Friday Stuff

David Doel tells us here that pervy Matt Gaetz nominated Our Ochre Abomination for U.S. House Speaker (yeah, THAT will happen – not!), with Kevin McCarthy’s fail contest standing at 11 votes...and I take Doel seriously but definitely not Charlie Kirk, and this whole discussion about #45 as some kind of a “dealmaker” to resolve this is typically preposterous BS, for the reasons Doel points out; what just happened in the elections to Trump-supported candidates, with the exception of J.D. Vance in Ohio? (mildly NSFW/H...and I'm sure it isn't surprising to learn that some in our corporate media think that U.S. House Democrats are supposed to bail out these nitwit Republicans somehow who can’t elect a speaker, as noted here...a typically stoo-pid "take")...



...and I like where Beau is going with trying to pit McCarthy against the sedition caucus, but his argument assumes that rationality is going to prevail in this conflict, and as much as I’d like to see that at some point, I can’t imagine it unfortunately (love to be wrong)...if the Dems were to go through with a plan like what Beau describes, it should mean that the “gang of 20” should not be allowed to have committee assignments, and there would be written terms such as not holding the debt ceiling hostage as well as not withholding funding for governmental agencies, and Hakeem Jeffries should hold a press conference on the Capitol steps with McCarthy announcing everything that has been agreed to, so if McCarthy goes back on anything, the Dems will have a ready excuse to shame him every way they can and support those opposing McCarthy instead...again, I don’t see that not because of the MAGA yahoos out there who actually think Marjorie Traitor Greene is acting in their interests, but because everything I just described flies in the face of what the Repugs’ corporate puppet masters really want, and let’s not forget that THEY are the ones in charge of that party (and too much of Team D also, actually...and in a related vein, this bears repeating)...



...and speaking of corporate puppet masters, with the unhinged BS going on in one of the chambers of the U.S. Congress, let’s not think that that means that Not Your Father’s Republican Party isn’t hard at work at what they REALLY want to accomplish, as Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us...

...and no, I didn't forget about today's anniversary...



...and turning away from all of the idiocy on Capitol Hill for a minute, Ali Velshi reminded us recently that there were 648 mass shootings in 2022, with Kris Brown of The Brady Campaign and anti-gun activist and author Ryan Busse (who used to work in that business, but saw the light fortunately)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us that a Texas phone number to report drag shows apparently ends up nabbing a lot of actual predators in churches instead...can’t think of a hell hot enough for some of these pieces of sh*t (and of course, this Sarah Gonzales person rants on Dumb Face Tucker about drag queens, as if THEY are the actual problem...NSFW/H also)...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us another history lesson on neoliberalism (and I say that with respect), going back to the days of The Sainted Ronnie R, and wonders aloud if we’re reaching the end of that era, particularly given some recent comments from Mayor Pete as Transportation Secretary (Buttigieg is good at throwing out sound bites like that and going head-to-head with various media types, but hopefully he really means what he’s saying here)...



...and given the mind-numbing stupidity on display in the U.S. House this week, I can only think of this song as a response (and let’s not forget stuff like this also).

Update 1/7/23: Somebody on the bird app said that they didn't want the vote to get to 18 or older, or else Matt Gaetz would lose interest (here...story on pic is here).

Thursday Stuff

Gee, I wonder what kind of new ways Kevin McCarthy will be embarrassed today after losing six votes thus far for election as the U.S. House Speaker (here); David Pakman tells us more...



Update 1: I guess seven wasn't the lucky number (here).

Update 2: So we'll have to wait to hear about Number 10 (and beyond?) I suppose (here).

...and I think Jesse Dollemore is a little kinder here to that ridiculous fraud George Santos than I would be, but that’s OK; Santos should have known what to expect with this gig when he was running for it (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that somebody made the decision to remove metal detectors put in place before entering the House chamber after the 1/6 insurrection, with that fool Boebert of course crowing about it...I guess that was more of a priority than, y’know, ACTUALLY ELECTING A SPEAKER! (NSFW/H also)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about a wingnut dustup in where else but Flori-DUUUH!, with somebody named Matt Tito (a pal of Roger Stone – first sign of trouble) accusing Rep Anna Paulina Luna of being a witch...yep, the MAGA crowd keeps plummeting to new depts all right, offering nothing but performative nonsense...



Update 3: Way too damn funny (here)...

...and Robert Reich tells us the dirty little secret on corporate profits, and that is how they’re just about NEVER factored into the equation when considering the root causes of inflation (and I knew Jim Cramer was a POS, but this clip proves it even more)...



...and President Nixon announced the space shuttle program 50 years ago today (here)...here is a tune for the occasion.

Wednesday Stuff

Well, I don’t think the events of the first day of Republican U.S. House “governance” should have been a surprise, with Kevin McCarthy not winning enough votes after three tries in his attempt to be elected Speaker, as Jesse Dollemore tells us (mildly NSFW/H - more here...and as I alluded to yesterday, leave it to Dan Crenshaw to continue flogging this UTTERLY RIDICULOUS BUT COMPLETELY TYPICAL LIE!!! about “87,000 IRS agents” – the reality perspective on this is here)...



Update: Will this clown show ever end? (here).

...and Farron Cousins tells us about a story from The Hill about Repugs freaking out over losing younger voters by about 65 percent (favoring Team D) to 35 percent (favoring Team R) - shouldn't be hard to figure out by anyone possessing a bare minimum of gray matter on this stuff...



...and Sam, Emma and the Majority Report crew tell us about Repug Utah Sen. Mike Lee complaining to Larry Kudlow about Republicans being “emasculated” in the omnibus spending bill that just passed...and notice the complete lack of specificity about “tax hikes,” as well as the stuff about the bill allegedly being “negotiated in secret,” a particularly stoo-pid claim from Lee since Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao said here the spending bill here was “a victory for the GOP” (bringing to mind this post once more)..maybe Lee ought to try talking to the head of his party before he goes whining to the media...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that Our Ochre Abomination blamed the anti-abortion nuts for the ’22 midterm losses...I think there’s a kernel of truth to that believe it or not, but of course Trump’s “mirror” reflects everyone but himself, particularly given the fact that he and #MoscowMitch got the 3 wingnut justices confirmed who made the difference on that issue (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John and Elise Joshi of The Damage Report discuss some life form in Mississippi who burned a cross in his front yard near the home of an African American couple...and yes, this is indeed 2023, not 1923...



...and I guess this is my first “relationship” video for 2023, even though the tune is from last year...oh well.

Tuesday Stuff

(By the way, I don’t have anything particularly important to add about the terrible injury to Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, except to hope and pray for his full recovery...and oh yeah, this too.)

John I., Cenk and Jordan Uhl tell us about Mango Mussolini’s taxes getting released AT LONG LAST (and I agree with a lot of this, but I take offense at Cenk calling people at the IRS “cowards”...I believe John is the one who made the point about how grossly understaffed the agency is; they simply don’t have the resources to go after Our Ochre Abomination and the rich the way they should, and whenever a staffing increase is proposed, every Republican and simpatico keyboard knucklehead in existence starts losing their shit about “OMIGOD 87,000 NEW IRS AGENTS!!”...not quite sure why they hacked off the end of this clip the way they did...more here)...



...and one of the Gropenfuhrer’s pals is this assclown Bernie Marcus who is a founder of Home Depot; Marcus tells us what he thinks is killing Americans’ motivation to work, allegedly, and it’s...wait for it!...”socialism” (NSFW/H)...good job by Kyle Kulinski to work in graphics and context to support his arguments (and I would really like to see Marcus get forced to follow around people working 2-3 jobs, including some as Uber, Door Dash and Grub Hub drivers, to get some kind of a goddamn clue, and I’m sure a few of them work at Home Depot also...and I know Ana K. touched on the skyrocketing CEO pay thing already)...



...and Farron Cousins gives us his take on trying to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, which (along with the equal time requirement) once ruled network newscasts before the cables and everything else took over; like Cousins, I haven’t thought about this issue in a long time, and I found myself reluctantly agreeing with him...also, a problem with trying to bring it back isn’t just a matter of trying to pass one-size-fits-all legislation (and good luck with that), but The Sainted Ronnie R and his FCC heads Mark Fowler and Dennis Patrick made sure the doctrine was abolished in court also, so there would be legal battles for sure over trying to revive it (more here and here, and I definitely agree with Cousins about Thom Hartmann)...



...and David Pakman tells us that “all hat, no cattle” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is facing ANOTHER power plant emergency, also under the completely useless watch of ERCOT...but don’t let that interfere with Abbott busing immigrants all over the place at a cost of at least $12 mil to Texas taxpayers...



...and I know I included a clip on New Year’s Eve of a productive congress and presidential administration under President Obama with total Democratic control, and here’s a clip from Rachel Maddow listing all of the accomplishments of yet another instance of the entire federal government run by the “D” team under Biden...really makes you wonder why in God’s name any voter with a brain would want to deviate from that, but sadly, we are where we are...



...and RIP drummer Fred White of Earth, Wind and Fire.

Monday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

I thought it would be a good idea to kick off the new year on an upbeat note with this Second Thought video on Why Corporate America Hates Unions and how the movement to unionize succeeded in ’22 despite all of the obstacles the “one percent” managed to throw at it (and this is an important related link also)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us about the staggering numbers on income inequality and CEO pay in the U.S...and yeah, if you want to blame the Fed, they’re culprits also, but you have to go back to the slide we’ve been on in this country for the last 40 years at least, dating to The Sainted Ronnie R...and yes, I know this is a broken record by now (more related content is here and here)...



...and workers getting abused is definitely a global phenomenon, as this DW report tells us about Japan and death from overwork (affecting teachers primarily, who apparently work on average 123 hours of OT a month, way over what is referred to as the “Karoshi line”...God Almighty!...with reporter Clifford Coonan and professor Hiroshi Ono)...



...and I don’t really have a lot to say about the passing of Barbara Walters; I thought she was a pretty straight news professional...the one issue I guess you could say that I had with her was when she pretty much ambushed Ringo Starr in an interview after John Lennon’s murder, but relative to other nonsense from our corporate media, that’s really not a big deal overall (and as noted in the clip, pop culture imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, though I found myself agreeing with this sentiment also)...



...and on the subject of milestones, I absolutely had to point out that “Senator Snowball” announced that he’s stepping down; I thought Kyle Kulinski had a particularly good commentary on Inhofe from way back in the day...



...and Don Winslow reminds us that, as people like Inhofe leave office, crazy Republicans keep getting elected to replace them and take over even more, and at this moment, I don’t know what to do about the life forms who keep voting for these traitors...



...and the latest to join this gaggle is this George Santos character (assuming that’s even his actual name), and I thought Beau had a particularly good commentary here on who is at fault for not getting the lowdown on this guy...



...and if this incoming Congress were to have a theme song (aimed at the U.S. House Republican “leadership”), I would like to propose the following tune.