So, in addition to being an idiot conservative U.S. Senate Republican, #RussianRonJohnson of Wisconsin is also a traitor to our country (as noted here, though, he has a lot of dishonorable company...click here to do something about RoJo)...
...and this clip from the German TV service DW features Canadian journalist Olha Klymenko (heroically taking care of her father) talking about the Russian shelling around Mariupol, which has become pretty much a hellscape thanks to Vlad The Butcher...
...and Chris Hayes discusses the speech from Arnold Schwarzenegger talking mainly to Russians and soldiers from that country – definitely helpful, and props to him for his effort...
...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss Putin’s latest twisted speech on the war...lots of good commentary here IMO including the four scenarios mentioned at the end, and the last one especially is indeed the stuff of nightmares...
...and Ari Melber “brings the receipts” on conservatives now trying to “walk back” their past praise of Vlad The Butcher (repeating the clip of the dead Ukraine bodies in the hospital basement from the DW segment I know)...
...and RIP one-hit wonder Timmy Thomas, singing a song with a title that is pretty much universal, especially now.
Farron Cousins tells us that Mango Mussolini egged on his great unwashed followers in South Carolina (kindred spirits with the woman in the pic I’m sure) to lay down and die over critical race theory...yep, every bit as cringingly stoo-pid as it sounds (along with the fact that he’ll be hiding in his limo nursing a McRib and a Coke while these life forms stage more violence...I’ve been putting off including anything on this for the whole week, but I guess I can’t avoid it anymore)...
...and continuing with the category of wingnut misbehavior, I give you this from More Perfect Union about activists banning books and doxing teachers in Texas (nice – kudos to the kids starting the banned book club, which should be a shame on those trying to restrict the kids from learning about the world, assuming those culprits were capable of understanding shame)...
...and I thought this was a GREAT report from Chris Hayes on how the Syrian refugee crisis started by Putin of course set off an immigration crisis which fueled a right-wing backlash in Europe and the UK, with that scenario from Syria getting played out again in Ukraine, tragically...
...and I think Beau once again nailed it here on the topic of Putin eventually having to deal with “hit and run” unconventional warfare, potentially within Russia’s borders (though I’m sure we don’t want to see that against any more innocent civilians than have been harmed already, with Ukraine staging the sort of attacks our military faced in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as Beau says, when you take everything from a people getting attacked, what other way can they fight back?) ...
...and Ben Carollo discusses the windfall tax bill on oil companies proposed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna...
...and John and Francesca talk about “Curtsy Kyrsten” losing support from Democratic backers, but they’re absolutely right in that Sinema has made the calculation that her new friends in the “party of Lincoln” will come and bail her out...will she be right? Dear God, I hope not – she’s absolutely toxic to her Dem base at this point...she may make it running as an independent, but if she thinks she’s going to make it running as a Republican, she’s more naïve and idiotic than I imagined...
...and I know I’m just a filthy, unkempt liberal blogger, but I have to admit that I screwed up by failing to note the passing of one time PA Dem U.S. Senatorial candidate Lynn Yeakel in January (she ran against “Snarlin’ Arlen” Specter before he became a Dem again...we’ll have to see if Sinema follows the Specter playbook on that, switching parties I mean...more here)...
...also, this week marked the 75th birthday of guitar legend Ry Cooder...I guess I could do a few different things to commemorate that, but I decided to put up this clip of Little Village for the occasion (in which Cooder performed with Jim Keltner, Nick Lowe, and John Hiatt...I think he has a performance this May in San Francisco).
Ari Melber brings us new information on the 1/6 insurrection indicating that there was more close coordination with some of these right-wing groups and Ginni Thomas than first reported (imagine that), with her husband Almost Silent Clarence Thomas as the sole SCOTUS vote in favor of Mango Mussolini and his attempt to hide White House records from the investigation into that treasonous episode (Melber speaks with attorney Joyce Vance)...
Update 3/25/22: Keep digging that hole, Mrs. Thomas (here).
...and turning to the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, Jordan Uhl of Rebel HQ discusses Fix Noise cheerleading for MOOAARRR WAAAARRRR (and Dems would "cut and run"...typical for The Roger Ailes BS Factory) telling young people in this country that they need to fight it for the boomers pretty much (and yeah, it figures that that pusillanimous meat sack Marc Thiessen is right in the middle of this mess)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about Sherrod Brown giving it to Joe Manchin in a tweet over Manchin sinking Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination for the Federal Reserve because she supports clean energy (more here)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less), a repeat segment originally from 3/16/12, which is a reminder of what Not Your Father’s Republican Party thinks of women voters...
...and with the prior video in mind, Ana and Cenk tell us that Idaho has passed its own anti-abortion bill, enabling family members to go after ANYONE who had anything to do with the abortion including the health care provider of course...requires women to get a police report and provide it to their abortion provider...God freaking almighty (more here and here...I haven’t seen Ana this pissed in a long time, and is she ever right...I knew child care was expensive, but boy, has the cost gone up in recent years...and the person they referred to at the end is this loser)...
...and happy St. Patrick’s Day – may the road rise up to meet you, and that goes for all of those other good wishes too.
Ali Velshi, sitting in for Rachel Maddow (and commendably reporting on the ground in the vicinity of Ukraine – hope he and everyone manages to stay as safe as possible) speaks with Ben Collins about the sources of the garbage about the alleged Ukrainian bioweapons...I know I touched on this business earlier, but we need to keep refuting this stuff apparently...
...and I share nothing whatsoever politically with outgoing Repug U.S. House Rep Adam Kinzinger, except to say that he’s 100% correct to go after the criminals involved in the 1/6 insurrection (along with Liz Cheney, and that definitely applies to her also...probably more so), but Kinzinger makes one of the best arguments I’ve ever heard for not giving “Tuckums” the benefit of the time of day, especially given Carlson’s most recent treasonous garbage (and I agree with Ro Khanna on a lot, and I understand his point of view, but despite what he says, I wouldn’t give a forum to those Fix Noise bastards either)...Brian Tyler Cohen explains...
...and David Doel tells us about the brave Russian woman who protested the war on TV (more here)...I honestly hope she doesn’t end up in a black hole somewhere deprived of just about everything she needs to live, but given what Putin has become, I wouldn’t put it past him (actually, he’s really been a monster all this time, but a succession of U.S. presidents and congresses were too busy playing patty cake with him to properly pay attention)...
...because, as Don Winslow reminds us, Putin has been lying all along (gee, a head of state telling nothing but lies - why does that sound familiar?)...
...and I’m a little behind on my Second Thought videos, and this one has to do with Why Liberalism Won’t Solve Anything (uh oh; NOW he’s getting personal...just kidding...and I LOVE the activism he discusses at about 10:20, though I honestly part with his discussion about third parties, since I think they’ve been used as trojan horses mainly but not totally by the red team...Jill Stein, anyone?)...
...and if there’s one artist whose music I’ve pretty much ignored on this site (there are a few I know), it’s Dolly Parton...this has nothing whatsoever to do with her personally (she’s truly a hero as far as I’m concerned, and another reason why I feel that way will be presented in a moment), but it has more to do with the fact that I’m pretty selective when it comes to country music...I respect the artists who go WAY back since I think they were trailblazers, but I could do without the vast majority of them now because I think the music all sounds the same, as well as for all of their triumphalist garbage most notoriously during the awful Bush/Cheney years...anyway, as noted here, Parton turned down a nomination to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame for a really classy reason, and I think that deserves a tune in her honor.
Trae Crowder gives us the latest on the wingnut umbrage over Biden and gas prices...OK, I’ll try this one more time...1) Inflation and high prices are an issue ALL OVER THE WORLD because of corporate greed and restarting the global supply chain after COVID, 2) NO PRESIDENT can control the price of gas, and 3) There are so many capped wells in this country that have already been approved for exploration by our dirty energy criminals that they could use them instead to increase supply and lower gas prices, but the people who could do that won’t because they’re making too much goddamn money and have no desire whatsoever to cut us all a break (NSFW/H)...
...and speaking of anti-Biden BS, Thom Hartmann tells us about the Top 4 Lies about #46 promoted by Fix Noise...
...and this clip from DW German TV tells us that Japan has joined the fray against Russia in a revived dispute over the Kuril Islands...it would almost be comical to see Putin sitting as far away as he is at that table, though of course there’s nothing even remotely amusing about what’s transpired because of his actions, which befit the demonic dictator he has become...
...and this clip from Really American reminds us of those Republican U.S. senators who visited Moscow on July 4th, 2018 and were never called to account for it...
...and Adrienne Lawrence of Rebel HQ discusses the racist attacks of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir against Biden SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, leading into other clips including the fight between the two kids in that Bridgewater, NJ mall and all the “CRT” BS refuted by Brett Erlich and Jackson White...
...and I don’t think I’ve had a “relationship” tune here for a little while, so please allow me to add this – yeah, whenever I break up with someone, the best thing to do is lie down in a creek by the woods by myself and take a nap...what could go wrong?
Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about the Inspector General’s report on how the Department of Homeland Security dropped the proverbial ball on information sharing on intelligence prior to the 1/6 treasonous insurrection (and yeah, the T-shirts displayed by the characters in the pic is pretty damn treasonous as far as I’m concerned..."if the U.N. comes in here" - you're livin' out where the buses don't run, dude)...
...and Ari Melber interviews former UN ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul about Fix Noise amplifying claims (wrong, of course) from the Kremlin about Ukraine having a bioweapons lab (good for Melber cutting to the proverbial chase at about 6:20)...
Update: And right on cue, along comes "Tokyo Rose" Gabbard (here).
...and McFaul was spot-on in the prior clip, but as David Doel tells us here, McFaul also basically made the recent ridiculous claim that Hitler didn’t kill German-speaking people (an update is here - yes, McFaul was wrong and admitted he was wrong, and he really should say nothing further on this topic except “oops” and get out, but here’s what gets me about this...someone like McFaul who is basically a pretty solid source slips on the metaphorical banana peel ONCE and it’s FREAKING OPEN SEASON on the guy (and as soon as you see a row of tweets in response starting with Mike Cernovich, you can rest assured that the wingnut outrage party is now underway), but on the other hand, the wingnutosphere runs wild with their nonsense on a routine basis, gets called out, and then does nothing but yell louder and double down, and there’s nothing even remotely comparable in terms of the outrage (yes, our side is supposed to be better, but there’s a double standard at work here for sure)...and I realize that McFaul said this on The Rachel Maddow Show, but for Maddow to be trending is beyond absurd since she basically is on leave for her book/movie project and has nothing to do with this (though she does pop up from time to time to be fair)...
...and John and Francesca analyze the SCOTUS basically saying that our government won’t be accountable for torture sites and in particular for their actions in the case of Abu Zubaydah (shocking that Gorsuch is on the right side of this issue along with Sotomayor...once more, some of the very worst excesses of the rotten Bushco years are going to get the “memory hole” treatment)...
...and RIP William Hurt...he’ll be remembered rightly so for The Big Chill, Broadcast News, Body Heat, Children of a Lesser God and a slew of other pictures (including what I thought was a courageous Oscar-winning performance in “Kiss Of The Spider Woman,” as well as playing former Bushie Henry Paulson in that movie based on the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, which I thought was a bit of revisionist history...not Hurt’s fault though), but I have to admit that an underrated performance of his (in my mind, anyway) was in “The Accidental Tourist” (featured in this clip) and that goes for Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis also (Davis won the Best Supporting Actress award for her “Tourist” performance, which I thought was another Oscar “makeup” call, as in an award that an actor should have gotten for a prior performance...Davis was OK in “Tourist,” but she REALLY should have gotten it for “The Fly”)...
...and I hope everyone was able to make the adjustment to daylight savings time in these parts – I’m still working on that to be honest.
