Friday Stuff

David Pakman tells us here about Republicans in Kentucky trying to steal back the governor’s seat that Matt Bevin lost to Andy Beshear a few days ago – as I and others have said, the only thing the Repugs understand is losing power; they will seek any possible way, legal or otherwise, to manipulate whatever they can to achieve their ends, and all the while blaming the other side of doing it in the process (we should play the last 30 second or so of this on a continuous loop for a year)…



…oh, and in other news, here is more proof that the *president is a f*cking crook…



…and gosh, it looks like Trump Ambassador Gordon Sondland had a rather con-vee-nient bit of memory recall here in the matter of the Gropenfuhrer trying to get dirt on Joe Biden from Ukraine (more here), as Sam and the crew from TMR tell us (great political analysis of this by Sam given next year’s elections)…



…and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Lawrence Van Dyke breaking down when confronted with his bigotry upon his confirmation hearing…I’m going to offer a particularly cynical take on this I’ll admit and say that this was some rather interesting theater with Van Dyke and Repug U.S. Senator Josh Hawley that allowed Van Dyke to escape culpability for his awful words against LGBTQ individuals as far as I’m concerned…for my money, Hawley and Van Dyke are both peas from the same disgusting pod of intolerance…and good job by Cohen to put all of this in the context of the “Schlitz” Kavanaugh hearing (more here)….



…and John Iadarola and Emma Vigeland tell us that Mayor Pete thinks the Dem primary is a two-person contest at this point between he and Elizabeth Warren (I think we saw some entitlement issues with Van Dyke in the last clip, and I believe we’re seeing them again here from Buttigieg – other issues with the South Bend mayor are noted here also)…



…and Farron Cousins tells us that Alabama is hosting LSU this weekend in college football, and apparently the Gropenfuhrer is going to be there, and anyone who protests is going to get kicked out and lose their seats for the rest of the year (gee, “freedom of speech”…have to look up that antiquated notion I guess)…



…and I was wondering who was going to use the stupidity defense first to try and clear Our Treasonous, Tiny Handed Russian Asset in An Oval Office, and if you picked Huckleberry Graham, then it looks like you win the last remnants of Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, etc. (and I guess it would be a euphemism to say that Graham has "evolved" on this issue, as noted here)...



...and happy 70th birthday (!) to Bonnie Raitt...so many great tunes to choose from, but somehow I always keep coming back to this one (saw her live years ago at the Mann Music Center in these parts - great show).

Wednesday Stuff

Stephen Colbert brings us a bit based on the Gropenfuhrer’s recent visit to Lexington, KY to help gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin, which ended up doing not one bit of good because Bevin lost (though Bevin hasn't conceded yet of course); it remains to be seen whether or not this will affect the campaign of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao next year, but if we put in the work and support, we may find that this is the best chance to knock him off that we’ll ever get (and speaking of elections, the "blue wave" dumped all over Bucks County, PA, as noted here - awesome!)…



Update: More great news (some of it is a little repetitive I know) is here and here.

…and Kyle tells us how Generalissimo Trump is too dumb NOT to say the quiet stuff out loud (e.g., our military in Syria and that country’s oil)…



…and speaking of fossil fuel, Pap and Brigida Santos tell us about Massachusetts and AG Maura Healey going after ExxonMobil over a deceptive study on climate change (“biostitutes”?)…



…and Sam and the crew from “The Majority Report” tell us about Chilean protests possibly marking the end of neoliberalism (and that was an amazing stunt for sure by the Chilean girl to disable the security camera)…



...and Ana, Jayar Jackson and Jason Carter tell us about Amy Klobuchar trying to earmark $$ to an anti-LGBTQ group (Minnesota Teen Challenge) in ’09…yes, I get it that Klobuchar has possibly evolved on this issue, but I just wish that a fraction of the media coverage that she, Biden and “Mayor Pete” have gotten had been steered to Bernie and/or Kamala Harris instead…maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but I don’t think Klobuchar in particular has any business continuing in this contest…



…and given the result of last night’s gubernatorial contest in “the bluegrass state,” I felt like hearing this tune.

Monday Stuff

(By the way, tomorrow is Election Day in our beloved commonwealth – a wealth of important related information can be accessed from here.)

In something that I'm sure surprises absolutely nobody, it looks like the Trumpsters want another tax break for corporate America – and yeah, Nail. Hammer. Head. stuff by Aida Rodriguez in particular here...



…and Sam and the TMR crew tell us about Fix Noise trying to look into the "millennial mind" – predictably, hilarity ensues (no idea who that guy was who left at the beginning of the clip)…



…and Pap and Farron Cousins tell us how Google is playing both sides of the metaphorical fence on the issue of climate change (yes, I realize this is probably the norm and not the exception for most corporations, but it still needs to be called out)…



…and I thought this was an interesting clip from the New York Times about the evolution of political campaigns (who knew that William Howard Taft loomed so large, both literally and figuratively)…



…and sticking with history, the Iran Hostage Crisis began 40 years ago today – yes, we were wrong to overthrow Mosaddegh in the 1950s and install the Shah to do our bidding, but more than anything else, the seizure of our U.S. embassy personnel was an act of monstrous terrorist cowardice, holding our people for about 444 days – more than that, it was a monumentally stupid gesture by the ruling theocracy of Iran...they would have been much better off if they’d brought their legitimate grievances to the U.N., and on top of that, they ended up with The Sainted Ronnie R. who did nothing except help escalate their horrendous war with Iraq, which weakened both countries (and yeah, once again, Kissinger was wrong and a policy he advocated led to disaster...and let's not forget this too; might have to crank the volume a bit)…



Update: Yeah, the timing is BS, but we kind of asked for it, didn't we (here)?

...and this new tune describes what I try to do every day on this site.