Saturday Stuff

I’ve got a couple of admittedly boring “hot takes” related to race that I feel like sharing; I crave your indulgence on this for a couple of minutes.

The first is that, even though I honestly tried to avoid all of the Harry/Meghan/Oprah stuff, I did manage to figure out what the controversy is all about (namely, that one or more people in the British royal family made a remark about what the skin color would be of the baby Meghan Markle was expecting). Well, here’s the way I look at this. Yeah, a remark like that is stupid and idiotic, but you keep that stuff under your roof and don’t go blabbing to the media about it, especially to Oprah Winfrey. And from what I hear, the “skin color” stuff came from Kate Middleton and Prince Philip. I honestly don’t believe that came from Kate Middleton because I think she’s smart and savvy enough to know not to say that; she may also have the kind of character as a person to know a remark like that is awful. Do I believe it coming from Prince Philip? Yeah, I do. But when I saw some brief highlights of the Oprah Winfrey interview, I thought the body language of the three of them communicated a lot. Namely, I think there’s a hell of a lot of baggage Harry is carrying around (probably from what happened with his mom and the media exploitation, which makes all of this a bit ironic), and I hope he gets help with that. And Meghan Markle sat there acting like she owned the joint, you might say. She, with Winfrey’s willing help of course, helped to create and exploit a situation to make her look like the victim, which I guess she is to some degree (to the point where, if you criticize her in any way, there will be a thousand social media posts appearing right away with the title of “I support Meghan Markle because I had the same situation, blah blah blah”...or, someone might say, “You’re as crazy as Piers Morgan,” which I definitely don’t believe is true). Basically, I think Meghan Markle is playing a game of 10-dimensional chess when it comes to owning the media narrative on this, and the Royal Family are still playing checkers by comparison.

The second has to do with remarks from that disgusting U.S. Senatorial mistake Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; he recently said on a Zoom meeting call that he felt safe during the 1/6 insurrection because the overwhelming majority of the protestors were white weren't Antifa and supposedly "love this country" (here - just a bit of "code language" here). Even though the bar is already incredibly low here since we’re talking about RoJo, I think he should apologize for that not just to the entire U.S. Congress as well as not just the constituents he allegedly represents in Wisconsin, but the entire country.

Now to the main stuff...Thom Hartmann tells us about the “Texas Taliban” trying to regulate women’s health (and by the way, women who miscarry may be prosecuted El Salvador as noted here...Nail. Hammer. Head on Thom’s remarks at the end)...



...and once again, what is the “party of Lincoln” focused on aside from controlling women’s health care? Why, making it harder to vote of course...



...oh, and also, those U.S. House lunatics of that party are losing what’s left of their minds over common sense gun legislation (David Pakman explains)...



...but they NEVER lose sight of fealty to their “dear leader” in exile, as Rachel Maddow explains...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” and again, we’re only going back a year to 3/13/20 (Kyle Kulinski tells us what Trish Regan and the late but not lamented Flush Limbore said about COVID-19, which started blowing up as a public health calamity despite that...I don’t know if Trish Regan was the nuttiest of the lot, and that’s saying something for that network of crazies, but I DO know that she disappeared from the air soon after she uttered these words...and it wouldn’t be a Kyle video without de facto “both sidesism” between the “R” and “D” parties of course)...



...and speaking of anniversaries, yesterday marked the 18th of the (formerly) Dixie Chicks and Natalie Maines saying that they were ashamed that Dubya was from Texas (re, 43’s Not So Excellent Adventure in Iraq - here), and for that, they were roundly criticized, including by the likes of Toby Keith, who, as far as I know, has never apologized for it...I know this isn’t an original observation, but anyone who thinks “Trumpism” is anything but the rebranded version of the latest stoo-pid Republicanism hasn’t learned history...really, ever since Nixon (but accelerated under The Sainted Ronnie R), then to Dubya, the Teahadists and Combover Caligula, it’s all been the same utterly debased downward trajectory in our politics from about 30-40 percent of this country to varying degrees...and yeah, this tune is probably a bit of a response to the Thom Hartmann video also (not to Thom, I wish to emphasize).

Friday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen brings us this clip of Katie Porter letting an energy industry lobbyist have it for his claim that oil and gas companies don’t get preferential tax treatment, with Porter and U.S. House Dems trying to get these thieves to pay up at long last...and as far as I’m concerned, the existence of Sleepy Ben Carson in ANY KIND of public sector job is the sort of “FU” insult typical of our prior ruling regime of frauds and criminals...



...and here’s a brief excerpt from President Biden’s speech last night on the one-year anniversary of COVID becoming a global pandemic (and I have no desire whatsoever to link to the right-wing hyenas yapping about this, unless it’s from TYT, The Damage Report, The Majority Report, or a like-minded platform...typical stupid garbage from these cretins to try and score cheap political points as usual)...



...and in response, Joy Reid tells us about the anti-mask bullies, who apparently are planning something coming up in Daytona, FL – likely another “super spreader” event...Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at length on Rachel Maddow last night and warned about this...



...and speaking of which, I thought this was an illuminating clip from Dr. Fauci about what we could be looking at with COVID-19 in future, particularly with the global variants out there (worrisome, but we’re on a much better track now than this time a year ago)...



...and when it comes to Repugs taking credit for COVID relief that they voted against, John and Bridget Todd give us the latest (and yeah, that includes Roger Wicker for sure, and Tom “Militarize Our Cities” Cotton decried payouts to prisoners in the Biden bill that were ALSO in the two Trump relief bills he voted for...figures)...



...and when everything starts opening up again for real, someday, I’d like to return to “Beantown,” but for now, I’ll have to settle for this video.

Wednesday Stuff

I thought David Pakman did a really good job here of dissecting the rantings of this Newsmax clown about “liberal cancel culture,” which of course is yet another diversion from the COVID relief bill that is FINALLY nearing completion, as well as HR1 to secure voting rights (getting worked on, I hasten to emphasize...will likely have a harder path in the "lege" than the COVID bill with the filibuster in place); once again, the COVID bill isn’t perfect, but kudos to the Dems for getting this done with ZERO REPUBLICAN HELP (and as we get closer to elections, I think we should get ready for a whole lot of this)...



...which is part and parcel of this, as Farron Cousins explains...



...so what ARE Republicans doing instead, aside from the whole “cancel culture” schtick? Well, Madison Cawthorn made a video of beating up a tree, presumably to “own the libs,” as John and Dr. Aqualus Gordon tell us (yeah, I think "performance art" covers a lot of this)...



...and while what Cawthorn did was stoo-pid, at least it wasn’t as offensively racist as what his same-party playmate Glenn Grothman said here (and kudos to Dem Rep Stacey Plaskett for giving Grothman the treatment he deserves...and because we're talking about The Comcast Network in this clip, Grothman wasn't called out for being the ignorant fathead that he is)...



...and returning to HR1, Robert Reich tells us that voting rights in this country are facing the biggest threat from Republican state legislatures since Jim Crow (no wonder they’re trying so hard to distract us...and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema quite rightly get called out here also; I'd love to see Biden take a page out of LBJ's book too, but we're talking about two completely different eras and two completely different personalities)...



...and as noted here, today marks the 145th anniversary of what was basically the first phone call, with A.G. Bell allegedly saying “Watson, I want you” or whatever it was – good luck trying to zero in on a tune with all of the songs about telephones, but I settled on this one.

Tuesday Stuff

Ari Melber speaks with lawyer Neal Katyal about the ridiculous new voter discrimination laws that Georgia is trying to pass (with a similar push for equally stupid measures going on around the country, including this...more here – an atypically odd question by Melber about the jury vs. following the evidence...usually he’s “on the beam” pretty much, but that left me a little baffled)...



Update 1: And as long as we're discussing Bri-Fi, I think this is a good question also (and why the hell is the Bucks Republican Party using a J&J "spoof" account for this? Oh, I get it - to try and trick people on a wait list for the COVID shot into picking up the phone under false pretenses...riiiight...and Pat Poprik apologized because she got caught).

Update 2: These people are always horrible and useless, and they're horrible and useless again here.

...and in a related story as they say, while I usually don’t pay a lot of attention to the NBA, I have to give LeBron James a lot of credit for this (I just know about this ad because Rachel Maddow discussed it last night)...



...and Chris Hayes talks to Paul Krugman about the COVID relief bill (the only caveat I would add is that it remains to be seen how much the relief bill will help folks living paycheck to paycheck BEFORE the pandemic hit, but yes, there’s a hell of a lot that’s positive that will help a lot of folks...and as long as we're discussing our current plague, I think this is appropriate)...



...and since every action must have a reaction I guess, that means that it’s up to Fix and Fiends to attack the American Rescue Plan – and by the way, Kilmeade’s claim about only 9 percent going to pandemic relief is a typical lie (more info is here), and I wouldn’t trust Dan Crenshaw on ANYTHING based on this...



...and Pap and Farron Cousins talk about the fracking ban in the Delaware River (yep, it is a big deal also all right, and for sure, this needs to happen nationwide, though it’s probably trying to chase the metaphorical horse after it’s already out of the barn, so to speak, but better late than never...Pap needs to get his rivers straight...big dif between the Delaware and the Susquehanna)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Matthew Fisher of Procal Harum.

Monday Stuff (updates)

(FWIW, I care ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the Oprah/Harry/Meghan Markle interview!)

David Doel tells us here about the wingnut preoccupation with 6 Dr. Seuss books that, allegedly, have bene “cancelled,” when In reality the estate just made the profit-driven decision to suspend publication, which they’re allowed to do; it tells you just how powerful the conservative noise machine truly is, unfortunately, that we’re paying attention to this at all as opposed to rejecting all of this for the rank stupidity that it is (and as the pic indicates, Theodor Seuss Geisel lampooned the “America First” movement back in the day; A.F. wasn’t totally conservative, but it was close)...



Update: Whatever comes after us may spend eons laughing over our stupidity (here).

Update 3/9/21: I was actually wondering if the Dems were going to respond to this idiocy...kudos to Tim Ryan for this...

If you watch anything today... pic.twitter.com/65vwH1XtLn

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) March 9, 2021

...and speaking of rank stupidity, I give you this from Joy Reid, though that isn’t meant as a dig at her (there was a time when Michael Steele could have spoken out when he was part of the apparatus that he now criticizes, but I guess better late than never, and I have only a slightly better opinion of Charlie Sykes...between this, the Seuss stuff, the 1/6 insurrection and every Republican No vote on COVID relief...if Dems can’t make up halfway decent attack campaign ads next year, they might as well give up...more here)...



...and boy, do I respect the hell out of Ali Velshi for this; articulates how I also feel pretty damn well (in years prior to now, I spent a lot of time refuting right-wing B.S. – I don’t have the time to do that now, and I also don’t have the desire, to be honest)...



...and speaking of untruths, in this “Now This” video, Dem U.S. House Rep Julian Castro refutes the typically disgusting lie from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blaming undocumented immigrants for the increase in COVID-19 cases in “the land of the yellow rose” – nah, OF COURSE it doesn’t have anything to do with Abbott’s ridiculous decision to get rid of that state’s mask mandate...

...and John I. and Bridget Todd tell us more on the allegations surrounding Repug U.S. House Rep Madison Cawthorn (yep, pure as the driven slush all right)...



...and I was probably a little early with the Meredith Brooks number for International Women’s Day, so let me include this also.