Friday Stuff

Kudos to Dem U.S. House Rep Gerry Connolly for standing up to Repug House looney tunes Gym Jordan and “Democrat Party” Andy Biggs for STILL claiming that there was mail-related fraud from the Dems in last year’s elections (no reason to treat the “party of Lincoln” seriously in any way here)...



...and in a related clip, damn, I wish Stephen Lynch was MY congressman – and yeah, Biggs and Jordan’s same-party pal Jody Hice was on this list too...Brian Tyler Cohen explains how the post office did a great job of delivering electoral ballots IN SPITE OF Postmaster Louis DeJoy, not BECAUSE of him...and it looks like Biden can nominate 3 more commissioners who hopefully will can DeJoy at last (here)...



...and Rachel Maddow reminds us of the bad faith on display by others in the Trump Party in the matter of hearings for Biden’s cabinet nominees (yeah, how dare Interior’s Deb Haaland express concerns about drilling for oil on public lands...horrors!)...



...and it tells you how far the wingnuts have gone off the deep end when Liz Cheney is actually the voice of reason, pointing out that the Repugs attract white supremacists – uh, yep, but as Cousins says, they would basically have to disavow the last 50 or so years of their party’s history to clean up that slate, as it were, including a lot authored by Liz’s dad...



...and as long as we’re on the topic of nonsense by the “GOP,” David Pakman tells us of the recent comments by South Dakota U.S. Senator John Thune about how he was just so happy to earn $7 an hour about 40 or so years ago, and gosh darn it, why can’t those good-for-nothing complainers just suck it up and pull themselves up by their bootstraps or whatever and do the same thing (removing my tongue from my cheek)...



...and Ana and John of TYT tell us that a federal judge has allowed CA to enforce its own Net Neutrality law, which hopefully will be the beginning of other states being able to do the same thing...



...and yeah, I suppose Jimmy Dore is the absolute lowest of the low-hanging fruit, but I also guess that attention must be paid at times (bits and pieces of what he says is correct I know, but if he thinks he’s getting anything but played by the Swanson TV Dinner Heir, he’s the most naïve life form on the planet...as soon as that weaselly grin appeared on Carlson’s mug, I would have called him out and/or thrown off my mic and said, “I’m outta here”...actually, I probably would know not to even be there in the first place...I think Sam is way too kind to Dore here, but I guess that’s his call)...



...and between the Mars rover and this story, NASA has had a pretty good run lately (thanks to them for the pics in this video); nice to highlight some news that’s actually positive (aside from the CA Net Neutrality story also) – made me recall this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

(Apologies to this guy for that...).

I know there have been some issues with The Lincoln Project and the people running it lately, and if you choose to contribute to them, you’re on your own (not saying anything one way or the other on that), but I’m including this video because they’re doing good work yet again...



...and John I. and Aida Rodriguez of The Damage Report tells us about yesterday’s U.S. Senate hearings on the 1/6 insurrection (tied more to the above pic I know, and yes, insurrection really is the correct word for it, despite what Dinesh D'Felon sez here)...the sarcasm from John at the beginning about witnesses is completely called for IMHO...



...and with wingnut media idiocy in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 2/25/13, in which the late but not lamented Flush Limbore said he was, for the first time, “ashamed of this country” (here).

Was it because of the Iraq War? Nope.

Was it because of Hurricane Katrina? Try again.

Was it because of the 2008 “Great Recession.” Still no.

It was because the administration of Former President Obama was warning about cuts from the infamous “sequester” (which, to me, is one of those legitimate news topics that our corporate media avoids like the plague).

In response – yeah, I’ll just leave it at this (David Pakman tells us more)...



...and Chris Hayes takes on the “party of Lincoln” and their various hangers-on (like Uday Trump Jr.) and other ammo-sexuals over their gun fetish, with a little historical perspective...



...and speaking of guns, I should warn you that this short clip is genuinely disturbing, but it’s the sort of thing that makes me absolutely want to scream; I cannot imagine the mental illness of an individual who thinks that preying on a giraffe like this is anything but utterly barbaric...God almighty, is this woman sick (and I’m not sure what it says about her husband that he went along with this, but it certainly doesn’t say anything good)...



...and RIP Lawrence Ferlinghetti, reading “The world is a beautiful place” (which still can definitely be true despite it all)...



...and I guess I need a bit of levity, so here is this Newsmax host complaining that college age women don’t want to date conservatives, presumably men (break out the world’s tiniest violin – Brett Erlich and Ana K. give this “story” the treatment it deserves)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Rusty Young of Poco.

Tuesday Stuff

This Now This video tells us about a joke on SNL’s “Weekend Update” that apparently got some pro-Israel sympathizers upset in the matter of COVID vaccinations, or the lack thereof, distributed to Palestinians; boo-freaking-hoo (and of course Russia and China are jumping into the breach, as it were, while the Israelis – and by extension, us – dither in response)...



...and in this “Damage Report” clip, John and Francesca tell us about @CancunCruz trying to win back brownie points among the people he allegedly represents by loading a case of water into a passenger vehicle...meanwhile, that baaad Marxist Socialist AOC helped to raise $5 million for the “lone star state,” as noted here...



...and speaking of people in dire straits from energy failure in bad winter weather, David Doel gives us this story about the Fred Meyer supermarket in Portland, OR, with the food tossed in the dumpster (hey, anybody screaming about “big gumint”...THIS is the sort of task that can be performed by a properly functioning governmental agency, namely, to act as a go-between for a business and those seeking relief, in this case, proper nutrition...this isn’t a comment on any aspect of state and local government in Oregon since I’m not an expert in those areas)...



...and Chris Hayes speaks with Ari Berman about voting in Georgia – I know I had another Berman video recently, but I’m including this because, among the many good points raised (re, how hurting mail-in voting and early voting will likely hurt Republican voters also, even though officials in states trying to pass this garbage are willing to accept “collateral damage,” as Hayes puts it), Berman also tells us that, though Georgia election officials (namely Brad Raffensperger) criticized the Gropenfuhrer for yelling about alleged fraud in “the peach state,” Georgia is basically trying to play voting tricks that validate what Trump was caterwauling about...



...and I have to admit that I really don’t have a “dog” in the whole fight over Biden nominee Neera Tanden to head OMB (I know there is plenty of principled objection here), but Rachel Maddow points out how utterly ridiculous it is for people to oppose Tanden over some tweets that got people upset while also supporting the thoroughly odious Ric Grennell of the regime of Combover Caligula who was guilty of far worse on that score; if I were Biden and Tanden doesn’t get confirmed, just make her a recess appointment since 45 did that stuff all the time and say F.U. to Manchin and the Senate Republicans...



Update 2/24/21: Gee, this explains a lot, doesn it?

...and you probably won’t be able to read the lyrics to this video, but I still thought it was kind of a cool new tune – just something else for a bit of a change of pace, I guess.

Monday Stuff

By the way, in case somebody thinks that all I ever do here is go after Republicans and their acolytes, I want to start with this TYT video of Ana and Cenk telling us about a PA Republican blocking paid sick leave (Seth Grove, who is on paid sick leave from COVID...truly can’t make this stuff up...and oh yeah, Harrisburg is CONSTANTLY trying to pre-empt laws in Philly or Pittsburgh, whether it’s voting, health care, guns – you name it)...yes, Cenk goes after Grove and the Republicans, as he should, but he also goes after Manchin and Sinema for opposing a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage as well as any Dem who is even a little squishy on this issue...shouldn’t be anything to think about as far as I’m concerned...not sure what else we can do except fight the good fight, and it looks like supporting Nina Turner is a good option too...



...and I was a little hasty in saying that we blew off the “half-a-million-COVID-dead” milestone – Biden held a moment of silence (John and Francesca tell us more – and she’s right about a COVID commission also...the Farron Cousins video on Louis DeJoy yesterday was also incorrect - as much as we want to dispose of that cretin, we really can't at the moment and that includes Biden; I've since removed all mention of it...apologies)...



...and Jonathan Capehart, sitting in for Lawrence O’Donnell, talks with Ari Berman about the latest GA Republican vote suppression efforts, along with related garbage across the country...yep, when you can’t win based on your rotten ideas for governance, try to rig the game (more on the John Lewis VRA is here – Lewis would have been 81 yesterday - moved this from yesterday)...



...and what follows is an excerpt from Merrick Garland’s testimony today at his hearing for Attorney General (at about 4:20, he talks about going after those responsible for 1/6...God, how refreshing to actually hear well-qualified adults in federal government speaking out on the issues that matter)...



...and this Now This clip tells us about the deathbed confession from a man named Raymond Wood alleging that the FBI and NYPD conspired to kill Malcolm X (I haven’t really said or done anything for Black History Month because I think that’s a silly concept...everyone’s contributions regardless of their race, ethnicity or whatever should be recognized and celebrated year ‘round...but all the same, maybe you can consider this to be my acknowledgment)...



...and based on this story, why do I have a feeling that Disney Corp. doesn’t give a damn about “negative depiction of cultures” or whatever, but basically doesn’t want to be sued...besides, their founder made his name on being perhaps the worst anti-unionist this country has ever produced, so it’s hard for me to feel sorry for them from a potential litigation point of view, and coming after “Sesame Street” is even more ridiculous, as exemplified by this great tune that NEVER gets old.

Sunday Stuff

Nicolle Wallace talks with journalist Laurie Garrett, who is someone I take seriously on COVID, since she’s basically been right all along in her reporting on this deadly plague, and I think we’re up to about 510K dead by now...and I’m glad that Garrett lays the blame for this at the feet of the Gropenfuhrer - ugh (I listen to Garrett along with Dr. Fauci, Dr. Peter Hotez and a select few others...God, this stuff on the variants is truly scary)...



...and turning to the misery in Texas, Ben Dixon tells us about Jerry Jones raking it in hand over fist while Texans face ridiculously overinflated energy charges (with Cenk and Helen Hong)...



...and sticking with the "lone star state," Brian Tyler Cohen refutes the typical lies from Repug Gov. Greg Abbott about renewables supposedly being the culprit, which is a preposterously untrue statement (and good for Jen Psaki on pushing back)...



...and Thom Hartmann reminds us that the whole “@CancunCruz” stuff is the latest de-evolution of a political party based on lies...and yes, he keeps tracing it all back to Reaganomics, but dammit, he’s right to do that...didn’t know about the Kroger supermarket stuff, which – yeah – is pretty infuriating for the reasons Hartmann notes...



...and this 11th Hour clip tells us about wingnuts media “going to the dogs,” as it were (with FDR defending his canine Fala, kind of like what Biden has to do now...I guess Williams’ criticism at the end is as far as he can go against some of these wingnut media cretins)...



...and Randy California (nee Wolfe) of the group Spirit would have been 70 yesterday; he died young apparently saving his son from drowning - I call that "going out like a boss."