Saturday Stuff

Gee, I can’t possibly imagine why some deranged person would get so upset with Nancy Pelosi that they would invade the home of her and her husband (allegedly...don’t want to say anything to prejudice the trial of this lowlife) and allegedly smack Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer to the point where he needs brain surgery before the attacker was apprehended by police...I mean, it’s soooo out of character for the calm and deliberate state of our politics, isn’t it? (#sarcasm).

And by the way, I’ve seen a smattering of Republicans out there criticizing the attack, which is meeting a very low bar as far as I’m concerned (and mostly from candidates running for re-election where I guess they think they need independent voters, and that’s why they’re acting sane in this instance). Well, until you’re ready to smack down the guy who, despite it all, is STILL the leader of your party for his own repeated threats of violence, you can spare me your faux indignation (story with Katy Tur is in this clip - more here, here, here and here...and yeah, this sure figures, doesn't it?)...



Update 1: Maybe this explains why Watters acts like he lacks an adequate brain capacity.

Update 2: And add this and this to the sordid mix also.

...and Rachel Maddow discusses the scammy robocall in Detroit about mail-in voting involving Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman (here), which would actually be hilariously bad if it weren’t for the potential consequences (giving your information “to the man”? I don’t think I’ve heard that expression since I saw my last “blaxploitation” flick in the ‘70s...also includes a follow-up to the “Clean Elections USA” garbage in Arizona; a disgusting update involving a Trumpster judge is here)...



...and Ben Carollo shows us Dem U.S. House Rep Katie Porter using her white board once again to show how we’re getting utterly price-gouged in this country (more from Porter is here)...



...and Thom Hartmann reminds us that corporations aren’t people (more on the Santa Clara County scam ruling in 1886 about corporations and the lying headnote from John Bancroft Davis is documented in Adam Winkler’s great book “We The Corporations”) and the Repugs having NO PLAN for ANYTHING despite all of their screeching about inflation; actually, they could end inflation by utterly crashing the economy, again, as Thom notes, which would be far worse than anything we’re dealing with now...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT let us know that Rojo (running for another term as Wisconsin’s U.S. Senatorial Republican mistake) apparently doesn’t understand our economy and the aforementioned role of price gouging...GREAT analysis on the impact of corporations and their rapacious efforts to bleed us dry in this country - to help Johnson's Dem opponent Mandela Barnes, click here...



...and let’s all bid farewell to “The Killer,” Jerry Lee Lewis (here)...speaking of books, this fine work tells us how Sam Phillips founded Sun Records and sold the rights of Elvis Presley to RCA and Colonel Tom Parker (which Phillips always defended, for what it’s worth), and it also tells us that Phillips basically started promoting Lewis as the next big “find” after Elvis, and everything was going great until Lewis married his cousin, which basically set his career on fire, and not in a good way...RIP.

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that it looks like over $1 billion has been paid out to U.S. farmers as a result of the ruinous tariffs from Mango Mussolini, something ELSE about #45 that has gotten the “memory hole” treatment from our beyond-useless corporate media, as Cousins rightly notes with plenty of deserved outrage (and no, I don’t mind our farmers getting paid either)...and yeah, I think this is yet another mess to be cleaned up by “Dark Brandon” at some point, as well as trying to get the post office commissioners (or whatever their titles are) to FIRE LOUIS DEJOY AT LONG FREAKING LAST!...



...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ tells us about the latest in wingnuttia from Trump rally attendees (“Zuckabuck”? And why the hell would James Woods be playing Biden? He’s a wingnut too!)...



...and when it comes to Our Ochre Abomination...well, believe it or not, there are MORE tapes, with #45 saying he didn’t want to put out a COVID plan until closer to the election, as opposed to, y’know, when it would do the most freaking good (and yeah, the Kim Jong Un stuff is weird, but maybe that’s just his “kink”)...



Update: And speaking of nonsense from Generalissimo Trump, I give you this.

...and Sam and Emma tell us about RoJo’s sweet tax avoidance deal, apparently centered around some luxury condo in Washington, D.C., with the non-inconsequential help of former Repug Wisconsin governor Scott Walker...to help Mandela Barnes running against Johnson, click here...



...and this Lincoln Project video notes the ways that Ron #DeathSantis in FLA is trying to control the vote in that state’s gubernatorial election (a variation of the garbage pertaining to Arizona noted yesterday); to help Dem Charlie Crist running against #DeathSantis, click here...



...and this recent video from Second Thought tells us about the role played by capitalism in Russia’s descent under Vlad The Butcher (I thought this was a terrific analysis of the horror of economic “shock therapy” as a prelude to capitalist “reform,” particularly in Russia, but I respectfully take issue with his claim that capitalism led to the Ukraine war...as far as I’m concerned, that has more to do with Putin’s sick, twisted dreams of trying to reconstitute pre-Soviet-era nationalism, or something like that)...



...and I’m going to try and wrap up this post with some positive news, and it’s this clip from Rachel Maddow (remember her?) telling us that early voting in FLA, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and elsewhere is apparently on a par with presidential elections, which SHOULD be good news, but we’ll see of course...



...and here’s a selection I usually include this time of year, and I’d better hurry up and add it since the month will wrap up in a few days.

Thursday Stuff (update)

It looks like, since it’s just another week, it’s time once again for a new abortion story related to Herschel Walker, the Repug running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia of course, as Brian Tyler Cohen explains, and no, I’m not trying to be a jerk and trivialize the horror Walker’s girlfriends/spouses went through over this...as I and others far smarter than I am have already said, Walker shouldn’t be anywhere near a government job of any kind whatsoever (and yeah, nice job by Bret Baier to feed Walker the answer...what pieces of shit, both of them)...to return Walker’s opponent to the Senate, Dem incumbent Raphael Warnock, click here...



...and John and Dan Evans of The Damage Report tell us that school mass shooter Ethan Crumbley pled guilty (here), so he gets life apparently, and his parents are facing charges also for aiding and abetting his horrific acts of violence (and apparently there was another shooting in St. Louis recently as noted here...such a difficult, hand-wringing problem I know that we can’t seem to solve, even though EVERY OTHER DAMN SO-CALLED “DEVELOPED” NATION EXCEPT US HAS MANAGED TO FREAKING DO IT ALREADY!!!)...



...and Ana and Cenk tell us about an armed vigilante at an Arizona drop box who is there to threaten voters of course...more here (from “Clean Elections USA,” huh? And THANK YOU to Cenk for mentioning the “new Black Panther” nonsense in Philly...and of course, Ana is referring to the “2000 Mules” documentary from Dinesh D’Felon that even Bill Barr, of all people, thought was an utter joke)...



Update 10/28/22: And of course this idiot judge who ruled in favor of the Clean Elections mob, Michael T. Liburdi, is a Trump appointee (here and here).

...and the driving force behind groups like these thugs in Arizona trying to intimidate voters is the evergreen big lie about voter fraud as we know, and in the latest installment of This Day in Doomsy History from 10/27/16, Carlos Maza explains why that was (and remains) utter garbage (it was BS in 2016, it was BS in 2020, etc. - NSFW/H)...



...and I thought Lawrence O’Donnell did a good job here explaining how SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas violated the law in plain sight when it comes to not recusing himself on rulings related to the January 6th insurrection (following up on Laurence Tribe’s terrific “catch,” if you will...good job by Lawrence also to link Ginni Thomas with fellow co-conspirator Cleta Mitchell, as well as Don McGahn and the other SCOTUS justices McGahn helped to install on the High Court)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip mentions Trumper Ryan Zinke running for a new congressional seat in Montana (to help Monica Tranel running against Zinke, click here)...



...and happy upcoming 65th birthday to Stephen Morris of New Order...



...and here's a tune to help us prepare for the arrival of All Hallows Eve.

Tuesday Stuff

David Doel tells us about the greeting Cancun Cruz got at Yankee Stadium recently when he attended what turned out to be the clinching game for the Houston Astros against the black-and-white-pinstripes bunch in the Bronx...hard for me to tip my cap to those folks in New Yaawk, but to be fair, I’m symbolically doing that now...I wish the Yanks had managed to stretch out the series against the ‘Stros, but the Texas team is having a great year and I know our Phils will have their hands full in the Series – however, that’s why they play these games, as somebody said (clip is very NSFW/H, which you might expect)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett declining to block Dark Brandon’s student debt relief...am I dreaming, or what? And yes, I think this is a pretty sound critique by Ana on why the legal challenge was bogus (I think the petitioners failed remedial math...and yeah, the petitioners don’t really have “standing” as Cenk says), but I’m SO TIRED of listening to this crew bitch that the debt relief is “modest” – I realize TYT will pretty much inflict their purity tests at the expense of anything related to political expediency, but PLEASE don’t say or do anything that has a possibility of depressing voter turnout, OK??!! That being said, Ana is completely right about funding the defense contractors, though I’m not opposed to helping Ukraine either...



...and Brittany Page tells us how former Repug U.S. House Rep Jason Chaffetz of Utah freaked out recently over the homeless population in the City of Brotherly Love (and yeah, Chaffetz is the guy who...checks notes...actually took a victory lap over cutting funding for embassy security that led to the BENGHAZI!!! tragedy where Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 other Americans were killed, as noted here...all the best to Jesse Dollemore during his convalescence)...



...and the Lincoln Project gives “little Marco” the treatment he deserves (to help Val Demings running against Rubio for the U.S. Senate from The Sunshine State, click here)...



...and when it comes to idiot Repugs, let’s not forget Marjorie Traitor Greene, who says people are getting Fentanyl poisoning from car door handles...um, I think that means that the crazy train has just pulled out of the station (and don’t get me started on what a cesspool Twitter has become, with barely any push-back from Democratic politicians, with the notable exception of Bill Pascrell of New Jersey...to help Marcus Flowers running against Greene for the GA-14 U.S. House seat, click here)...



...and please allow me to extend my sympathies to the family of Carly Simon, who lost both of her sisters within days of each other (here).

Monday Stuff

It takes a particular type of monster to inflict cruelty onto animals, particularly dogs, but unfortunately, that says a lot about Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz, as this Lincoln Project clip points out (to help John Fetterman, click here)...



Update 10/26/22: I usually don't pay much attention to debates since they're just full of BS media moments generally, and I can assure you that, at this point, I'm not supporting ANY Republican anyway, but I thought this was a noteworthy post all the same...yeah, some of the typical corporate media culprits are ready for the fainting couch over John Fetterman's performance, which generally didn't appear to be bad (I think this is far worse that anything Fetterman said or did), but Fetterman has EASILY had the most negative political coverage of any candidate in this cycle because of lying Repug talking points basically, so I'm not surprised.

(And by the way, finding people to satisfy a pre-conceived media narrative is no magic trick, as indicated by the Times report. J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier Times, among others, has made a career out of doing that.)

...and I thought Beau provided some typically insightful commentary here in the matter of which party you want to be in charge during a recession, which we may be looking at unfortunately; he’s right to say that you should look at the platforms of our two major political parties to see what they support, but I’m sure too many people won’t even bother to do that and vote based on tribalism instead...love to be wrong (more here)...



...and I also thought what Thom Hartmann said in the first part of this commentary was interesting about how Repugs want gas to be exported in times of shortages to increase the collective portfolio worth of their donors (as opposed to keeping as much of it here as possible to potentially lower the cost), but the stuff from about 3:07 on about the lack of reporting on the Repgus wanting to gut Social Security and Medicare is telling also...actually, whittling away at traditional Medicare through the Medicare Advantage scam is accomplishing at lot of that anyway, unfortunately...



...and David Doel tells us about the UK climate activists who threw soup on the Van Gogh painting “Sunflowers,” which (thankfully) was under glass...yeah, this pointless act generated word of mouth all right, but not the kind that’s bound to be helpful to the cause of the "Just Stop Oil" group, which is sad because I think their activism is otherwise commendable...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report brings us the story of about $1 million raised to make a movie about a conservative superhero; the money was stolen (big surprise, I know – not really)...yep, more important to run the grift and bilk a bunch of easy marks than to actually deliver something that probably would have been awful anyway (NSFW/H – more here)...



...and RIP Lenny Lipton, composer of the following tune (among his other accomplishments).