Friday Stuff

I failed to mention last Saturday about the 60th anniversary of JFK’s commencement speech at American University about peace, which, to me, contains wisdom for the ages; fortunately, Thom Hartmann remembered...I always thought that the dark forces that brought us 11/22/63 started going to work in response to Kennedy’s wise words, though of course I’ll never be able to prove that...also, just because another Kennedy is currently in the public eye is no reason to make the awful mistake of thinking he has any intention at all to carry on the legacy of either his father or our 35th president...



..and Mike Figueredo tells us about some goofball guy yelling at short-haired little girls saying they’re trans...ugh (first minute or so of this is a “cis” woman with the alleged crime of having short hair who wanted to go to the bathroom discussing how some elderly lady harassed her when the “cis” woman was merely trying to pee...God almighty, I’m so done with this BS!...and yeah, “trans-vestigating” and “trans-panic” are things, unfortunately – and I can’t imagine how Kentucky Republicans sleep at night, having persecuted apparently the only trans girl in the state who just wanted to play hockey...NSFW/H)...



...and in a related vein, John and Brett Erlich tells us about on the wingnuts losing it over – what? – a tranny covering the nips on boobs at a White House pride event? Really??!! (and here is more on this Todd Starnes character)...



...and as a bit of a follow-up to the Mike Figueredo clip, Leeja Miller asks Why Are Wingnuts So Obsessed With Trans Kids...and with all due respect to Miller, the “culture wars” stuff goes back earlier than Anita Bryant, at least to Roe v. Wade in ’73 (on the part of the Catholic Church, anyway...didn’t really think here about the overlap between the fundie nut jobs and the white power zealots, but I can see that that indeed is a “thing”...NSFW/H)...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about that Fix Noise guttersnipe Jesse Watters demonizing the homeless, again (oh, and people are homeless because they’re failures? I ABSOLUTELY DARE Watters to say something like that to our homeless veterans who have served this country...more here)...



...and from “across the pond” comes news of the passing of British MP and legendary actress Glenda Jackson, who in her political life stands tall IMO for this singular moment (oh, and if you think we do “rough and tumble” politics in THIS country, get a load of how Great Britain does it, as shown in this clip)...



Update 6/18/23: I think the Hogarth reference in Jackson’s fine speech has to do with this; that is, the poverty from “Thatcherism” was so extreme that it recalled a centuries-old era when William Hogarth depicted “moral subjects” in his paintings.

...and returning to our shores, Jesse Dollemore brings us Dem U.S. House Rep Dan Goldman, who apparently nails the metaphorical coffin shut on idiot James Comer’s alleged Biden investigation (though, given the propensity of the “party of Lincoln” to tell zombie lies, I’m sure this won’t be the end of this nonsense unfortunately)...



...and when I think of the current U.S. House “leadership” as noted in the Goldman clip, I cannot help but think of this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

I thought Rachel Maddow did a pretty good job here of describing the real-life, practical impact of what Our Tiny-Handed Orange Pestilence has done with not just our intel, but that of our allies...and really, it tells you, among other things, how flat-out dumb #45 was, which in the Kubrickian scheme of things was probably good...if he had been clever and/or systematic enough to, say, copy every single piece of classified intel and return it when he was asked, since what he’s accused of is only hanging onto the docs for too long (though that by itself is bad enough), it’s possible he could have gotten away with this scot-free, which is terrifying...at some point, a whole gang of laws and statutes will have to be announced/passed/signed into law based on stuff that, previously, was just “understood” among presidents, before the leader of Cult 45 came along and blew all of those understandings to smithereens, because whoever comes after Our Ochre Abomination will be smart enough not to make the same mistakes (and after reading this chyron, I don’t want to hear Ro Khanna or anybody else on our side say, “Oh, Dems need to appear on Fix Noise”...putting aside the “wannabe dictator” BS, it is a brazen, disgusting lie to say that Biden had one damn thing to do with the multiple count indictment against Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...it was a grand jury of everyday people in this country who did their commendable duty)...



Update: Yeah, I think this says it.

Update 6/19/23: God, this MUST have been bad for someone to actually get canned from that trash network (here).

...and David Doel discusses the truly historic youth climate trial beginning in Montana...yeah, it’s definitely a long shot, but the other side keeps playing this game of sending one legal “trial balloon” after another that gets shot down until one gets through, and there’s no reason why our side can’t do the same thing, especially when it comes to the freaking climate...



...and Jeff Waldorf lets us know that Republicans in 38 states have introduced bills to subvert local and national elections (including that Texas BS having to do with Harris County, which is the largest county in the state which usually votes for Dems...gee, just a coincidence, huh? And as usual for Mango Mussolini, every accusation is a confession...also, not to be snippy, but I think he needs to add some production values to these videos)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us that the 7 largest insurance CEOs made $335 mil, a lot of which was tied to Medicare Advantage plans and stock buybacks, which are a couple of the biggest scams going on as far as I’m concerned...remember this the next time you’re denied coverage or a full copay reimbursement (and speaking of inflation...)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us about a new UN report about misogyny across the globe, and to be fair, this looks at both the developed and undeveloped countries across the world (not that we should rest on our laurels here either of course since we still have work to do...good news about the Gen Z-ers I guess saying enough of all of this BS, though)...



...and I know I’m a little late with this, but RIP Italian PM “Bunga Bunga” (here)...there was a time when I paid attention to the exploits of Silvio Berlusconi at this site (here), though I gave up when I had to change the direction of this dumb little blog for several reasons...the VICE News clip gives us more of a backgrounder from a few years ago...he proved to be tragically, catastrophically wrong about Vlad The Butcher, but you could also say that about just about every politician in this country also...however, I also thought Berlusconi was surprisingly spot-on in his analysis in a few ways, though make no mistake; I believe he would have morphed into the same “strongman” type as Putin of course, Orban of Hungary, Erdogan of Turkey, Lukashenko of Belarus, etc...



...and LA Unified school board member Jackie Goldberg is my new heroine for this (here)...



...and here is a tune timed for today’s commemoration.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Trae Crowder tell us that the Gropenfuhrer says he can’t recall if he was told he’d be indicted...no human being should ever trust a single utterance out of his mouth ever again, not that we should have in the first place (and apparently #45 will be arraigned today; he should be forced to surrender his passport, thought that likely won’t happen...I totally get John’s hypothetical here, but it is a bit edgy, I have to say)...



...and Kyle K. tells us that the usual culprits on the right are acting like they want to start “stacking bodies” or something, which is more typical bluster, even though there’s likely one goofball in that bunch who might try to make good on that threat... and the DNC is clueless as always about not bothering to come up with a single attack ad over this – just imagine what the other side would do if the roles were reversed (and I think Kyle is a little glib about HRC, who, as far as I could see, wasn’t guilty of a damn thing except political hubris)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ is the one actual reporter in all of these videos who has not only ready the indictment, but has also reported on other indictments against high-up government officials, so he can legitimately do a “compare and contrast,” and when you put the indictment of Our Ochre Abomination in that context, yeah, it does indeed look worse (and "lawrs"?)...



...and The Lincoln Project tells us that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence joins a truly sorry list of those indicted under The Espionage Act (again, the Dems should be running ads like this, but I guess they’d get a case of the willies at the thought of doing something to piss off those unicorn suburban boomer independent voters who, in the aggregate, will never support them anyway)...



Update 6/16/23: As usual, The Rude Pundit completely gets it here...The D party once more completely caves on the messaging and lets the other side fill up the vacuum with their total BS, though that won’t stop the political party to which I share an allegiance from BADGERING THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF ME for money...when you start acting like you deserve a contribution, THEN I’ll help you out!

...and Beau comments on this country supposedly having a two-tiered justice system...as he sez, the wingnuts are right, but in a completely opposite way as opposed to verifiable truth and reality (i.e., the kid gloves extended to Combover Caligula of course...sorry to feature #45 in all of these videos, but I think we all know that this stuff with this narcissistic sociopath is important)...



...and RIP Windham Hill pianist George Winston.

Monday Stuff

David Shuster brings us this clip of Trumpster Mandy Gunasekara (who helped pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords, apparently) now attacking trans health care (God, are we STILL doing this??!!) and getting her metaphorical head handed to her by Dem U.S. House Rep Becca Balint of Vermont (another reason to love The Green Mountain State as far as I’m concerned)...



...and as long as we’re dealing with intolerance, here is Leeja Miller (not her) discussing why Book Bans Are Fascist...so much important history here, including what led to the so-called Comstock Act (NSFW/H)...“With all progress comes the backlash by those who benefit from the stalling of progress.” indeed...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us more about the Repugs’ “forever war” against “hippies,” African Americans, and basically anyone who wasn’t a campaign supporter (don’t have to be rich, but it certainly helps...I honestly didn’t know about that quote from Reagan prior to Kent State, but it fits his wretched profile for sure)...and how yelling about “woke” (which is originally a term used among African Americans to each other) is just the latest version of their long-running garbage (kind of broke the video at a weird place, but I think the point was made)...



...and in a bit of truly unexpected good news, Mike Figueredo brings us the story of the Voting Rights Act (Section 2 in particular) being saved for now by the highly unlikely combination of Hangin’ Judge JR and “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh (case is Allen v. Milligan I believe)...



...and this latest (I think) video from Second Thought tells us more about How Capitalism Creates Loneliness...”Social cohesion is harder to come by in this zero-sum competition that decides if you get to eat this month” and “The built-in competitive element of labor under capitalism puts a strain on (interpersonal) relationships, and that's the problem. The way our economy is organized runs against our natural drive and physical need to socialize. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it sure as hell doesn’t help”...uh, yep (and to echo what J.T. Chapman says here, please reach out for help if you think you need it or if you can help someone else)...



...and I believe we’re going to get some much-needed precipitation in these parts today, which brings to mind this tune.