Saturday Stuff

Chris Jansing of MSNBC speaks with investigative correspondent Tom Winter about what is being called the “Greatest Failure in Modern American Law Enforcement History” (as pertains to an active shooter) as Winter puts it (quoting Steve McCraw), referring to the Uvalde, TX cops (and I’m sure this means that we’ll now be deluged on social media with a whole bunch of “back the blue” memes to basically tell anybody protesting over this to SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP...Frank Figliuzzi is also included, though the clip ends before he can add anything...more here)...



Update: Yeah, I think this says it.

Update 1 5/29/22: Good for Gabe Kapler (here)...though apparently he reconsidered for Memorial Day, which is fine with me FWIW.

Update 2 5/29/22: I don't suppose this insanity is ever going to end, is it (here)?

...and this Now This clip features an interview with 10-year-old Jayden Perez, who thankfully survived the Uvalde massacre, though I think it’s safe to say that he’ll probably never feel completely safe in a classroom again (heckuva job, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz, etc.)...



...and Sam and Emma of TMR tell us about what appears to be the Repug talking points in response to the Uvalde slaughter (“one door, mental health, blah blah blah”...are you f*cking kidding me?)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the thoroughly incomprehensible, word salad response from Repug U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker when he was questioned about the Uvalde carnage (to help Dem U.S. Senate candidate and incumbent Raphael Warnock, click here)...



Update 6/13/22: It's probably only a matter of time until #LyingHerschel starts trending on Twitter (here).

...and I don’t know who “Texas Paul” is, but I have to admit that this is a pretty righteous rant (video is from Meidas Touch – they tried to bleep him but an “F” bomb snuck through, so clip is NSFW/H)...



...and RIP Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode; I’d like to dedicate the title of this tune to the Uvalde cops.

Friday Stuff

Jimmy Kimmel recently spoke to the utter ruin and destruction in Uvalde, TX; his poignant words are wrapped up at the end by a montage that begins with Texas Governor Greg Abbott signing a bunch of gun-friendly bills along with politicians proclaiming their pro-gun bona fides including Mehmet Oz, running as the Repug U.S. Senate nominee from PA...clip at the end is from Everytown USA I believe (and with all due respect to Kimmel, I have to disagree; I think Cancun Cruz IS a monster)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that the cops apparently waited for 40 minutes to enter Robb Elementary School to take out the shooter – I don’t want to hear this crap about waiting to form a SWAT team or whatever...GET YOUR ASSES INTO THE BUILDING TO SAVE THE DAMN KIDS!!! Oh, and also, there’s this...and I think this is an important clip too...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report discuss Cancun Cruz running away from a Sky News reporter asking the completely legitimate question of what the hell we’re going to do about all of the goddamn guns in this country – “queefie booger slush”...yeah, I think that fits...



...and with our most recent gun-related horror show fresh in all of our minds, Thom Hartmann reminds us that The Republican Way Doesn’t Work (referencing the manner in which we built our infrastructure and the middle class from FDR to Eisenhower to Carter, and then reminding us what The Sainted Ronnie R did to it...Thom references The Powell Memo as well, which I think is also spot-on...and I agree with about 96-97 percent of this, though when it comes to awful trade agreements, there are Dems that are guilty as hell on this too)...



...and under the category of Trump-boot-licking, corrupt, deceitful Republicans (making common cause with mass murdering gun nuts), let’s not ever forget Elise Stefanik, OK (as The Lincoln Project reminds us)...



...and I have to admit that, given the bloody carnage in Uvalde, I’m a little behind on some videos including the latest from Second Thought, in which we learn how “privatization” came to save the day for French President Emmanuel Macron in his most recent election, and why that practice is totally at odds with the notion of providing reliable governmental services for people most in need regardless of what country you’re talking about (tying back to the profit motive, as you might expect, as well as attacks on unionization...”consulting isn’t a scam. It’s the most honest business there is,” as much as ANY business can be honest)...



...and RIP Ray Liotta....I think this legendary clip from “Goodfellas” is appropriate for the occasion (discussion with the three at the end has to do with this); I also saw Liotta once in a movie called “Corrina, Corrina” with Whoopi Goldberg, which I didn’t expect to like, though I did, I have to admit...



...and happy birthday to Bruce Cockburn, with a tune I'd like to dedicate to all of the gun humpers and ammo-sexuals in this country.

Thursday Stuff

I thought this was a good commentary from John and Dr. Rashad Richey on the typical wingnut fallback talking point to “not politicize” our latest gun massacre in this country, this time in Uvalde, TX (and yeah, Ken Paxton is yet another thoroughly dishonest actor in all of this...and yes, the Dems haven’t come through on resolving this issue, but gee, maybe we need to elect A HELL OF A LOT MORE PEOPLE LIKE CHRIS MURPHY, who is a Dem, last I checked...and I have yet to hear ANYBODY give me a reason that made sense for anyone except cops and our military to have an AR-15 assault weapon...good commentary in particular on the Constitution from Richey)...



...and speaking of the Constitution, I give you these words from former SCOTUS Chief Justice Warren Burger (who was hardly a liberal, it should be noted) about the “fraud” (to use Burger's correct term) of our interpretation of the Second Amendment – Burger was interviewed by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in December 1991...



...and I don’t know who this guy is form The Humanist Report, but I thought this was a good NSFW/H commentary from an Irishman who can’t understand why this country refuses to deal with this issue, which – as already stated – reflects a POLICY CHOICE TO DO NOTHING (the montage of other presidents speaking after other gun atrocities is noteworthy also)...



...and David Doel tells us about Beto O’Rourke crashing that ridiculous press conference from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott...yeah, isn’t it rich that O’Rourke gets called all these names for telling politicians to keep people breathing, as if he’s more of a “bad guy” than the actual shooter?

I saw someone online saying that, if the pictures of the slaughtered kids in Sandy Hook were published, that would end the gun debate immediately. It would be gut-churning to do that (and for the Uvalde kids too), but if that’s what it takes to start regulating these ridiculous weapons of death and destruction...well, maybe that needs to happen...



...and Lawrence O’Donnell gives us more background when it comes to this country’s sordid history with mass gun slaughter, also mentioning Charles Whitman at the University of Texas in Austin shooting from the tower in 1966 (finishing up with President Biden, who I think was spot-on in what he said, though the problem of course is that we need Congress to act, and don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen given Republican obstruction on this issue among many others...O’Donnell also replays the clip of Chris Murphy speaking on the Uvalde tragedy)...



...and I was tempted to include another anti-gun song that I’ve put up too many times before I know, but I happened to come across this story of a documentary on the all-woman group Fanny from the ‘70s, and count me as someone who is happy to see them get their due at long last...definitely trail blazers for other women artists; I’ll seek out this flick and will likely have more to say about it later.

Wednesday Stuff (updates)

Do you want to do something to try and prevent the next episode of utterly barbaric gun-related carnage in this country? Here’s a step we all can take for sure (more here)...

...and I thought this was a pretty spot-on NSFW/H commentary from Brian Tyler Cohen about the slaughter in Uvalde, TX (bringing us Chris Murphy's words from the U.S. Senate, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the most useless collection of human beings on the face of this planet - here and here)...



...and I think it’s pretty safe to say that damn near all of us are Steve Kerr at this moment...



Update 1: And yep, it looks like this is timely once more also.

Update 2: Ugh...

Update 3: Hard to find the words to communicate my disgust over this (went into effect last September 1st).

Update 4: This country is tearing itself apart, and the usual grifters and criminals are doing nothing about it except counting their blood money (here).

Update 5: Typical for a bunch of two-faced cowards (here).

Update 1 5/26/22: Sounds like the "good guys with a gun" couldn't let go of the chicken switch (here).

Update 2 5/26/22: The more things change...the more they stay the same (here).

...and because the news waits for no one person or no one top story, I need to present this; Farron Cousins tells us that the former POTUS shared a post calling for civil war on his “Truth Social” platform (I wonder what it will actually take for this orange globulus cretin to be imprisoned AT LONG FREAKING LAST! And why am I not surprised that Lara Logan is involved)...



...and John and Jayar tell us how the SCOTUS just made it harder for convicted prisoners seeking a retrial to appeal their cases by claiming that they didn’t receive adequate legal representation...and of course, Almost Silent Clarence Thomas (husband of one of this country’s most notorious insurrectionists) authored this “kick the can, I don’t want to be bothered” opinion...



...and comedian Ben Gleib of Rebel HQ gives us a report on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being denied communion by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone...and I have no clue who this Raymond Arroyo numbskull is on Fix Noise, but I have a news flash for him; abortion was ALREADY ENSHRINED IN LAW WITH ROE v. WADE!!! But of course, it’s hopelessly naïve on my part I know to presume that any conservative would actually argue in good faith over anything...



...and when it comes to lives being ruined by gun violence, this is a tune that just about always comes to mind.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about wingnut-in-the-extreme Repug U.S. House Rep Lauren Boebert of Colorado’s desire to politicize the baby formula shortage in this country (which, again, is due to a monopoly provider gone wrong in Texas - the problem occurred in their Michigan manufacturing facility I believe) and do NOTHING to fix the problem...fortunately, we have an honest-to-goodness president trying to fix this, as noted here (I think if I were forced to listen to Boebert’s voice for an extended period of time, I would be sorely tempted to stick my head in an oven and turn on the gas)...



...and Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ gives us a report on Texas’s energy grid, which is in trouble in May before the summer months have even arrived (and of course, Abbott blames green energy instead of Texas’s crumbling infrastructure on this, and yeah, this sorry state does indeed go back to Enron...Khan kind of abruptly signs off – might be nice if she worked some graphics into her videos to support her arguments a la Brian Tyler Cohen)...



...and speaking of Cohen, he also provides some important background on the story of the infant formula shortage, emphasizing the fact that the “party of Lincoln” doesn’t give a damn about actually fixing the problem of course as already stated (mildly NSFW/H...and I realize that Cohen pretty much talks through his "No Lie" commentaries without graphics unlike his other topical videos, which is fine as far as I'm concerned...and I thought this was particularly interesting)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that some woman conservative from MA apparently longs for the days when boys kept nudie mags sunder the bed, or something (and yep, it’s all about making sure a heaping dose of guilt is inflicted on kids for anything whatsoever to do with sex...and as noted in the clip, the seminar in question is VOLUNTARY and FOR TEACHERS ONLY! God, what freaking idiots these wingnuts are!)...



...and apparently, “Dr.” Bill Cassidy said that, if you subtract the maternal death rates of African American women, then maternal death rates in Louisiana overall aren’t that big a deal...yes, he really said that (more here and here...and I don’t want to hear this crap that the phrase “to correct for” is some kind of clinical language that only doctors use or something – Cassidy sure as hell knew what he was saying...and I’m not a doctor of course, but I don’t know what the hell the availability of mass transit has to do with preeclampsia...to be fair, though, I will mention this)...



...and apparently, yesterday was World Turtle Day, so I thought this would be an appropriate tune.

Monday Stuff

I thought Mehdi Hasan made a pretty convincing case here for the January 6th Committee to investigate Ginni Thomas...it has come to light (as it inevitably would) that Thomas tried to influence Arizona electors to cast their votes in the ’20 election for The Gropenfuhrer (and again, if you want an idea of what the Repugs would do if a SCOTUS justice supported by a Dem had some type of legal difficulty ...hell, they already freaking did it against Abe Fortas!)...



...and Ana tells us about clueless Repug U.S. House member Mike Johnson asking a doctor if an abortion would be permitted as the baby is being birthed, or something, which would NEVER HAPPEN for all of the reasons Ana states (she also provides a compilation of other idiot Republicans trying to concoct sound bites for Fix Noise as opposed to, y’know, actually supporting common-sense-legislation...Johnson, by the way, took advantage of an exception in Louisiana’s state law that allowed him to make “tens of thousands of dollars” as part of the legal team representing the state in a federal court trial over abortion clinic restrictions – legally, that apparently was permissible, but it doesn’t pass the ethical “smell test” as far as yours truly is concerned...Johnson and some of the other nematodes in this clip are included here – and by the way, “partial birth abortion” is a political term, not a medical one...and God forbid that these idiots could be in charge of the U.S. House after the November elections, but it could indeed happen)...



...and continuing with the theme of Republicans acting like total idiots towards women, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/22/14, in which a Colorado moderator of a debate panel (the subject apparently was “Women and Colorado’s Future”) implored 4 women panel members to participate because “it’s so much more ornamental” apparently if they appeared onstage (and introducing the women with the theme from “The Dating Game”...God almighty, what a freaking train wreck – more here)...



...and turning to the carnage in Ukraine, this DW report tells us about the destruction in the Donbas region and the fall of Mariupol...not sure why this BBC report included a clip of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, but that’s a minor point by comparison (interview with correspondent James Waterhouse)...



...and David Doel tells us about Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz (who may end up as the Repug nominee for the U.S. Senate from our beloved commonwealth) putting forward all kinds of bogus arguments against legal weed...for full disclosure purposes, I should note that I’m not completely on board with legalization...I think there should be more than a few caveats, but I also think it’s a vox populi thing for PA; if the majority of people want it, then they should have it, and of course I’m also on board with decriminalization, medical pot and letting dispensaries transact like normal businesses - to help John Fetterman, click here...



...and RIP Vangelis – he’ll probably be remembered most for the music from “Chariots of Fire,” but this might be my personal favorite (images from NASA).