Friday, September 09, 2022

Friday Stuff


Mike Figueredo of the Humanist Report tells us about GOP candidates campaigning with their wives to try and get rid of the stench over their supporting Dobbs and fetal personhood, which of course means that you can criminally prosecute women and their health care providers...that is, if awful legislation and/or court rulings related to women’s bodily autonomy were to allow that (NSFW/H)...



...and with the prior clip in mind, Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Alabama jailing a bleeding pregnant woman for smoking pot while she carried, for which she ended up in an overcrowded jail cell for 3 months where she had to sleep on the floor...not admirable behavior I realize on the part of the would-be mom, but the draconian punishment definitely FAR outweighed the crime (and I thought Cenk made a great point – if she miscarried because of her detainment, then shouldn’t everyone responsible for her confinement be prosecuted for murder? I mean, hey, if you’re going to go after the pregnant woman with that threat hanging over her, then you should go after everybody)...



...and I think anyone who votes for a politician or a judge (hard to separate the two at times I realize) because they’re allegedly “pro-life” and for no other reason should be ridiculed as the Trump-supporting nitwits are who are roasted in this Lincoln Project clip (and apparently Our Ochre Abomination lost what’s left of his mind over it, which is definitely a bonus as far as I’m concerned)...



...and speaking of clueless Trumpsters, Farron Cousins tells us about Michigan Republicans who are suing and claiming the 2020 election results need to be overturned...yeah, we’ve got a real bunch of Darwin award nominees here, don’t we?...



...and I thought this was a typically interesting take from Beau on Cara Mund, a former Miss America running as an independent for North Dakota’s sole U.S. House seat...to her credit, Mund is pro-choice, which seems to be going over better in a red state than you might think...something about Mund was familiar to yours truly (not for any personal reason I hasten to add), and I realized that it was because of this post from a few years back...



...and David Doel gives us a fairly balanced perspective on the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II...I think she quite rightly will be regarded as one of the truly towering historical figures of this century and the prior one for a lot of good reasons (some of which I noted yesterday), but if a lot of folks including her subjects (until recently) end up going “meh” over it, I can’t blame them...



...and here is another Second Thought video on How Capitalism Robs The Developing World...and why did I somehow know that United Fruit was involved in the exploitation of farmland in Cuba? In terms of the history of how capitalism has evolved, so to speak, this might be the best video he’s ever made...and the U.K. along with most of the industrialized world, including the U.S. of course, has profited from the ruinous practice of extracting from so-called undeveloped nations...I know I’m playing catch-up with his videos once more...



...and I also know we have a couple of weeks until the first day of fall, so I’ll try to squeeze in some more summer tunes, including this one.

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Thursday Stuff


David Pakman offers his take on the whole Trump and Secret Nuke Docs at Mar-a-Lago story (discussing the whole “special master” thing too)...probably repetitive, but if there’s a story out there that should be repeated, this one is it...



Update: Yeah, if ever there was a ruling where an appeal was mandated, it was this idiocy from Aileen Cannon (here).

...and when you’ve gone too far for Steve Douchey of the Fix Noise “crotch couch,” then yeah, you’re in pundit no man’s land for sure (and oh yeah, isn’t Little Marco HILARIOUS to criticize the FBI and the Justice Dept. for allegedly leaking on Trump and the secret nuke docs from the SAME BUNCH that cheered on the Comey BUT HER EMAILS!!! leaking garbage against HRC in October 2016)...



...and I’ll Take Ridiculous Campaign Advice For $100 (for whoever replaced Alex Trebek), and Repug U.S. House Rep Gym Jordan sure offers it, telling his party to embrace Dobbs...actually, I hope that that is exactly what they do (Ana and Cenk tell us more...I think Brian Kilmeade was trying to form a sentence but somehow failed)...



...and this clip from Rachel Maddow aired on 8/30 so I know I’m a little late with it...apologies...it has to do with Trumpsters going against the National Archives and all the other loony wingnut BS (against school boards, election workers, libraries, etc.)...and in a way, I think that Huckleberry Graham stuff should be mentioned again instead of going down the corporate media memory hole; I don’t know what kind of disciplinary measures “the world’s greatest deliberative body” could carry out against Graham, but I definitely think he deserves a follow-up for it...it would be worth it for no other reason than to see him kick and scream like they whiny little bitch he truly is...




...and like the rest of the world, I’m still sorting things out a bit over the death of Queen Elizabeth II (here)...yes, she was the head of “the firm,” and brooked no deviation from the course she set out for the royals, but in her defense, she grew up with World War II raging, and the UK suffered from postwar shortages for years, long after we experienced them...in short, her character was forged in tremendous adversity, played out both on the world stage and within her own family, watching the disintegration of her father, who was forced onto the throne because of Edward VIII’s abdication (as noted in the PBS clip)...she also had to establish herself in a government dominated by men of course, which she most definitely did (and that includes the personal stuff with Prince Philip, and she had to go along with that stuff involving her sister Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend)...yeah, you could argue that the whole royalty thing is antiquated for our current age, but it means a lot over there (based on my admittedly limited exposure), and don’t you think some kind of a patriarchal or matriarchal role overarching our government would have reined in, say, Number #45 and all of the fallout from his treasonous garbage? Maybe it wouldn’t have, but as Beau says, it’s just a thought...



...and here is one of the most popular tunes of the day (especially for WWII) while Great Britain endured its finest hour and Princess Elizabeth waited in the wings to ascend to the throne.

Wednesday, September 07, 2022

Wednesday Stuff


Brian Tyler Cohen discusses the WaPo revelations about other countries’ nuke info getting out via Mar-a-Lago (I swear, NOBODY will ever trust us again with any kind of secrets after the escapades of this ruinous egomaniac)...



...and I was going to put up Beau’s commentary on the whole ‘special master’” thing, but events over the last 24 hours have made that a little less of an important discussion; Beau outlines all of the options based on the WaPo story, and they’re all bad...even as we’ve continued to swirl down the metaphorical hopper as a country as a result of the megalomaniacal behavior of this craven, spoiled toddler of a *president, I don’t think I’ve ever felt genuine dread until now (and for the record, on the “special master” thing, one of the reasons why that was a totally whack ruling from that Trump-appointed judge is because the “sm” is apparently someone who mediates between parties, which sounds more applicable to some kind of a civil action...the only matter open for “dispute” is how long the prison sentence will be for Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former Chief Executive...and again, the question is WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE DOCS DOING AT TRUMP'S PLACE TO BEGIN WITH??!!)...



...and if some of the life forms who showed up in Wilkes-Barre recently were capable of firing off a brain synapse or two, I’d ask them how proud they must feel for supporting this maniac of a former *president (I’m sure I know the answer, but I’m inclined to ask anyway)...

...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about Texas Governor Greg Abbott lying when he says he can’t raise the age limit on purchasing an AR-15...I’m not going to get into a pissing contest over the legal technicalities, but for Abbott to claim that he can’t call some kind of special legislative session (as Abbott’s challenger Beto O’Rourke has called for) to raise the age of purchasing one of these monstrous weapons of death is an insulting joke (I hope John is right about beating Abbott, but hating Dems is a hell of a drug down there too, as opposed to elsewhere in this country...more here)...



...and Repugs apparently want to sue the Biden Administration to block student debt relief – yeah, Heaven forbid that a president actually tries to enact a policy to help millions in this country as opposed to the uber-wealthy, as David Doel tells us (and damn those lazy millennials for listening to their iPods and MP3s or whatever and not buying homes and raising families...removing my tongue from my cheek)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Herschel Walker in Georgia has a far better chance of actually winning his U.S. Senate contest against Raphael Warnock than he should, which is also news to keep us pacing the floor at night (we should do what we can for Warnock for the reasons Cousins tells us, not because Warnock is a bad candidate, but because Kemp and the Georgia Republicans are going to do everything they can to screw over the economy in that state to help out Walker, who is nothing but a disaster as a human being...love and kisses to President Manchin and Vice President Sinema for making this country safe for dirty energy criminals and hedge fund managers and letting everyone else fend for themselves, which has a lot to do with making this race MUCH CLOSER than it should be)...



Update 9/8/22: So Walker will only debate if he gets the questions in advance? What a damn joke!

...and I was going to wind down my summer selections with another relaxing tune on my playlist, but I feel more in the mood for this one (will probably be drinking early today).

Tuesday, September 06, 2022

Tuesday Stuff


(Pic has to do with this, by the way...oh, but Paul Manafort, of all people, says 45 apologized, which would truly be a first for Combover Caligula, who never apologizes for ANYTHING...yeah, like I'm supposed to take the word of anybody in "Trumpworld" like Manafort.)

John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us that Cancuz Cruz is in high dudgeon about the “87,000 new IRS agents” BS, allegedly going after the “middle class” (with Cruz failing to point out that that staffing is OVER 10 YEARS, and barely makes a dent in the decades-long IRS underfunding as John points out)...and a clip is added at the end about Cruz (allegedly some genius of jurisprudence in his imagination) saying he thought Obergefell was wrongly decided, or something (“Christian Nationalist Colonel Sanders” – good one by Francesca in an added clip, and the right to privacy was implicit in Griswold also; if anyone thinks “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and his pals aren’t coming after contraception too, then you truly haven’t been paying attention)...



...and Jayar, Cenk and Rayy Vana of TYT tells us that, if (God forbid) Our Ochre Abomination gets the chance, he’ll pardon everyone responsible for 1/6 (in his interview with Freaky Psycho Woman "News Anchor" Who Wants Everyone To See Her Face All The Time)...I get the stuff about Mango Mussolini going to every single wingnut platform out there and maybe the Dems should do a better job of outreach to the lefty equivalents, but on the other hand, at this point, Trump is so desperate that he’ll talk to ANYBODY if he can get some $$ out of it...



...and The Lincoln Project tells us about still more of the OMIGOD THAT CRAZY SENILE DEMOCRAT BABY-KILLING SUPPOSED CATHOLIC SOCIALIST BIDEN WAS SO MEAN TO US WITH HIS NAME CALLING whining about #46’s recent speech in Philly (to me, the most amusing crack came from Louisiana Republican U.S. Senator Cornpone, and former PA Repug U.S. Senator Man-On-Dog seems to always find a way into the conversation also)...



...of course, if the wingnuts cared about threats FOR REAL, then MAYBE they’d have something to say about this Matt Walsh goofball who riled up his lizard-brained followers, one of whom apparently phoned in a bomb threat to Boston’s Children’s Hospital, as David Doel tells us (oh, but Walsh blamed our side because it was only a threat – I guess Walsh would have taken a victory lap if part of the building were destroyed and people were killed or injured...what a loudmouthed, pusillanimous nothing this guy is)...



...and sticking with the theme of pig-headed intolerance, this CNN story tells us about Idaho wingnuts demanding that 400 books be banned from a library (funny in a twisted way considering that the library in question had NONE of those books at the time)...and of course, none of these protesting cowards would go on the record...”The American Redoubt,” huh? God, what a bunch of loons...and why am I not surprised to learn that it’s tied to weaponry? And how ironic that someone came form that alleged liberal bastion of sin in California to mess up the minds of these people...and I’m not sympathetic to the “Welcome to Trump Country” mayor, since, as far as I’m concerned, he helped open the door for this garbage by not seeing Cult 45 as the threat that it truly is...



...and here’s a happy, upbeat newer number about a healthy and fulfilling relationship :-).

Monday, September 05, 2022

Monday Stuff


You can tell President Biden really hit a nerve with all of the butt-hurt Republicans out there in his Philadelphia speech by merely telling the truth; with that in mind, I thought this was a well-done commentary from Texas Paul at Meidas Touch (NSFW/H)...



....and Trae Crowder has a similar NSFW/H take, with a VPN commercial in the middle of his commentary...hey, we all have to pay the bills somehow...



...and with the prior two clips in mind, I thought Beau made a great point (echoed also here by David Frum)...basically, the best thing for Repug electoral prospects is to having nothing whatsoever to do with Former President Fergus Laing so they can keep prattling on about “Oh, Biden socialism, gas prices, inflation, blah blah blah,” but guess what? Now, with his latest hate-filled soiree in Wilkes-Barre, we have all been reminded all over again that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS WHOLLY AND ALTOGETHER OWNED BY DONALD J. TRUMP...



...and just when you thought Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz couldn’t sink any lower, he goes and maligns two men wrongfully convicted in a murder case who John Fetterman worked tirelessly to clear...if Oz had a speck of integrity, he would realize what an utter fool he has made out of himself in this campaign and drop out, but of course, since our form of politics in this country is more of a steel cage match than an episode of “The West Wing,” he won’t (Chris Hayes brings us the details)...



...and as far as I’m concerned, if you want to get to the root of the problem of how this country has become so cartoonish in our electoral contests, a lot of that has to do with the ascendancy of The Sainted Ronnie R and his demonization of government; Repugs want to destroy this country via tax cuts and the Dems want to rebuild – time to believe in government again, as Thom Hartmann says...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 9/4/14...with all of the unseasonably hot weather out there, let’s not forget one of the biggest culprits standing in the way of the fight against climate change (here)...




....and here’s a reminder of the importance of the holiday, as well as the labor movement overall (more here , here, here, here, and a true relic is here)…



...and here is a tune for the occasion.

Sunday, September 04, 2022

Sunday Stuff


This is Johnny Walker. His Linkedin profile describes him as “Cultural advisor, author, film-maker, entrepreneur and U.S. Navy Seal Trident recipient.”

He posted the following on Linkedin recently (and the middle finger is aimed at Biden of course):
A MESSAGE to our President:

With all due respect, when you call us Republicans "THE enemy of democracy" I can understand that this is part of the political game or your party's political agenda. That's cool. But the problem I'm facing right now is how can I explain to my kids that I am a Republican and not a terrorist as you claim.

This is not the spirit upon which our great nation was built.

This does not promote the same picture of the land of freedom that my brothers in arms offered to me when I fought terrorists by their side.

This is not a helpful way to unite our country - by disparaging 70 million of your fellow citizens.

I AM NOT ISIS, AL QAIDA, IRANIAN MILITIA, OR A MEMBER OF A CARTEL. I AM A PROUD AMERICAN CITIZEN. SO PLEASE DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN. I HAVE EARNED MY CITIZENSHIP WITH BLOOD AND SACRIFICE.

I AM J WALKER.

If you agree please share it.
(By the way, I’m answering here because Linkedin isn’t – or shouldn’t be, anyway, as far as I’m concerned – a place for news or political commentary. And yes, to be fair, I have no desire to engage in some pointless back-and-forth braying with commentors, many of whom merely want to burnish their alleged “tough guy” bona fides.)

To begin, I searched a transcript of Biden’s Philadelphia speech, and I couldn’t find him using the phase “the enemy of democracy” anywhere. I also couldn’t find the word “terrorist.” So I honestly don’t know what speech Walker is referring to.

(I mean, if Walker is looking for inflammatory rhetoric, he could look to the leader of his party, who called Biden “an enemy of the state” in his Bund rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA last night here. Combover Caligula also recently accused Dem PA U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman of taking cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and fentanyl here, which 1) Is a laughably ridiculous lie even for Cult 45...and Fetterman should sue over it IMO, even though of course, being the world class grifter Trump is, I’m sure Fetterman won’t get the satisfaction he deserves, and 2) would be quite a neat trick...ingesting all of those drugs and managing to actually stay alive, and with a serious health condition no less.)

Here is what Biden actually DID say in Philadelphia a few nights ago...
...we must be honest with each other and with ourselves.

Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.

Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.
And despite Walker’s braying in opposition, President Biden happens to be absolutely right (if anything, he understates the problem).

So then, by default, Walker is defending the MAGA election deniers...and actually, worse than that, those practicing sabotage of our most important duty as citizens by undermining our ability to conduct free and fair elections across this country with ridiculous election “audits,” onerous anti-voting laws making it harder for younger voters, as well as people of color and other ethnicity, to exercise their franchise, and other foul means. Among other locations, this is talking place in Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida...and potentially the “Keystone state” of PA if Trumper and insurrection supporter Doug Mastriano, by some catastrophe, manages to win election as governor this fall (here).

And since Walker has nothing to say about the 1/6 attack on the Capitol, which of course was also an attack on the very foundation of our government (here), I assume he approves of that also.

This, to me, is supporting fascism. In big, bold, 72-point type. On the front page of the New York Freaking Times and the Washington Post (I won’t include the Philadelphia Inquirer since I know they’d find a way to try and “both sides” this incredibly important issue, though to be honest, those other two papers might do the same thing).

And without impugning Walker’s service (for which he should be commended and we should all be grateful), I can tell you definitively that my father served in Europe fighting World War II, opposing fascism FOR REAL. So, if he were still alive (and if I were to guess), I can imagine that he would see the “cult of personality” threat from Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former Chief Executive (who is still very much “on the hook” for this among his myriad other offenses, let’s not forget) along with his democracy-hating minions (who now love a European dictator as evidenced here) and call it out for what it is.

If Walker opposes Democrats for some personal or philosophical reason, that’s his right of course. But for someone who courageously took on the duty of carrying a weapon for this country to NOT see the homegrown, nativist threat posed by our twice-impeached, popular-election-vote-losing *president as well as those he represents who seek to destroy the foundations of our democracy, then I cannot call that anything less than dereliction of duty, which I reluctantly say with the greatest of reservations.

Update: About Wilkes-Barre...yeah, I think it was more meaningful in the original German (here).