#Happy Curtsy Day! Yeah, today marks the one-year anniversary of this incredibly tone-deaf action from Arizona’s U.S. senatorial mistake (here)...
...and David Doel discusses Elie Mystal’s appearance on The View partly in response to Biden’s State of the Union address (and yeah, this is another example of Dems having to try and educate voters and not fall into the conservative BS narratives related to the most newsworthy issues...we actually used to have the Constitution amended on a fairly frequent basis until the ruinous right-wing ascendancy pretty much captured our government...and I have a feeling that tweet from Michael Ian Black was meant to be tongue-in-cheek)...
...and John and Viviana Vigil of The Damage Report tell us about Texas and Greg Abbott going after parents of trans kids, saying that those kids receiving gender-affirming treatment are victims of child abuse (but oh, the Repugs are against “big gumint”...yeah, tell me another one...the ACLU is fighting back to their credit)...
...and with all of the stories out there on corporate pricing driving inflation as noted here (and the “I” word, by the way, is an issue all over the world as we get restarted post-COVID...and hopefully we’re done with variants), I thought it would be a good idea to bring us a bit of a history lesson; President Kennedy spoke out against U.S. Steel when they pulled a similar trick just about 60 years ago as noted in this clip (sorry the video quality is a little off - more here)...
...and Chris Hayes brings us a history lesson on how we got to where we currently are regarding Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, including the three “prongs,” if you will, from Putin that he was able to apply successfully (including the not-insignificant role played by Paul Manafort and his own odious political history)...
...and the German network DW brings us “Conflict Zone” with Sarah Kelly, on the matter of Vlad The Butcher potentially extending his deadly incursion from Ukraine to Poland and the Baltic states (with Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks)...
...and while Vlad The Butcher continues waging war, this tune has remained very much on my mind (for this reason also - more here).
This report from the German news service DW on Russia’s Ukraine war gives us the latest on that horrific conflict over the last week, which includes the U.N. vote against Vlad The Butcher, with security analyst Ed Arnold and commentator Giulia Saudelli...and yeah, smooth move by Putin to arrest children protesting the war with flowers...
Update 3/5/22: And oh yeah, regarding the trucking convoy apparently coming to a neighborhood near you, I thought this was telling.
...and David Pakman tells us that Putin in now guilty of war crimes, including (allegedly) bombing a kindergarten and an orphanage...God almighty...gee, I wish Dubya, among others, had seen this coming when he allegedly looked into Putin’s soul...what a goddamn sick joke that was...
...and returning to domestic matters, Cenk, Ana and John of TYT discuss the progressive response from Dem Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this week – sounds like Tlaib hit all of the right notes (and we need to make that point about corporate greed and inflation over and over and over again)...
...and Robert Reich does that here also in another great video...
...and fortunately that CPAC freak show is history, but I thought Beau had yet another good take on it, giving it the brief, incisive attention it deserves (not a lot to be taken seriously from it as far as I’m concerned...let those frothing idiots go nuts, have at it and leave sane people alone, OK, though I think his point about Mango Mussolini’s 11-point dip is worth noting)...
...and Adrienne Lawrence Esq. of Rebel HQ tells us about Repug U.S. House wingnut Van Taylor, who was caught in an affair with a jihadist and won’t seek re-election (womp womp)...
...and David Doel tells us about Florida students protesting the “Don’t Say Gay” bill from Guv #DeathSantis (and the leader of the protest was suspended – of course it was stoo-pid to do that, the suspension I mean, but kudos to him for his courage - more here)...
...and despite it all, I’m going to see if I can make things a little more upbeat with this tune as the week nears a close.
Cenk, John and Francesca of TYT discuss the State of the Union address from President Biden last night – lots of what I’m sure is excellent analysis...and no, I didn’t watch the SOTU from Biden, just like I didn’t watch it from Generalissimo Trump and Obama – I think I soured on all of it pretty much after Dubya’s 2003 address, which was one of the most grotesque examples of wall-to-wall lies I’ve ever seen in my life...I care about how political stuff affects people’s everyday lives, and as far as I’m concerned, the SOTU is theatrics regardless of who’s giving the speech (though apparently Little Miss Trailer Trash from Colorado and that lunatic from Georgia outdid themselves, as evidenced by the pic and noted here) – I’ve read people on the Twitterz saying “oh, Biden needed to give the speech of his life, and he didn’t.”
It’s...a...freaking...speech...people!...
...and as usual, Beau had what appears to be a thoughtful take on the speech, as well as a commentary on Russia’s performance (mistakes) in Ukraine and NATO’s upper hand (more on the story of Highway 80 in Iraq is here - more on the Russia/Ukraine war will follow shortly)...
...however, I also need to mention that FLA Guv Ron #DeathSantis, being the punk and coward that he is, decided to harass high school students who quite sensibly were masked (and that goes for that POS aide of #DeathSantis who thought the whole thing was funny - I think the women were just laughing nervously)...gee, what a sterling example of GOP manhood Florida’s gubernatorial mistake is, he being the guy who also sent state troopers to the house of Rebekah Jones to intimidate her and her family all because she was trying to report on actual COVID numbers as opposed to the made-up ones from #DeathSantis (here)...and believe it or not, as noted here, embarrassing the students wasn’t even the worst thing #DeathSantis did - easy to talk smack about another country when you're safely ensconed hundreds of miles away...
...and this Now This clip notes that some reporters and commentators are getting blow back for pointing out that many Ukrainians trying to flee are white and Christian...I think they’re trying to point out the similarities of Ukrainians to much of their viewing audience, but of course it gives short shrift to war victims such as those in Yemen and Syria, to say nothing of the Palestinians of course, and to say nothing of black Ukrainians also – makes me wonder about the priorities of news organizations that actually DON’T report on other Middle Eastern conflicts the way I think they should – if I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring...
...and Sam, Emma and Matt Duss of The Majority Report talk about the Ukrainian journalist who confronted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as noted here (and Emma correctly points out that establishing a no-fly zone is a declaration of war against a country with a dangerously unhinged leader WHO HAS FREAKING NUKES! Yes, it’s terrible what Ukrainians are facing, especially women and children, and I don’t have an answer for that unfortunately, but we have no choice but to take the long view, as the panelists point out)...
...and for those who think it’s up to us on Team “D” to somehow find a way to achieve some common ground with these lunatics from the GQP, Farron Cousins tells us that half of Trump voters polled think Putin is a better leader for Russia than Biden is for this country – traitorous assholes...
Update 3/4/22: Yeah, this sure figures, doesn't it?
...and in a bit of unequivocal good news, David Doel tells us about Biden’s SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Stephen Breyer...stomach-churning to imagine all the ways the “party of Lincoln” (along with Manchinema of course...yeah, I know what they’ve said, but I don’t trust them as far as I can pee) will do their best to turn her hearings into a thinly-veiled-racist smear job even though Jackson has been confirmed three times for lower court positions by the U.S. Senate...
Update: And of course, it begins with The Swanson TV Dinner Heir (here).
...and we recently observed the 40th anniversary of the release of “Swing To The Right” by Todd Rundgren and Utopia (2/24/82), a recording that was prescient in a few ways IMHO...that applies to this tune maybe more than any of the others (with the title being a nod to this, let's not forget).
This report from the German news service DW tells us, among other things, that that country has agreed to a major arms delivery to the war-besieged-by-Putin country of Ukraine, with interviews with correspondent Thomas Sparrow, on-the-ground-in-Ukraine aid worker Darya Romanenko, journalist Igor Kossov, analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, Monika Sieradzka, and Joung-ha Ghedini-Williams of UNHCR...
...and Ali Velshi discussed a claim that Putin thought Russia would be welcomed with open arms in their Ukraine incursion (some Cheney-esque hubris going on apparently, thinking the Russians would be “greeted as liberators” by the Ukrainians...with correspondent Erin McLaughlin and Keir Simmons...that 17-mile Russian column is pretty damn ominous, though...also, pretty cheeky comment aimed at Combover Caligula at the very end, but I’m sure it’s spot-on for both wretched world “leaders”)...
...and Adrienne Lawrence of Rebel HQ tells us about Anonymous hackers fighting back against Russia for Ukraine, to try and counter the cyber-garbage staged from Putin and his cohorts...
...and this Meidas Touch clip shows how “Tuckums” is trying to erase his love of Vlad The Butcher (yeah, good luck with that one)...
...and Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about that ridiculous tweet from Repug U.S. House idiot Clay Higgins about millennials (or whichever generational cohort) and their “woke sky” or something in response to Russia butchery in Ukraine...as idiotic as this tweet is, and it is that for sure, it’s still grating to see Repugs having no hesitancy at all to send out stoo-pid messaging while Dems can’t make up their minds to send out good messaging of their own...
...and hopefully the title of this cool newer tune will eventually apply to the Russian strongman and his aspirations for global dominance – all we can do is help out where we can, and pray IMHO.
Cenk, Jackson White and Adrienne Lawrence “bring the receipts” on the wingnuts and their love of Vlad The Butcher (and if Charlie Kirk saw combat for real, he’d run away crying with a stain on his pants)...
...and Rachel Maddow discusses sanctions against Russia some more with Hagar Chemali, who was in charge of this under Obama (sanctions in general I mean)...
...and turning to non-Ukraine-war stuff, Farron Cousins discusses 13 different individual studies showing that Trump supporters are inherently prejudiced...yeah I know, sky is blue and water is wet, but still interesting IMO...
...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us about the plight of farm workers exploited in Maine...and by the way, Gov. Janet Mills is allegedly a Democrat, so she is particularly at fault here for her veto of the bill on behalf of the rights of these people (old enough to remember watching a CBS Reports documentary called Harvest of Shame produced by Edward R. Murrow...good luck finding something like that on the cables nowadays)...
...and this Second Thought video tells us why so-called “billionaire philanthropy” won’t solve anything (another fault of Bill and Melinda Gates are their dogged opposition to the waiver of patent protections for life-saving COVID meds to be distributed to the third world...not saying the drug makers shouldn’t be allowed to make a profit, but can we please put world health first before the almighty dollar for a change, as noted here...and by the way, I think the headline of the linked article is incredibly incorrect; Gates only went along with the waiver because it was supported by the Biden Administration, so props to them instead...Gates changed his mind pretty much after the fact)...
...and RIP Sally Kellerman, an actress who appeared in the film “M.A.S.H” of course (can’t have one of these scenes without the other)...
...and as part of our ongoing tribute to artists protesting Spotify over continuing to grant a platform to Joe Rogan after his anti-vax BS (here), here's another great Neil Young tune.
