This is a comparatively short (and highly NSFW/H) video from K.O. with the entirely correct response aimed at anybody who wants to, as Keith puts it, “give martial law a try”...
...and I can’t imagine 2022 or (God knows) 2024 at this point, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the Repugs are trying to come up with some new election scam, especially since, as Thom Hartmann points out in this clip, Jeb Bush was ready to sign off on this scheme to have Repug legislatures decide how electors should vote in 2000, but the Supreme Court did his dirty work for him...just another reason to get rid of the damn electoral college once and for all...
...and speaking of corruption, Farron Cousins tells us that Mango Mussolini and his equally wormy son-in-law benefitted by more than $3 million in PPP loans through the CARES Act earlier this year...
...and yeah, “vote for the better Georgia” indeed; to help Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the upcoming January runoff U.S. Senate elections, click here...
...and don't think "chicken" Perdue should get a pass here either by any means...
...and I have to admit that I don't know what happened in the NY-11 election this year in which incumbent Dem Max Rose was defeated, but at least he used his opportunity as he departed to do good...
This Meidas Touch ad ties QAnon lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene, recently elected to the U.S. House from Georgia, to incumbent Republican U.S. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, with nary a word of reproach from either one; to be fair, I know Greene endorsed Loeffler, but I haven’t found anything similar on Perdue, though the worst issue with Perdue and Loeffler is their corruption of course...to support Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate, click here...
...and I linked to a story yesterday about the latest utter freak show of a public hearing with the “mayor of 9/11” and the Wayne County, Michigan canvassing board I believe, but here is a video with the alleged “star witness,” this Victoria Jackson knockoff as someone described her, who apparently has her own issues – womp womp – as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us...
Update 12/5/20: Of everything I genuinely hate about the Trump era, maybe what I detest the most is their almost other-worldly ability to continually find these human miseries like Carone who are all too happy for their moment in the spotlight and the chance to do the bidding for Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (here).
...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us how the utterly pathetic Dem U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (and I don't care how much he wins; he's a misogynist jerk) is STILL going after AOC and STILL looking stoo-pid as a result (the “munchkin” discussion at the end was disturbing, I have to admit).
(And by the way, I realize AOC doesn’t need help with this, but I’d personally like to see a non-squad member on the “D” team actually come to her defense once in awhile when this garbage happens. That’s what people who actually support one another do from time to time...un-freaking-believable!...and here is another example.)...
...and this Now This clip shows Janet Yellen, nominated by the incoming Biden administration as Treasury Secretary, with recent remarks of how she intends to conduct business; yep, the grownups are back in charge at the White House for sure (and this gives you the other extreme with the Trumpworld version...basically, aspiring Bond villain Steve Mnuchin is trying to transfer CARES Act funds, roughly about $400 billion, back into the general fund in violation of the law, which doesn't allow for that until 2026; Mnuchin is doing this to make it harder for Biden and co. to get the $$ for recovery, forcing the incoming administration to negotiate with that death eater Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, who of course will refuse to budge)...
Robert Reich tells us of U.S. House and Senate Republicans (including our wet noodle PA-01 rep) utterly failing in the test of standing up to Our Traitorous Orange Weasel, though there are some rare exceptions like former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and election security head Chris Krebs (and apparently the “Mayor of 9/11” gave another utterly bonkers briefing, or something, to try and overturn certified election results).
(And speaking of illegal voting, isn't this just too precious?)...
...and concerning the Gropenfuhrer’s biggest failure among MANY, by far, Rachel Maddow speaks with science author Laurie Garrett, one of the people who has been absolutely correct about the COVID plague all along; this has to do with data compiled by HHS as opposed to the CDC (“Instead, we should think of this data as garbage.” – good God! And yet another utterly ridiculous edit of an MSNBC video; we need to hear SO MUCH MORE from Garrett on this)...
...and David Pakman tells us that Trump wants to bring back firing squads and the electric chair (and make chicken processing less safe, increasing the risk of food borne illness...he should just come right out and say he wants to kill more of us and be honest about it)...
...and Sam, Jamie and Emma Vigeland talk about Kelly Loeffler’s new ad where (of course) she supports school choice and allegedly knows something about running a business, and apparently they found an African American woman from central casting to speak about Loeffler in a positive light...WHAAAAA???? (to help Jon Ossoff running against the even-more-corrupt David Perdue and Raphael Warnock running against Loeffler, click here)...
Apparently Cenk and Ana of The Young Turks are going off again on Democrats capitulating on a COVID-19 relief bill allegedly brokered by the trio of Nancy Pelosi, our soon-to-be-departing Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Russian Operative of a *president, and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao in the U.S. Senate (I'll include a link to a video when I find it).
I realize this is the rather predictable dance that we go through when it comes to any proposed legislation that, y’know, actually benefits real people (about 99 percent of this country) as opposed to the fraction of 1 percent that our government seems to enact at a moment’s notice. And usually I reserve comment on it, but I have to admit that I’m getting a little tired of it and I feel like I have to say something.
By the way, what I say here isn’t meant to absolve the Democratic “leadership.” This is part of the price that they pay for the absolutely atrocious job they do of not fighting enough for the people who need their help and the horrible job they do with messaging on the issues where they’re supposed to be providing solutions. And as for McConnell, hell, he doesn’t even bother to negotiate with Democrats on legislation! On whatever this most recent “skinny” bill of COVID relief allegedly is (I’ve lost count at this point), he consulted with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and left it up to the Democrats to reach out to the Trump gang on their own.
That tells you how seriously McConnell treats the Democrats. And he can afford to do this because he knows he will NEVER pay an electoral price for this (part of the reason why I honestly can’t understand how McConnell’s voters can sleep at night or even look at themselves in the mirror, but I know they do somehow. And yes, I know Amy McGrath ran a stunningly inept, “Republican lite” campaign, and she might have lost anyway running as a progressive also, but at least she would have gone down fighting).
Oh, and on this and so many other issues, our corporate media is beyond useless. I read a New York Times alleged “analysis” of this issue yesterday (COVID-19 economic relief, with a byline that included FIVE WRITERS!) and the article was as clear as mud. I read that dreck and learned absolutely nothing. And I’m not going to bother to link to it because I don’t want to reward them with click bait (though, given the miniscule profile of this blog I know, it would be a low number of hits).
I’ll tell you what – here is the latest information I have on what the Dems have proposed and what the Republicans are countering with (you might have better luck clicking on this image in your browser to make it easier to read):
If you can provide a similar breakdown somewhere from our corporate media cousins, please let me know, because I haven’t found it.
The argument from Cenk and Ana is that the Dems are caving again even though the Biden/Harris administration is due to be sworn in on 1/20/21 and the Senate is currently still up for grabs (which is true – David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are certainly beatable, but defeating one or both of them is by no means a certainty, though I give Stacey Abrams credit for putting up a good fight - click here to help Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock...if this were all up to Schumer, given his abysmal track record, I’d be writing both off as losses right now).
I know I’m taking awhile to get to the point, and I apologize, but the crux of what I’m trying to say is this...PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING RIGHT NOW! And I honestly believe McConnell gets his jollies over that, again, especially given that he apparently will NEVER pay an electoral price for it. This is a desperate situation for the following already-stated reasons:
The Democrats are rotten negotiators (I’ll cede Cenk and Ana’s point on that).
They also don’t have enough courage of their convictions to fight for what they believe in (and when someone who DOES comes along, like AOC, instead of being promoted, she’s vilified...this point has also been made by the Rev. William Barber, among others).
Republicans (led by McConnell) are utterly heartless monsters who don’t have a molecule of compassion for people who need help (and you would think that would make a difference particularly during this time of year and given the pandemic...you would think).
We have a departing *president who only wants to further trash the institutions of government and punish as many people as he can on his way out the door.
We also have way too many damn voters in this country who think bullets 3 and 4 are just okey dokey.
We have a beyond-useless corporate media that, in the name of preserving “balance,” is absolutely unwilling or unable to perform the task of objective reporting and analysis and thus inform readers so they make decisions that are in their best interests.
Given all of this, though, I think the Dems are right to accept something in the way of COVID relief, even though I will grant you that it is woefully insufficient. And if Cenk and Ana want to bitch at the Dems, fine. All I’m asking is that they and everybody else consider how truly stacked against them the metaphorical “deck” is. And I know this shouldn’t really be the barometer on legislation, but Wolf Blitzer and other talking heads will NEVER have a problem bitching out Nancy Pelosi vs. McConnell.
And don’t automatically think “Well, the Dems lost on the negotiations because, as usual, they weren’t progressive enough.” Going back a few weeks, A LOT of Dems lost in the election – some were conservative and some, like Scott Huffman in North Carolina, were progressive, and Huffman got clobbered. So being progressive by itself definitely isn’t a panacea.
Besides, Cenk Uygur ran as a progressive to replace Katie Hill, outed from the House related to some “revenge” sex scandal, and it didn’t go so well, did it (even though I think the chavinism charge against Uygur was BS).
Update 1 12/03/20: Damn straight (and again, WAY beyond pathetic that Democrats are apparently incapable of ads like this - if anything makes me want to say the hell with it and walk away from this blog once and for all, it is that simple fact).
Update 2 12/03/20: Another update is here (and I think Joan McCarter means the execrable "Josh" Hawley, not John).
Update 12/04/20: This is probably the best post I've read yet on all of this.
Rachel Maddow brings us this clip of Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling, speaking yesterday with his thoroughly appropriate utter disgust over the threats to himself and others involved in the prior elections in that state as well as the upcoming runoffs between Raphael Warnock and incumbent Kelly Loeffler along with Jon Ossoff versus incumbent David Perdue...
...and speaking of Perdue, this tells us that he may be even more crooked than Loeffler (to help Ossoff and Warnock, click here)...
...and John and Jason Carter of The Damage Report tell us about the part-time deputy showing some “casual racism” in a Facebook post about VP-elect Kamala Harris with an image of a watermelon (what the hell is going on in Michigan?)...
...and David Doel discusses Neera Tanden, who the incoming Biden Administration intends to name apparently for the position of head of the Office of Management and Budget...I’ve heard some other criticisms of Tanden which are just stoo-pid, but Doel “brings the receipts” here on what Tanden has said about cutting entitlements...that brief segment of her talking on C-SPAN I believe was incredibly revealing, and not in a good way at all, basically acting like “well, OF COURSE we have to look at cutting Medicare and Social Security”...actually, no, we don’t; we need to look at removing the ceiling on earnings subject to SS withholding to make it completely sustainable...I’ve seen some comments along the lines of “well, if you criticize Tanden, it’s because you’re a chauvinist,” which is the wrong reaction too...I’m tempted to reserve judgement on Tanden for now, but the bottom line is that, if Biden does anything to cut Medicare and Social Security, especially in the middle of this pandemic along with the ensuing economic crisis, he most definitely will be a one-term president, which would truly be a shame...
I’ll be honest – I’ve been kind of pissed at Kyle Kulinski, particularly because he said he didn’t vote for Biden in the election (I realize it’s his right to do that, but I think you forfeit the right to complain about Our Orange Pustule if you do), but I think he’s right here in his analysis of Charles Koch...and let’s have no illusions about just how much of a monster this guy truly is, OK (Koch I mean)? I’m sick of our media treating old, rich white guys like him and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao as some kind of eminences, when in reality they should be imprisoned in stockades in the town square so people can pelt them with random objects and give them the treatment they deserve (I think "American Ayatollah" says it)...
...and this is a pretty wonky discussion between Sam, Nomiki Konst and Emma Vigeland about AOC’s message to the Democrats (e.g., better voter canvassing/targeting, better messaging, etc.), but I think it’s also pretty important...as far as I’m concerned, regardless of what happens in Georgia in 2021, bring in Stacey Abrams to run the DNC and let her do what needs to be done...I agree with Sam that the DNC is pretty damn “sclerotic,” for lack of a better way to put it, and they need to be better all the way around (e.g., all politics are local, ultimately, and messaging on issues needs to reflect that), and that includes an overall better online media presence...no excuse whatsoever for falling down on that one...
...and concerning one of the upcoming Georgia special U.S. Senate elections, here is your reminder that “nobody likes Kelly,” as in Loeffler (to help her opponent Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossiff running against David Perdue in the other U.S. Senate election, click here)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 12/1/08...before Perdue and Loeffler, Repug Saxby Chambliss was elected to the U.S. Senate (this video tells us about a portrait of Chambliss that was unveiled in the Capitol, which apparently isn't that unusual, but as far as I and others are concerned, it does reek of entitlement a bit given all the $$ Chambliss took from agribusinesses - more here)...
...and here are some more seasonal selections...
...and I know we can't have any scenes like this because of social distancing, shelter in place, etc., but I firmly believe we will see these days again - have to trod a hard road to get there the way things are, though, unfortunately.
Farron Cousins tells us how Generalissimo Trump is trying to depress turnout in the upcoming Georgia special U.S. Senate elections (that is, according to GOP maven Frank Luntz anyway – to help Jon Ossoff running against David Perdue, click here, and to help Rev. Raphael Warnock running against Kelly Loeffler, click here)...
...and this AM Joy segment features medical professionals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic – I don’t know how many more times people have to be told to shelter in place, social distance and wear damn masks, though I realize a lot of folks can’t social distance unfortunately, but if you can, you damn well should...
......and it makes me mad when Chuck Schumer in the U.S. Senate gets a pass, but if absolutely infuriates me when Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is given the same treatment, for the reasons Robert Reich explains...
Update: Continuing to gnash my teeth as I read this...
...and this “Now This” Clip tells us about the departing “Trumpster fire” of an alleged presidential administration ...and let’s not forget Wilbur Ross (let's wake him up first), who told NOAA to redraw a weather map (i.e., “Sharpie-gate” and the hurricane that was alleged to hit the Gulf Coast), as well as Alex Azar (fighting the transfer of power to the incoming Biden/Harris Administration for as long as possible, as noted here), along with Trump solicitor Daniel Jorjani and Interior Secretary (the latest one) David Bernhardt for this...
