Thursday Stuff

On the shutdown…as far as I’m concerned, Joy Ann Reid can go to the head of the proverbial class for this (punish EVERY REPUBLICAN for this, people!!! And here is more Privileged Republican Entitlement on display – here also)…



…and even with my limited posting, don’t think I’ve given up on “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less)– this latest installment is from 1/23/13, in which Dem U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott talked about how ridiculous it was to be debating the debt ceiling (and no, I don’t like debt either, but sometimes you need a reasonable amount of it, and I’ll defer to people like Dean Baker, Brad DeLong and Prof. Krugman on the details), but as far as I’m concerned, this commentary might as well apply to the shutdown also – of course, if you want to cut spending for real, we could talk about sane tax policy and defense budgeting…



…which I’m sure Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for one, is more than willing to do, even though, according to Aaron Sorkin, she and others of the freshman Dem class in the U.S. House need to stop acting like kids, or something (Cenk and Ana of TYT explain…GREAT MLK context!)…



…and with the prior clip in mind, “The Majority Report” tells us that The Rev. Dr. William Barber recently spoke in front of Tennessee politicians and let fly (I thought the line about preachers telling their congregation to tithe but not protesting with them for a living wage was particularly good – and yeah, watching that putz Bill Lee just sit there spoke volumes all by itself)…



…and I realize the shutdown has pushed the Russia/Trump stuff off the front pages for now, which I’m sure was completely by design; Seth Meyers reminds us here with the latest on former “fixer” for the Gropenfuhrer Michael Cohen, along with the latest verbal gymnastics from Rudy 91u1iani…



…and every times I press the Publish button on one of these posts, I quietly utter to myself the title of this song.

Monday Stuff

Joy Reid speaks with Indian tribal elder and Marine Corps Vet Nathan Phillips (who served in Vietnam) about the recent confrontation in D.C. with high school kids who, allegedly, came from a “Catholic” school in Covington, KY (to say this video has gone viral is an understatement)…I’m curious now to find out about this “Black Hebrew Israelites” business; according to Phillips, it actually sounds like he and his group of Native Americans were trying to intercede against this band of stupid little pukes (and I don’t mean the 4 Black Hebrew Israelites…more here)…



…and Kyle K. tells us about government workers turning to GoFundMe pages to get money so they and their families can survive (NSFW...not sure how I can add to Kyle's quite justifiable outrage and disgust) – more here…



…and Thom Hartmann tells us about the book “The Inner Level,” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett which basically argues that more just societies enable people to live longer, better lives (and I always thought Boris Johnson was a bit of a buffoon, though he certainly was smart enough to worm his way into positions of power in the UK – still, I’d like to send him a box of cornflakes with a message on it to go f*ck himself)…

…and here’s a tune we all know in remembrance of the man whose accomplishments we recognize and celebrate on this day (more here).