Monday Stuff

I admit that I wasn’t planning to say anything about Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican senator and one-time Republican presidential candidate, who just died (here). I was going to hold off because I thought I didn’t have anything original to say (and I suppose you could argue that I still don’t, but I’m going to try anyway).

For starters, he is to be praised for his courageous WWII sacrifice that resulted in the effective loss of his right hand; as a result of that, he created the Dole Foundation in 1983 to help provide for and support programs for those with disabilities, and the foundation played a large role in securing passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (both noted here). So Dole is to be commended for all of that. And it also took guts for Dole to become the pitch man for Viagra; I don’t care how much money he made off that – those ads helped reduce the stigma of a condition that can be pretty debilitating.

However, I don’t want to sit idly by while more accounts pour out of our corporate media about Dole that only tell one side of the story (after the nothing-but-fawning tributes to The Sainted Ronnie R in 2004, I swore I would do all I could not to let that happen again).

As noted here, Dole also ran interference for The Koch Brothers (with Koch Industries based in Kansas) as they took control of the Republican Party, with Chuck and Davey The Late giving Dole nearly a quarter mil from 1979 to 1994. And for that dough, Dole helped to derail a 1990 investigation into $31 million of oil from Native Americans that the Koch Brothers basically stole (here). This had a lot to do with Dole earning a 19 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters (here). Oh, and for the record, Dole declared himself to be a Trumper as recently as last July, and encouraged President Manchin not to abolish the filibuster (noted in the USA Today story linked above).

(Also – and unfortunately I can’t track down the video – I distinctly recall that once, when Dole was campaigning as the Republican candidate for president in 1996 with VP candiate Jack Kemp...heralded as supposedly some great policy wonk on the right, when in reality he was just another heartless GOP shill (referring to Kemp)...a band played “Hail to the Chief” during Dole's introduction, which is typically disgusting hubris for Not Your Father’s Republican Party.)

So yes, pay tribute to Dole for the good things he did. But tell his story straight, warts and all (also from here). And there were a few of them too.

Update 12/8/21: And when it comes to those who have departed (and telling the whole truth), I guess we should mention the subject of this post also.

Update 12/10/21: Indeed.

Now to the other stuff...Rachel Maddow tells us about Ruby Freeman and her daughter who ended up suing and moving because of terroristic threats emanating from the Gropenfuhrer and his minions (see, she and her daughter were Fulton County, Georgia poll workers, and #45 wanted those 11 thousand or so votes, so we know what happened next...more here)...



Update 12/11/21: This takes this story to a whole other new, disgusting and insulting level.

...and in the latest Second Thought video, we learn more about the illusion of upward mobility in the U.S. (and yes, he’s right about neoliberalism, and how the entire “Third Way” version of the Democratic Party championed by Bill Clinton among others helped to create a divide that the party is still trying to overcome to this day, but I want to say something in defense of our 42nd president...yes, in hindsight, it was wrong to suck up to campaign donors the way he did, but our party had been out of the White House for 12 years, which was a LOOONG freaking time and definitely long enough for Not-Your-Father’s-Republican-Party to cement its utterly ruinous marriage with Koch Brothers libertarianism, as alluded to above in the Robert Dole note...by regaining the White House in ’92 and in successive years, Clinton and Al Gore managed to do a lot of good, and I don’t want to imagine what this country would be like after 20 straight years of Republican presidents)...



...and Jayar, Cenk and Rayy Vana of TYT discuss huckster preacher Joel Osteen’s story about a sudden windfall of sorts (stuffing the cash and checks in the wall like this reminds me of Ray Liotta in “Goodfellas,” only it’s $$$ in the wall instead of drugs...maybe it was Osteen’s “rainy day fund”? And “allegedly” of course)...



...and David Doel speaks with Alex Kotch about this typical idiocy around Bari Weiss and the “University of Austin,” which sounds like another glibertarian front of an alleged institute of higher learning to manufacture consent for the benefit of the ”one percent”...and I DEFINITELY want to learn more about the "opt out" app...



...and here are more seasonal selections.