Friday Stuff (updates)

Hey, The Dark Knight gets it right; we should too...



Update 1/1/22: At a certain point, there are just no more damn words (here, and here...and here).

...and speaking of movies, I thought I'd add this "TCM Remembers" clip for the prior year...



...and returning to more standard fare for this site, Chris Hayes tells us how our corporate media is feeding into the “true crime” narrative, especially in the wingnutosphere (it’s almost funny to watch the preposterous lies of Bill Hemmer about “defund the police” in “Democrat-run cities,” who of course collects a paycheck for The Roger Ailes BS Factory...and yeah, the “new king of late night,” as Bill Maher calls Gutfeld, whiffs again when it comes to commenting on verifiable truth and reality...with Amanda Mull, Donna Edwards and Tim Miller...once again, the task falls upon people with an ounce of common sense to unpackage right wing BS and try to communicate what is really going on...not sure why the video was edited to not include Edwards)...



...and this Rebel HQ clip tells us about a 14-year-old girl who was accidentally killed by cops in an LA mall while shopping with her mom (and gee, I wonder if right-wing hysteria revved up people to be extra scared? Do you even need to ask...with David Shuster...and by the way, as awful as it is that the girl was killed, I’ll wait for a further review before I decide to pass judgment on the cops; I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they thought the perp was armed, and if they’d waited to find that out, they might be dead by now)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us that 2021 was, in essence, the “year of the worker”...



...and as is my custom, I want to take this opportunity to thank anyone and everyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this site over the prior year.

To say I am greatly concerned as we close out 2021 is an understatement, as I’m sure you are also. Our side continues to try and preserve this country as best we can (posting on social media, speaking out, organizing, doing all manner of related stuff including contributing financially to Democratic organizations as our means allows) while the other side in the political spectrum becomes more and more engulfed by utter madness. This isn’t helped by a national Democratic political party that continues to deliver half to three-quarters of a loaf at best, you might say (and yes, I know President Manchin and Vice President Sinema have a lot to do with that). And this also isn’t helped by our corporate media which continues to give cover, for the most part, to those seeking to overthrow our democracy, as well as way too damn many people in this country who don’t see the threat as it readies itself to try and barge down the metaphorical door once again, having failed on 1/6 and learning what went wrong as they get ready to make another attempt to seize power by force.

And oh yeah, Democrats, PLEASE DO A BETTER JOB ON MESSAGING AND USING SOCIAL MEDIA THAN YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW! (Update 1/1/22: Credit where it's due here) The DNC should be cranking out videos all over the place at year-end like this showing the benefits of passing COVID relief and the infrastructure bill (as well as the John Lewis voting bill in the House) in an effort to try and seize the narrative away from the “party of Lincoln,” who of course are going to try and gin up outrage over alleged “big spending, failed policies” (I’ve been looking for this stuff and so far I can’t find it). And yeah, the Dems will have no choice but to keep up this message about why CRT is a total non-issue, as well as sticking to their guns on COVID masking and vaccination. GO ON THE ATTACK FOR A DAMN CHANGE, OK??!! (Update 1/1/22: More food for thought on this is here, here, and here.)

Well, with all of that out of the way (and with the More Perfect Union clip very much in mind), I present this tune also to commemorate the 75th birthday of Patti Smith...here’s for all good things in 2022.

Update: And because 2021 wasn't done messing with us - ugh (more here and here).

Thursday Stuff

Thom Hartmann wonders what will happen when the treasonous lunatics behind the 1/6 insurrection decide to try again (and yeah, there sure is a common thread among these crazies, and you’ll never guess what it is)...



...and since it’s a day of the week with a “y” in it, it’s time to talk about another mass shooting...and another one in Colorado...and another one involving a right-wing lunatic making common cause with the traitors noted in the prior clip...and while I have issues with Joe Rogan, I hold him to a lower standard than I do The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, employed with what purports to be a “news” network (Cenk tells us about it...more here)...



...and I’ll admit that It takes a lot for me to be PO’ed with the Biden Administration, but I think they F’d up on the CDC’s decision to shorten COVID quarantine time after the airline industry started complaining about “personnel shortages” and “workforce disruptions”...that decision affects all manner of service employees, including nurses, and I think that group in particular should, at a minimum, have the flexibility to decide for themselves how long they should be out if they’re exposed to the virus since they’re front-line health care workers...



...and Farron Cousins pretty much takes apart Lauren Boebert, who admits that she doesn’t know what government really does...big surprise, I know...



...and I need a minute or two to set up this next clip (inspired by this recent Daily Kos post).

It’s something pretty much accepted in our beloved commonwealth of PA that the type of education your kids will receive is based on the zip code where you live. No, I most certainly do not think that is fair, and we need to come up with a more equitable funding solution. And yes, if that involved a few more dollars every year in state taxes to fund early childhood education in poorer areas of the state, I’m for that, partly because it’s better to invest in kids early on as opposed to not doing that and having them end up in our corrections system later (in addition to making financial sense, it’s also morally the right thing to do IMO).

Well, there is currently a lawsuit pending over this issue. And the Daily Kos post noted above discusses it, and gives us the following excerpt:

During Week 4 of the proceedings in the William Penn School District, et al v. Pennsylvania Department of Education lawsuit...Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, argued that Dr. (Steven) Barnett’s point (that preschool programs can benefit students long after they’ve entered kindergarten, especially those living in poverty) makes it clear that Pennsylvania shouldn’t even bother with preschools to begin with if students are destined to fail due to lack of resources.

“What use would someone on the McDonald’s career track have for Algebra 1,” (attorney for Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman) John Krill argued during week four proceedings. He then went even further in his musings: “The question in my mind is, thorough and efficient (school funding) to what end? To serve the needs of the Commonwealth. Lest we forget, the Commonwealth has many needs,” Krill said. “There’s a need for retail workers, for people who know how to flip a pizza crust.”

Hey asshole, guess what? I worked at McDonald’s for two years and was graduated from Temple University about 40 years ago (not that I’m “all that,” because I definitely am not).

Not all of us are lucky enough to be born Republican. And if that isn’t a joke, I don’t know what is.

With all of the ridiculous antics going on at school board meetings about kids allegedly being taught critical race theory – which isn’t an actual thing – the focus instead, at least in PA, should be on the school funding inequities studied in this clip; it’s from May 2020, but it pretty much captures our ridiculous status quo on this issue...



Update 1/4/22: And just to show you that Dems can be assclowns also on issues like this, I give you the following here.

...and RIP Les Emmerson of the group Five Man Electrical Band (another COVID casualty); what follows is their signature hit.

Wednesday Stuff

I thought this was a pretty good clip with Ayman Mohyeldin (sitting in for Rachel Maddow) and Jon Ralston on former Dem Senate Leader Harry Reid, who passed away yesterday, though I think they overdid it a bit on the “Harry Reid blew up the filibuster” thing...maybe they could have presented evidence that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao filibustered EVERYTHING, and that’s why Reid made that move, which McConnell and Mango Mussolini exploited of course to get a whole bunch of wingnut judges confirmed – more on Reid including that great Jack Gordon story is here...



Update 1: Yes, Reid was a hardass, but he was also capable of the kindness remembered here.

Update 2: Here is another tribute (here, here and here also).

...and Cenk (looking much younger) gives us an example of Reid fighting back against Republicans being typically disingenuous in 2010 on criticizing Obama and the Senate Dems for trying to pass health care reform through reconciliation...



...and returning to someone who is a much lesser light, if you will, when it comes to the legislative branch of our federal government, David Pakman tells us about Madison (“Cry More, Lib”) Cawthorn and that whole sketchy story of how Cawthorn met his now-ex-wife, which, apparently, reeks of some kind of Russian “kompromat” scheme – yeah, I don’t know of any “cause and effect” issues here, but at a minimum, Cawthorn should have a briefing with intelligence operatives over this...



...and this Damage Report segment tells us about 2 cops in Mobile, AL (of course) showing off their “homeless quilt”...nice Christmas spirit, you two assholes (the statement condemning their actions from the police department is OK I guess, but yeah, are these two going to be disciplined somehow? Probably not)...

...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, this Now This clip tells us about librarians fighting back against book bans, and of course the epicenter for this appears to be Texas, though attacking librarians like this is happening all over the country apparently – just about no words for this at this point...



...and RIP Wanda Young of The Marvelettes, with her signature tune.

Monday Stuff

Farron Cousins discusses how the allies of The Gropenfuhrer are suing the 1/6 commission to keep records from being revealed, and of course they’ll cause more ridiculous delays in an effort to “run out the clock,” as Cousins says (and good point made here about Merrick Garland and the DOJ not baring their fangs, if you will)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Amazon workers walking out in multiple warehouses before the holiday...and yes, this is another case of “no traffic cop” as Cenk says (and 6 people dying at the Bessemer, AL warehouse? Ugh...and apparently Apple workers have walked also as noted here)...



...and this Second Thought clip tells us how “feel good” stories let a broken system off the hook, including the bit about the manager at Modell Sporting Goods – good for her, but yeah, the company made over a quarter of a million dollars, so please forgive me if I don’t think Modell is suddenly so noble and humanitarian for doing what they should have done anyway, which is to compensate their people properly (I don’t know if this is the best video he’s ever done, but it may be the most important)...



...and this BBC report tells us about the food/humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan...funny in the Kubrickian (word?) sense that we’re not hearing a peep out of the “OMIGOD BIDEN IS SO AWFUL TO END OUR FOREVER WAR!” crowd now over starving children and families seeking shelter and basic life necessities we take for granted, since the story doesn’t involve a military response on our part (to help, click here)...



...and RIP Archbishop Desmond Tutu – yes, he stood tall against Apartheid in South Africa, but he also took up the mantle for other oppressed people including the Palestinians, let’s not forget...



...and since we’re in year-end mode, I should point out that I somehow neglected to mention the passing this year of violinist extraordinaire Robby Steinhardt of Kansas; please allow me the following remembrance.

Sunday Stuff

I'll bet you're saying to yourself, "That POS Charlie Kirk didn't actually compared Kyle Rittenhouse to Jesus, did he?"

Um, actually, he did - no bottom for these life forms...

Charlie Kirk compared Kyle Rittenhouse to wrongly accused Bible characters “including Jesus Christ.” pic.twitter.com/pWwJF9aBxj

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) December 22, 2021

Update: Truth! (and it's "Barabbas")

...and Francesca and Brett of The Damage Report tell us that millions of families are starving for the holidays...yeah, blame President Manchin and Vice President Sinema, but also blame EVERY SINGLE DAMN U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN FOR OPPOSING THE CHILD TAX CREDIT! (And contrary to what the alleged Democrat in the Senate from West Virginia says, the money doesn’t go to drugs, as the video shows..and by the way, MSNBC, Manchin’s claim isn’t “misguided”...IT’S F*CKING WRONG!!!)...



...and Robert Reich tells us that one of the weapons that the “party of Lincoln” manages to use to their advantage, in addition to our lapdog corporate media, is cynicism bred from continual Republican lying and utter cowardice from a few truly infamous Democrats, though of course we have to keep fighting through all of that garbage...



...and this More Perfect Union video tells us what President Biden can do right now to decriminalize pot, which is exactly the type of bold, decisive measure that could encourage younger (and older) voters to show up at the polls next year...also helps that, from a policy perspective, it’s the right damn thing to do anyway (and I also think legalization should be up to the states)...



...and Rachel Maddow gives us a video on Herschel Walker, who apparently is the Repug candidate running against incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, with Walker telling us that “Senator” John Lewis wouldn’t want his name on the voting rights bill, which of course bears his name – the U.S. House version that is...think about the F.U. Trump and McConnell are giving Georgia voters by thinking that this lummox is qualified for public office...



...and I officially bring down the curtain, as it were, with my seasonal selections with this tune (sniff :-).

Merry Christmas 2021

Yes, I know what The Lincoln Project is, but they keep making good videos including this one for the holiday...



...and I now give you the latest installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" (more or less) for the big day from 12/23/10 - no message or somewhat topical clip, but only a pretty cool light show...



...and Merry Christmas and all the best of the season from me, Nat and the gang.

Friday Stuff

(I offer the above item as a seasonal meditation; the message can no doubt be directed at more than a few people in this country as well as the world, actually - more here.)

To being, John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about that clown Greg Gutfeld – who Bill Maher thinks is the new “king of late night”...GMAFB! – going off about AOC and Rashida Tlaib speaking out against student loan debt...and I love how “overeducated” is considered an insult by Gutfeld...John really nails it in about the last minute or so here...



...and Trevor Noah of The Daily Show discusses the “debt colonialism” stuff China is pulling in Africa (and yeah, among all of the other stuff in the news, we need to pay attention to the Belt and Road Initiative, people)...



...and Emma V. and Matt Lech of The Majority Report tell us about Gabriel Boric winning election as Chile’s new president – yes, I know I had that GREAT ad from his last week with John I., but there’s a little more substance to what Boric is trying to do as noted here (the history of our intervention in this country is important, particularly so-called “pension reform” under Pinochet, which people forget because that murderous Chilean lunatic that we installed was so awful for so many other reasons – more here)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us about Kellogg’s workers winning a new contract – I guess you could say that THEY’RE GRRREAT!! (sorry, I couldn’t resist...and I wouldn’t agree with Wosny Lambre that the Dems give you nothing; actually, I think he overdoes it in trashing the Dems here, though Lambre makes a good point about our ridiculous defense budget, and the Dems have definitely fallen short overall of course...and by the way, how about giving a little credit to Biden Labor Secretary Marty Walsh along with Bernie who ALSO joined the Kellogg workers’ picket line? And you can also give Biden credit for this and this)...



...and I'm winding down with the seasonal selections - can't forget these tunes, though.

Thursday Stuff

I thought Beau had a really good take here on what a certain Democratic U.S. Senator from West Virginia has done to our economy by opposing Build Back Better (“negative growth implications” for at least 9 months...”The Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin deleted $200 billion of economic growth”...THESE should be the lead headlines instead of all of the bloviating from people working at the news org’s with initials for names)...



...and David Doel tells us here that the UMWA has come our against Manchin for his BBB opposition...



...and Rachel Maddow discusses Wisconsin’s efforts to get their electors to support Mango Mussolini last year despite the fact that Biden won the state in the election...anybody who forged election paperwork should go to prison for a loooong time (and Repug state rep Kathy Bernier is a hero IMHO – more here)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about a South Carolina Republican city councilman who was attacked by someone in his own party when the councilman said that the Gropenfuhrer actually lost the election last year (the crazy will never stop with some of these life forms unless we find a way to deny them any political power at all, and at the moment, aside from doing all we can to encourage people to support Team “D,” I don’t know how else to do that...and on a somewhat related note, here is a story of a bit of seasonal insanity also...



...and I have a few more seasonal selections left to try and take our minds off this madness for a little while.

Wednesday Stuff

This Democracy Now! clip is a little under five months old, but it tells the story of a certain Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia and his role in basically not doing a damn thing when drug maker Viatris shed a whole bunch of jobs in Morgantown (and yeah, if you want to blame a certain 46th president also named Joe for not doing more, be my guest...just a reminder that Viatris was formed by the merger of Pfizer and Mylan, with the latter being the previous company at the Morgantown plant) ...yeah, I know politicians have limited options, BUT AT LEAST MAKE SOME DAMN NOISE ABOUT IT, PEOPLE! (revealing anecdote about Heather Bresch – I’ve never heard of anybody getting their MBA basically getting taken back – also, an interesting note about how the pharma plant in Tennessee for another company managed to get saved, by an Australian who apparently knows our laws better than our politicians do...and it looks like Gail Manchin, Joe’s wife, is in on the grift too...EVERYTHING about Manchin should be fair game now in light of killing BBB)...



...and Ali Velshi speaks with Juanita Tolliver and Matthew Dowd about the 1/6 Commission taking a long, hard look at the thoroughly odious U.S. House wingnut Scott Perry from our beloved commonwealth of PA (a completely predictable update is here)...



...and it’s time to arrest that POS Jesse Watters for calling for somebody to kill Dr. Fauci – enough of this shit; David Shuster tells us more...I've read people I respect saying that, though they despise Watters, they think he was only speaking metaphorically - uh huh...let me know when AOC takes the stage at a progressive gathering, for example, calls for a "kill shot" against Mehmet ("CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!") Oz, and the wingnuts extend us a courtesy like that, OK?... ...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 12/21/16, with Chris Hayes telling us about Debo Adegbile, who was previously nominated by the Obama Administration to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, but he fell short of U.S. Senate confirmation when he didn’t receive the 7 Democratic votes mentioned in the clip, including one from a certain senator from West Virginia referred to previously; yes, Mumia Abu-Jamal should be worm food as far as I’m concerned, but even he is entitled to a vigorous defense, and my big issue with him are the facts at trial, not what happened during the penalty phase (where Adegbile successfully made his case that the jury was prejudiced against Abu-Jamal)...



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Tuesday Stuff

In case anybody still thinks that the Trumpsters somehow aren’t just the latest version of Republican insanity trying to force their agenda on the vast majority of this country, I give you this video from Farron Cousins telling us that certain alleged “thought leaders” in that party like Reaganite Ed Meese and former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint want U.S. House Reps Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger expelled from the Republican Party, presumably because they haven’t shown the proper degree of fealty to Former Dear Leader Combover Caligula (and apparently, DeMint wrote an article - or had a staffer do it for him - with the headline that "Courage is Contagious," which is hilarious when you remember that DeMint bailed from the U.S. Senate to take a cushy gig at a right-wing think tank)...



...and David Doel tells us more about President Manchin saying he can’t support Build Back Better (announcing this on Fix Noise of course...mildly NSFW/H...and I respected Ilhan Omar anyway, but I REALLY respect her after this, more for the “life support” tweet...and apparently some Dem politicos and Bernie Sanders, God bless him, have made the rounds on MSNBC saying that Manchin and Biden are still talking...God, what an utterly pathetic spectacle!)...



...and I don’t think there could be a better transition to the latest Second Thought video about how political “moderates” really serve the right...the last minute or so of this may be the best part...and I’ll bet $10 that that video from AOC was clipped to totally misrepresent what she actually said...



...and gee, maybe we ought to do something about this climate change thing, huh (John I. tells us the latest grim news from Antarctica)...



...and I've got a few more seasonal selections as we get closer to the big day (depending on what you observe of course).

Monday Stuff

Emma V. and the Majority Report crew tell us that Melania Trump, fresh off decimating the Rose Garden, now allegedly has some new grift – I have to admit that I tried to ramp up as quickly as I could on what an NFT is, but it looks like (as the crew says) another typical Trump bait-and-switch where they’re trying to artificially inflate the value of something and then pull some kind of a “pump and dump” on it (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this Lincoln Project ad reminds us who “the anti-cop caucus” really is (and by the way, Will Bunch, among others, has been doing a great job with recent reporting making it crystal clear that the Trumpsters wanted to goad Antifa into showing up on 1/6 so the insurrectionists could attack them and the Gropenfuhrer could overthrow the election results, declaring his own “Reichstag Fire” moment - there was even a #DontTakeTheBait hashtag circulating among Antifa around 1/6...if these treasonous monsters behind the 1/6 attack get another shot at this, they’ll try it again and actually make it work this time I’m afraid – can’t find a link to Bunch at the moment, but I’ll keep looking)...



...and I honestly wish I wasn’t on the Email distribution list of Repug PA U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, but somehow I ended up on such a list, and his most recent missive was titled “the true costs of the Democrats’ failed policies” featuring a screaming headline proclaiming that inflation is at its highest level in 39 years.

As much as I hate to acknowledge that Toomey is actually right about something, I should point out that that headline has been borne out by recent news stories (about the 39 years I mean). As for who is responsible, the majority of what I read tells me that this is a consequence of a lot of money (likely from not spending so much while we've been doing the COVID "shelter in place" thing that may never end) suddenly in circulation while our supply chain is restarting (more here). Reasonable people (including economists, a group to which I most definitely don’t belong) can disagree as to what to do about this (and inflation is global at this point, by the way), but I’d like to ask this question in response: does Toomey think it would be better had we not even bothered to do ANYTHING to help people displaced economically by the pandemic and let unemployment soar? I’m sure his answer is yes, which is why he can’t be gone from the U.S. Senate soon enough as far as I’m concerned (and actually, as long as we're talking about employment, how about giving Biden a little credit for this?).

All of this gives me an excuse to show this clip once more...



...and when it comes to helping people who need it for real, kudos to Meek Mill for this (I think YouTube censored the swear words)...



...and yeah, I've got more seasonal tunes all right - here they come.







...and does anybody have a bicarbonate of soda?

Sunday Stuff (updates)

So now that it looks like President Manchin (here) and Vice President Sinema are going to kill the rest of the Biden agenda, it looks like “winter is coming,” politically, in terms of the Repugs taking over Congress next year and putting our government on the fast track to authoritarianism (and believe me when I tell you how much I want to be utterly wrong about that...the clip discussed by John, Cenk and Farron Cousins is Bernie pretty much calling out the senators from West Virginia and Arizona...and boy, is Cousins right about Biden and the “bully pulpit”...and yeah, MSNBC is a “safe space” for Dems, but I still thought that was kind of a gratuitous shot at Rachel Maddow by Cenk towards the end)...



Update 1: FINALLY!!

Update 2: Good advice.

Update 12/20/21: Surprised he didn't mention this also when he appeared on Fix Noise to announce that he was torpedoing Biden's agenda.

...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ responds to Goober Gohmert complaining about the alleged mistreatment of the 1/6 insurrectionists (cry me a freaking river, you f*cking traitors!)...



...and here are more seasonal selections to try and take my mind off this garbage.







...and now THE BOSS has sold his catalogue too? Ugh – I know he’s allowed, but still...

Friday Stuff (updates)

David Doel tells us about Elon Musk being named Person of the Year by Time, which, as far as I’m concerned, is yet another reason to never subscribe to that publication again (more here)...



Update: The Kentucky guy mentioned here would be a good candidate also.

Update 12/19/21: So would Eugene Goodman (here).

Update 12/29/21: Rut-row (here, in light of this).

...and this Don Winslow video cuts pretty much to the chase; name ANYBODY in Congress who reached out to Mark Meadows and Uday Trump Jr. during the 1/6 insurrection...

...and as long as we’re mentioning last January’s attempt to overthrow our government, David Pakman wonders why we haven’t heard from Ivanka (or Boy Wonder Jared also actually) in the flurry of text messages revealed earlier in the week and whether or not she should be the subject of congressional inquiry also (she’ll probably just deny everything of course, but I think the investigating committee should “rattle her cage” anyway)...



...and for a complete and total change of pace, I give you this...I’ve had this tune in my head for the last day or so since I saw this, but this is an absolutely bangin’ campaign ad; I don’t have a clue as to this goy’s politics, but this definitely gets my attention for sure...I think the dancing pig with the sombrero was my favorite (John and Abelina Sabrina tell us more)...



Update 12/20/21: AND HE WON!!! (here). And his conservative opponent peacefully conceded, and also didn’t file 60 lawsuits over alleged claims of fraud and try to stage an insurrection.

...and here are more seasonal selections that I think are pretty good, though they don't top the last clip :-).

Thursday Stuff

Yes people, we're actually at 800,000 COVID casualties, and it looks like we're on track for a million by the first quarter of next year...can't think of a word to describe how "through the looking glass" all of this is - most of the fatalities appear to be unvaccinated people in the South (not trying to be snarky – just pointing out facts)......



...and David Doel discusses COVID pretty much tearing through pro-Trump counties as previously noted; witness the handiwork of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, among many others (mildly NSFW/W)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about both red and blue states, apparently, that are using leftover COVID cash for tax cuts...a particularly clear-eyed commentary on the importance of paying our damn taxes...



...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ gives these protesting clowns at the Lincoln Memorial the treatment they deserve here (these life forms who showed up about 10 days ago...or, as Rachel Maddow called them, “menacing middle managers of an electronics store”...way too damn funny)...



...and it's probably fitting that we transition from this to a somewhat humorous seasonal selection as part of today's offerings.

Wednesday Stuff

I know I'm a little behind on this, but Beau tells us about how Repug KY Senator Rand (“Fake Ophthalmologist”) Paul (here) is now in favor of disaster relief after he was against it; I think Beau is right that it’s a fool’s errand to expect a life form like Paul to actually have a conscience one day (yes, we should help the people the commonwealth of Kentucky...we should help ANYONE in our country including territories who needs it)...



...and in this brief clip, Brian Tyler Cohen reminds us of what Paul said four years ago when Texas and Puerto Rico needed taxpayer-funded hurricane relief (easy to pontificate about spending $$ to help others when it’s not in your own backyard)...



...and Cenk and Ana tell us about the San Francisco restaurant not serving the cops who of course were armed...and I believe the restaurant was wrong not to serve the cops (and I give the restaurant credit for realizing that and trying to make things right), but I take issue here with Cenk a bit on police reform...yes, we need it, but as much as I want to bash the Dems for this, the problem is that anything even remotely related to reforming police is COMPLETELY POLITICALLY TOXIC! And is that the fault overall of Dem politicians? No, as far as I’m concerned (not when it comes to this). The problem is the fact that VOTERS ARE SWAYED LIKE UTTER SHEEP BY THE REPUGS ON THIS ISSUE!...



...and this Lincoln Project ad tells us about more ghoulish behavior from Texas Republicans; this time, a hotline for LGBTQ youth that can direct them to a suicide prevention number was shut down by Gov. Greg Abbott...



...and once more, I don't know about you, but I'm definitely in the mood for more seasonal selections after stories like that one.

Tuesday Stuff

Rachel Maddow presents 1/6 Commission vice-chair Liz Cheney discussing text messages received by former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in reference to the insurrection, including those from Hannity, Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade, as well as Donald Trump Jr. – by contrast, I offer this (and once more, Brianna Keilar of CNN’s clip) of the Republican propaganda network downplaying everything that took place, as per usual...



Update: Yeah, this figures, doesn't it?

...and Ana and John of TYT tell us that the Tennessee licensing board of medical examiners revoked a policy that punished doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation from their website due to pressure from a conservative politician named John Ragan (more here - oh, but they “deleted” but did not “rescind” the policy...uh huh – suuuure)...



...and I have to tell you that I was utterly incensed by this story of the teachers in South Dakota who apparently went out to scramble for cash between periods of what looked like a hockey game...not mad at the teachers, I hasten to add, who are doing everything possible for their students I’m sure, but I sure as hell AM MAD at anybody who had anything whatsoever to do with forcing the teachers into a position where they actually had to participate in a degrading stunt like that (Mehdi Hasan, sitting in for Chris Hayes, gives us some important context)...



...and David Doel tells us about the six people who died during the collapse of Amazon’s Illinois warehouse who were forced to work while a tornado touched down near the building...I’m not at all sure that the answer was for the employees to be sheltered in some kind of tornado-proof facility, but they should have been allowed to leave the damn warehouse (I don’t agree with Doel’s drunk-driving example...and I don’t care how many contractors Amazon was using, though FTEs would have been preferable of course; I only mean that the warehouse should have had a disaster contingency plan for ALL workers regardless of whether or not some were contractors)...



...and I now give you more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff

Emma and the Majority Report crew discuss this assclown New Hampshire Repug state rep named Erica Layon who totally screws up the history of slavery and immigrants arriving to this country as part of an emerging industrial workforce (and no, Irish and/or Italian immigrants were not classified as three fifths of a person, as Emma V. says...and JUST ONCE I would like for a reporter, when they hear a Repug politician bloviating about CRT, to say in response “Can you give us an example of CRT being taught in a school that you think is a problem?” because I’ll bet $10 that they won’t be able to do it).

And I just want to add something here that is probably stupendously obvious, but I’ll say it anyway.

As pointed out here, Critical Race Theory is quite literally a particular academic field of study claiming “that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.” One of the examples cited is “redlining” of certain districts for low-density housing to keep out African Americans, keeping them in higher-density areas (where there would be, more often than not, higher rates of crime, less of an availability of social services, etc.).

More simply put, it is something taught at some colleges, but by no means all. And I have found NO EVIDENCE to indicate that it is taught in any K-12 school district in this country.

However, the people screeching about it likely don’t know that. And if somehow they do, they sure as hell don’t want anyone else to know that either. So CRT, as far as they’re concerned, becomes a “grab bag” of grievance issues and talking points that they can spew about any way they want (made up/tailored the way they want), since they’re relying on the fact that most people won’t know what it is that I just noted above.

This requires our media to get a hell of a lot smarter than they’ve shown so far when it comes to interviewing the people screeching about it the loudest. And I for one am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen...



Update 1/26/22: Exactly.

...and I thought this was a good recent commentary from Brianna Keilar of CNN about Fix Noise and their hysterical hissy fit over their damn Christmas tree versus how they SHOULD report on the 1/6 insurrection (more here...and when it comes to The Roger Ailes BS Factory, let's not forget this Jacob DeGraff idiot also as noted here...and with the recent departure of Chris Wallace, who showed flashes of integrity though he "carried water" for the wingnuts more often than not, that channel loses any slight pretense of a network practicing actual journalism)...



...and I read this recent New York Times Op-Ed from former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, which was all full of “oh, you blue state Dems need to come out and talk to WE REAL AMERICANS in the heartland,” and I thought he made some good points particularly when it comes to Dems and messaging (which they ALWAYS have a problem with for some reason), but I also had a reaction very much like the one from Thom Hartmann below (that being said, I’d like to see DNC head Jaime Harrison hop a plane and fly out west to meet with Bullock and make the latter put his money where his mouth is)...



...and as usual, Second Thought gives us a hell of a lot to think about, this time around on wage theft and how workers are exploited as a matter of course in our capitalist economy...



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Sunday Stuff

While reporting the SCOTUS ruling having to do with Texas’s disgusting anti-abortion law, our utterly useless bought-and-paid-for corporate media has been leading with “Oh, it’s a split decision, because it’s allowing people to challenge the Texas law,” even though the SCOTUS allowed the awful law to stand instead of overruling it with the Roe and Casey precedents.

Uh, no. As noted in the Rachel Maddow clip below (and in the dissents of Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Chief Justice John Roberts, of all people), this ruling takes the concept of “nullification” to ever-more-absurd new depths.

However (as Maddow notes), as long as we have this precedent, let’s use it to pass anti-gun laws in blue states, offering “bounties” to have people arrested involved in straw gun purchases or those who may be selling automatic weapons at gun shows (like the Fort Washington, PA gun expo, or whatever that’s called, that happens every year). Also, we can offer “bounties” to have people arrested for protesting at Planned Parenthood sites.

Hey, you created this precedent that tramples all over the Constitution, wingnuts, not us!...



And good move by Gavin Newsom here (i.e., applying the Texas anti-abortion precedent to assault weapons in CA).

...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, David Pakman tells us that COVID cases in the U.S. are spiking, as well as globally, but so far, it’s not tied to the Omicron variant; based on the data that admittedly is incomplete, hospitalizations and severity is tied to Delta...



...and with the prior clip in mind, Medhi Hasan tells us what the world is doing in response to the most recent COVID variants, including Delta and Omicron, and how our response is wanting by comparison (kudos to Hasan for emphasizing that, as a planet, we’re all in this mess together, and as he quite correctly points out, no one is safe until everyone is safe)...



...and RIP Mike Nesmith (here and here)...



...and I thought this was a great tribute by Ben Vaughn (as in, "The Many Moods Of...")...



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Friday Stuff

John Avlon of CNN gives us his opinion on U.S. House wingnut Thomas Massie and his “locked and loaded” family Christmas card (a little “both sides” BS thrown in..."real conservative principles??"...but Avlon is right about the redistricting BS, even more of a reason for the Senate to pass...oh, screw it; I’m TIRED OF REPEATING THIS OVER AND OVER – I FREAKING GIVE UP!!!!)...



Update 12/11/21: Good one.

...and of course, what has an awful lot to do with the Trumpist fealty is the nonstop flow of utterly rank partisan garbage from The Roger Ailes BS Factory, and here is merely the latest instance, where The Swanson TV Dinner Heir speaks with Nigel Farage (with barely any gray matter between them) about COVID and “feminization” (John and Abelina Sabrina break it down...wonder if "Tuck and Nigel" know about this, or if it's what they're talking about?)...



...and speaking of performative garbage, we learn about a speech from wingnut U.S. House Rep (and Bri-Fi best bud) Dan Crenshaw where he appeared to call out MTG, Boebert, Gosar and the treasonous gonzo caucus of his party, but at the end reminded his supporters to “be afraid,” with a great response from Beau (“be the meddling kids in the home of the brave” – great advice...and often, Beau’s attire compliments his message, and he REALLY accomplishes that here)...



...and Kellogg’s is "outta here" (in terms of being represented on our breakfast table or as any other food option) after this (and nice way to treat your workforce just in time for the holidays too – more here)...



Update: It begins, as it should (here).

Update 12/17/21: Progress as noted here, but I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

...and I don't know about you, but after these clips, I REALLY need some seasonal selections, so here they are.