Monday Stuff

To say I had many, MANY disagreements with former Bucks U.S. Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is an understatement (some examples are noted here). One of which was highlighted in a post I wrote years ago when he ran for re-election in the 2006 midterms and said that, were it not for President Bush, he would win re-election by 10 points. I was pretty infuriated by that quote at the time, though, upon further consideration and the unfolding of subsequent events, he may very well have been right. Democrat Patrick Murphy won that fall, but what was incredible about that to me was the fact that, despite the fact that Fitzpatrick the incumbent was tethered to a historically unpopular president (with higher disapproval numbers than the one we have now, believe it or not – recalling this from memory because these posts are buried somewhere in a Google search), he STILL barely won Bucks County (the margin of victory for Murphy was in the comparatively tiny pieces of Philadelphia and Montco that were in the district before the Repugs redrew them in 2010 to favor Fitzpatrick – as well as his brother as it turned out...of course, the PA Supreme Court redrew the district again in February 2018 to put back the Montco piece).

I’ve groused forever, and rightly so I believe, over the fawning editorials, to say nothing of accepting the advertising, on behalf of both Fitzpatricks, but I also realize that they’re well thought of in Bucks for good reasons. I once saw Mike Fitzpatrick coming out of the YMCA in Morrisville, and I was tempted to tee off on him, but I kept my mouth shut because I knew he was there to do good work (I was there also as part of a community cleanup effort – long story). And I’m sure that wasn’t the only time he showed up to help out at that location and others.

I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this (especially if you’ve seen the local news today). It was announced that Mike Fitzpatrick died recently after a long struggle with colon cancer (here). I am genuinely sorry to hear the news, and I wish to extend my sympathies to his family and friends (56 is way too young to go).

Now onto other stuff – I thought this was an interesting roundtable discussion moderated by David Gura of NBC News about potential repercussions to the killing of Iranian general Suleimani (a little unnerved by Gura's smiling here, I have to admit) – among other good points, I think it’s important to note that this move all but wipes out any influence that Iranian moderates might have…between this is and the Trump gang walking away from the Iranian nuclear treaty and re-imposing sanctions, yeah, this eliminates a lot of reasonable alternatives to the situation we have now…



…and Ana and the TYT crew tell us how our media is utterly failing us yet again on potential (probably likely) conflict with Iran (yeah, I’ve seen the typical gaggle of Repug warmongering life forms appearing on the Sunday shows and elsewhere to “get their war on,” and I’m sure you have too)...



…and speaking of conservative “influencers,” John of The Damage Report tells us that, despite (or maybe because of) what he has done, apparently the disgraced Eddie Gallagher is now looking to “get paid,” you might say, with his own line of clothing and apparently other products (were he still alive, Stanley Kubrick would probably reject this as a movie plot because it’s too absurd)…



…and Thom Hartmann tells us about an analysis of what Democrats do when they run states/commonwealths vs. Repugs (I’m sure a “deeper dive” on the differences can be performed by someone, but this isn’t bad for starters)…



…and Farron Cousins tells us about the Gropenfuhrer ragging on CA and NY because of the legal stuff in NY and impeachment with Pelosi in CA...and yeah, homelessness is a problem in those states, but as Cousins states, we have problems EVERYWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY! And I’m sorry that the answers are too complicated to fit on a bumper sticker, which apparently is more information that a Trumpist brain can actually process (actually, I’m not sorry)…



...and by the way, I can't think of a way to directly work this into this post, but I think it's too important to ignore...

...and happy belated 75th birthday to Stephen Stills.