Friday Stuff

I watched President Biden’s speech yesterday (live streamed by David Pakman), and though he fumbled a few times in his trademark way, I also thought he made a hell of a lot of good points...I give anybody credit who can make that type of a coherent speech for 20-25 minutes or longer; I would guess there was a teleprompter somewhere, but I’m sure he was talking off the cuff for a lot of it also (Biden knows how to “answer the bell” on this stuff for sure)...I know he has to talk about “mainstream Republicans” and “MAGA Republicans,” but to me, that’s a distinction without a difference anymore – he’s got to extend an “olive branch” I know, even though we also know that the other side will only grab it and stomp on it to pieces (here and here)...I would have liked to have seen Biden note the election recount scheme in Arizona (here) and the fake electors scheme that has also extended from that state to Wisconsin (here), and also to call out MAGA-related threats of violence in Michigan (here), and of course the “give me 11,780” votes garbage from Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence in Georgia (here), but again, I thought the speech was good enough for what it was...I also give Biden credit for coming up with his vision of where he wants to lead the country, which is what presidents are supposed to do (the “curing cancer” thing is a bit of a reach I guess, but it’s probably true that a commentator somewhere also said that about the phrase “We choose to go to the Moon” once spoken by another Democratic president)...I thought it best to present the whole speech in the following clip (and OF COURSE Biden was heckled - he was giving the speech in Philly after all...:-)...more important context IMO is here, here, and here)...



Update: More here, here and here.

...and nice work also by Lawrence O’Donnell to hold Huckleberry Graham’s feet to the fire on his recent “riots in the streets” remark about Biden and the FBI going after Our Ochre Abomination and his trashing of top secret docs at Mar-a-Lago...



Update 9/4/22: I think it's an instructive lesson in biology to examine a human being without an actual spine, as evidenced by Graham (here).

...and Emma Vigeland tells us about Sarah Palin losing in the special U.S. House election to Dem Mary Peltola (to fill the seat that was held by Repug Don Young before he passed away – Young held the seat forever...they also talk about Dem incumbent Mondaire Jones losing in the recent NY-10 U.S. House election...I’ll admit I wasn’t paying a lot of attention there, but I don’t understand why more of the progressives in the primary couldn’t have just gotten the hell out and consolidated around Jones, despite what Emma says, but we are where we are...very mildly NSFW/H...more here)...



...and turning to world news, I thought this Sky News report was a pretty good summary of where Russia and Vlad The Butcher stand with their war of choice in Ukraine, though the prognosis, if you will, at the end is pretty damn grim, acknowledging that the conflict could potentially be on-again, off-again for 50, 60 or 70 years – dear God...



...and returning to the U.S., this collaboration between Second Thought and More Perfect Union tells us about the evils of Cargill, the biggest privately owned company in the U.S., and all of the predatory market practices that have enabled the company’s success for over 100 years...



...but when all else fails, we’ll always have the “culture wars” BS I guess, and David Doel tells us that a Missouri school district is apparently bringing back spanking (with approval of dumb parents); if any of these idiots had decided to lay a hand on the young one, they’d have broken fingers (and of course, Fix Noise turns out to be completely bonkers on this issue, which shouldn’t be surprising I know)...



...and Jayar and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tell us about anti-trans activists in Texas getting a taste of their own wingnut medicine when armed individuals protect some kind of a drag exhibition...nothing like turning the tables on some of these assclowns...to be honest, would this have been an activity we would have attended with our son when he was growing up? Probably not, but I’m not going to get exercised about it either, unlike all of the anti-trans wingnuts out there – lots more important issues to focus on IMO...



...and it’s hard to believe that this is the first recognition of “Friday with Frank” since the one and only Sid Mark has left us, but I think there’s a lot to be said for upholding traditions such as this as we head into Labor Day weekend.

Wednesday Stuff

Apparently the wingnuts are trying to spin the classified documents story as some kind of FBI frameup, with Bob Cesca quite rightly calling out Monica Crowley here (from the people who LOVED the FBI when James Comey was running all the “BUT HER EMAILS” nonsense with HRC), but I think Beau’s great commentary here cuts right to the heart of the matter as usual (more here)...



...and Ana and Cenk tell us about the latest disgusting stunt from FLA guv Ron #DeathSantis, and that is to parade 20 people (some in their underwear...no bottom to #DeathSantis and his pals) with criminal records who were basically entrapped into thinking they could vote; of course, this gives the “party of Lincoln” the opportunity to blame minority voters instead of the well-off Repugs in “The Villages” who (as noted in the clip) performed voter fraud FOR REAL...and Cenk is right that Charlie Crist should be running with this story until the proverbial cows come home, along with Val Demings, and I’ll be watching to see if this develops any further, but I have a feeling Cenk is right, sadly...aside from basic human decency, Democrats should be calling this out because it will indeed have a chilling effect on a voting constituency they will sorely need if they have any shot at all of winning in a state which is gradually becoming DeSantis’s little version of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, which is definitely by design - more here...



Update 9/1/22: More here.

...and heading west by a few degrees of longitude, Chris Hayes tells us that Jackson, Mississippi apparently doesn’t have running water now, a triumph of Repug “governance” and their assclown governor Tate Reeves (and it’s cold comfort I know that the Repug lawmakers who utterly and cravenly failed on this have to use the same port-o-potties as everyone else)...



...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us that the “Kids for Cash” judges were recently ordered to pay $200 million I believe in restitution as noted here...no amount of money is too high for these two criminals as far as I’m concerned (this was a huge story in our beloved commonwealth for reasons that should be obvious I know...the 2013 documentary got into this horrible, heart-breaking scandal – at least one of these kids committed suicide I believe)...



...and I recently put up a Damage Report clip of YouTuber Tim Pool’s attempt at singing and noted how ridiculous it was...that was actually amusing, but now Steven Crowder is back with some kind of a “Saving Private Ryan” alleged parody about wingnuts whose free speech is supposedly threatened or something (or Crowder being temporarily banned from YouTube for typical wingnut BS), and as someone whose father served in Europe in WWII, I can assure you that I most definitely do NOT find this funny – the entitlement of Crowder and his ilk is cowardly and sickening (Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us more)...



...and yesterday marked what would have been the 78th birthday of The Eternal Molly Ivins – I think what she and David Letterman are referring to in the beginning are the SCOTUS confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas (pretty sure this clip is from ’91-‘92...God knows that her incisive wit and literary expertise is still very much needed)...



...and on the subject of milestones, RIP former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...yes, he had a mixed legacy in that, as nearly as I could determine, he never really renounced Communism, and his peace overtures were out of his country’s self-interest, but to be fair, you can say that every world leader acts out of self interest, and I think he should be regarded as a visionary for seeking to curb nuclear proliferation and for this, which hastened the breakup of the empire Putin, catastrophically, is trying to reassemble by brute force...



...and once more, on the subject of milestones, I should note that Princess Diana died 25 years ago today...I recently saw this great documentary on her on HBO On Demand; here is a tune for the occasion.

Tuesday Stuff

I know the Second Thought clip yesterday had a lot to do with climate change, and here is more on the ruin we’re facing as a civilization...might as well get the catastrophic news out of the way, as John and Jordan Uhl of The Damage Report tell us...what a shame that sea mammals can’t manufacture green paper to hire lobbyists and support foundations spreading lies about the destruction of this planet from greed and selfishness - and yeah, I think this says it unfortunately...



...and this DW report with Adrian Kriesch talks about world water shortages, focusing on South Africa (timed for World Water Week, which apparently was a few days ago)...discussed with correspondents Lan Wang Erlandsson and Minka Curr...the Daniel Craig/James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace” had a plot line that was absolutely spot-on about this subject IMO...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Huckleberry Graham threatening violence if Our Ochre Abomination is arrested, which should have happened long ago (the arrest I mean...I have a bit of an issue with Cenk’s stuff about “crying” Hillary Clinton - yes, the problems of her campaign have already been pointed out as far as I’m concerned, but she was right about the Comey garbage in 2016...look at everything she was allegedly “crying” about in hindsight and ask yourself honestly if she was wrong...I think she was off base in criticizing Bernie Sanders on Howard Stern, but aside from that...)...



...and Rayy Vana of Rebel HQ tells us about this idiot Georgia private school administrator named Nancy Gordeuk, who blamed “the devil” for her absurdly racist comments at a 2015 commencement...the real twist on this for me comes at the end, when we find out that she wasn’t fired, but was merely demoted until she was allowed to retire recently...yeah, there isn’t “two Americas” – not much there isn’t...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us more on the history of student debt and how it exploded starting with the ruinous reign of The Sainted Ronnie R (and once more, I give you this terrific post on the subject)...



...and I’ve got a few more summer tunes left, and I absolutely want to include this too.

Monday Stuff

David Doel tells us about “Dark Brandon” and his most recent campaign rally in Arizona last week (hey, if the wingnuts are going to come up with this “Let’s Go Brandon” BS, then let’s find a way to give it back to ‘em...and GREAT JOB on the PPP stuff from the Twitter feed)...yeah, to say that this is long overdue is an understatement, but kudos to Biden for hitting all of the right notes and tying it back to the fall elections; now, we’ll have to follow through on campaign work with the goal of policy and legislation that actually makes sense...we’ll see (and when it comes to playing nice with the other side, I give you this)...



...and when it comes to issues that matter, the climate has to be paramount above all others, and this latest from Second Thought tells us how capitalism is destroying the world (“You can’t make money when something’s abundant. It’s only when it’s scarce that the big bucks come in,” indeed...that’s focused on our dirty energy criminals, but it really applies to the world economy writ large)...



...and Emma of The Majority Report tells us how frantically Blake Masters, Repug U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, is trying to scrub as much anti-abortion BS from his web site as he can; well, unfortunately for Masters, the evidence is here (to help his opponent, Dem incumbent Mark Kelly, click here...and by the way, I know there were people who were mad about Kelly recently saying something about working with Republicans...I’m willing to trust Kelly’s judgment on this since I think he knows AZ voters better than I do and Kelly has a great track record of supporting Dem legislation, unlike that other wretched alleged Democrat from Kelly’s state in the U.S. Senate)...



Update: And speaking of "Curtsy Kyrsten" (here)...

...and Ana and Cenk tell us about a guy who’s pranking Texas Repugs in the best way possible IMO, and that is to create “In God We Trust” posters for “the land of the yellow rose” in Arabic...hey assclowns, it’s not OUR fault that you didn’t think about that when you came up with this bogus law of yours...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us how YouTuber Tim Pool is apparently trying to venture into music (speaking of assclowns...God, this was funny)...



...and when it comes to musicians for real, RIP jazz organ virtuoso and trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco (from Springfield PA – here...they’re still “dropping like flies” in August sadly).