Friday Stuff

This Now This video brings us President Joe Biden signing executive orders to make the ACA and Medicaid more accessible and more affordable – basically undoing the garbage wrought by the Gropenfuhrer, particularly concerning women’s health care...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about federal judges retiring now that Biden is in office (and boy, is Cousins ever right about term limits for judges)...



...and Kyle gives us the distressing news about global job losses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, paling in comparison to The Great Recession (ugh)...



...and when it comes to the economy and the stock market, John and Dan Evans give us more on all the recent stuff with Gamestop and Reddit (I heard some of these people were trying to do the same thing with Regal Cinemas lately – and personally, I don’t think an organization that tries to make a buck over trying to forecast economic failure deserves a dime of help if it goes under, though this isn’t surprising I guess)...



...and consider this clip as a tribute to Cloris Leachman; if she wasn’t the funniest character actress of all time, then she was easily in the top three (and RIP Cicely Tyson also)...



...and yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster...as much as we should honor the memory of our brave astronauts who perished, we should never forget the role of Morton Thiokol as well as the sheer idiocy of forcing the Challenger to launch in freezing Florida weather, all so The Sainted Ronnie R could mention the voyage in his State of the Union address (here)...here is something I’d like to offer as remembrance (HD images captured by NASA).

Wednesday Stuff

John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us that it turns out that, gee, Tom Cotton wasn’t really an Army Ranger after all (though he did serve to be fair...I was prepared to kind of go “yeah, well, more Republican lies – must be a day of the week with a Y,” until Cotton’s spokesperson came up with that MASSIVE TOOL answer in response to the Salon reporter’s question at about 6:24)...



...and speaking of military matters, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 1/27/08, with Laurie Dyer of North Carolina protesting the Iraq war – just a reminder that, with the myriad other messes the Biden administration needs to clean up from the prior ruling regime, we need to look at our military engagements across the globe also...



...and mentioning Tom Cotton opens the door for Repug wingnuttery as far as I’m concerned, and that leads into Anderson Cooper and Andrew Kaczynski discussing U.S. House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia (uh, yeah...so blame somebody else for what’s on your own Facebook page even though that basically ties into your own public statements – uh huh...and this is pretty vile too)...



Update 1/28/21: She just keeps digging that hole, doesn't she?

Update 1/29/21: God, what a reprehensible woman (here and here).

...and I think the Greene clip leads into this from Farron Cousins, telling us that crazed Trump supporters – are there any other kind? – are threatening House and Senate lawmakers over impeachment...and I definitely get Cousins’ argument about getting help to people who need it, and I’m not opposed to that in principle, but I’m sorry – with all due respect, I’m not in favor of paying ONE DIME on behalf of “deprogramming” anybody who supports our recently departed POTUS...they made A CHOICE to be part of the great unwashed in support of the Gropenfuhrer, and they should be forced to live with that...



...and Thom H. tells us that the WaPo is somehow trying to find what amounts to a “silver lining” based on what happened on 1/6 (good move to invoke Giuliani’s “broken windows” policy...and yeah, I can't wait for our corporate media to try and "both sides" this, though I'm sure they'll try anyway)...



...and in this very NSFW/H clip, Vaush tells us that the Biden Administration is telling the DOJ they can’t use private prisons any more, which definitely constitutes progress as far as yours truly is concerned (doesn’t affect ICE as stated, but it’s a good start)...



...and David Doel tells us that Dana Bash (returning to CNN) tried to bash Bernie Sanders over budget reconciliation, which Bernie wants to use for a variety of reasons to help actual people as opposed to deep-pocketed campaign donors (and I’ve stayed away from the whole “Bernie and his mittens” memes since they’re covered so well everywhere else, though this is praiseworthy and definitely in character)...



...and if there was ever such a thing as an all-purpose title to a song, I think this would be it.

Monday Stuff

Mika B. of “Morning Joe” speaks with historian Jon Meacham about Not Your Father’s Republican Party trying to create all kinds of new voting restrictions across the country (because, as a certain now-deposed 45th *president once put it...)...



...and Ali Velshi reminds us of the lies from Our Treasonous Former Chief Executive that led us to the 1/6 insurrection (and no, I don't much like pizza with pineapple either)...



...and when it comes to Trump-loving Repugs, it looks like PA’s own Scott Perry had his hands in the whole sedition mess (here) – what follows is a campaign ad he ran against his recent opponent Eugene DePasquale that, not surprisingly, was full of wall-to-wall lies...



...and this “Rational National” clip tells us how the even-more-right-wing Trump-loving media fluffers at Newsmax, in their effort to manfacuture scandals against the incoming administration, are critiquing the Oval Office décor of our 46th president (uuuhh, suuurre – and when it comes to media idiocy in this regard from an outlet that definitely should know better, I give you this)...



...and John I. and Brett Erlich tell us how Marjorie Taylor Greene said the Parkland shooting was a “false flag”; what a vile person this woman truly is (“This is a really depressing time to be a Republican” indeed, though all of their damage is self-inflicted)...



...and happy birthday to drummer Malcolm Green of the ‘80s band Split Enz (with the Finn Brothers).

Sunday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen shows Ted Cruz trying to corner Transportation Secretary Nominee Pete Buttigieg over the Biden’s Administration’s decision to abandon the Keystone XL Pipeline (and when it comes to Cruz’s claim about Biden allegedly killing Keystone XL jobs, I give you this...to be fair, I know Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was pissed about it, but I also know he and Biden talked about it, for what it’s worth...and by the way, I know the pic is a little edgy, but Cruz and the even-more-odious Josh Hawley deserve that level of ridicule and more for their role in the insurrection of 1/6/21 to try and keep the Gropenfuhrer in power)...



...and speaking of the recently-departed regime, this Lincoln Project video gives us “The Trump Administration By the Numbers” (to be honest, though, the COVID fatalities should have been first on the list – and thankfully, the last number is really about -5 or so at this point)...



...and I shouldn’t be giving Bill Maher the time of day, but I have to admit that this was a funny segment, though those he quite rightly ridicules here will no doubt wear such shaming as a badge of honor, as will their equally crazed supporters (NSFW/H)...



...and John and Cenk of The Damage Repoirt tells us about the “Fourth estate” and their hangup over Biden’s Peloton exercise bike (seriously?) – GREAT commentary by John on the “lather, rinse, repeat” news cycle of what he rightfully calls the “media/political/industrial” complex (more or less) that eventually leads us back, more often than not, to another Repug presidency which blows up our economy all over again...



...and like a lot of other people I realize, I was sorry to hear about the passing of talk TV/radio legend Larry King, but I really didn’t have any particular “take” on it until I read comments from other media people who actually knew him. The common thread, if you will, of what they said about King was that he was a pro when it came to letting his guests tell their stories (of course, with his questions to direct them) with King taking sort of a secondary role in the encounter, as opposed to saying or doing something to try and make headlines himself. And when I thought some more about it, I realized just how many stories or events he covered, and it was a ton... I KNOW I watched him on CNN during the infamous “low speed chase” with O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings, for example, and I definitely respect people in media who get put into positions like that where they have to fill up air time with a story in progress, if you will, and think on their feet (or seats) and coordinate all over the place while live coverage is going on (another legendary example from this area is the TV coverage of Larry Kane and Harvey Clark during the MOVE bombing in May 1985).

This clip includes excerpts from King’s remembrance on the death of Frank Sinatra in ’98 with Don Rickles, Steve Lawrence, Vic Damone and Quincy Jones – another example of the rich entertainment legacy King left for us (Maher was one of many who communicated rather touching tributes to King...and again, I wouldn’t wish a COVID death on anybody)...



...and happy 80th birthday to the one and only Neil Diamond.