Friday Stuff

I’m including this Inside Edition video on some awful airline passenger behavior as a lead-in to this item, about 8 idiot Republican U.S. senators opposing a no-fly database of unruly passengers because correctly categorizing them as such “equates them with terrorists”...and the problem is? (MSNBC had a video on this with Alex Wagner, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, speaking with Sara Nelson, president of the flight attendants union, but for some ridiculous reason I can’t embed it here...not sure if it’s an MSNBC thing or a YouTube thing)...



...and it looks like Mango Mussolini’s accounting firm bailed on him and his sorry brood of vipers, including Ivanka, Uday and Qusay...and that primarily affects the last 10 years of records (rut-row)...



...and Cenk and David Shuster tell us about the Sandy Hook families winning a legal battle against Remington with a $73 million judgment, essentially putting out of business the company that manufactures these weapons of death...



...and sticking with TYT, John and Wosny Lambre discuss an Indiana high school allowing students to “opt out” of Black History Month lessons...gee, won’t it be a shame for these kids when they grow up and learn about the world beyond the suburbs (I saw an African American on Twitter asking if he could opt out of learning about white history...I mean, yes, that won’t happen and there’s a bit of humor in that comment, but he made a good point)...



...and Mehdi Hasan (speaking with Charlie Savage of the New York Times) tells us about the right wing’s latest obsession (this Durham probe nonsense about HRC allegedly spying on Trump, when, if anything, it happened when Obama was president, and likely because Combover Caligula was using that secretive Russian phone...more here...God, how much MORE information do you need to prove that #45 was “mobbed up” and in hock to Putin up to his flabby butt? – makes me recall the quote that the lie is halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its pants, echoed in the linked Will Bunch column)...



...and I thought this was a somewhat upbeat newer tune to help bring the week to a close (unless I post tomorrow of course), though it may be a little early for Halloween I'll admit.

Wednesday Stuff

This video from More Perfect Union brings us West Virginia coal miners telling their thoroughly bought-and-paid-for alleged Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin to support Build Back Better...yes, we know the odds are long on this, but we need to keep fighting...



...and Joy Reid speaks with Lindsay Owens on companies overcharging in response to inflation and how they’re rewarded for this utterly disgusting behavior by their shareholders (Owens has been doing a great job in reporting this, as noted here and here – and some related info is here).

Oh, and when it comes to the economy and the issue of gas prices...yes, they’re going up on Biden’s watch b/c we’re restarting from COVID, we’re getting screwed by Russia and the Saudis of course, some of our refineries are shutting down – to say nothing of the fact that we need to be moving a hell of a lot faster on alternative energy including EVs – and gas prices ALWAYS GO UP IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER!

But I hope anyone reading this realizes that, if you turn on Biden and the Dems over this single issue, you’re rewarding a treasonous party of insurrectionists pledging their loyalty to a failed “reality show” TV star, a bunch who will give you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING if, God forbid, they seize the reins of power once more later this year...and worse than that, have given every indication that they will do whatever they can to kill our democracy and replace it with some kind of corporate despotic authoritarianism instead.

I mean, you do realize that, don’t you?...



...and somewhat related to the prior clip, Farron Cousins tells us about red states suing Biden for raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers (can’t say I’m surprised, stoo-pid a move as this is)...



...and in keeping with the theme of Republican idiocy, John and Francesca tell us about that assclown Thomas Massie who apparently is advocating for overthrowing the government...gee, didn’t Kentucky already try such treasonous behavior during the Civil War?

Massie is nothing but a stinking coward. If he encountered violence for real, he'd soil himself...



...and I thought this was a somewhat humorous commentary from Jeff Wiggins on the wingnut tears over the non-whiteness (well, except for Eminem of course) of the Super Bowl halftime show...pass the popcorn (staying with the theme of right-wing nonsense...gee, wasn't "Sexual Anarchy" a song by Black Flag?? - joke :-)...



...and speaking of bands, RIP Ian McDonald of King Crimson and Foreigner.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about departing Repug U.S. House Rep (and 1/6 Commission member) Adam Kinzinger on his party’s infatuation with Our Former Ol’ Buddy Vlad Putin, including The Swanson TV Dinner Heir of course (remember when Dubya uttered this nonsense about Putin, by the way? And good commentary, but I think Cohen uncharacteristically “loses the plot” himself a bit conflating Mohammed Bone Saw and Saudi Arabia with Russia...unless he’s saying Repugs automatically align with oppressive regimes, and he’s right about that...have to laugh at our corporate media at this point actually being surprised by the descent of the "party of Lincoln" into authoritarianism - have you people been living under a rock?)...



...and speaking of right-wing idiocy, Ari Melber contrasts all of the “crack pipe” nonsense against Biden’s record on jobs and the economy (from Fix Noise to the treasonous Josh Hawley, little Marco Rubio, Senator Foghorn Leghorn, etc.)...



...but to be fair...I hate to agree with David Doel on this point, but I think he’s right about Biden stealing billions from Afghan civilians...don’t know any other way to describe it either (and yes, I realize this story is a little more complicated and families of 9/11 victims deserved to be compensated too, but I still think this is the wrong way to do it)...



Update 2/16/22: This is an important clarification.

...and John and Brian Unger of The Damage Report tell us that the DOJ is FINALLY looking into how Generalissimo Trump destroyed documents, at the request of the National Archives (who initiated the investigation of course)...



...and on the subject of wingnut discontent, Brett Erlich tells us of the great unwashed bailing on Dear Leader, including “conservative Barbie” literally wiping his name off her shirt (NSFW/H)...



...and Beau tells us that he thinks the Canadian government did a good job on handling the trucker nonsense in Ottawa (and I would tend to agree – and speaking of which, you’ve got to read this hilarious thread)...



...and RIP film director and special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull – yes, even though I think “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” were incredibly sloooowwwww films, they looked amazing and helped break ground for the type of movie innovations we pretty much take for granted now...what follows is a clip from the Trumbull-directed film Silent Running about astronauts tasked to guard pods which contain the last remaining natural resources on earth (and no spoilers here in case anybody hasn’t seen it...interesting story about how the mini-robots ended up involved in a lawsuit over Star Wars as I vaguely recall)...



...and props to Eminem for taking a knee at the Super Bowl – I think this is a relatively PG-rated number, so you should be OK without headphones or ear buds.



Update 2/19/22: ROFLMAO! (here)

Monday Stuff

Ali Velshi, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, tells us about the anti-abortion nonsense in Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Flori-DUUUUHHH!...always “jobs, jobs, jobs” for Not Your Father’s Republican Party (Velshi speaks with Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamani)...



...and Sam and Emma V. discuss the “pause” of this Texas idiot named Shelly Luther, who apparently is running for elected office in "the land of the yellow rose" and caught herself saying that it was OK to make fund of trans kids, as Emma says, and tried to figure out some way to walk that back...well, it’s impossible to “walk back” something so grotesque, lady (I think this clip of this idiot is a few days old, actually - more is here...good job by Sam to draw a line from this garbage right to school choice)...



...and I hate giving Michael Smerconish the time of day, but he’s the only one saying anything so far about the Central Bucks County School District school administrator who didn’t want the kids to visit the Holocaust Museum but wanted them to “study” roller coasters at Dorney Park instead (tied to COVID immunization...uummm, it’s not “polarization,” Smerky...it’s AWFUL CONDUCT PRIMARILY BY ONE POLITICAL PARTY THAT’S DRIVING STUPIDITY LIKE THIS! I DEFY YOU TO PRODUCE A DEM PARTY EQUIVALENT TO THIS STORY! - more is here)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us of that U.S. Senatorial Republican waste (which one, I know) RoJo, who apparently is washing his hands of trying to win unionized jobs for Wisconsin and is happy with letting them go to the non-union state of South Carolina instead...



...and regarding work in this country, this great Second Thought video tells us why millions are quitting their jobs...



...and RIP filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who brought us many memorable movie movements, including this one of course (as producer...NSFW/H)...



...and I know Presidents Day is a week from today, but the birthday of #16 was Saturday, so with that in mind, I wanted to change things up a bit with this clip...not sure how much longer the “button-down mind” is going to be with us, but hopefully for a good while yet...



...oh, and by the way, Happy Valentine's Day.