Saturday Stuff

Farron Cousins gives us his take on the recent Trump/Pelosi name calling stuff (I think Pelosi’s tone-deafness on going after Trump on this says volumes, primarily because there are AMPLE OTHER WAYS to go after this cretin on policy, though that might expose the fact that, thus far, Pelosi and the Dems have been meekly quiet while The Grim Reaper in the U.S. Senate continues to stall on House legislation aimed at helping those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic…if Pelosi is going to have a hissy fit, do it over THAT instead...and speaking of phony controversies)…



…and with the prior clip in mind, I give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/24/16, in which Our Orange Pustule made a joke about former NJ governor and one-time Repug presidential candidate Chris Christie not “eating Oreos anymore” (here)…somehow, I don’t recall that there was a festival of hand-wringing and fetching the fainting couches after that happened…



…and Lawrence O’Donnell speaks with Dem U.S. Senator Kamala Harris in response to the confirmation by party line vote of DNI John Ratcliffe…the clip doesn’t really give you an indication of why Ratcliffe is ill suited for the job (though, for the regime of Mango Mussolini, Ratcliffe is perfect) – this tells you a bit more about that, and a longer clip of Harris questioning Ratcliffe during the latter’s confirmation hearing is here…



…and speaking of underlings in the administration of the Gropenfuhrer, this Now This clip shows Dem U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio questioning Treasury Secretary and aspiring Bond villain Steve Mnuchin over what you could loosely call the “legislative priorities” of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao…apparently, there are 3 Dems vying for the nom to unseat #MidnightMoscowMitch (here, here, and/or here...a related column to this topic is here)…



…and this recent Rachel Maddow clip tells us about a poll in the WaPo of health care workers basically saying that they STILL don’t have the equipment they need to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic…



...and happy belated 70th birthday to longtime Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin - good luck with choosing a single great tune, but this one does seem to fit in with a theme here.

Friday Stuff

It looks like the outpatients were out in force in Sacramento as of about a week ago…



…and I realize this clip is disturbing, but as far as I'm concerned, I think it’s important to interject this into our discussion of all things related to COVID-19…it has to do with medical students in NYC helping with managing dead bodies in shroud packs (or, in some cases bed sheets) in refrigerated trailers…



…and with COVID-19 very much in mind, Rachel Maddow interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Shaman last night; he claimed that, had our government acted a couple of weeks earlier with shelter-in-place requirements, as many as approximately 36-54,000 people could have been spared – the setup prior to the interview was cut out for some mysterious reason and this is a particularly badly edited video overall, kind of an amateurish job actually but typical for The Comcast Network – the setup to the interview can be found in this story…



…and Thom H. tells us about big bidness Repug donors using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to basically gut government oversight; and yeah, this “10 grand for a year of Social Security” is their latest scam aimed at a popular program that Repugs have hated FOREVER, as Thom notes…sync is still a little off...



Update: The Repugs will NEVER, EVER stop trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare (here).

…and when it comes to Mango Mussolini playing more of his disgusting games, Ana and John of TYT tell us about 45 threatening to pull funding from Michigan as well as Nevada for trying to vote by mail (though he apparently relented on providing disaster relief for Michigan)…and part of me wants to see Biden be a little more front-and-center, but maybe it’s better that he lay low while the numbers look good, though they always tighten as we get closer to the fall…



…and David Pakman tells us how the whole alleged “Obamagate” stuff utterly blew up in the face of Our Traitorous Orange Pustule – Trump’s predecessor did absolutely nothing wrong, which we knew anyway, though of course congressional Repugs won’t stop looking for any alleged “scandal” involving a Dem that they think may exist (here)…



…and uh oh – it looks pretty sad when a certain Pumpkin Pestilence has actually lost the support of his cronies at Fix Noise (removing my tongue from my cheek)…



...and I think this is a cool tune for a Friday night heading into a holiday weekend.

Thursday Stuff

I share for sure Rachel Maddow’s utter exasperation with the "sloppy, emotional outburst" of the Gropenfuhrer's recent letter against the WHO...yep, "it's just..." all right (as far as I’m concerned, 45 shouldn’t just pay the price, but everyone who supported him and had anything to do with his election should also)…



…and Robert Reich tells us about Our Traitorous Orange Meat Sack’s nefarious plan to get people back to work despite the threat of COVID-19 (or to “die for the Dow,” as Prof. Krugman put it recently)…



…and sometimes I think Kyle K. is out to lunch on his punditry (you can say that for a lot of people I realize…maybe yours truly at times too?), but on policy he’s usually right on the money, and this is a sorry summation on how the U.S. House Dems utterly punted on student debt relief (I get so fed up with watching Pelosi, Schumer, etc. piss on our legs and tell us that it’s raining...hopefully we'll all work to do our best for November and, God willing, things will turn out fine, but if they don't, the Dem congressional "leadership" should take another look at sorry spectacles like this)…



…and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us, conversely, about a U.S. House Dem actually showing a spine – I’ve had issues with Tim Ryan in the past, but he’s spot-on here with his thoroughly appropriate outrage over the Heroes Act…good to see this from a U.S. House Dem besides AOC, Jayapal and Katie Porter (even better to follow this up more consistently with actual progressive policy, however)…



…and it looks like cannabis may be an inhibitor to the spread of COVID-19, as David Doel tells us, though there needs to be a lot more research even though early indicators are promising...appears to do this with sativa, which is the strain that gets you more "jazzed" (vs. indica, which is apparently more mellow...research going on in Canada and Israel, apparently...good information on comparing pot to alcohol)...



…and who knows if JB is taking a toke or two while he deals with COVID-19…the last I heard, he tested positive, but hopefully he’s OK – apparently, his scheduled concert with JT in Wantagh, NY is going to be rescheduled until May 2021 (here); best wishes for good health to everybody.

Wednesday Stuff

Cenk and Michael Shure of TYT bring us the latest from Our Pumpkin Pestilence, namely, that doctors and nurses dying is somehow “beautiful” – of all the stupid things that Mango Mussolini has ever said, as bad as this is, I’ve heard a lot worse and I’m sure you have also…if Traitorous Orange Pustule really cared about nurses and other medical professionals, he’d tell those idiot protestors like the ones in the pic to go the hell home and isolate themselves so we can safely try to reopen everything later instead of engaging in these ridiculous ego trip exercises against people who they think are the enemy (not a bit surprised to see 45 spout this drivel in the relatively safe rural enclave of Allentown, near Lehigh Hospital – I’d pay $20 to see that assclown try to say this stuff at Jefferson or Temple Hospital downtown and see what happens)…



…and I know this was unintentionally amusing, but it just goes to show how saccharine these ridiculous commercials are with everybody trying to be your friend and acting like everyone is sharing the COVID-19 pain proportionately, which most definitely is not the case (Sam and Michael Brooks of TMR explain – clip is clever, though)…



…and the previous clip ends with a question about the votes on a bill related to internet security, and Kyle brings us more on that here (truly discouraging to hear some of those Dem names, including Casey, Shaheen...up for re-election...and Sheldon Whitehouse...and I'm curious to find out what was up with Bernie also...and yeah, pretty sad that we can't even get a freeze of our defense budget too)…



…and this Now This clip presents a lady in West Virginia telling Congress what it's really like to be poor in America...I don't know who she is, but she deserves a freaking medal at a minimum…



…and I have to admit that I’ve been chastising myself a bit because I haven’t had a “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) segment for a little while, so please let me make amends a bit with that now…the late, great Ed Schultz from about 5/18/11 gave us a pretty stark picture of income inequality at the time...can only imagine how much worse it is now (also, when it comes to Navy SEALs, Schultz was referring to this)...



...and happy belated 75th (!) birthday to Pete Townshend.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the speech from home that Former President Obama gave on Saturday to high school graduates (I have no idea what the hell that blabbering orange idiot is talking about with allegedly turning away 175,000 people from a 9,000-seat meeting place or whatever in New Jersey, and I really don't think he does either)…



…and I have to get a kick out of watching the “party of Lincoln” gang up on each other like this – they know how to go for the jugular, and they do that best against each other…



…and Farron Cousins tells us about a Repug high roller named Clay Lacy, who managed to get $27 million for his private jet company from the CARES Act…



…and I have to admit that I’m a bit hot and cold on Emma Vigeland, but when she’s on an important story, as I think she is here, she absolutely nails it; the clip has to do with Repug South Dakota Governor Kristi (Unsafe At Any Speed) Noem trying to get rid of COVID-19 checkpoints for tribal lands in her state…for the reasons Vigeland states, the tribes are completely within their legal rights to do what they’re doing (and of course, Noem refuses to provide specifics of how the checkpoints are allegedly being abused, probably because no such evidence actually exists)…



…and RIP comic actor Fred Willard (I used to watch Fernwood 2 Night forever ago – it was kind of quirky and odd, but I thought it was funny, with Martin Mull also)…



…and RIP also Astrid Kirchherr, who had a lot to do with the iconic look of the Fab Four.