Friday Stuff

God bless these kids, putting the trolls, bots and other lower life forms in this country (and probably hacking in with aliases from beyond our borders) utterly to shame (more here)…

We see these lawmakers representing the NRA, and not their constituents. We see our “leaders” making excuses and refusing to act. On Saturday, they’ll see US. pic.twitter.com/7OGttnRSsz

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) March 21, 2018

…and this “Worst Persons” segment with K.O. from about June of ’08 tells us that new Trumpian National Security Advisor John Bolton (cringe) predicted all kinds of awfulness with an Obama presidency which - whoops! - did not materialize in any way, shape or form (seriously, this guy shouldn’t be ANYWHERE NEAR U.S. foreign policy decision-making of any kind, but of course, he has the “magic R” after his name, so the “party of Lincoln” remains utterly cowed, apparently – more here, here and here)...



…and John and Cenk of TYT tells us the latest on the PA House Repugs’ hissy fit over the PA Supreme Court’s upholding of the newly redrawn congressional districts (Cenk is ON FIRE up to about 4:20, and he's absolutely right - and here is an update)…



…and I know I haven’t featured Sam Bee for a little while, so here she is on the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and giving Hope Hicks an apropos sendoff (NSFW)…



…and this reminds us that it’s time once more to pay attention to Louie Gohmert, the stupidest life form in the entire universe (more here)…




…and I know Kyle K. took Bill Maher apart for this commentary earlier this week, but I thoroughly disagreed with what Kyle had to say (oooh, Nancy Pelosi corporate Democrat Nancy Pelosi corporate Democrat Nancy Pelosi corporate Democrat Nancy Pelosi corporate Democrat BAD BAD BAD BAD MUST PUNISH – you know, we can either insist on our damn purity tests all the time and keep losing elections, or we can rally behind these characters, hard as it is to do that at times I’ll admit, and hold them to account AFTER they win and we hang onto power); also, as great as it is that Conor Lamb won, I can tell you that he’s learning the ropes pretty quick – he’s already asked me for money (kind of a weak finish by Maher, but I still think he made solid points)…



…and yeah, we can watch all this stuff and have all kinds of reactions, but none of it matters unless we “get woke and STAY woke,” people…

We can't sit on the sidelines while politicians suppress voting rights. Join me in supporting @LetAmericaVote by texting VOTE to 44939. pic.twitter.com/limSa12JXv

— Allison Janney (@AllisonBJanney) March 22, 2018

…and damn if this doesn’t sound like Led Zeppelin 2018 – rocks big time (and it’s been a little while since I featured a tune with a killer drum solo).

Thursday Stuff

Kyle K. tells us about the David Hogg video against the NRA (NSFW of course) and the predictable backlash; the ad also tells us of the march set to take place this Saturday…



…and Cenk, Ana and company on TYT tell us about Eryn Gilchrist, who stepped up to run in a Maine state house election against Leslie Gibson after this fool decided to criticize Hogg and Emma Gonzales (Gibson dropped out, by the way, as well he should)…



…and I’m old enough to know that payoffs are part of the political picture for most politicos of high or low stature, but in true Trumpian fashion, it looks like that may be the case here despite security concerns for our military, particularly in Qatar, as Rachel Maddow explains with Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times…

…and Farron Cousins tells us of the media’s attempt to somehow “normalize” the alleged Austin bomber who blew himself up (if this Mark Conditt character had screamed “Allah Is Magnificent!” as he exploded himself, we’d be getting ready to invade somewhere; I agree with Cousins’s stupidity argument, but it also has to do with economics and not trying to alienate wingnuts and shut off a potential revenue stream from these characters – Exhibit A of that, as far as I’m concerned, is the Bucks County Courier Times)…



…and here’s a lesson in American Economics 101 from Sen. Elizabeth Warren…

How is it that while the very, very wealthiest Americans have never had it so good, the middle class has been in decline for the last 30 years? pic.twitter.com/rOSLl9YB5z

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 21, 2018

…and in addition to Ringo Starr, Barry Gibb, the last surviving Gibb brother, was recently knighted also (here); here is a tune for the occasion.

Wednesday Stuff

After awhile, I have to admit that it gets hard to not be repetitive about just how bad a situation we face in this country with our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Orange Dictator taking up space in An Oval Office – I know there are tons of memes out there about how Number 45 is nothing but a tool of his Russian puppet master (including the one above), but it’s becoming more and more clear that that is the actual reality we’re dealing with (and as far as Cambridge Analytica is concerned, I give you this)…



…and I give you, for the second day in a row, another installment of “This Day in Doomsy History” from 3/21/12, in which a certain Willard Mitt Romney is taken to task for his “Etch-a-Sketch” comment (something to consider in light of this)…



…and I thought Charlie Pierce had the right take, as he so often does, on Pete Peterson (here); I don’t wish ill on the man given the fact that he’s dead, but I’m also grateful that his plutocratic vision of this country (as John Nichols of The Nation explains) has never come to hideous fruition, though we need to keep fighting to make sure that remains the case (and there was a time when I gave Ed Rendell more credit than to associate himself with the “Fix the Debt” bunch including Peterson, but sadly no more)…



…and, as noted in this story, Congressman Mark Amodei of Nevada pushed to get a student suspended for using profanity when making a call to someone in Amodei’s office; no, I don’t condone that – it’s self-defeating – but I don’t condone petty vindictiveness on Amodei’s part either…"Welcome to the world where words have consequences” huh? Votes have consequences too…



…and it looks like Lt. Col. Ralph Peters finally got “woke” to what Fix Noise is really all about – kudos…



…and congratulations to Sir Richard Starkey (here...and yeah, it appears that we’re going to get plenty more of the white stuff here also).

Tuesday Stuff

Rachel Maddow takes us back to the story of the Watergate tapes and the so-called “Stennis Compromise” over them & when that was nixed, the “Saturday Night Massacre” followed – leading into a discussion of trying every possible way to shield Generalissimo Trump from Special Counsel Robert Mueller…heh…and then to the Cambridge Analytica stuff (more here)…”Crunchtime” indeed…if you take away absolutely nothing else from this, take the following: NEVER buy gas from Lukoil because you are literally helping Putin…



…and this is a few days old I know, but here’s the story of the looney tune Trumpettes in AZ who vandalized the mosque and encouraged their kids to help; they've since been arrested apparently - good…

This is absolutely despicable. pic.twitter.com/HHHxWnPTHM

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 17, 2018

…and I can think of no better response to the prior insanity than this one – and yes, this is another chapter of “This Day In Doomsy History” (well, basically) from 3/19/12, featuring a recording of then-Senator John F. Kennedy speaking on religion from September 1960 (“an act against one church is treated as an act against all” indeed)…



…oh, and by the way, the water of Flint still isn’t OK, as Dem U.S. House Rep Dan Kildee reminds us (to say nothing of the fact that Puerto Rico has far to go)…

Thousands of people in Flint still don't have clean drinking water. Rep. Dan Kildee is making sure we don’t forget them. pic.twitter.com/rmQqjrAjOD

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 9, 2018

…and here’s a bit of humor; apparently, Fix Noise is mad at Jim Carrey for his recent drawing of Sarah Hillbilly Sanders (tee hee – after years of having to endure utterly wretched cartoons by Glenn McCoy in The Philadelphia Inquirer, I consider this some justice)…



…and I have to chastise myself for falling down on the job a bit and failing to point out that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Former Commander Codpiece’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq (here and here); here is a tune for the occasion (I also failed to commemorate what would have been the 90th birthday of the “patron saint” of this blog – here).

Monday Stuff

Cenk tells us that the House Intelligence Committee run by Trump flunkie Devin Nunes recently closed up shop, saying there was no collusion between the Gropenfuhrer and the Russians, of course (the Dems are hardly innocent I'll admit, but on this issue, I think Cenk is wrong to just say, basically, that both sides are corrupt, and that's that...we're not talking about campaign finance reform or trying to regulate the "banksters" - we're talking about something pretty damn basic to our government and national security)...



…and normally I’m not a fan of circular firing squads, but when it comes to “Democratic” U.S. House Rep Dan Lipinski, I’m willing to make an exception (especially since the primary election is tomorrow)…

This Dreamer is sick and tired of a Democratic congressman who votes like a right-wing Republican, and on March 20, Illinois voters will finally have a chance to replace him with a strong progressive, Marie Newman. @Marie4Congress pic.twitter.com/P3hbCQ8Lr9

— MoveOn.org (@MoveOn) March 9, 2018

...and when it comes to common-sense gun laws, I would say that the UK is miles ahead of us...

16 children and their teacher were killed in a school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996.

Within 18 months, the U.K. passed bipartisan law banning handguns.

Now, only 20-25 people are murdered with a gun each year in Great Britain. pic.twitter.com/vSuumtabNx

— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) March 18, 2018

…and Tennessee Repugs won't even debate an anti neo-Nazi measure – nice...

These Republicans are refusing to pass a bill that denounces neo-Nazis and white nationalists pic.twitter.com/EuhXcoAvru

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 18, 2018

…and this tells us that Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Moore and others will be involved in an important town hall tonight at 7 PM EST (not the greatest Warren "face freeze" though ;-)…

Tomorrow night: a discussion on one of the biggest issues facing our country—the likes of which you'd never see in the mainstream media. I hope you will tune in. https://t.co/TRj9oeUby4 pic.twitter.com/XCCQxrBV3Q

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 18, 2018

…and yeah, I guess you could argue that there’s an anti-Trumpster point of view in this video, but even if there wasn’t, I’d like it anyway.