To begin the new year, I remind us all of how Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao killed paid sick leave in the updated COVID relief bill that just passed (the $600 one, not the $2K one which he also shot down of course)...
...and I wonder if Kelly Loeffler ever participated in a drinking game where any time somebody said “radical liberal,” they had to do a shot – in her case, it wouldn’t surprise me (to help Raphael Warnock running against her, as well as Jon Ossoff running against David Perdue, click here...and about Perdue, why do I have a feeling that this excuse is just a little too con-vee-nient, though I certainly don't wish ill on him of course?)...
Update: And just when you thought you didn't have ENOUGH reasons to despise Perdue (here - this too)...
...and speaking of COVID, Chip Franklin of Really American tells us more about the botched rollout (and the cretin responsible for this should go to prison for about 20 years)...
...and based on this item, apparently this song is actually true (along with a regional weather forecast :-).
To close this year, Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland tell us about the Trumpian rush to kill as many people as possible on his way out the door...and yes, he really will be done in about 20 days, wingnut screeching notwithstanding...I didn’t know about that Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett anecdote about capital punishment, but though it’s completely sickening of course, it also doesn’t surprise me in the least...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about a video that included Mango Mussolini along with a superimposed pic of what allegedly was the medallion of the Nobel Peace Prize (and for the cherry on the icing on this sh*t sundae, he even used the wrong medal picture, as noted here)...
...and Ali Velshi, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, tells us about the immunization campaign in 1947 to make sure New York City was vaccinated against a smallpox outbreak, which could have easily killed millions (to say it’s a cautionary lesson for now is a huge understatement, particularly in light of this...and Harry Truman didn't rail against the virus for coming from Mexico. or at least I can't find a record of that, as opposed to what Combover Caligula surely would have said)...
...and nice work here by Jon Ossoff to take advantage of the opportunity from the Fix Noise reporter to call out Kelly Loeffler (to help Ossoff running against David Perdue, as well as Raphael Warnock running against Loeffler, click here)...
..and I should probably include these “TCM Remembers” segments every New Years’ Eve, but to tell you the truth, I kind of get caught up in other stuff and I forget sometimes – my bad (didn't know about Gene Reynolds)...
...and as is usually my custom at this time, I go “meta,” if you will, and thank anyone who has spent any time at this site over the prior year, especially THIS year. I said this time a year ago that 2020 could be the most consequential year of our lives; I said that thinking of the Democratic presidential primary between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, and I was considering absolutely nothing else. I had no idea how unintentionally correct I would be.
The way 2020 started out, it looked like this site would end up being pretty much shut down. I didn’t anticipate any way at all to keep it running given my for-profit employment commitments. Well, through what I guess you could call dumb luck, I was able to keep it going up to now. However, I seriously do not expect that that will be the case next year. I’m quite sure at a certain point that I’ll be cutting back on these posts substantially. I don’t see walking away from doing this entirely, but that’s a possibility also.
When I started doing this in 2005 (egad!), my intention was to bridge the ideological gap between left and right as best as I could. That wasn’t easy with all of the Dubya-Bushco triumphalism that was reigning, though that façade was starting to crack big time. Over the course of these 15 or so years, however, that gap has turned into a chasm. The right-wing construct of media unreality (which is also self-sustaining economically, sadly) has poisoned the decision-making ability of the vast majority of (but not all) Republicans, to the point where they CONTINUALLY advocate for policies that are exactly contrary to their best interests, all in the name of “owning the libs.” This goes for far too many independent voters also (and the majority of those people I encounter are merely Republicans in disguise for whom Donald Trump is the proverbial “bridge too far,” though they’re onboard with every other wretched idea and policy from the right of the political spectrum).
And don’t think for a minute that I’m giving our side a pass here either. I recently included that very NSFW/H clip from Destiny about Kyle Kulinski almost comically misrepresenting Amy Klobuchar on the whole dance about badly needed COVID-19-related economic relief for people, state governments and small businesses. Also in that vein, Cenk and Ana of TYT yelled about how Nancy Pelosi conducted the negotiations, blaming her for not taking the $1.8 trillion package that was supposedly on the table (it really wasn’t), and also not seeing (as Destiny did) that the $2K payment proposal was actually a “Trojan horse” with hidden spending cuts that likely would have been disastrous. So yeah, there have been times when I’ve been pretty fed up with our camp on certain issues too. Also, I realize people are more likely to watch videos having to do with a certain president about to depart 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (even if he’s carted out in a straight jacket) than policy that I actually care about (and stuff like this), and that, for better or worse, has informed my video selections also (don’t think for a minute, though, that I’m implying an equivalency on this stuff between our side and theirs – each side has issues, but they’re markedly different). And by the way, don’t get me started on Jimmy freaking Dore!
So yeah, feeling like I’m a referee all the time with this stuff is beyond exhausting, and I’m really not sure how much I’m “moving the needle” when it comes to enlightening or informing anybody. I’ll be pondering all of this as we go forward into the New Year. With all of that said, I just want to wish all good things for everybody in 2021.
Finally, my year-end tune (as is my custom) has almost always been “People Have The Power” by Patti Smith. I’d like to deviate from that at this time and include this John Prine tune, as a tribute to everyone who (like Prine) lost his battle with COVID-19 this year – once more, my hope is that we’re all in a better place with this scourge and living life as we know it once more before too much longer.
So it looks like Kelly Loeffler found a way to profit by gouging Georgians on their heating bills by millions of dollars; this woman is pure as the driven slush, as someone notable once said (to help Raphael Warnock running against her, as well as Jon Ossoff versus the possibly-even-more-crooked David Perdue, click here)...
...and this Now This clip tells us about “tax the rich” millionaire Stephen Prince, who quite astutely reminds us that we already have “socialism,” but for the rich (and Loeffler and Perdue are very much part of the “pay no price, bear no burden” investor class)...
...and Cenk and Ana give us more of the inside story, as it were, on the “poison pills” that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is trying to insert into the $2K COVID relief legislation to try and get his fellow Repugs, including Perdue and Loeffler, off the hook...
...and in keeping with this, I give you this clip (this meat sack from Kentucky is truly a death eater, people)...
...and John and Jayar tell us about Generalissimo Trump’s whining over “signature verification” in Georgia over last month’s election results; waaay past the point where this has all been settled of course – I still say all of this whining, including the hissy fit over Dominion, is to give cover for ES&S, who are the real culprits as far as I’m concerned when it comes to fraudulent elections (in particular, in Kentucky, Maine and South Carolina...and the company’s HQ is on “John Galt Blvd.” in Omaha, Nebraska...truly, you can’t make up this stuff)...
...and I know we’re going to be dealing with COVID-related misery for a good while yet, and here is still more – RIP Dawn Wells of Gilligan’s Island...
...and I thought this was a catchy little number - probably the last new tune of the year.
This MSNBC video tells us about the U.S. House passing an extra $2,000 in COVID-19-related economic relief, which of course was blocked in the Senate by Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao (here)... I’d love to believe that this is the “death knell for austerity,” but I’m definitely not getting my hopes up too high on that...even though he can be a good reporter, I’ve read plenty of other pieces in the New York Times where Peter Baker is an utter tool, but I think this is a pretty accurate analysis here...
...and what indeed will history say about "Grim Reaper" McConnell...
...and the only way this will change, people, is to vote out Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the upcoming Georgia special U.S. Senate elections (to help Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, click here)...
...and this “Now This” clip tells us about notable people who left us over 2020 (and I thought this was an appropriate, though tragic, epitaph, particularly the last paragraph)...
...and in the “In Memoriam” department for the year, I’m also pretty sure I didn’t have anything to say about Robert Conrad, star of TV’s “The Wild, Wild West” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”; I recently heard an interesting story on Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Sirius XM about how Michael Garrison, who created the show, once purchased the rights to Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel by Sir Ian Fleming, but sold the rights to attorney and film producer Charles Feldman in 1960 – Garrison, however, was so inspired by Bond that he sought to recreate that oeuvre, if you will, in the TV series set in the U.S. after the Civil War...
...also in the milestone department, I was so preoccupied with the 80th birthdays of Ringo Starr and John Lennon that I neglected to point out that this year marked the 50th anniversary of “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison, which to me is far and away the best of all of the solo Beatle efforts – here is a tune for the occasion (and in somewhat of a related story, I’m not sure what else can be mined from the story of The Fab Four, but I should probably approach this new Peter Jackson flick with an open mind...here).
Kyle Kulinski tells us about wingnut pastor Robert Henderson praying for Trump to be "resent"...45 is "old Republican white man Kryptonite" - good one (and I can't begin to tell you how offensive this pic is to me as a Roman Catholic, by the way...I think Bob Cesca on Twitter found this at one of the right wing nether swamps)...
...and the prior clip shows a good moment with Kyle, but this from Destiny (somewhat of a kindred spirit with Vaush, who I’ve had here a couple of times) highlights a pretty bad one, in which Kyle ridiculously clips a quote from Dem U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar...not her biggest fan, but fair is fair (Destiny makes excellent points – I should warn you at the outset, though, that this may be the most incredibly NSFW/H clip I’ve ever included)...
...and I don’t know anything about this Chip Franklin guy, but this clip isn’t bad and makes a good point about the COVID vaccine that, thank God, is getting rolled out (very slightly NSFW/H I think)...
...and John and Francesca tell us about Texas (where else?) paying students in food and supplies when they earn bonus points for “good deeds” (yeah, after about a second or two, you realize what an utter crock this is)...
...and Jon Ossoff continues to “fight the good fight” for Georgia; to help Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, click here...
