Friday Stuff

I know I’m repeating this for about the zillionth time, but I wish to God the Democrats would actually run ads like this; fortunately, The Lincoln Project did against “Erections Have Consequences” Herschel Walker; to help his opponent in the GA U.S. Senate runoff, incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock, click here (maybe next time, Walker should be surrounded by three Republicans?...and why is this not surprising from Walker?)...



Update 11/27/22: Exactly what Walker deserves (here).

...and Farron Cousins tells us that the incoming Republican U.S. House majority might be a memory in 2 years given what they’re focusing on (God, I hope so!), which apparently is trying to impeach Biden, I guess because they weren’t invited to his granddaughter’s wedding or something (and with all due respect to Cousins, I think it will be pretty damn pathetic to watch this play out and won’t actually be hilarious...and I'd like to learn more about that 6 percent myself)...

...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that the father of the alleged Club Q mass murderer doesn’t give a damn about those killed or wounded in the attack, but only that his son “doesn’t do gay”...one of these days, whatever come after us will find out about stuff like this and have a good laugh over how stoo-pid we were as a nation on this issue in particular (NSFW/H)...



...and to me, what was noted in the prior video plays right into what is discussed in this one, and that is allegations of “grooming” by teachers, which is just a part of what has led to the crisis of teacher shortages in this country (Ron #DeathSantis and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao should be forced to run a class in a school district in their respective states and try to do for these kids what the teachers do who they so readily demonize...keep waiting for someone to have to pay some kind of a price for their awful rhetoric, when in reality the teachers and their kids are the ones who suffer - and unfortunately, this fits the ridiculous profile too)...



...and this More Perfect union clip tells us about a potential rail strike, and I have to admit that it‘s hard for me to get my head around the fact that a $20 billion industry is apparently too cheap to give its employees paid sick days...



...and this TYT clip tells us that an after-school “Satan club” trolling wingnuts in California is getting fundie nut jobs all in a lather (and personally, I’m not willing to blow off the religious concerns, though, as Ana says, the floodgates have indeed been opened by this wretched SCOTUS, but on the other hand, I don’t believe that I have a right to try and inflict my beliefs on anyone...with Cenk also)...



...and this recent Second Thought video makes a pretty convincing case against intellectual property (I always learn something in these videos, and this time around, I found out about TRIPS and IP rights for the first time FWIW – “Capitalism requires scarcity to function, and in the absence of material scarcity, intellectual property allows capitalists to maintain it artificially to our collective detriment.” – uh, yep)...



...and dear God, it really is that time of year again, isn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving 2022

I got a kick out of this pic, I have to admit (courtesy of Pixdaus and Daily Kos)...

...and here's another holiday fave, with an intro by Seth MacFarlane as Stewie Griffin (and again, the captions make this hilarious as far as I'm concerned...and timely in light of this)...



...and here's more holiday fun...



...and I kind of liked this also (hat tip for this to Daily Kos)...



...and here's a Thanksgiving message for those wonderful folks at the TSA.




Update 1: And here is another late addition.



Update 2: Might as well add this too (and yeah, "Man Tan" Boehner is long gone I know, but those who've followed him have done their best to make things worse).



Update 3: Imagine all the people that can be fed for $35 grand (here, getting serious for a minute).

Update 4: And since I add to this list every year, I might as well include this too (hasta la vista, baby!).



Update 5: And I suppose this is an apropos item too.

…and thank goodness the “culture warriors” of Fix Noise are trying to protect the holiday (more here)…



…and I guess this is an appropriate tune for the day...




...along with this.



Update: Yes, as I and others have pointed out, we know what The Lincoln Project is, but this is a wonderful ad.



Update 11/25/21: Well said.

Update 11/27/21: And here is a video about another holiday tradition (more here).

Wednesday Stuff

David Doel brings us the CNN report on Richard Fierro, who bravely subdued the Club Q shooter...(NSFW/H – I admire Doel’s honesty and total disgust over this situation, and let’s have no illusions trying to deny that garbage like this played a role also...and yeah, this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum, does it?)...



Update: I know people who are getting ready to move out of this country. Maybe they're onto something (here).

Update 11/24/22: "This is why" indeed (here).

...and Joy Reid interviews Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and Dr. David J. Johns (when you have so damn many of these mass carnage events that you need to almost have a Rolodex of them, yeah, you’ve got a problem all right)...



...oh, and in case anybody wants to see this garbage in action up close and personal, Maz Jobrani gives us an example of some “Karen” on her bike who got her panties all in a knot over a gay couple (two women) walking in public...try minding your own goddamn business, lady!...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report gives us more on “Strip Search Sammy” Alito leaking SCOTUS opinions to right-wing groups (Figueredo mentions the Lochner era, which, until now, was as pro-business a High Court as anyone can imagine - I know I linked to this story on Monday also)...



...and I have to admit that I really went back and forth on whether or not to provide a clip related to JFK, timed for the 59th anniversary of his assassination yesterday (I really didn’t have much to add, to be honest), but Thom Hartmann included these clips from a speech JFK gave about peace at the University of Michigan on June 10, 1963 – always important to remember exactly who and what it was that we lost when he was killed...



...and RIP Danny Kalb of Blues Project.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Dan Evans of The Majority Report give us more evidence that presumptive incoming U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will do whatever he’s told from his caucus of treasonous lunatics, including Marjorie Traitor Greene, Boebert, Biggs, Gosar, etc., with McCarthy claiming that committee assignments will be denied to Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff and Ilhan Omar...good luck getting those Dem votes you need to get legislation passed, you coward...



...and speaking of lousy U.S. House Republican congressional representation, it looks like Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina’s 11th congressional district has checked out two months early (assuming he was ever really doing his job to begin with), as David Pakman discusses...



...and it appears that twice as many Repugs died than Dems prior to the ’22 elections according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (focusing on Ohio and Florida)...and I agree with Ana K. of TYT (going solo) that this is awful regardless of someone’s politics...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the administration of #DeathSantis in FLA has been linked to the person who tricked migrants onto the flight to MVY via text messages (of course, we just had an election where voters in The Sunshine State could have, y’know, VOTED THIS FRAUD OUT OF OFFICE!, but the majority chose not to do so, though I have a feeling there were all kinds of games going on with voting machines in Dem districts, but that would have to be proven of course)...



...and speaking of Stupid Voting Tricks, Thom Hartmann discusses all of the voter disenfranchisement that went on in North Carolina, Georgia, (and indeed) Florida and Tennessee (and Mississippi – big surprise)...and once more, we can thank “balls and strikes” John Roberts and the completely wretched SCOTUS for gutting the preclearance provision of the VRA, thus enabling this garbage...



...and I guess there’s something to be said for a lone guitarist standing up to the world’s actual or perceived injustices; I’m not sure if this is a number cut from that cloth, if you will, but I like the tune anyway.

Monday Stuff

What follows is a video on the latest mass shooting in this country, this time at the Club Q “gay nightclub” (as described in media accounts like this one) in Colorado Springs, CO (more here, here, here, here, and here...and doesn't this figure? – and once more, to quote The Onion, this represents a difficult, thorny issue that pretty much every other freaking industrialized nation on earth has managed to effectively resolve EXCEPT US! And of course, you can throw "hating teh gay!" into this toxic stew for good measure)...



Update: And right on cue, here comes "Strip Search Sammy" Alito to pile on here, after having revealed SCOTUS opinions in advance to his pals (here).

via GIPHY

...and allegedly, “Curtsy Kyrsten” is somewhat of an LGBTQ presence in the U.S. Senate, but I wouldn’t depend on her for related issues; actually, I don’t think she can be depended on for a damn thing, as Dem U.S. House Rep Ruben Gallego pretty much says straight up, particularly given Sinema’s total absence in campaigning for Dem candidates in AZ in the most recent cycle – Farron Cousins tells us more...



Update: And by the way, since Arizona will eventually get a Dem governor sometime next January, Sinema could just quit after that happens and I'd be fine with that, knowing she'll be replaced by a Dem for real - she'd be doing us a favor (so of course she won't do that).

...and David Doel features an interview with Just Stop Oil activist Phoebe Plummer; yeah, I thought the whole soup-splattering stuff with the Van Gogh painting was kind of dumb, but she’s 100 percent, spot-on correct in this clip on the urgency of climate change (and Doel is also right about how the media in general treats the critical issue of climate change as kind of “meh”)...



...and Beau gives us his take on AG Merrick Garland’s decision to bring prosecutor Jack Smith from The Hague to go after Our Ochre Abomination...I’ve read that U.S. House Repugs are going to do everything they can to try and bring our government to a halt to prevent any investigation into #45, which sound like something out of their wretched playbook all right, even though that should deter absolutely nothing...for whatever my take is worth on this stuff, I’m not sure what took Garland so long, though he absolutely needs to do this (If he thinks he has a case of course...and with Trump, how could he not?) because one of the first things McCarthy will do when his party takes over the House will be to break up the 1/6 committee, and it sounds like Smith is exactly the right guy for the job of holding the head of Cult 45 to the full account he deserves...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about citations against Packers Sanitation Services Inc. employing kids at meat packing plants, working third shift in a lot of cases apparently and, in one instance in particular, a child suffered burns on his body from a cleaning solvent (and according to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, companies aren’t allowed to employ kids under 14, regardless of whether or not they’re Hispanic)...



...and given the horrific story in the first video, I thought this tune was particularly appropriate.