David Doel tells us about Elon Musk being named Person of the Year by Time, which, as far as I’m concerned, is yet another reason to never subscribe to that publication again (more here)...
Update: The Kentucky guy mentioned here would be a good candidate also.
...and this Don Winslow video cuts pretty much to the chase; name ANYBODY in Congress who reached out to Mark Meadows and Uday Trump Jr. during the 1/6 insurrection...
...and as long as we’re mentioning last January’s attempt to overthrow our government, David Pakman wonders why we haven’t heard from Ivanka (or Boy Wonder Jared also actually) in the flurry of text messages revealed earlier in the week and whether or not she should be the subject of congressional inquiry also (she’ll probably just deny everything of course, but I think the investigating committee should “rattle her cage” anyway)...
...and for a complete and total change of pace, I give you this...I’ve had this tune in my head for the last day or so since I saw this, but this is an absolutely bangin’ campaign ad; I don’t have a clue as to this goy’s politics, but this definitely gets my attention for sure...I think the dancing pig with the sombrero was my favorite (John and Abelina Sabrina tell us more)...
Update 12/20/21: AND HE WON!!! (here). And his conservative opponent peacefully conceded, and also didn’t file 60 lawsuits over alleged claims of fraud and try to stage an insurrection.
...and here are more seasonal selections that I think are pretty good, though they don't top the last clip :-).
Yes people, we're actually at 800,000 COVID casualties, and it looks like we're on track for a million by the first quarter of next year...can't think of a word to describe how "through the looking glass" all of this is - most of the fatalities appear to be unvaccinated people in the South (not trying to be snarky – just pointing out facts)......
...and David Doel discusses COVID pretty much tearing through pro-Trump counties as previously noted; witness the handiwork of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, among many others (mildly NSFW/W)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about both red and blue states, apparently, that are using leftover COVID cash for tax cuts...a particularly clear-eyed commentary on the importance of paying our damn taxes...
...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ gives these protesting clowns at the Lincoln Memorial the treatment they deserve here (these life forms who showed up about 10 days ago...or, as Rachel Maddow called them, “menacing middle managers of an electronics store”...way too damn funny)...
...and it's probably fitting that we transition from this to a somewhat humorous seasonal selection as part of today's offerings.
I know I'm a little behind on this, but Beau tells us about how Repug KY Senator Rand (“Fake Ophthalmologist”) Paul (here) is now in favor of disaster relief after he was against it; I think Beau is right that it’s a fool’s errand to expect a life form like Paul to actually have a conscience one day (yes, we should help the people the commonwealth of Kentucky...we should help ANYONE in our country including territories who needs it)...
...and in this brief clip, Brian Tyler Cohen reminds us of what Paul said four years ago when Texas and Puerto Rico needed taxpayer-funded hurricane relief (easy to pontificate about spending $$ to help others when it’s not in your own backyard)...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about the San Francisco restaurant not serving the cops who of course were armed...and I believe the restaurant was wrong not to serve the cops (and I give the restaurant credit for realizing that and trying to make things right), but I take issue here with Cenk a bit on police reform...yes, we need it, but as much as I want to bash the Dems for this, the problem is that anything even remotely related to reforming police is COMPLETELY POLITICALLY TOXIC! And is that the fault overall of Dem politicians? No, as far as I’m concerned (not when it comes to this). The problem is the fact that VOTERS ARE SWAYED LIKE UTTER SHEEP BY THE REPUGS ON THIS ISSUE!...
...and this Lincoln Project ad tells us about more ghoulish behavior from Texas Republicans; this time, a hotline for LGBTQ youth that can direct them to a suicide prevention number was shut down by Gov. Greg Abbott...
...and once more, I don't know about you, but I'm definitely in the mood for more seasonal selections after stories like that one.
Rachel Maddow presents 1/6 Commission vice-chair Liz Cheney discussing text messages received by former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in reference to the insurrection, including those from Hannity, Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade, as well as Donald Trump Jr. – by contrast, I offer this (and once more, Brianna Keilar of CNN’s clip) of the Republican propaganda network downplaying everything that took place, as per usual...
...and Ana and John of TYT tell us that the Tennessee licensing board of medical examiners revoked a policy that punished doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation from their website due to pressure from a conservative politician named John Ragan (more here - oh, but they “deleted” but did not “rescind” the policy...uh huh – suuuure)...
...and I have to tell you that I was utterly incensed by this story of the teachers in South Dakota who apparently went out to scramble for cash between periods of what looked like a hockey game...not mad at the teachers, I hasten to add, who are doing everything possible for their students I’m sure, but I sure as hell AM MAD at anybody who had anything whatsoever to do with forcing the teachers into a position where they actually had to participate in a degrading stunt like that (Mehdi Hasan, sitting in for Chris Hayes, gives us some important context)...
...and David Doel tells us about the six people who died during the collapse of Amazon’s Illinois warehouse who were forced to work while a tornado touched down near the building...I’m not at all sure that the answer was for the employees to be sheltered in some kind of tornado-proof facility, but they should have been allowed to leave the damn warehouse (I don’t agree with Doel’s drunk-driving example...and I don’t care how many contractors Amazon was using, though FTEs would have been preferable of course; I only mean that the warehouse should have had a disaster contingency plan for ALL workers regardless of whether or not some were contractors)...
Emma and the Majority Report crew discuss this assclown New Hampshire Repug state rep named Erica Layon who totally screws up the history of slavery and immigrants arriving to this country as part of an emerging industrial workforce (and no, Irish and/or Italian immigrants were not classified as three fifths of a person, as Emma V. says...and JUST ONCE I would like for a reporter, when they hear a Repug politician bloviating about CRT, to say in response “Can you give us an example of CRT being taught in a school that you think is a problem?” because I’ll bet $10 that they won’t be able to do it).
And I just want to add something here that is probably stupendously obvious, but I’ll say it anyway.
As pointed out here, Critical Race Theory is quite literally a particular academic field of study claiming “that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.” One of the examples cited is “redlining” of certain districts for low-density housing to keep out African Americans, keeping them in higher-density areas (where there would be, more often than not, higher rates of crime, less of an availability of social services, etc.).
More simply put, it is something taught at some colleges, but by no means all. And I have found NO EVIDENCE to indicate that it is taught in any K-12 school district in this country.
However, the people screeching about it likely don’t know that. And if somehow they do, they sure as hell don’t want anyone else to know that either. So CRT, as far as they’re concerned, becomes a “grab bag” of grievance issues and talking points that they can spew about any way they want (made up/tailored the way they want), since they’re relying on the fact that most people won’t know what it is that I just noted above.
This requires our media to get a hell of a lot smarter than they’ve shown so far when it comes to interviewing the people screeching about it the loudest. And I for one am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen...
...and I thought this was a good recent commentary from Brianna Keilar of CNN about Fix Noise and their hysterical hissy fit over their damn Christmas tree versus how they SHOULD report on the 1/6 insurrection (more here...and when it comes to The Roger Ailes BS Factory, let's not forget this Jacob DeGraff idiot also as noted here...and with the recent departure of Chris Wallace, who showed flashes of integrity though he "carried water" for the wingnuts more often than not, that channel loses any slight pretense of a network practicing actual journalism)...
...and I read this recent New York Times Op-Ed from former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, which was all full of “oh, you blue state Dems need to come out and talk to WE REAL AMERICANS in the heartland,” and I thought he made some good points particularly when it comes to Dems and messaging (which they ALWAYS have a problem with for some reason), but I also had a reaction very much like the one from Thom Hartmann below (that being said, I’d like to see DNC head Jaime Harrison hop a plane and fly out west to meet with Bullock and make the latter put his money where his mouth is)...
...and as usual, Second Thought gives us a hell of a lot to think about, this time around on wage theft and how workers are exploited as a matter of course in our capitalist economy...
While reporting the SCOTUS ruling having to do with Texas’s disgusting anti-abortion law, our utterly useless bought-and-paid-for corporate media has been leading with “Oh, it’s a split decision, because it’s allowing people to challenge the Texas law,” even though the SCOTUS allowed the awful law to stand instead of overruling it with the Roe and Casey precedents.
Uh, no. As noted in the Rachel Maddow clip below (and in the dissents of Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Chief Justice John Roberts, of all people), this ruling takes the concept of “nullification” to ever-more-absurd new depths.
However (as Maddow notes), as long as we have this precedent, let’s use it to pass anti-gun laws in blue states, offering “bounties” to have people arrested involved in straw gun purchases or those who may be selling automatic weapons at gun shows (like the Fort Washington, PA gun expo, or whatever that’s called, that happens every year). Also, we can offer “bounties” to have people arrested for protesting at Planned Parenthood sites.
Hey, you created this precedent that tramples all over the Constitution, wingnuts, not us!...
And good move by Gavin Newsom here (i.e., applying the Texas anti-abortion precedent to assault weapons in CA).
...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, David Pakman tells us that COVID cases in the U.S. are spiking, as well as globally, but so far, it’s not tied to the Omicron variant; based on the data that admittedly is incomplete, hospitalizations and severity is tied to Delta...
...and with the prior clip in mind, Medhi Hasan tells us what the world is doing in response to the most recent COVID variants, including Delta and Omicron, and how our response is wanting by comparison (kudos to Hasan for emphasizing that, as a planet, we’re all in this mess together, and as he quite correctly points out, no one is safe until everyone is safe)...
