(I think the “corporate stuff” bill was passed last night – and kudos to “the squad” for this – but the “stuff that actually matters” bill is still pending...we’ll see - someday I hope...).
This Lincoln Project ad tells us how to fight back against The Roger Ailes BS Factory (more here)...
...and speaking of Build Back Better (and again, wouldn’t it be nice if it were to, y’know, ACTUALLY PASS AND GET SIGNED INTO LAW AT LONG FREAKING LAST!), Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about a recent U.S. House floor speech by Dem Rep Tim Ryan of Ohio, running for the U.S. Senate (and to help Ryan – and I agree with Cohen that Ryan deserves it – click here)...
...and this may be the best video on wealth inequality in this country that Robert Reich has ever done...
...and yet another interesting Second Thought video asks if the “American Century” is coming to an end (as a bit of an aside, I was wondering how long it was going to take for the U.S. to acknowledge China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” which we ignore at our peril IMO)...
...and Sam and Emma of TMR tell us about CNN attacking progressives over McAuliffe’s loss in VA, because of course they do...and by the way, one way this race was different from NJ gov is that the Murphy contest was close only because Dem turnout utterly sucked, for some reason...64 percent paled in response to the turnout from the other side, which definitely needs to be looked at – if that gets replayed next year across the country, it will be electoral carnage for Dems...and I have a feeling Manchinema is partly to blame for that...good point by Matt about “managing” democracy instead of cultivating it...I never thought I’d agree with an operative for Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao either, but I have a feeling that his take is correct...
...and I guess I should have included this tune yesterday (harking back to this), but better late than never I guess.
I saw this pic here on Twitter. And I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty goddamn tired of watching Manchinema cozying up to "the party of No" like this (with Thune and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao). And if they don't have one hell of a good explanation for it, then they should see budget cuts to their staff and loss of committee assignments.
Oh, riiiight - I forgot. Chuck Schumer is the majority "leader." How silly of me.
Well, it’s nice to see that #MaseratiManchin got at least a bit of a comeuppance, as David Doel tells us...
...and on the subject of Manchinema, I have to admit that I thought this bit from Stephen Colbert was amusing, until I realized that these two cretins are trying to take this whole damn country over the metaphorical waterfall with them....
Update: Good take by The Rude Pundit once more (here).
...and even with the VA wins last Tuesday, that won’t stop wackadoodle Repugs like this woman in Delaware who said she beat Chris Coons despite her losing by almost 100K votes – definitely agree with “Doc” Maddow’s take on VA; not saying to “blow it off,” but only that “Team D” needs to pay more attention to the messaging overall for ’22 and ’24 and not get too preoccupied with what’s already happened (and I know this is a recording)...
...and speaking of right-wing crazies, Ana and John tell us about the QAnon supporters in Dallas who were apparently stood up by “dead JFK Jr,” and of course Combover Caligula would step aside and let him be prez (and apparently, Robin Williams and Dale Earnhardt were supposed to appear also, as if Williams would have anything to do with this, other than to make hilarious jokes about it)...
...and this More Perfect Union video gives us yet another example of workers standing up in the face of rapacious predatory capitalism, and this time it’s HelloFresh employees (more power to them)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that a lawsuit alleges the NRA illegally funded $35 million to elections over last 7 years, including that traitor Josh Hawley (thoughts and prayers...and Cousins is right to be concerned that this could reach the SCOTUS of “I Like Beer” Brett and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett and they could codify it as settled law instead of overturning it)...
...and I thought this was some pretty damn astute commentary from Beau on the strategy from Republicans in ’22 and ‘24 and what Team D has to do in response,,,
...and I also thought this was an appropriate newer tune to help kick-start our weekend (where we return to standard time, just as a reminder).
So you elected a failed hedge fund manager who cozies up to white nationalists. Truly a feat that is worthy of Alabama.
And you though Ron #DeathSantis is bad (and he IS bad)? As Jack Nicholson said in that movie, “wait till they get a load of me” (more here).
And by the way, I think this is a pretty smart early take on yesterday’s results. As Susie Madrak says, there’s only so much you can do against a propaganda operation that grinds out BS for one of our major political parties on a 24/7/365 basis, but one thing you CAN do is get out in front on messaging. And it appears that Terry McAuliffe In VA tried to run some kind of a “centrist Dem, ‘90s-Third-Way’” kind of campaign, which was barely good enough back then and DEFINITELY isn’t good enough now.
I wonder if anybody on the “D” team bothered to reach out to, say, AOC on the subject of doing deep canvassing in VA to find out the key issues motivating Dem voters and speak to those issues to drive turnout? I think vax and mask mandates for school kids should be a no-brainer on that one, as well as renewable energy investment (I don’t know what VA could do about student debt relief, but that’s a front-of-mind issue too). Did McAuliffe pay attention to any of that stuff? Or was he too busy “measuring the drapes”? Or saying “Youngkin is Trump, Youngkin is Trump” over and over and think that would be good enough (I seem to recall a pretty ancient political axiom that “you can’t make decent music playing the other guy’s fiddle,” meaning of course that you can only bash your opponent with his talking points for so long until it gets tiresome to the voters that you need).
Given all of this, I thought this was a pretty clear-eyed commentary from David Pakman (and Phil Murphy definitely won, by the way, but yeah, you could argue that it shouldn't have been as close as it was)...
Update 1: As is often the case, I find myself in agreement with The Rude One here.
Update 2: I also thought this was a pretty telling data point – McAuliffe actually out-performed Dem incumbent Governor Ralph Northam four years ago by about 200,000 votes (noted here among other stuff, some I take issue with to be honest), but he got creamed by the swing in non-college white women (and non-college white men, of course), as noted here. If somebody wants to bitch and say, “Oh, that’s typical Dem elitism”...uh, no. It’s actual data, moron!
Update 11/7/21: I have a lot of respect for Amy Siskind, but I have what amounts to a feeling on the whole “non-college white women voting for Glenn Trumpkin” thing instead of McAuliffe, with Siskind pretty much saying that that demographic voted the way they did because of racism (here – and no, I don’t have any data to support my argument, but only a hunch at this point).
As opposed to racism, could you also argue that that demographic voted the way they did because a lot of them are single-parent heads of households working low-wage jobs, and the most important issue to them was when they could get their kids back to school so the single moms wouldn’t have to pay for child care anymore (and Trumpkin was the one telling the schools to open, COVID be damned)? Please understand that I DO NOT support this policy; to me, it doesn’t matter how quickly you get the kids back to school. There could be another outbreak, the kids have to go home and everyone is on Zoom again if you don’t do it right. All I’m saying is that McAuliffe and his people could likely have done a better job of “taking the temperature” of that demographic before he figured out what his position was on that issue. Did that cost him that group of voters? I don’t know, but I sincerely hope what passes for the “brain trust” at the DNC takes a good, long, hard look at this.
Update 11/23/21: I saw some unconfirmed reports that AOC was told to stay away from this contest. If that's true (and when I find more reliable sourcing, I'll include it here), then I can't think of a word for the stupidity, though it is sadly typical (more food for thought is here).
...and returning to the attempted takeover of our government on 1/6 (and what does it tell you about the life forms in this country that chose to reward last night the political party behind that horror show?), Farron Cousins tells us about the judge mocking the Capitol rioters for complaining about prison (too effing bad, losers!)...
...and Sam, Emma and Matt of The Majority Report tells us that Josh Hawley recently said that feminism drove men/boys to porn and video games (Hawley looking for and probably finding some more easy marks a la The Gropenfuhrer...mildly NSFW/H)...
...and John brings us the truly vile and disgusting story of Sean Parnell of our beloved commonwealth (more here)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 11/2/14, with “the first honest Internet provider ad” in light of this (definitely NSFW/H)...
...and by the way, happy recent 90th birthday to Dan Rather – I still remember all of the stuff with Dubya and the Texas Air National Guard (here), and how Bushco got their pal Dick Thornburgh to do that alleged “audit” of the story with CBS (i.e., threatening the network to go back on the story and leaving Rather and producer Mary Mapes out to dry)...typical of the Bush gang to NOT say “yeah, I got preferential treatment – so what?” and instead say the documents in question weren’t right because the typewriter keys were crooked, or some such nonsense (w/ Chris Hayes)...
...and yeah, after last night, I confess that I need a laugh, and I thought this story about “the A&W 3/9ths Burger” was pretty damn funny, as David Shuster tells us...
...and happy upcoming 60th birthday to David Bryson of Counting Crows.
(And since it's Election Day, here is more info on supporting Bucks County, PA Democrats - polls are still open for another hour or so.)
I thought this was yet another good take from Beau of the Fifth Column, this time on President Manchin and his latest ridiculous games over the Build Back Better bill of course...
Update: Sorry (well, actually I’m not), but I have to say this. I’m seeing all of these videos popping up about how progressives gave up in response to Manchin’s antics. You can include David Doel in that bunch, who I basically respect. And you can also include Kyle Kulinski, Matt Taibbi and David Sirota, who I used to respect, but no longer do.
Yeah, it’s time for the “circular firing squad purity test” stage of things I see, which means that – God help us – we may actually be at the point where something is passed at long last! But I won’t take that on faith until something of substance is actually accomplished.
Here’s the reality: the one percent figured out how to game our system of representative democracy long ago (on the federal level certainly, as well as too damn many states and municipalities). And they did it mainly by conning gullible voters to cast ballots against their interests by appealing to all level of prejudices (and I wish I could absolve organized religion in this, including Roman Catholicism, but I cannot). In Washington, they’ve completely locked up the Republican Party and enough of the Democrats to effectively block ANYTHING they don’t like.
And no, the “progressive caucus” isn’t going to arrive like the cavalry in some “B” western at the last minute and save the day. They don’t have the damn numbers (at least not yet)! But of course, that won’t stop the people I just mentioned from trashing the “D” party and helping to drive down potential base turnout next year, as well as 2024.
Movement conservatism has played out in this country in utterly wretched, ruinous fashion for at least 40 years, mainly because we were conned by The Sainted Ronnie R, a whole gaggle of political operatives and media acolytes on the right, and a somnambulant establishment press that thought everything was just fine as long as we preserved “balance.” And it’d going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of election cycles to free ourselves from this damn mess! And we won’t get anything close to the type of legislation we need and deserve until we do.
...and Chris Hayes speaks with former D.C. Homeland Security official Donell Harvin about the recent report in the WaPo that provides a bunch of new details on the treasonous 1/6 insurrection...
...and apparently, one of those new details is that Huckleberry Graham was yelling at the Capitol police, “We give you guns for a reason – use them!,” acting like the little bitch he truly is...basically saying it’s OK for the MAGA crowd to get shot (umm, OK - ?? - with John and Francesca)...
...and Ana and Cenk tell us that a Southwest pilot said “Let’s go Brandon” over the intercom during a flight (nice), which of course is wingnut code for “F Biden”...
...and this Now This clip tells us that climate.org Extinction Rebellion recently held a Halloween-themed protest in Paris, ahead of the UN’s COP26 climate summit this week; demonstrators dressed in makeup and costumes and staged a “die-in” to bring attention to the climate crisis (and hey, I'm absolutely fine with performance art like this for an important cause, and I can't think of a bigger issue than this one)...
...and RIP drummer Ron Tutt, who appeared in this tune as well as many others of note (and actually, “Streetlife Serenade” that included this number did end up “put in the back in the discount rack,” though I think it deserved a much better fate...and RIP to this Phiily guy too).
Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about CNN’s Jim Acosta going after “Tuckums” and the Murdochs for allowing this typically ridiculous “documentary” on the Fox Nation streaming service about how 1/6 was a “false flag” operation (I know I touched on this yesterday with the Thom Hartmann clip about the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt objecting to the same thing, but I think this bears repeating)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, this Meidas Touch video tells us that no one will be safe in VA if Glenn Trumpkin manages to win tomorrow (to help Terry McAuliffe, click here)...
...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about Katie Porter grilling dirty energy executives with her great little M&M demo...she also presents what looks like sacks of potatoes in that hatchback showing how much these bastards want to carve up and gut our country for a dying resource...
...and John is back with Cenk and Nina Turner to tell us how President Manchin benefitted from gutting the Build Back Better bill...GREAT point by Cenk about wondering why Manchin has so much freaking power...and I have a feeling that Cenk is right about Menendez, given all of the drug companies in NJ, such as J&J...the fact that Menendez hasn’t retired yet is as big a sign of U.S. Senate Dem political atrophy as the decision of DiFi to run again...
...and this More Perfect Union video tells us about Biden labor secretary Marty Walsh (complete with “the accent”) walking a picket line with striking Kellogg’s workers (kudos to him)...
...and here’s a somewhat spooky post-Halloween tune that I think is appropriate for the moment.
Joy Reid truly brings us the stuff of nightmares given the potential return of Mango Mussolini and his minions (and it’s frightening indeed to see how far along this has developed, with the virtual silence of allegedly middle-of-the-road Republicans such as @RepBrianFitz)...
...and speaking of allegedly common-sense Republicans (though this guy is conservative to his core), this clip tells us that U.S. House Rep (and pronounced anti-Trumper) Adam Kinzinger won’t seek another term in Congress (he was also facing a redistricting fight, it should be noted)...
...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about President Biden not allowing Combover Caligula to claim executive privilege (again) on documents related to the 1/6 attacks...
...and speaking of the failed 1/6 insurrection, Farron Cousins reminds us that some involved in the treasonous effort in NJ and VA are running for re-election this week, including 8 Repugs who were involved to some degree – but innocent until proven guilty and all that (including this character and his stooges...yep, they’re taking Bannon’s advice to get involved in local elections all right...more on that is here)...
...and Thom Hartmann tells us that Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the ADL, wrote recently to the Murdochs about Tucker Carlson’s agit-prop alleged “documentary” about how 1/6 was a “false flag” operation (no bottom for these life forms I know)...
...and this Lincoln Project ad tells us what Glenn Trumpkin really means when he’s talking about “critical race theory” (more here)...and I’ll admit that I don’t know what’s going on “on the ground” in the commonwealth of VA, but why anybody would trust a guy who was a hedge fund manager (and apparently, a FAILED one at that) is something I will NEVER understand (to help Terry McAuliffe, click here)...
...and AOC “goes there” when it comes to asking a dirty energy executive about donations to politicians when lobbying to maintain our ridiculous status quo where companies in that dying industry “get the silver” while funding for clean, renewable energy goes a-wanting...kudos to her, but asking about donations shouldn’t be news because that should be happening ALL THE TIME (with John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report)...
