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.