those knuckleheads in the U.S. House, including Goober Gohmert and Steven Arnold King (heckuva job, you numbskull voters who keep returning these clowns to Congress every two years…and yeah, I think Ted Lieu nailed it – not sure exactly why Zoe Lofgren said what she did…I am the LAST PERSON to defend the Gropenfuhrer, but I have MUCH BIGGER issues with Number 45 than what comes back from search results)…



…and “Pap” and Farron Cousins tell us about CEOs using tax cuts to boost their pay, and of course to stick it to their workforce – an example is here, even though the layoffs were reported to be voluntary…GREAT point about the Boards of Directors rubber stamping the CEO pay raises…they’ve talked about McKesson and the opioid epidemic before, and I know they need to keep beating that proverbial drum…



...and Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Chuck Todd and his typical “both sides” BS about the Repug garbage in Michigan and Wisconsin with incoming Dems…



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Wednesday Stuff

Seth Meyers tells us about the White House dustup yesterday between Generalissimo Trump, incoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about that stoo-pid wall (and yeah, it looks like you-know-who said he would own the shut down – figures; this is what happened the last time we had a shut down in January)…



…and just upon some kind of perfunctory reading, I think there is a bit of a back story with Jazmine Headley, the mother in this video (apparently there is an outstanding warrant for credit card fraud that her lawyers are trying to get dismissed), but you know what? As Ana and the other panelists point out here, maybe the go-to move by the people working in this office SHOULD NOT BE TO CALL THE POLICE if you think she is making a disturbance for some reason, and you NEVER, EVER take her child from her unless she is threatening the child, which CLEARLY wasn’t the case as shown (an update is here)…



…and NYC Council Member Rafael L. Espinal Jr. tells us of the importance of fighting climate change…yeah, man…



…and with the prior clip in mind, Kyle K. tells us about Repug (!) Mayor Dale Ross of Georgetown, TX who is taking his town to 100 percent sustainable energy (talking with Bernie Sanders…NSFW…don’t know about Thorium; wind turbines are in MA which has Repug Gov. Charlie Baker, just to let you know…I don’t quite see eye-to-eye with Kyle on the comparison to recreational pot since I think there are a bit more sides to that issue…yeah, it should be legal for medical purposes definitely but still restricted also IMHO…probably more I could say about that)…



...and here are more seasonal tunes.

Tuesday Stuff

It seems James Fields will go to the slam for life for running over and killing Heather Heyer during the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, VA (here); not sure why he isn’t getting a date with the needle - I guess he pled guilty to avoid a trial; as far as I know, the death penalty is still in force in that commonwealth…



…and speaking of unruly mobs, Hasan Piker tells us more about the French riots – an update is here (it looks like President Macron, wisely, is listening and watching)…



..and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us about former DHS under-secretary Suzanne Spaulding, who criticized the two for being dupes of Putin, or whatever (I think the “Hillary-bot holdover” remark was a little stoo-pid, though – SHE ISN’T IN GOVERNMENT ANY MORE!!! And yes, Pap, we know what “Wag The Dog” is all about…I’m automatically leery of anything from “The Putin Network” also, though, to be fair, a lot of their reporting has held up as far as I’m concerned)…



…and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 12/11/15…a lot of times, when I present these old clips, I’m trying to update them to some other story or context that is a little more current, but I’m not doing that this time – I’m just giving you the clip once more of the Gropenfuhrer being almost-attacked by the eagle in the photo-op for Time Magazine, and I think the symbolism of that speaks for itself (and I love Cenk’s reaction too...and speaking of "flipping the bird," you might say, to Number 45, it seems that this is noteworthy - huzzah!...oh, but let's cue the "corporate Dem" caterwauling from the usual suspects in response...GMAFB!)…



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff

I thought this was a terrific segment by Ari Melber pointing how just how terrible Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv was at his role as U.S. House Speaker; in keeping with other predecessors from his party, though, they (including “Man Tan” Boehner) were pretty pathetic also…of course, Ryan and the “young guns” sold themselves as allegedly something different, but they’re all part of the same collective “con” to pile tax cuts for the rich upon each other, blow up our ridiculous defense budget even more and, all the while, steal from everyone else including those who can afford it the least…



…and today is the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly…



…and to show just how far we have to go on that score, this tells of the brutal repression by the Chinese of the Uyghurs and their efforts to lobby the world for justice on their behalf…



…and sticking with world stuff, Kyle K. tells us about the back-and-forth between Jeremy Corbyn & Theresa May in “question time” during a session of the British Parliament about the effects of British austerity (NSFW – and I agree with Kyle that we should have “question time” here too – not just for the presidents, but the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader too; definitely not trying to pass myself off as an expert in overseas politics, but as I’ve said before, when we traveled to the U.K. a couple of years ago right after the Brexit vote, it struck us as a little fishy that the black cab drivers all supported Brexit for the same reasons – certainly not saying they were dumb at all, but just that the same propaganda campaign had apparently worked on all of them…an update is here)…



...and here comes more seasonal stuff.

Sunday Stuff

In the latest edition of “The Damage Report,” John Iadarola and Michael Shure tell us how some Fix Noise talking heads are finding out now that, gee, the Gropenfuhrer’s tax cuts really suck after all – just a little late on this I would say…



…and we have yet another humanoid from the Republican Party Propaganda Network being tapped by Generalissimo Trump for a government job, and this time it’s Heather Nauert named as UN Ambassador (and as noted here, this hairdo once cited D-Day as some kind of a milestone in U.S./German relations – were my father still alive…like many men of his era, he served in the European theater in World War II…I’m sure he would communicate his response to that in no uncertain terms)…



...and I'm not really concerned about the back-and-forth on the other NJ news stories involving Dem Gov. Phil Murphy - not saying they're not important also, just saying I'm not focusing on them - but I wanted to include this clip because of the upcoming 12/15 health care enrollment deadline in the Garden State as well as nationwide (kind of dovetails a bit into this, this and this as far as I'm concerned)...



…and RIP Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks…



…and I alluded to this on Friday, and you can consider my inclusion of this as my response…



...and here is another seasonal tune.

Saturday Stuff

Cenk and John Iadarola give us the latest “police blotter” info involving the Gropenfuhrer, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the SDNY both coming down with their own sentencing guidelines for Trump fixer Michael Cohen (more here - and yeah, if "Individual 1" thinks he’s in the clear – heh)…



…and Farron Cousins dutifully reminds us that the debt/deficit is something Repugs only care about when Dems are in charge; good job by Cousins to draw a line here to CEOs and Dubya – long past time to do something about the demented, tiny-handed orange maniac in An Oval Office who let the debt get out of control again, but good luck doing that with the Repugs having built on their Senate majority…

…and once again, heckuva job for letting THAT happen, voters in North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri and Florida!...

…and Kyle K. tells us about Franklin Graham defending Trump (and by the way, Kyle, it’s not as if ABORTION is one of the things that Repugs are “down the line” about when it comes to their interpretation of religion – it’s the ONLY thing…and I think Kyle’ “cultural identity” theory is spot-on…NSFW I think)…



…and Hasan Piker gives us another “Breakdown” segment on the U.S. House NC-09 garbage, despite the Gropenfuhrer’s protestations (which, after all, is code for “whites only” of course…Tweety was on the proverbial ball on this issue, though, of course, since we’re talking about Tweety…and good job by incoming Speaker Pelosi here; funny that I’m not hearing any “corporate Dem” caterwauling about her lately, which, as far as I’m concerned, is a welcome respite)…



...and here is some seasonal stuff...







...and since it's December 8th - well, I think you know what comes next.

Friday Stuff

(And of course, not mentioned in the graphic is this.)

I don’t expect anybody to give a damn about my “hot takes” on anything, but since this is my dumb blog, I’m going to inflict them on you anyway :-).

I get incredibly fed up with Bill Maher whining about political correctness given all of the critical issues we face (and yes, I know he is definitely smart enough to know issue priority since he has said the environment is number one, and he couldn’t be more correct). But when I hear him going off on the PC stuff, I’m tempted to stick a butcher’s knife into the middle of my TV screen (after I unplug it, of course).

And then I come across this story…PETA can take the proverbial running jump at a rolling donut as far as I’m concerned for trying to be the “language police” (so I guess “flog the donkey” is RIGHT OUT, huh?).

And I also came across this – and yes, I know it’s the daughter of song composer Frank Loesser saying that now forced to defend “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” shouldn’t be played any more because of Bill Cosby, but I’m sorry; I still think it’s ridiculous to say that.

Update 12/9/18: OK, I messed this up, so I’ll try it again – it’s the radio stations that are using the Bill Cosby stuff as an excuse not to play the song, and Susan Loesser is now in a position where she’s forced to defend the song by her father. And yeah, I think that’s pretty damn ridiculous on the part of these radio stations – I’m not even going to dignify the possibility that Loesser the composer was seriously trying to encourage anything whatsoever to do with what Cosby did.

Yes, I definitely support #MeToo and the issue of treating women with respect shouldn’t be an issue because YOU SHOULD JUST KNOW TO DO THAT WITHOUT HAVING TO BE TOLD. But I just think we’ve gone way too far with trying to view the past through the often shrouded, fog-colored (and way too orange) prism of the present and we need to “turn this bus around,” you might say.

Now, as pertains to the pic above, John I. of TYT tells us about the latest Repug efforts to undercut legitimately elected Democrats, this time in Michigan (nothing against Cenk or John, but how many times does it need to be pointed out? Repugs don’t want to “govern.” They want to RULE! And they’re NOT INTERESTED in any dissent on that from ANYONE!)…



…also, Hasan Piker gives us what you could call a final-for-good postscript on GHWB (some of this was echoed by Jeremy Scahill, among others – I’m glad that we have this video as a counterpoint to the corporate media mythology about our 41st president…wish we had more of this when The Sainted Ronnie R passed, which is one of the reasons why I came up with this...NSFW)…



…and Robert Reich tells us just how much we need undocumented immigrants in this country, to say nothing of a path to citizenship that is actually sane for these folks who are trying, despite ridiculous odds, to do the right thing…



…and Farron Cousins talks with Scott Hardy of Top Class Actions dot com about lax food regulations making people sick (and so the food producers save about $12 mil, but it looks like we’re paying the price)…



...and here are a couple of more seasonal tunes.

Thursday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

Farron Cousins tells us here about the Repugs in Wisconsin and Michigan doing their best to totally screw over the incoming Democrats voted in to replace many of them, including our beloved commonwealth (and boy, are the last 30 seconds here important – more here)…



…and Kyle K. discusses Jake Tapper talking with Dem U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio about NAFTA 2.0 and hosing our workers (again – with the Gropenfuhrer incentivizing outsourcing, with 93K jobs lost – the Dems had damn well better make an issue of the jobs that disappeared under this lunatic…NSFW)…



…and Sam Seder and The Majority Report tell us that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau apparently found a way to get under the skin of our tiny-handed, demented lunatic preznit recently, referring to him as “Donald” (whatever works at this point)…



…and Mike Malloy tells us that Bruce Springsteen recently said that Trump is “deeply damaged at his core”…I have to think that Generalissimo Trump has provided The Boss with enough material for another recording, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t blame Springsteen at this point if he just wanted to step back and live his life with a minimum of distractions like this…



…and turning to the seasonal stuff, I think that gives us an excuse to hear The Boss in a holiday mood…



…and if you want to get utterly hammered over the holidays, please make sure you give the car keys to somebody sober.

Wednesday Stuff

Seth Meyers tells us about Generalissimo Trump’s recent performance at the G20 summit – again, I’m a little behind on some stuff because of the “dead Poppy Bush” thing going on…and “get me out of here,” huh? Just grab a change of clothes, suitcase of Russian money, hop a plane and take off for parts unknown, then – definitely works for me (not in love with the idea of “President Pence,” though, I hasten to add, since that’s a whole other version of crazy too)…



…and gee, maybe we ought to do something about this climate change thing, as John I. tells us…

…oh, and the Dow lost almost 800 points yesterday, and the other major market indices lost ground too (maybe “Tariff Man” should STFU…yeah, good luck with that I know…markets are closed today for Poppy Bush’s funeral)…



…and last Saturday was World AIDS Day (every December 1st), and my bad for forgetting that as I know I have in the past; here is a scene from “And The Band Played On” with Matthew Modine as Dr. Don Francis (and with all of the remembrances about Number 41 currently going on, I don’t think we should forget this either)…



...and here are two more seasonal selections.

Tuesday Stuff

Yep, nothing to see here all right – just Wisconsin Repugs trying to “burn it all down” after voters in that state told them to get out of the governor’s office (and actually, pretty much the state “lege” too despite the gerrymandering as noted here and here)…Rachel Maddow talks with Dem state senator Jon Erpenbach…and as noted here, it looks like the “party of Lincoln” is trying to do the same thing in Michigan…



Update 12/5/18: And yeah, this fits the profile too.

…and I know I’m a little late with this, but it looks like Temple Professor Marc Lamont Hill dared to advocate for the Palestinians, so OF COURSE he must be attacked, censured and fired from his job, right? God forbid ANYONE in our media communicates ANYTHING but lockstep fealty to Israel (so Hill saying he wanted to see a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” is a firing offense? Did I fall asleep and wake up in the Ministry of Love? John of TYT comments along with Michael Shure, Brooke Thomas, and Maytha Alhassen)…



…and speaking of suppressing free speech, Farron Cousins tells us here that federal workers aren’t allowed to say the “I” word when discussing our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Orange Dictator (heh)…



…and CNN’s Poppy Harlow talks to Carmela Denno, whose family members lost their Youngstown GM jobs and who apparently knows other folks who will experience the same horrific loss, and just in time for the holidays of course…it would be easy for me to ridicule her for voting for Trump, and God only know why anyone would do that given his conduct in the 2016 campaign, but I’m sure she’s a well-meaning person and I hope things work out for the better somehow…if you elect Democrats, you at least have a shot of hanging on to what we once called a fairly secure middle class way of life…you have NO SHOT AT ALL if you support a Republican…



...and here are two more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff (updates)

So, what are we to make of our 41st president, George H.W. Bush, when all is said and done?

I suppose, like a lot of people with a larger-than-life public profile, we remember the contradictions more than anything else (or at least I do anyway, for what that’s worth). He served our country bravely in World War II, and he also worked for years in government service as CIA head, U.N. ambassador and ambassador to China. Of course, he in all likelihood helped further his oil business in the process, but I have no knowledge of any illegality in doing so, and I’m not alleging that here (all this and more is here).

Much has been made of the fact that he was often a gracious man, which I think should be recalled also since that commodity is just about extinct any more in public life in particular (his letter to incoming president Bill Clinton in 1992 has been fondly recalled, even though that used to happen on a regular basis when presidencies, and parties, changed hands). He also had enough of a sense of humor to let comedian Dana Carvey do his riff impersonating him as Bush Sr. was leaving the White House.

And as far as I’m concerned, he was basically president for 12 years – I think he had a lot to do with keeping this country largely stable when it came to foreign and domestic matters during his own presidency as well as that of The Sainted Ronnie Reagan. I can recall a time in the 80s when hostages were seized by Iran/Hezbollah on a pretty regular basis, but that came to an end under Poppy Bush. I don’t know all the whys and wherefores on that and how exactly to apportion all of the blame, but I think credit should be handed out where it’s due. He also waged the first Iraq war efficiently, directed by generals who knew what they were doing. Of course, you could also say that the bungling of our ambassador to Iraq at that time, April Glaspie (in which she reportedly gave a green light to Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait) had a lot to do with the ensuing war (as well as the PR campaign that was basically waged by the Kuwaiti government to spur our involvement, including the utterly false claim that Iraqi soldiers were bayoneting babies in incubators taking babies out of incubators, exposing them to cold and letting them die - here).

And boy, do I remember how conservatives HATED Bush 41 for not going into Baghdad, but instead leaving after the Iraqi troops were removed from Kuwait, which was in accordance with the U.N. mandate. Of course, you hear ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on that now, given the ruinous consequences of his son’s version of the Iraq war years later (and when it comes to the first Iraq war, we should recall this and this from Jeremy Scahill).

Basically, when Bush 41 was in the White House, I didn’t have to worry about the future of the Republic like I (and the rest of us) have to do now (and he was spot-on in the pic above of course).

Well, that was all of the good stuff, more or less. The bad?

As Will Bunch noted here, 41 and his administration basically entrapped a drug dealer in DC named Keith Jackson for a photo-op showing crack cocaine, alleging that it was being sold within blocks of the White House. Bush Sr. also helped propel the careers of Roger Ailes and Lee Atwater, who both brought a whole other dimension to “the politics of personal destruction.” The two were instrumental in the 1988 presidential campaign of Bush vs. Dem Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, including the “Willie” Horton ad, claiming that Horton was furloughed by Dukakis and went on to rape a woman (of course, the furlough policy was instituted by Dukakis’ Republican predecessor and was similar to policies in other states including California where Reagan was once governor, but why quibble over details like that when blowing a racist dog whistle?). Basically, Sr. was losing according to some polls that summer and outsourced the dirty work to Ailes and Atwater, as Charlie Pierce recalled here.

To say that the utterly vile 1988 presidential campaign was a precursor to the everyday political attacks we experience every two years any more (having just concluded the latest round of interminable, hateful insanity) is as big an understatement as you can make. And oh yes, that year, we also saw Sr.’s “tough guy” faceoff with Dan Rather over Iran-Contra, with Sr. responding by criticizing Rather for once walking off the set (you could argue whether or not Rather handled that as he should have – it was cringe worthy on both sides – but the veep was not shy about plummeting to new depths, which kind of belied the patrician image we've held of him over time and will, I'm sure, be ever more etched into our corporate media mythology).

And you could also argue that the 1992 election was a gathering of forces that nobody could control completely, with conservatives blaming businessman Ross Perot for siphoning Republican votes and enabling Bill Clinton to win (and Republicans, true to form, responded with an 8-year hissy fit). I would say in response that the candidacy of “Uber Alles” Pat Buchanan had more to do with that than anything; Sr. saw the direction his party was going…I’m not sure he could have stopped it, but I don’t recall that he did much to slow it down either. There was also that business of Sr. looking at his watch during a presidential debate and not knowing how a supermarket scanner worked…of course, if Fox News had been on the air at the time, they would have alleged that both were cowardly liberal plots to discredit a war hero, and related Reddit posts would have been forwarded a few hundred thousand times, leading to a typical conservative vs. liberal screaming match with nothing much accomplished.

Oh, and speaking of Iran-Contra…on his way out the door, Bush Sr. pardoned all of his pals who might have been able to implicate him, as noted here (no pardon or commutation for Jackson, though, who ended up serving 10 years in prison). Number 41 also nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, who of course was confirmed despite the testimony of Prof. Anita Hill.

So yes, let’s give President George Herbert Walker Bush the accolades he deserves, but let’s not forget the foibles, missteps and other bad stuff either (including the episode noted in the clip below)…



...and I was actually OK with the "thousand points of light" thing, even though I guess, since we're talking about a Repug, it also meant undercutting federal agencies and services doing good work also since, as far as Repugs are concerned, gov't can't be good for anything – and you know of course the Gropenfuhrer made fun of what Bush said anyway...



Update 1: Somehow, there HAS to be good in a man who would inspire this.

Update 2: Quite on the other hand (here...h/t Karoli Kuns)...

Update 12/05/18: More from Jeremy Scahill here...

Update 12/9/18: "Laid bare" indeed (here)...

…and speaking of our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Orange Dictator, Chris Hayes commented on the recent Michael Cohen testimony, saying basically, that “the president was compromised – full stop” – hats off to Hayes for his “no BS” approach to this (speaking with Dem U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal also)…



…and Thom Hartmann talks with Dem U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley on the latter’s attempt to prevent price gouging in this country by the drug makers…



...and all the best to everyone observing the "celebration of lights" which began last night...



...and here is another seasonal item.