Second Thought brings us another great video, this time on the latest IPCC report and all of the wild weather going on, which of course are all symptoms of worsening climate change...gee, maybe our government ought to do something about it, huh?...
...and based on this report from Rachel Maddow and former Trump administration official Olivia Troye, who, commendably, came “back to the light” awhile ago (more here), I think Stephen Miller should be bound and gagged with duct tape, flown to Kabul and left there to fend for himself among the refugees whose visa applications he destroyed so he can beg for transport out of that country like everybody else trying to flee...
...and I should probably pay a little more attention to the recall effort going on in California, and Emma of TMR does that here (more here, and more BS on Larry Elder, the presumptive Republican candidate who seems to be out-polling everybody else, is here...yep, Elder’s another Trumpist right-wing radio loudmouth all right)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us here about Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blowing his racist dog whistle in response to still more news on Republicans who refuse to take the COVID vaccine (yeah, that’s BS for all of the reasons noted in the clip - more here)...
...and on the subject of COVID, thoughts and prayers for Cardinal Raymond Burke (and yes, I’m being sarcastic)...
...and speaking of our regularly scheduled plague, this Really American clip tells us what Rand (Fake Ophthalmologist) Paul did in response as Kentucky’s plight worsened (one way to respond is here)...
...and staying with ”the world’s greatest deliberative body,” The Daily Show gives Huckleberry Graham the treatment he deserves here (would have been nice if this had come out last year during the election, but good job to get this out now anyway)...
I thought this was a great commentary from Lawrence O’Donnell on why the war in Afghanistan is only slightly comparable at best to Vietnam, with performative clown and U.S. Senate Repug Ben Sasse, who never encountered an issue he couldn’t try to exploit for personal gain without trying to accomplish anything of worth, linking what happened in ‘Nam to our most recent exploits (and blaming only Biden of course...more here and here)...
...and I thought this was yet another great commentary from Beau on the equipment we’re leaving behind as we say that “long goodbye” to our 20-year war in the wake of 9/11...
...and Rachel Maddow discusses yesterday’s loon who told D.C. police he wanted to blow up the Capitol (allegedly) and created a 5-hour-or-so standoff (she speaks with correspondent Ben Collins, who makes the interesting point that this guy had family health coverage issues it seems, but instead of embracing Medicare for All, he resorted to violence...and I think Collins makes another interesting point that these people don’t know what to do since their hero wasn’t reinstalled as preznit like he said he would be...”like WrestleMania for these people” indeed)...
...and Farron Cousins communicates an appropriate level of disgust IMO in this commentary about FL guv Ron #DeathSantis, pointing out that 50 kids a day are getting hospitalized in that state over COVID-19...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about the maskless a-hole riding the NY subway who harassed an elderly woman who was wearing a mask (great point by Cenk about Washington getting the troops vaccinated during the Revolutionary War)...
...and usually I wouldn’t go near “info-tainment” stuff like this, but I couldn’t help but be amused by this story – also ridiculous that Martha’s Vineyard is referred to solely as a place where rich and famous people hang out...yes, that’s true to an extent, but there are also a ton of affordable rentals up there for the same $$ you would pay at the Jersey shore...and we’ve been to the Chilmark General Store more than a few times, which is a pretty “blue collar” place, if you will (if I were to run into him, I would be inclined not to even waste my energy on a life form like Dershowitz since I go there for a good time and don’t even want to deal with him, but yeah, this does sound like an episode of David’s show, I have to admit)...
Update 7/18/22: So many reasons to love Martha's Vineyard, and here is still another one.
...and this week marked the 85th birthday of Hollywood icon and environmentalist Robert Redford; here is a clip of Redford from “The Candidate” way back in the day...
...and I just happened to come across this pretty cool new seasonal tune – hope you like it also.
Brian Tyler Cohen gives us this video of Dem U.S. House Rep (and Afghan war vet) Matt Zeller giving Baby Goebbels the treatment he deserves on the question of getting the Afghans who helped us out of that country before the Taliban completely takes over (a “digital Dunkirk” indeed – mildly NSFW/H...more here and here)...
...and Cenk and Ana of TYT give us some “hot takes” on Afghanistan, including Pompeo of course (and Rick Scott wants to invoke the 25th Amendment? Google Rick Scott and Largest Medicare Fraud in U.S. History and let me know what you come back with, OK?)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tells us that The Swanson TV Dinner Heir is blaming the Taliban victory on gender studies (might be the trashiest of all of the “trash” takes here, and that’s saying something)...
...and Mehdi Hasan doesn’t let Dubya and his pals off the hook for Afghanistan either...
...oh, and as it turns out, Dubya has some thoughts? Gee, maybe he’ll make more paintings of ALL OF THE GODDAMN AFGHAN REFUGEES WHO COULDN’T F*CKING ESCAPE FROM THE BUMBLEF*CKERY HE AND CHENEY CREATED AND ENDED UP FALLING OFF PLANES TO THEIR DEATHS WHEN THEY TRIED TO FLEE!!! (with John and Jordan Uhl of The Damage Report)...
...and David Shuster tells us that that Taliban is apparently trying to do some kind of an image makeover, with them trying to work out on exercise machines we left behind in our retreat – yeah, I’ll remember this when they start slaughtering people who they suspect of helping us in that country and throwing acid at women again...and please believe me when I say that I want to be wrong about that (to say the least, I’m skeptical)...
...and Thom Hartmann gives some historical context on the U.S. trying to occupy Afghanistan (and the virtues of “soft power,” which, as Thom says, China will probably try next and end up getting the minerals we tried to get by making the Afghans stare at the barrel of a gun...yeah, that sure worked out, didn’t it?)...
...and happy 70th birthday to bassist John Deacon of Queen - I know I had a tune by the band a few days ago...well, here's another one.
Ana and Cenk of TYT bring us the news that Mexico is suing U.S. gunmakers...good! (and I think Cenk makes a GREAT point to link this to over-prescribing opioids, and Ana makes an even better point at the end about the consequences of OUR actions)...
...and Beau shares more thoughts on our pullout from Afghanistan...I have to admit that I was a little surprised to hear him blame Obama on this – I mean, sure, this got bad on his watch too, but I distinctly recall that every time 44 said something even remotely controversial, the chorus of caterwauling idiots in the “R” party would start with “Oh, there he goes again, that community organizer who never ran his own business – how dare he try to tell us what to do”...I’m not saying you can’t blame Obama for some stuff, but it sure would have been nice if the other side had acted like actual adults, and maybe we could have had actual serious discussions about stuff like, y’know, stepping up the use of drones (here) and deciding to execute Americans who were wrongly doing the bidding of terrorists (here)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about a petition to recall #DeathSantis which has 35K signatures, though, as Cousins notes, it apparently won’t lead to anything, even though the effort is commendable (and speaking of recalls, I haven’t said anything about what’s going on in California, as noted here, which to me is beyond a ridiculous joke)...
...and David Doel gives us more on that whack job Marjorie Taylor Greene and her BS about the vaccine (oh, and don’t give me this crap about how you don’t oppose the vaccine but you’re in favor of personal choice, or something... this loon needs to be arrested at this point because her garbage lies are getting people killed...the main reason why I'm even paying attention to her is because Doel does such a good job of pointing out just how truly nutty she is)...
...and Jesse Dollemore sitting in for David Pakman talks about Pelosi calling out McCarthy for going after Capitol police (and of course, God forbid that maniac Trump or any of his whacked-out followers would have anything to say about the Capitol officers who’ve killed themselves)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” and we’re taking another short journey back to 8/17/20, with Sam, Jamie and Matt of The Majority Report discussing Tommy Tuberville talking to some loudmouth radio clown, both competing for a Darwin award it would seem...and yeah, isn’t it funny how now, as if by magic, we’re not hearing any of these southern loudmouthed idiots bitching about how blue states can’t manage themselves? Yeah, take a look at the damn COVID map, you asshats...we’re definitely not out of this mess yet either, but that’s primarily the fault of you knuckleheads below that Mason Dixon line (great analysis from Sam here in particular)...
...and this video from More Perfect Union tells us about how the expanded child tax credit under Biden will help 3 moms doing their best to make ends meet...
...and I just happened to come across this video about five minutes ago, so here it is now - I guess you just get lucky sometimes.
Now that Afghanistan, sadly, is about to be completely overrun by the Taliban as we depart that country at long last, a bunch of “armchair warriors” out there are apportioning blame for the fact that our efforts over nearly 20 years may be completely wiped out (along with anyone who helped us with intelligence or acted as a translator - and since we’re talking about the Taliban, that surely means their families and friends too...I don’t think a single word can connote how awful that truly is).
Do you want to blame Biden for not ensuring the safety of those in that country who helped us, allowing them to escape also (as just noted)? That’s fair I guess, since this is happening on his watch. Do you want to also blame Generalissimo Trump (and, by extension, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) for coming up with the deadline for withdrawal in negotiation with the Taliban (as much as you can negotiate with them of course) that Biden claims has “tied his hands”? I definitely agree with that (more here).
Some on Twitter have said we should also blame The Sainted Ronnie R for deciding to arm the Mujahideen in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union in the ‘80s, given that those weapons would eventually be used against us when that group turned into al Qaeda. Oh, I definitely think that that’s fair all right.
But more than anybody else, I think we should blame this guy.
Oh, and by extension (as Oliver Willis, among others, has pointed out on Twitter), that goes for anybody on the Lincoln Project or some MSNBC pundits (including this one) who was a cheerleader for Number 43.
I’m old enough to remember when Dubya, after 9/11, had the opportunity to say to the Taliban, “All right, listen. We know you guys are ruthless bastards, and we don’t like you and you don’t like us, but just turn over to us everyone associated with al Qaeda and we’ll leave. That’s all we want.” Hell, even Putin, of all people, was down with that! And, of course, we could have done more to sanction our dear friends the Saudis, since 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.
But no, Dubya and Cheney didn’t do that. Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History gave that incredibly insulting (to the rest of the world) address to Congress, basically saying, “You’re with the terrists or you’re with us” (here - and of course, Dubya got a standing “O” for that) and basically declared war also on any country harboring terrorists, in addition to the terrorists themselves. Oh, and after a few months, the regime of #43 said, “OK, we’ve defeated the Taliban. Let’s leave a skeleton force in Afghanistan while we do the invasion we really want to do, which of course is Iraq.” And when the Taliban recovered and started making gains in that country again, what did Dubya do? He outsourced the Afghan war to Pakistan (remember all of those utterly pointless meetings with Musharraf, who was in charge of that country?). Apparently, the whole world (except the Bush gang, of course), KNEW Pakistan was continually giving al Qaeda and the Taliban safe haven (after all, what country was bin Laden in when we finally got him?), but we felt they were honest actors in this anyway!
So yeah, there’s plenty of blame for what has happened (and likely will happen) in Afghanistan. But as far as I’m concerned, when you’re in a hole and you want to get out, you should stop digging. And though what’s playing out is tragic, I’ll give Biden the tiniest bit of credit for realizing that (more here and here).
Anyway, here is a well-done commentary from Mehdi Hasan (and Biden said we wouldn't have a "fall of Saigon" moment - I respectfully disagree)...
With Afghanistan in crisis, lots of back and forth this weekend over 'Biden's to blame' vs 'Trump started it' and so I thought I'd open the @MehdiHasanShow on @MSNBC tonight by pointing out the U.S. president who actually kicked off this whole damn thing:pic.twitter.com/kqV4mT0UQN
Update 2: This is the only "take" on all of this I've found yet that's 100 percent correct.
Update 8/22/21: I skimmed over this New York Times Op-Ed by Ryan Crocker criticizing Biden and Trump on Afghanistan, where Crocker says that Bush went into Afghanistan because the Taliban wouldn’t hand over bin Lden to us. There’s some truth in that, but there’s also a hell of a lot of missing context.
As noted here, the Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden, but to a neutral country. And part of that has to do with the fact that we were already bombing Afghanistan at the time. We know what the Taliban is, but you truly would have to be as dumb and arrogant as Number 43 to expect ANYONE to work with us while we’re already dropping bombs on them!
...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, David Shuster brings us another Rebel HQ video with a Mississippi spokesman talking pretty much about statewide hospital failure, and of course that loon MTG tries to rationalize this insanity by saying “we can’t live forever”...fine, bitch – you can go first...and by the way, I’m not hearing a word from "Caribou Barbie" about “death panels” now...
...and Sam and Emma of TMR bring us this guy making a Tick Tock video telling the anti-vaxxers to “stick to their f*cking guns,” though he definitely doesn’t mean it the way you might think (very NSFW/H but for a damn good reason - oh, and that goes for this guy too, turned-around-collar or not)...
...and Farron Cousins (who is based in FLA) brings us more on #DeathSantis and his state’s COVID outbreak...
...and sticking with The Sunshine State, John and Brett Erlich tell us more on the stuff with Matt Gaetz and Joel Greenberg...the stuff about MDMA is particularly sickening IMO...I was kind of wondering where Brett Erlich was going in some of his comments to John I., but I think Erlich is ultimately saying that Trump has lowered the bar of expectations so much for Republicans and their supporters that most go “meh” any more in response to Gaetz-related allegations, which I think is a pretty huge problem in and of itself...
...and Robert Reich tells us that there is no longer a “reasonable center” in our media coverage, which is assumed in the typically ridiculous “both sides” narrative that our esteemed fourth estate keeps trying to resuscitate (and speaking of ridiculous media moments, I give you this...Reich is correct, but I have to admit that I'm a little unnerved by his use of the term "mainstream media," since that's a creation of the wingnutosphere more than anyone else, but I should probably just get over myself and deal with it)...
STOP THE "MAGA" PARTY AND SIMON CAMPBELL FROM TAKING OVER PENNSBURY!
Eight years ago, voters kicked Simon Campbell and his extremist ideology off the Pennsbury School Board. Since then, the Democratic Board has accomplished much to strengthen Pennsbury, including:
Full-day kindergarten classes
Computers for middle and high school students
Renovated and improved school buildings
Hired two highly qualified and respected Superintendents
Recognized as a National School District of Character
No increase in school taxes during the 2020 Pandemic
Responsibly followed public health guidelines for the safety of all
Simon Campbell is not on the ballot, but he is behind the Republicans’ attempt to win back a majority on the Pennsbury School Board in the November 2nd Municipal Election.
Campbell has said the local Republican party “will do what I tell them, and my political judgment isn’t subject to anyone else’s oversight.”
Campbell and a group of residents, including Republican school board candidate Jennifer Spillane (Region 3), have attacked current board members and the school's diversity and equity policy at recent meetings.
Campbell uses divisive, fact-free, conspiracy-theory-based fearmongering about “critical race theory” to inject his personal partisan agenda into our schools. His tirades are making the rounds on Fox News, Newsmax, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and other radical right-wing media.
Here is the video of Ms. Spillane’s comments at the June 17th school board meeting:
To see the entire video of the June 17th public comments, including another rant by Simon Campbell, go here (Jennifer Spillane and other commenters start at video time 1:03:30).
Stop Simon Campbell and the radical GOP “MAGA” fanatics:VOTE to elect EACH AND EVERY DEMOCRAT for the Pennsbury School Board in your Region.
To win, we need every Democrat who voted in the Primary to also get at least 2 to 3 more voters to vote for the Democrats in November. A “split-ticket” vote for any Republican is a vote to help Simon Campbell's Trump ideology ruin our public schools.
There was a time at this site when I paid a lot of attention to local Bucks County, PA politics, but for a variety of reasons I’m really not able to do that as I’d like to any more. However, one person who I definitely thought posed a grave threat to responsible school board governance was Simon Campbell, a notorious loud mouth and grifter riding what was then the Tea Party wave to try and totally hamstring the Pennsbury School District in terms of budgeting, hiring, teacher staffing and imposing his utterly wrong-headed agenda onto school curricula. And as this post states, we got rid of him way back when (a post related to Campbell is here – I remember when Campbell published a book listing the salaries of every Pennsbury school district employee and had them mailed to the homes of everyone in the district).
Well, I don’t suppose that it should be surprising in any way that he’s back as a Trumpist, trying to ride that wave once more and caterwauling about “wokeness” and “critical race theory” (and to learn more about the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, the shadowy group using its millions to stoke that alleged controversy, click here). And of course, that means that Campbell poses the same threat again now as he did previously.
Well, we sent "Simple Simon" and his minions packing once before. Let’s do it again now!
