Friday Stuff

This clip from Meidas Touch kind of goes over what we already know I’ll admit when it comes to the "party of Lincoln" and how they just love Vlad The Butcher, but it definitely bears repeating as far as I’m concerned...



...and this report from the German news service DW tells us that, among other things, Vlad The Butcher is redeploying his troops to the east of Ukraine to the Donbas region in an effort to gain a foothold of sorts in that country, having failed to take Kyiv...and yeah, that appointment of Alexander Dvornikov as head of Russian forces doesn’t bode well for mitigation of the slaughter anytime soon...



...and Rachel Maddow (who apparently is back for a limited time) tells us about brave Russians speaking out against the war, partly through food labels in supermarkets...



...and Ana tells us about privately owned but publicly funded charter schools (and how the hell is that even legal?), in this case Hillsdale College expanding into charters and laying on the conservative propaganda pretty thick of course (starting In Tennessee – yeah, that figures...and yeah, more than anything else, the charter school movement is anti-union big time...the last minute or so of this clip about fighting back is pretty important)...



...and Jayar Jackson and David Doel of Rebel HQ discuss Greg Abbott’s ridiculous bus stunt with the immigrants (and yeah, it’s nice that Abbott is indirectly helping these people on the Texas taxpayer dime, but of course Abbott, as you might expect, will do nothing but utterly lie about that)...



...and I haven't checked in with John Oliver in a loooong time (nothing against him, I wish to emphasize), but his latest report on data brokers is pretty interesting, and the payoff at the end is terrific (pretty sure this is NSFW/H)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/10/12, in which our corporate media politely called out Former President Nutball (43 that is) here over his stupendously awful tax cuts and what they did to the debt...



...and speaking of money, I just wanted everyone to know that the tax filing deadline was extended to Monday April 18th; hope you end up OK...we did fine, fortunately.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that, based on a recent Gallup poll, 53 percent of those polled support development of renewable energy to fight the climate crisis (and yeah, as Cousins says, implying that investment in renewable energy actually ISN’T a stimulus for the economy is pretty much a lie)...



...and Trae Crowder discusses Herschel Walker, running as a Repug for the Georgia U.S. Senate seat against Raphael Warnock...I mean, after Tommy Tuberville won in Alabama (to say nothing of Greene, Boebert, Cawthorn and other low lights from that party), I assume that the methane dispensers supporting these assclowns will vote for ANYBODY with a pulse who has an “R” after their name...not only is Walker not a serious candidate IMO – and yeah, I know he can win anyway – but I think the man is in cognitive decline, and I’m not saying that to make fun of him, but only to point out that he needs professional help and shouldn’t be ANYWHERE NEAR a political campaign for public office (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about that utterly nuts “interview” Maria Bartiromo (of course) conducted with Walker (NSFW/H)...



...and just for the hell of it, here’s more on now-SCOTUS-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson from Trevor Noah (the Dulcé Sloan bit was OK I guess)...



...and as long as we’re discussing Walker and the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR, I thought this was a cautionary reminder from Lawrence O’Donnell that Almost Silent Clarence Thomas should, at a minimum, be forced to recuse himself from any cases involving Mango Mussolini and the 1/6 insurrection; at the most, he should be removed from the Court altogether (hey, if Abe Fortas was forced to step down for an alleged financial impropriety of about $15K, along with $20K a year for unspecified advice to a Wall Street financier as noted here, then Thomas should face the same fate for this)...



...and on the one hand, I guess this is a tune about renewal, but on the other hand, the lyric about being “drunk on borrowed time” definitely harks back to the first video in this post as far as I’m concerned.

Tuesday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us about the Republican hate and fear strategy to serve the rich (yep, an anti-LGBTQ agenda, and demonizing minorities of course...and it should probably come as no surprise that FLA guv Ron #DeathSantis is lying yet again about a girl getting some kind of conversion treatment without the knowledge of her parents..and nothing against Thom of course, but what does it tell you about how insane the other side is that HE HAS TO EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL EMPATHY IS??!! And yeah, this also provides an important lesson in corporations not wanting to pay for a goddamn thing and instead concocting non-issues to distract voters as usual...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about some Trumpist wingnut named Robert Shapiro, who is apparently running in NJ to primary Repug U.S. House Rep Chris Smith (tells you how nutty the “party of Lincoln” is to do that to someone as conservative as Smith...Shapiro wants “Let’s Go Brandon FJB” to appear next to his name on the ballot...and you know what? I agree with Cousins – let the guy do it and prove to the entire world that he’s a total idiot)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us the story of Russian soldiers who apparently brought radioactive material form Chernobyl home with them; I would laugh at their stupidity if it weren’t for the fact that this will likely put innocent people at a grave health risk...



...and Tiffany Cross of MSNBC speaks with Evan Milligan, executive director of the voting rights organization Alabama Forward, and Latosha Brown of Black Voters Matter on a case before the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR having to do with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (trying to get a voting districting map instituted in AL that doesn’t do still more to deny representation to people of color, which Alabama would surely do if they could)...



..and Ana of TYT discusses Wonder Boy Jared Kushner’s startup company getting $2 billion from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bone Saw, which could very well indeed by a tit-for-tat for not holding the Saudis to account over the murder of U.S. citizen Jamal Khashoggi...oh, but please tell me about Hunter Biden’s laptop again, OK?...a particularly disgusting update is here...and in terms of our awful relationship with our “good friends” the Saudis, well, a long time ago I read the book “Veil” by Bob Woodward about the secret wars of the CIA under The Sainted Ronnie R, and any time that regime wanted to bankroll anything that actually wasn’t an illegal arms sale, they went right to the Saudis...



...and if I do say so myself, I think this tune is an apt selection given the prior video.

Monday Stuff

(Thanks to @AdamKinzinger on Twitter for the pic.)

This CBC report tells us about the condemnation following the train station bombing in the Kramatorsk region of Ukraine by Vlad The Butcher (reporter is speaking from Lviv...and yeah, targeting schools and orphanages too...again, a pox on any world leader who turned their eye to Putin up until this madness boiled over...more here...



...and one more time, I want to take note of the recent vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the next SCOTUS justice; every U.S. Senate Repug walked out except for Mitt Romney while the Dems applauded, with Huckleberry Graham and Fake Ophthalmologist Paul holding up the vote...also, that Fix Noise guttersnipe Jesse Watters tells us that Dems blocked Janice Rogers Brown for the SCOTUS...she was never nominated to begin with...



...and with the prior clip in mind, Chris Hayes talks about how he thinks Dems can avoid getting painted into a corner, as it were, on crime (with idiots like Tom Cotton trying to confront KBJ on something she wouldn't know about unless you were talking about particular cases or statutes...I don’t think there’s a particularly clear approach that Hayes comes up with here, though he does outline the issue very well...I know some have held up Camden, N.J. as a model when it comes to de-escalating the role of the police, but what I’ve read is kind of a mixed bag, though IMO the emphasis on community policing is the right way to go (here)...there quite simply is no “quick fix” on this issue like so many others, but it will take a mix of “carrots” and “sticks” to address it properly...not the sort of thing you can turn into a slogan that fits on a bumper sticker, and that’s why a lot of so-called “moderate” independent voters will tune it out and instead just side with the Repug who yells “THEY WANT TO DEFUND THE POLICE” the loudest, and I’m honestly not 100% sure of what you can do about that except to stick to the courage of your convictions...and by the way, I’m hot and cold on Philly DA Larry Krasner; I think his advocacy has been a good thing in a lot of ways, though he has had a misstep or two as noted here...and by the way, Hayes knows a thing or two on this subject, as noted here...and playing offense for a change is a good thing too)...



...and David Doel speaks with Alex Kotch again, this time on nonprofits funding climate science denial and more or less “laundering” funds for this awful cause through mega-money managers like Fidelity and Vanguard (oh, great – have to remember the term “greenwashing”)...



...and the latest from Second Thought tells us why means testing is a bad idea, partly because it pointlessly increases the cost of affected legislation (and yeah, that $5 billion set aside by states for welfare is indeed an eye-popping number...”means testing costs the same or sometimes more than the service you’re trying to provide universally” – yep, I can believe that...and it figures that Bri-Fi, that idiot Gottheimer and #MaseratiManchin would come down on the wrong side of this issue...when discussing the OPM report, the number of people lost in 2000 due to poverty, lack of education and other factors in the Columbia study is gob-smacking)...



...and Will Bunch of inquirer.com recently noted that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence held another one of his hate fests over the weekend (how the hell is he actually NOT in jail yet? And I don’t mean Bunch of course.) and a Johnny Cash tune was played in the background (here), and it was correctly pointed out that, were the “man in black” still with us, he would’ve been one of the first people to call out #45...well, commenter Brian Cummings on Twitter linked to this great Cash tune from back in the day, and I thought it was too apropos of a selection to not include here.