Friday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore is joined by Cliff Schecter to discuss the latest antics of Marjorie Trailer Park Greene and her decision to introduce what apparently are nude Hunter Biden pics into a congressional hearing, which violates a D.C. ordinance about revenge porn as Jesse points out...yeah, there truly is no bottom for these life forms, and Lesley Stahl, among others, should feel like a total idiot for legitimizing the monstrous behavior of this utter lunatic...



...and this story is referred to in the prior clip...Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about Greg Abbott’s decision to order the border patrol to force immigrant kids into the Rio Grande river with barbed wire...I wish I could disagree with the comment from Matt about not a big stink being raised because Trump isn’t president anymore, but unfortunately I can’t (hopefully Dark Brandon will stand up and do the right thing, though Abbott is the one inflicting this barbarism, and yeah, mentioning Elliott Abrams is sadly apropos)...more here...



Update: Sanity prevails for once (here).

...and Thom Hartmann tells us about the right-wing billionaires’ plan to turn this country into an authoritarian dictatorship, and how the treasonous criminals trying to perpetrate this really aren’t shy about it; I have a feeling that they’re getting impatient with waiting for enough states to agree to an Article V convention to rip up our Constitution and rewrite it according to their own demented vision and are just trying to cut to the proverbial chase instead (and yeah, the Trump gang will know how to wield power this time if they ever get another chance, as Thom points out – we have to do our best to make sure that NEVER happens)...



...and speaking of Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a *president, it looks like he’s having a sad/hissy fit, as Farron Cousins points out, because Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabilly Sanders won’t endorse him for prez next year, and she’s also apparently cozying up to Ron #DeathSantis, and I think Farron Cousins is right...which makes it all the more delicious that 45 is having another meltdown over this political slight from someone who indeed might be a table server at Cracker Barrel if it weren’t for her job from Fergus Laing to be a paid liar on behalf of our prior ruling cabal of grifters, criminals and other assorted lowlifes...



...well, for a bit of good news, Kyle Kulinski tells us that the “party of Lincoln” is hemorrhaging young voters primarily over student loan debt according to a poll in Axios (cool! – NSFW/H)...

...and I began the week with the passing of one musical legend, and I’ll try to wrap it up with noting the passing of another, and that would be the incomparable Tony Bennett...I absolutely have to include this as a tribute (more here and here).

Thursday Stuff

John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us that, apparently, this country music bumpkin named Jason Aldean came up with a song called “Try That In A Small Town,” or something, which some people are in a snit over because it could be interpreted to give an OK to racial violence I suppose (GREAT point by Jayar to associate this with what happened in 1/6/21 – yeah, don’t try this in a small town, or whatever, but beating the snot out of the D.C. Capitol police is fine because you’re doing it to help Our Ochre Abomination, which is a completely apropos argument by Jayar as far as I’m concerned)...



Update: More here (and kudos to Sheryl Crow).

...and on the subject of preserving our democracy (tied to 1/6 of course), Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is charging 16 in that state’s fake electors scheme in ’20; yeah, these (alleged) criminals could be looking at serious time indeed in the big house, but as the TYT hosts note, this sends a very-much-needed chilling effect to those who might want to try this again (and Wisconsin also tried something like this, but RoJo among other miscreants will likely skate of course, and I should always note that the “Badger State” involvement is also only “alleged”)...



...and venturing below that Mason-Dixon line, Farron Cousins tells us that the embrace of white supremacy by Alabama’s Repug U.S. senatorial mistake Tommy Tuberville is only making him MORE popular to his constituents, and Cousins gives us a bit of perspective on that...interesting in an unintentionally funny way that Roy Moore hanging out at shopping malls to hook up with underage girls, allegedly again of course, was a bridge too far for the life forms in his home state, but Tuberville’s antics apparently aren’t – just no words for how contemptible this all is, both by Tuberville and also his supporters...



...and turning a little southeast, David Pakman tells us that there are now at last count 6 cases of malaria in Flori-DUUUH!...and yeah, that number doesn’t constitute a panic in the scheme of things, but yeah, to not have two people in the public health roles that Pakman mentions so the state can respond is definitely a problem for #DeathSantis that’s more typical of a third world tin pot dictatorship, which that state basically is now...



...and I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of my Doylestown “peeps” than I am at this moment in response to this story, in which some truly terrific residents of the area (and they crossed party lines as Mike Figueredo points out, just to make that clear) gave this “Billboard Chris” nematode and other “Moms for Liberty” lowlifes the treatment they deserved when they tried their antics against LGBTQ youth (and props to Steve Santarsiero also...NSFW/H...and just to make it clear for the millionth time, kids aren’t getting drugs or bottom surgery!!)...



...and I try to “find my people” every day that I do this, and I hope it makes a difference somehow.

Wednesday Stuff

David Doel reminds us of what is plainly obvious to anyone with a brain (excluding the MAGA life forms by saying that I know), and that is the fact that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former *President plans to go full dictator in 2025 (if he, God forbid, gets the chance), spending money as he sees fit and firing anyone in the federal government that he wants...darkly funny to me to hear this narcissistic psycho claim to respect the Constitution, though last I checked, that founding document has something to say about Congress wielding “the power of the purse”...yeah, we know who’s running the House, but they still have final say on how funds are spent...oh, and I don’t believe the Constitution has one damn thing to say about the FEC, FCC or any other governmental agency...and great point by Doel that these ideas would be recommended to ANY Repug preznit besides Combover Caligula...and yeah, on the topic of “What 45 has planned in private,” at a minimum, I see a federal effort to purge state voting rolls of Democrats – and yes, I know the states still have authority on that, fortunately, but I believe various Repug bottom feeders, like this John Eastman character, would come up with some utter nonsense legal doctrine like that “independent legislative theory” BS that would end up ultimately being enshrined by the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (the “shadow docket” SCOTUS shot it down already I know, but we should NEVER assume that they’ll keep doing that...more here...and don't you just love the totally bland, milquetoast framing of this madness by "The old gray lady"?)...

...and oh yeah, apparently “Governor Bully” is getting a bit of a bump in the polls...as I and others have pointed out, who was the one who scuttled the Hudson River commuter tunnel project even though it would have been bankrolled primarily by the Feds? Who was it who closed the GW Bridge for political payback (and don’t even imagine telling me that Christie didn’t know about that)? Who was it who routinely demonized teachers, and likely still will do that given the chance? Oh, and who was it who came up with the brilliant idea for #45 to interrupt Biden like crazy during the first ’20 presidential debate (though I guess we really should thank Christie for such a boneheaded move that ended up helping Biden)?

Update 1 7/19/23: Uh huh.

Here's the David Doel clip...



...and John and River Butcher of The Damage Report tell us that an Italian judge recently ruled that a “grope” has to last for at least 10 seconds for it to be considered a criminal offense, apparently, which is a callous bit of specious legal reasoning at a minimum, I would say...



...and Jessica Burbank with More Perfect Union bring us the story of an abortion protection measure in Ohio, which apparently has broad support...so what does the “party of Lincoln” want to do about that? Well, since they love democracy so much (snark), they want to make it harder for ballot measures to show up when Ohioans go to vote in November, by raising the percentage of signatures required from 50 to 60 via a special election next month (this is tied to that condom ad on Monday, in case you’re wondering)...and OF COOUURRSSE this is bankrolled by megadonors like this scumbag Richard Uihlein and this Mike Gonidakis character...the wingnuts obviously learned how to try and gum up the works based on the opposition to their forced birth policies in other states, and this appears to be their latest move...



...and the latest from Second Thought tells us This Is Why You’re Poor (NSFW/H)...no, it basically isn’t because of a “character defect” or you didn’t get the “right” degree in college...structural inequality is pretty much baked into the metaphorical economic pie...”Poverty is a necessary byproduct of consistent profit” and “you can’t outrun rent hikes by working harder” indeed...

...and David Pakman tells us that Adam Frisch recently posted some terrific fundraising numbers in his race to unseat Bo-Bo Boebert in CO-03 next year – to help Frisch, click here...



Update 2 7/19/23: If at all possible, I never intend to stop reminding Boebert about her latest monstrous act (here),

...and yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Billy Joel Day in New York, which is a bit apropos; I try not to think of that shrieking incumbent Repug harpie in the U.S. House noted in the prior clip, but when I’m forced to do so, this is one of the tunes that comes to mind.

Tuesday Stuff

Yes, the wild weather we’ve been dealing with in this country is pretty dramatic, including the truly awful story of the lives lost due to flooding at Washington’s Crossing in these parts (here), but John and Jessica Burbank of The Damage Report tell us about mass flooding and heat in Europe, resulting in the deaths of about 61,000 people...we’re long past the point where the climate measures commendably enacted by Biden and congressional Democrats need to be strengthened, and if that means that the MAGA lunatics on Capitol Hill need to have yet another meltdown like the spoiled, coddled children that they are, all the better...



...and David Pakman brings us that clip of RFK Jr. that everyone is quite rightly losing their minds about...yes, it’s bad form to record something off the record like this, but I would argue that, when the remarks are this crazy, that outweighs any claim to proprietary communication...the alleged Democratic candidate for preznit said in the video that COVID was “ethnically targeted” to spare Jews and Chinese...I would worry about this loon screwing up the general election, but hopefully he’ll electorally hang himself before then with insanity like this (until I saw this clip, I hadn’t seen that remark about Ukraine collecting Russian DNA, which is at least as nutty as the other stuff...and the “furin dockin cleave”...WHAAA????)...



...and in the prior clip, we saw RFK Jr. trying to stir up a conspiracy for no good reason, and in the following commentary from Jesse Dollemore, we learn about conservatives saying kids aren’t being taught Cursive so they won’t read the Constitution, which of course is a totally ridiculous argument BUT SPOUTED OFF WITH GREAT AUTHORITAH!!! - NSFW/H...sooo, this wingnuts in these TikTok videos (and is there anybody in creation who DOESN’T have a Tik Tok video at this point?) draw a line from kids not being taught cursive to liberals not having a f*cking backbone, or something – and by the way, in my admittedly limited experience, the whole “Cursive” thing is a parochial school matter as opposed to public schools, and I’m not sure why, but I can tell you that it’s NOT because public school teachers don’t want kids to understand and appreciate our country’s founding documents...



...and speaking of wingnut lunacy, Ana and Cenk (not them) tell us about Megan McArdle of the WaPo saying that higher wages create homelessness, which, as Cenk says, is a right-wing argument that is merely wrong (largely) as opposed to being certifiably insane for the reasons the TYT hosts point out...the clip gets into all kinds of reasons for homelessness, and yes, McArdle does have a bit of a point about housing in LA (though I would argue that that’s a problem nationwide, albeit to varying degrees), but another factor not mentioned is that blocks of real estate have been bought up by private equity firms, and they’re partly to blame for exorbitant rents also (here).

...actually, I did a little research into McArdle, and she’s pretty bonkers, based on the following:

She said here that kids should be trained to run at an active shooter if one finds his way into a classroom...what a freaking ghoul.

Given her apparent love of guns, she also has a problem with an assault weapons ban of course (here).

She also would have had had no problem if Obama had been shot during one of those fascistic rallies protesting the Affordable Care Act (which is actually a law of course now) back in ’09 (here).

There’s much more lunacy here (hard to catalog all of the nuttiness in this post...I guess she’s a more strident, female version of David Brooks...nice work if you can get it and still stand to look at yourself in the mirror, I guess).

Oh, and I almost forgot this from one of my "betters."

Anyway, here's the TYT video...



...and I realize that Marjorie Traitor Greene is way too stoo-pid to know that she just handed Dark Brandon one hell of a campaign ad, but that’s what she just did, as The Lincoln Project points out (and the White House response is here on the bird app)...



...and here’s a pretty nice summer tune to try and lighten things up a bit.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen discusses Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg dropping a few “truth bombs” on Joe Kernen of CNBC over inflation...I was already familiar with a lot of the numbers Cohen cites here, but I didn’t know about the IRS response times, which are great, and yeah, OF COOUURRRSE the “party of Lincoln” wants to sabotage that too – CNBC is nothing but corporate media propaganda anyway...mildly NSFW/H...



...and I’m sure this ad is bound to get everyone’s attention, as well it should (more here)...



...and David Pakman speaks with a woman who apparently works in a sports bar in our beloved commonwealth of PA, and she relates to us that MAGA “men” don’t tip, and of course get all in her face about voting for Mango Mussolini...best wishes to her on her cosmetology career...



...and it looks like “15 Votes For Speaker” Kevin McCarthy and the ruling MAGA clown car caucus in the U.S. House think they should give themselves raises for staging conspiracies, including obsessing over Hunter Biden’s genitalia and other idiocy (Francesca, Cenk and Jayar of TYT tell us more)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us that the usual suspects are doing everything they can to undermine our efforts in this country to transition to a clean energy economy while 90% of the nation is under excessive heat warnings...there are MANY issues where the national Democrats are completely falling down on messaging (not trying to malign most individuals candidates doing the right thing, and yes, this is a recording...and that includes the topic of the prior clip), but this is the worst example as far as I’m concerned, with women’s health care a very close second...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report bring us the news that the FBI is concerned about “deep fake” pics and videos, or at least they communicated concern about that five years ago...good that they’re checking on this, but it's a little spooky that they’re not taking the lead on this, apparently...that’s one of my biggest concerns about the elections next year, to be honest, and I don’t see any evidence that we’re prepared for this stuff (love to be wrong)...



...and Leeja Miller brings us a pretty sorry tale of how suburban and rural sprawl has taken over this country; this is basically an important history lesson on the growth of suburbs at the expense of cities, and why pretty much almost the whole damn country any more is a collection of highways, overpasses/offramps, and strip malls without end; she does indeed end the clip on a bit of a positive note, though trying to re-architect this country with an eye towards sustainability and not totally screwing over minorities, particularly in cities, is an uphill battle for sure (NSFW/H also)...



...and RIP Andre Watts, a truly incomparable pianist.