Saturday Stuff

For starters, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 7/17/13, in which former PA GOP Chair Rob Gleason admits that voter ID cut into President Obama’s vote lead against Willard Mitt Romney in ’12 vs. John McCain in ’08 (here), which to me is more of a reason – as if we NEEDED more of a reason – to stop screwing around and pass S1 (if voter ID by itself can make that big of a difference, imagine what the other garbage in these bills to cut early voting and other measures will do)...and yeah, we know Manchin and “Curtsy Kyrsten” are the two main roadblocks, but we have to keep beating that metaphorical drum...to contact your U.S. senator to bug this person to support it, click here...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen gives us Brianna Keilar of CNN calling out former Repug MN Guv “Pawlenty of Nothing” on this “both sides” BS between the Proud Boys and the “3 Percenters” appearing at CPAC...yeah, Pawlenty of course goes all humuna humuna humuna when Keilar asks him for an example of left-wingers advocating violence walking around a progressive or liberal conference ("OMIGOD, ANTIFA!! SCARY DARK-SKINNED PEOPLE!!!"), because HE DOESN’T HAVE ANY REAL WORLD EXAMPLES TO BACK UP HIS NONSENSE...



...and Thom Hartmann speaks with Judd Legum on the critical race theory craziness and the usual gaggle of right-wing think thanks behind it, notably the Thomas W. Smith Foundation...



...and it looks like the other side is going to try and make us all crazy about the threat of inflation and that’s why we have to slash government spending (which you only hear about when Dems are in power of course), and Robert Reich is here to explain why that’s BS...



...and photojournalist Timo Stammberger went undercover inside so-called factory farms to bring us this report (warning that this contains disturbing images)...



...and yeah, we all made it to another summer weekend, so let's rock out a bit, OK?

Friday Stuff

Ana K. and Daniel Bessner of TYT tell us that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History has some thoughts about our withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that we shouldn’t leave because the Taliban, being thoroughly amoral monsters, will hurt girls and women...so many possible responses to this, one of which is the fact that yet another Democratic president has been left with cleaning up a mess from his Republican predecessor, and another is the fact that we need to do nation-building in THIS COUNTRY as opposed to anywhere else on the globe (sorry, but we can’t save everybody, and we have to establish priorities, though we should bring into this country as many Afghans who helped us as possible), and you can also wonder HOW MUCH MORE OF A PRICE our military is supposed to pay for ruinous decisions on the part of civilian leadership...so much wrong with Number 45 (a certain sweaty orange sack of syphilitic trans fats who proceeded Biden), but one of them is that it erased from public memory a bit the fact that George W. Bush WAS A THOROUGHLY AWFUL PRESIDENT ALSO (“a profound contempt for the workings of democracy” indeed)...



Update: Oh, and we can thank Dubya for getting this idiot judge confirmed also.

Update 7/17/21: And good for the Biden Administration for this.

...and Rachel Maddow tells us that FLA Guv Ron #DeathSantis is out with his line of ’22 “merch” in anticipation of running for re-election (ignoring the explosion of COVID cases in his state of course)...



...and this great “Second Thought” video tells us that, in lieu of actual governance that, y’know, helps people, #DeathSantis is trying to indoctrinate educational institutions in his state (of course, the funniest part of this – and I know I’m reaching a bit to try and find humor here – is that the FLA guv thinks he’s going to supplant Mango Mussolini for the ’24 Repug presidential nod)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the U.S. congressional Dems are going to try and pass the infrastructure bill through reconciliation (and speaking of congressional Dems, let’s not forget this also)...



...and I thought this was a pretty damn clear-eyed take from Beau about the 1/6 insurrection and the fact that, yes, God forbid, it could happen again (and maybe even be successful, which we have to do all we can to prevent of course)...



...and David Doel tells us here about Burger King employees in Nebraska quitting en masse (I know about working in fast food, and trying to produce that stuff in a 90-degree environment is torture as far as I’m concerned – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I know I’m a little behind the curve on this item, but I didn’t want to miss it – Brian Williams tells us what Carl Sagan once said many years ago about the future (the “Star Wars” stuff is interesting, but the real “get” here for me is what Sagan wrote and how well he nailed the times in which we now live, unfortunately...Williams gets bonus points for the Ron Popeil snark)...



Update 7/28/21: C'est dommage.

...and speaking of those who have shed their mortal coil, you might say, today (believe it or not) is the 40th anniversary of the death of Harry Chapin...I often recall him, Jim Croce, SRV, and John and George also of course (the list grows longer every day, now including John Prine from COVID...if this dumb little blog accomplishes anything, I would like for it to be a means to keep their memory alive now and for all time).

Wednesday Stuff

Sam and Emma V. of The Majority Report speak with author Brian Concannon about the assassination of President Jovenel Moise of Haiti and the aftermath in that country, which appears to know only hardship for a variety of reasons, one of which is our failure to help support democracy without dollar signs attached...



...and sticking with the Caribbean, The Damage Report tells us about the strife going on in Cuba (and Francesca in particular is fire here about telling people that they can’t claim to support democratic reforms and also support that ridiculous embargo and sanctions at the same time...the people in favor of the embargo are those nutty anti-Castro Cubans who will NEVER VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS...Hillary Clinton did a smidge better than usual with this crowd in ’16, but that’s only because Combover Caligula went to such lengths to insult Marco Rubio in the primary...another example of sanctions not doing a damn thing except to screw over only people who need help is Iran)...



...and as long as we’re talking about world stuff, David Doel reports on how the 4-day work week is a big success in Iceland, as well as other countries (oh, but we can’t POSSIBLY have that in this country because of “American exceptionalism”...U-S-A! U-S-A!...and speaking of other countries)...



...and returning to "the great 48" (plus 2) if you will, Beau tells us about the spat between Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former *president and “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh, who apparently decided not to overturn the 2020 election for the Gropenfuhrer (with all due respect, 45 needs a lot more than a halfway decent HR director... as opposed to a mandatory retirement age, I’m definitely in favor of term limits for SCOTUS justices)...



...and I linked above to The Rude One and what Macron in France did to encourage citizens of that country to get the COVID vaccine, but of course now we can do a “compare and contrast” with the lunacy on our shores (and I’m certainly not referring to Dr. Fauci when I say that...I know the Don Winslow video already pointed out what a monster Lauren Boebert is, but I don't think that can be said enough times)...



...and I guess Tennessee decided to “go to 11,” if you will, with the utter insanity in their decision to fire former top vaccine official Dr. Michelle Fiscus; Chris Hayes interviews Fiscus here, and among other things, we learn that, in addition to no longer administering the COVID vaccine in that state, they will no longer be administering ANY vaccine...please try telling me again how Repugs “love the children” and I’ll laugh right in your damn face – more here)...


...oh, but never fear...the “pay no price, bear no burden” crowd will be just fine – the latest millionaire to make the news is Richard Branson, who recently traveled to the edges of space – I had no idea of what the “carmen line” was, but apparently that’s the latest source of “measurement” (as Ana politely refers to it) between Branson, Bezos, Elon Musk, and these other charter members of the “one percent” who continue to not have the slightest inclination to do anything positive about life on this planet, but only want to play with their most expensive new toys instead (and speaking of rich a-holes)...



...and this tune goes out to our supposedly august “captains of industry” noted in the prior clip.

Tuesday Stuff

This may be the snarkiest commentary I’ve ever heard from Rachel Maddow, but I think she’s utterly spot-on, mentioning how Dems are focused on real-world issues and solutions that matter, and the “party of Lincoln” is focused instead on more and more ridiculous craziness (including this guttural nematode in PA, running more or less for PA guv)...



...and speaking of Republican idiocy, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushing back on SC governor Henry McMaster complaining about the Biden Administration’s commendable effort to educate people on getting the COVID vaccine (God almighty, why is that still even a question at this point?)...



...and this great Don Winslow video gives Lauren Boebert the treatment she deserves too (really bringing the proverbial hammer down on the ranting anti-vaccine insanity of this creature from Colorado)...



...and I have lots of other issues with Repug U.S. House Rep Adam Kinzinger, but he’s absolutely right to say this stuff about COVID and calling out “garbage politicians” like MTG (as always, though, as far as I'm concerned, the politicians, bad as they are, are only part of the problem - the REAL issue is with the people who reward these life forms with their votes)...



...and most of these clips have to do with resistance to the COVID vaccine, and this does too; Farron Cousins tells us about this loony Newsmax person pretty much telling everyone not to get two shots in the arm (one for J&J) and let natural selection run its course I guess (more here – would it be impudent of me to suggest that this Newsmax guttersnipe is “full of Schmidt”?)...



...and I’m in the mood for an upbeat seasonal tune after all this "through the looking glass" nonsense, particularly since it isn’t raining at the moment.

Monday Stuff

Except for the president of Haiti getting assassinated and CPAC (both of which are awful for admittedly different reasons), it doesn’t look like a whole lot out of the ordinary happened while I was on my mini-break...looks like I’m pretty much picking up where I left off, and it also looks like the “party of Lincoln” gave away the game yet again, telling their sheep-life followers to thank Manchin and “Curtsy Kyrsten” for their ridiculous, continued obstruction (featuring Rick Santorum, Andy Biggs, and Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who made six figures as a “pro life” lobbyist before he parlayed that into a U.S. House seat, as noted here) as David Doel tells us (NSFW/H)...



Update: Every time I see this lunatic from Arizona pictured, it's with a Republican (probably because no self-respecting Democrat wants anything to do with her...and apparently, the pic is three years old).

Happy Birthday @SenatorSinema!!🎂🎉🎊. Kyrsten and I introduced the most bipartisan bills together. You are a true bipartisan leader K!! pic.twitter.com/y2UVlvM8hR

— Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick 🇺🇸 (@RepBrianFitz) July 12, 2021

...and speaking of thoroughly compromised U.S. House Repugs, it looks like that nitwit Mo Brooks of Alabama ended up sabotaging his defense of his activities during the 1/6 insurrection with his recent CPAC speech, as Farron Cousins tells us...



...and in a similar vein, Beau of the Fifth Column talks about U.S. House Rep Chip Roy of Texas and his attempts at obstructing anything whatsoever that President Biden wants to do on infrastructure (yep, “creating chaos for the next 18 months” sounds like their game plan all right, given that they’re so confident that they’ll retake Congress next year...we’ll see)...



...and this “Damage Report” clip features John, Cenk and Jeff Waldorf taking companies to task who pretend to support voting rights (and yeah, Comcast is for sure one of the biggest offenders out there when it comes to talking the talk but not walking the walk, you might say)...



...and it looks like you can add Toyota to the same list of corporate malefactors, as we learn from this Lincoln Project video...



...and I now give you today's regional forecast (just beat it home from the shore in time).