Saturday Stuff

David Doel tells us about the Texas state lawmaker who died of COVID after making fun of the vaccine, and apparently his wife and infant son are infected too – Jesus wept (I predict that, at a certain point probably sooner than later, we’re going to need vaccine passports by state)...



...and while we’re on the subject of our regularly scheduled plague, Emma of TMR tells us more about vaccine hesitancy, with FL Guv Ron #DeathSantis blaming Biden and immigrants for COVID...uh huh, and as Emma says, since when does Florida share a border with Mexico (and in a related item, I give you this lying numbskull...and I don't mean Oswalt)...



...and this Now This clip informs us that 12-year-old Lila Hartley has more common sense than most adults in the Sunshine State...



...and yeah, Joy Ann Reid sure “brings the receipts” for the “R” party on the latest garbage with Dem NY Guv Andrew Cuomo (more here) – yeah, Cuomo needs to be gone yesterday, but some context here is highly called for (and when it comes to “I Like Beer” Brett, let’s not forget this)...



...and I don’t know if this is Beau’s best commentary, but it’s certainly right up there as far as I’m concerned (yeah, 60 percent of Republicans think voting is a privilege, and the logical question to ask is “for whom?” And if you have to ask a question like that, chances are you're not included in the group they prefer)...



...and I now bring you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 8/9/13...with all of the insane weather we’ve experienced recently (particularly, but not by any means limited to, the Pacific Northwest), let’s all remember the biggest villains who have led us to this ecological precipice in the name of profit, and that would be Charles Koch and his late brother Dave...



...and I’m probably a month early for this great Second Thought video on the efforts to unionize in this country and the labor situation overall, but here it is anyway (and yeah, our dear corporate media cousins are going to be all “Oh, nobody wants to work but stay home and collect unemployment instead,” but after you cut through that BS, I think you’ll find there’s just a bit more, you could say, to the story than that)...



...and I guess I need to include this song once in awhile, in this case mainly because of Beau’s great commentary (not a reflection on him, I hasten to add), but probably also because, as far as I’m concerned (and in light of responses against COVID more than anything else), about 25-30 percent of this country is certifiably insane (and I guess this is as close as I can come to giving them the metaphorical slap in the face they deserve, including this Charlie Bullington clown).



Update 8/8/21: And I would add the climate and infrastructure to this list.

Friday Stuff

Mehdi Hasan gives us the latest on Former Generalissimo Trump’s attempt to set up a shadow presidency (with Asawin Suebsang and Tina Nguyen...kind of a follow-up to the Chris Hayes clip yesterday about that guttersnipe Jeffrey Clark)...



...and Farron Cousins points out that U.S. Senate Republicans want everyone else to pay for desperately needed infrastructure improvements in this country except the “pay no price, bear no burden” crowd of course...



...and speaking of really bad congressional acts from the “R” party, this Really American clip reminds us that U.S. House Rep Paul Gosar hangs out with neo-Nazis, including this life form named Nick Fuentes (or at least that’s what Gosar was doing when he skipped a COVID relief vote in the U.S. House...more here)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us about Prop 22 in Massachusetts, which is an attempt to totally screw over “gig economy” workers (more here)...



...and I would argue that the prior clip is a factor related to this one, in which Robert Reich provides reasons why millennials are broke (more here)...



...and this Rebel HQ clip form Caroline Johnson tells us about LAPD beach raids on the homeless (growing up in NE Philadelphia, I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard about the horrors of “Section 8” housing, even though the Diplomat apartments, which were flea traps also, would regularly catch fire at around 4 PM every day...you could set your watch by the timing of the fire engine sirens)...



...and in a related item, David Pakman tells us that we could be looking at a SCOTUS clash over the CDC’s eviction moratorium...



...and damn, he sings this great new tune about her and she won't even let him in the house? That's cold!.

Thursday Stuff

Chris Hayes reports to us on Jeffrey Clark, a Trump admin lawyer who, it seems, was trying to run roughshod over our government’s electoral framework to install the Gropenfuhrer illegally for another term – and kudos to Hayes for shining a light on yet another of these morally bankrupt right-wing foundations where Clark ended up...



Update 8/10/21: And isn't this interesting, huh?

...and turning to our regularly scheduled plague, Sam and Emma tell us that Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson now regrets signing his anti-mask mandate...womp womp...



...and in a bit of a compare-and-contrast example, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem NJ Governor Phil Murphy giving it back to the anti-vax idiots (long overdue for these clowns to get the comeuppance they deserve)...



...and Jonathan Capehart, sitting in for Joy Reid, speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep Tim Ryan of Ohio (running for the U.S. Senate for Rob Portman’s about-to-be-open seat) about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s typically stupid and misogynist remark about hitting Nancy Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel (tell me once again about the “feedback loop” from the wingnuts and our corporate media overall if a Dem had said anything remotely similar to this)...



...and gee, maybe we ought to do something about this climate change thing, huh (David Shuster tells us more...and in a related story...)...



Update 8/8/21: More here.

..and I’m not trying to make a weather-related comment with this selection – just trying to keep things a little upbeat, that’s all.

Wednesday Stuff

Joe Scar and Willie Geist speak with Jane Mayer of The New Yorker about the dark $$ groups behind all the “Stop The Steal” idiocy in Arizona and other efforts to sow mistrust in our elections (more here – and of course, Scar is typically tiresome with his commercial for The Heritage Foundation and other like-minded outfits...this garbage currently going on is a logical evolution in their ruthless efforts to consolidate and hold onto power, and only a fool would act surprised by these developments)...



...and apparently President Biden is extending the eviction moratorium, in no small part because of a protest from Cori Bush (yeah, issues with Biden on this, but I definitely wouldn’t call him a “disaster” – that applies to Biden’s predecessor...also, apparently Bush was quite rightly congratulated by Schumer and Elizabeth Warren on this, but haven’t heard anything in the way of a congratulations from House Speaker Pelosi...we’ll see)...



...and Cenk and Ana of TYT bring us the latest on the charges against Dem NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, and yeah, it’s a bunch of really bad stuff...I’m hardly a Cuomo fan, but I kind of kept my powder dry, as it were, a bit on this matter because not only are there plenty of examples of the “R” party acting as badly or even worse on this, but I wasn’t sure where the smoke ended and the fire began, you might say, on the Cuomo stuff, but he needs to be gone for sure after this report, and that montage of him which was a supposed defense made my skin crawl...in some ways Biden deserves credit and in other ways I think he’s falling short – though, again, he’s a HUUUUGE improvement over his predecessor – but one area where Biden absolutely doesn’t mess around is mistreatment of women, and he’s absolutely right to come down on Cuomo like a ton of bricks...and oh yeah, I think that veiled dig at that maggot Jimmy Dore near the 11:00 mark was highly called for...



...and Mehdi Hasan brings us a report on The Swanson TV Dinner Heir and his trip abroad – “The Hungary Games”...good one (more here)...



...and I thought this was a great video from Don Winslow with Jeff Daniels putting our COVID calamity in the context of 9/11 and the aftermath...



...and when it comes to traitors against our country, we should never, ever let them off the proverbial hook, and Repug U.S. House Rep Paul Gosar is pretty damn high on that list...



...and I thought this was a pretty neat Now This clip about the family in Norway building an eco-friendly dome to live in (kind of sad that it’s come to this, but I applaud the ingenuity)...



...and I’m in the mood for this “moldy oldy” of a summer tune, so here it is.

Tuesday Stuff

Mrs. Joe Scar and Mike Barnicle tell us evangelical Christians are more resistant to getting the COVID vaccine than any other group (yeah, I know – big surprise at this point)...



...and this CBC report on Florida setting new COVID cases under Governor #DeathSantis includes an interview with Dr. Thomas Unnasch (nice to get the unfiltered reality perspective from the media, even if we have to go to another country to do it...and in a related story, I give you this)...



...and David Pakman tells us that we vaccinated people are getting pretty damn fed up with those who choose not to get one or two shots in the arm...yes, there are cases of people dealing with side effects who are unable to get the full dose, but those are miniscule exceptions (and how ridiculous is this? And ”bleaching your papayas?”...WHAAAA??? And don’t beat yourself up too much, David, because I was hoping the same thing about this country coming together on this)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that, apparently, Repug U.S. House Rep Adam Kinzinger has no more sh*ts to give concerning the 1/6 insurrection based on this interview with Jonathan Karl of ABC (lots of issues with Kinzinger on other subjects, but he deserves a lot of credit here IMO)...



...and in case anybody out there still thinks I give a free pass to Dems on most any subject, I’m including this segment from David Doel in which he quite correctly takes Nancy Pelosi to task on whether or not the Biden Administration can forgive student loan debt...Doel makes the point very well that Biden can indeed do that, and has in fact DONE IT ALREADY for those who were bilked by for-profit colleges under former Ed Secretary Cruella DeVos...and I agree with Doel that the second clip is actually more damning for the reasons he points out (of course, another alternative is for the Dems to sponsor legislation making it easier to deduct student loan debt for tax purposes, but though that could pass the House the way it’s currently made up, I have a feeling it would die in the deeply-broken U.S. Senate)...



...and speaking of Dems Behaving Badly, John and Ana tells us that, apparently, Joe Manchin can’t tell when he’s getting booed, though AOC fortunately – and yet again to her credit – brings the reality perspective on the infrastructure legislation moving through the Senate at a snail’s pace...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that, apparently, dumb-as-a-tree-stump Tommy Tuberville (allegedly the U.S. Senator from Alabama, from the “R” party of course) didn’t report $3 million in stock trades (violating the Stock Act, it appears...and this applies to Dem and Repug U.S. House reps and U.S. senators, with DiFi and a few others mentioned)...



...and happy 95th (!) birthday to the incomparable Tony Bennett.

Monday Stuff

This “Now This” clip tells us about the response from Capitol Police Ofc. Harry Dunn over Dunn's getting dragged by The Roger Ailes BS Factory for his courageous testimony on the 1/6 insurrection (with the noise generated against Dunn led by that harpie despised by her own family and The Swanson TV Dinner Heir)...



...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, Julia Sun of Rebel HQ tells us that the NFL isn’t going to mess around with unvaccinated players/teams when it comes to COVID (I haven’t applauded the NFL very often, but this is one time when I’m making an exception)...



...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 7/30/20 (just going around the block this time...want to know why the “party of Lincoln” and their troglodyte supporters are dragging us down into more COVID misery? Well, a lot of it has to do with their attitude towards science, as shown in this clip)...



...and Beau discusses the importance of masks (good advice to encourage everyone to do this for people with medical conditions, and he’s probably right that we should continue to do social distancing too...someday we’ll be over this...someday...)...

via GIPHY

...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about “Curtsy Kyrsten,” secretly meeting with McConnell, going to some Iron man competition in New Zealand and working as a wine-tasting intern in Sonoma, all on the taxpayer dime apparently...some of this stuff is out of a Stanley Kubrick movie, but this is reality...



...and Dem U.S. Sen Jon Tester of Montana discusses the Biden Administration’s signing of a “right to repair” order that will let farmers repair their own equipment (a big deal partly because they have no choice but to keep costs as low as they possibly can, and this is a way to do that, despite lobbying from Microsoft, John Deere, etc. to gauge farmers of course)...



...and I have no idea who the guy is behind these “Second Thought” videos, but he keeps hitting the ball out of the park, you might say, and this one has to deal with the U.S. and Cuba...so much important stuff to unpackage here, such as the fact that we really can’t tell Israel to get its act together with the Palestinians until we do the same thing with that island country 90 miles south of us...nice job to show the clip of Fix Noise blurring out the signs of the people allegedly protesting against Communism, when in fact they’re REALLY protesting against us and that utterly wretched embargo...



...and RIP Chuck E. Weiss, immortalized in this Tom Waits tune as well as the hit by Rickie Lee Jones (the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is coming up later this month, by the way).