Saturday Stuff

It looks to me like FL Gov. Ron DeathSantis is taking a page out of the Repug playbook of “Don’t pay attention to what is actually important – look over there instead!” with this typically stoo-pid pronouncement that “critical race theory” isn’t going to be taught in schools in The Sunshine State (believe it or not, I’d actually never heard of that, so this made me look it up...I’ll admit that, being a filthy unkempt liberal blogger, I SHOULD HAVE known about it, so yeah – thanks, I guess? And yeah, “please clap”...John and Brett tell us about it)...



Update: More here.

...and Sam and Emma V. tell us about the Biden staffers let go or reassigned because they used pot – not sure why this step was taken if these people passed a security clearance (definitely not on board with legal weed for recreational use for selfish personal reasons, but if people want it, it should be the law of the land or state or wherever...medical pot should just be the way it is with marinol prescribed anyway, decriminalization should be federalized and dispensaries should be able to operate like regular businesses...all that being said, I think Emma is right that Biden was adhering to the letter of the law somehow, but yeah, firing the staffers is pretty dumb given that his veep actually joked about taking a toke)...



Update: It's kind of infuriating to find myself aligned in any way with utter idiots like Nebraska Repug Gov. Pete Ricketts (here).

...and this Now This clip tells us about the 12 Repugs who voted against honoring Capitol police, which was more than the number of the “party of Lincoln” who voted to hold Our Traitorous Orange Pustule to account for his role in the 1/6 insurrection (the latter folks are also included in this video)...



...and with the prior clip in mind, I should note that we have new disturbing video from the 1/6 riot against the Capitol cops, with commentary from David Shuster, along with Cenk and Wosny Lambre (great point at the very end from Cenk about how the wingnuts truly define “law and order”)...



...and Jeff Waldorf tells us that the Trump figure at Madame Tussaud’s in San Antonio (didn’t know they had one there) had to be removed temporarily because people kept punching it (which, to be fair, also happened with Dubya and President Hopey Changey, sort of)...



...and with the last clip in mind, I thought I’d present this tune which, to me, contains one of the all-time great rock lyrics...”I love you from the bottom of my organism”...genius!

Friday Stuff

Yeah, RoJo should be gone from “the word’s greatest deliberative body” (please), but he’ll probably be around until 2022, but hopefully not longer than that (to do something about that, click here)...



...and Brian Williams speaks with journalist Kurt Bardella about the aftermath of the Atlanta massacre, including the remarks of Texas congressional idiot Chip Roy (and apparently the alleged shooter asked if he'd spend the rest of his life in jail (here)...well no, actually – since GA has the death penalty, you may get a date with a needle instead... and I’m sorry, but I don’t believe Chris Wray that the attack wasn’t racially motivated...given his stonewalling of Sheldon Whitehouse, I don’t believe Wray on anything)...



...and leave it to the Swanson TV Dinner Heir to come up with the completely wrong take on this, as John and Yasmin Khan tell us, with the Fix Noise host saying “the left” is blaming white supremacy for the Atlanta shootings...yeah, nice straw man you got there Tucker; we’re still learning more about the latest white kid with a grievance and a gun who allegedly decided to go nuts and I don’t think a link to white supremacy has been established...but would it really be a surprise if we found out that it existed? Also, I know the police said they didn’t even think the shootings constituted hate crimes against Asians, as we alluded to earlier, though that’s coming from the same police force that made that remark about the alleged shooter “having a bad day”...



...and given all of this, you would think Repugs would provide SOME support to renewing the Violence Against Women Act (commendably introduced by Brian Fitzpatrick), but....naaaah (yep, the “party of Lincoln” wants crazy stalking boyfriends to be able to get guns, and of course, as David Doel tells us, the “R” team automatically hates anything having to do with the LGBTQ community...and Debbie Lesko doesn’t get brownie points here because she was in an abusive relationship; as Doel points out, she’s straight-up lying here...mildly NSFW)...



...and speaking of Repugs behaving badly, apparently Pat Toomey blocked a bill to prevent private debt collectors form seizing ARP checks (here) – how pathetically predictable...



...and while we’re on the subject of Republican U.S. senatorial mistakes, I should have realized that there is NO LIMIT to how low that numbskull Rand Paul will go to try and make himself look intelligent (though he will always fail), especially against someone FAR MORE ACCOMPLISHED THAN HE WILL EVER BE – in this case, Dr. Anthony Fauci...Hey Kentucky, just how stoo-pid are some of you to continually elect this clown and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao anyway...



Update 3/20/21: Ugh...

...and Farron Cousins tells us that it looks like the 2020 redistricting may be a little more complicated for the Repugs than we first thought; they might up accidentally oppressing their own voters; HR1, however, would make that matter moot...we’ll see (and “Democrat” is not an adjective)...



...and given the Brian Williams clip and those horrible remarks form Chip Roy (yeah, as if the only people allegedly believing in justice are from Texas - what a POS), I think this tune is appropriate.

Thursday Stuff

John and Francesca of “The Damage Report” tell us about some corporate media nonsense involving Jeff Zeleny and FL Repug Gov Ron DeathSantis on COVID-19 (yeah, nothing like trying to muzzle Rebekah Jones who's making every effort to tell the truth on how the "sunshine state" is coping – nice to see Francesca get the opportunity to lead in the segment)...



...and Fix Noise is of course another culprit when it comes to propping up Repug politicians, and as Farron Cousins tells us, a former neo-Nazi skinhead named Frank Meeink told us recently how much the Roger Ailes BS Factory markets hate...



...and Nicolle Wallace interviews former CISA head Chris Krebs about the report that the claims by the Trumpsters during 2020 were typical BS (though this was interesting of course)...



...and maybe it would have been more appropriate to present this Meidas Touch/Heather Gardner clip yesterday instead of today about poverty and the people who make $$ off of it in this country, but better late than never I guess...



...but for more information on how to return prosperity for all in this country, I think Robert Reich has some information here that we should all look at closely, in particular our politicians of course; yeah, this stuff is boring and wonky, but it’s pretty damn important too...



...and on this day 20 years ago, the cover of "Songbird" by Eva Cassidy hit #1, five years after her death.

Wednesday Stuff

(Note: I should emphasize that authorities aren't sure whether or not the Atlanta shootings are definitely hate crimes, but I thought it was timely to show this pic light of this.)

Mrs. Joe Scar and Willie Geist speak with NBC News reporter Blayne Alexander about the violence in GA, which appears (allegedly) to be perpetrated by yet another young white male with issues of some kind or another (and “having a bad day”? Really?)...



Update: Once more, The Onion dances on that razor's edge between reality and satire (here and here).

...and Thom Hartmann wonders if we’re coming to the end of the conservative era (God, I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath; Thom says he thinks the American Rescue Plan and Biden’s recent speech could be the beginning of something much better, with the bad old days initiated by the Powell Memo ...he gets kind of cut off in mid-sentence at the end)...



...and oh look – John and Ben Dixon tell us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is threatening Dems with gumming up the works in the Senate even more than he’s done already; somebody pointed out that getting rid of the filibuster is risky given that all it takes is for one elderly Dem in that body to leave us, and a Repug governor of that state could appoint someone from his party and McConnell would be back in charge again (somebody like Pat Leahy should have 24/7 protection for that reason, but I think it’s far riskier to leave the wretched filibuster in place)...I honestly think it’s more than voters acting dumb when they vote for the R’s; I want to see ES&S get the same treatment as Dominion and Smartmatic and let’s see what happens...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us about Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s greeting to new AG Merrick Garland, particularly on “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh (“Welcome, Mr. Attorney General. Here’s enough work to keep you busy for at least the next year and a half”...but kudos to Whitehouse for this)...



...and David Pakman tells us about Repugs taking credit for the American Rescue Plan (and I know I already mentioned Roger Wicker), but to be fair, Maria Salazar was taking credit for something unrelated to the ARP as noted here (and I seem to recall recently praising Adam Kinzinger for voting for Trump’s 2nd impeachment, when of course, in the end, Kinzinger turned out to be just a typical wingnut)...



...and speaking of stuff that has to be seen to be believed, these corporatist a-holes who basically pull the puppet strings for any politician belonging to the “party of Lincoln” never cease to utterly disgust me with their callow behavior, as this Koch-ette lobbyist from the Commonwealth Foundation demonstrates once again as she’s called out by Dem State Rep Malcolm Kenyatta (on the issue of a $15 an hour minimum wage, and I’m sure it isn’t hard to figure out where she sides on this)...



...and sticking with “Now This,” I thought this was a good response from The Rev. William Barber...



...and happy St. Patrick’s Day – hope you’re all “wearin’ the green” for your Zoom meetings :-).

Tuesday Stuff

Farron Cousins reminds us that red states did a worse job overall of handling the COVID-19 pandemic than blue states (“you conditioned your voters not to listen to the smart people” – Nail. Hammer. Head.)...



...and when it comes to Republicans trying to keep their constituencies stoo-pid, I give you Mississippi Repug Gov Tate Reeves, who decided to forfeit millions in Medicaid expansion (here - Reeves should be recalled immediately, but I’m sure he won’t be)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen once more refutes a wingnut Repug U.S. Senator, and this time it’s Mr. Elaine Chao (yeah, so called “Operation Warp Speed” Trump promised to get 100 million people vaccinated last year, and the actual number was only about 3 percent of that – but let’s watch it with the “Democrat only” stuff, please...and in a related story, kudos to Dick Durbin for this)...



...and Cenk and Ben Dixon of TYT tell us that the military is now apologizing to the Swanson TV Dinner Heir – ugh (I really don’t understand Cenk’s U-turn here to attack progressives...I think that’s a topic for another day – and I’m sorry, but I don’t give a damn about his musician friend who’s misguided; he chose to be willfully dumb...I suppose this was inevitable because of the conservative representation in our military, but it’s still damn depressing)...



...and this Lincoln Project ad supports the nominations of Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke for positions in the Biden Administration (shouldn’t be necessary to advocate for these fine choices like this, though it is a good thing to do so of course – more here)...



...and happy upcoming 70th birthday to Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy.

Monday Stuff

Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao thinks that the people of this country don’t need more of a stimulus, if you will, in response to the COVID pandemic (I agree that the CNN reporter did a good job by talking to actual voters in this country and that people often don’t find out what’s really happening on issues since our news mannequins, for the most part, don’t fulfill the function of educating their viewers any more)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen gave what I thought was a pretty good example here of why congressional Repugs don’t deserve to be taken seriously in their opposition to COVID relief, with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (who apparently goes to great pains to remind people that he has a medical degree) pretty much nit picking around the edges as an excuse to get rid of the entire bill (and yeah, Chris Wallace pushed back slightly, but it was a love tap compared to what a Dem would have faced on that network)...



...and sticking with The Roger Ailes BS Factory, John and Bridget Todd tell us of Laura Ingraham’s fear mongering on HR 1 (and “Democrat” voters...typically disgusting from this shameless harpie)...



...and as long as we’re on the subject of Fix Noise, I thought I’d bring you this commentary from Beau of the Fifth Column responding to the latest garbage from the Swanson TV Dinner Heir...



...and Sam and Emma of “The Majority Report” tell us about Ilhan Omar speaking in favor of the PRO Act to help unions...great stuff, but it won’t matter unless the Senate gets rid of the filibuster because they will NEVER get Repug support for this or any other legislation...



...and turning to world news, David Doel tells us about Palestinian kids arrested for picking vegetables in the disputed area of the West Bank, apparently based on the complaints of Israeli settlers illegally living there (Want to know where tomorrow’s terrorists will likely come from? Look no further)...



...and in the matter of COVID, I thought this was a good PSA featuring all living former presidents but for a pretty obvious (and justified IMHO) omission (I’ll temporarily put aside my beef with Dubya)...



...but unfortunately, it won’t matter for yet another person we’ve just lost, and that would be Bliss Michelson of WRTI-FM...almost too broken up for words right now – deepest sympathies to his family and friends (I don’t know a lot about classical music, but this elegy features a double bass, which was Michelson’s area of expertise...one of them anyway – when we have FINALLY rid ourselves of this COVID scourge, there should be monuments put in every town, village, township, city, state...you name it...with the names of the people lost from those communities).