Friday Stuff

Leeja Miller gives us a history of the "party of Lincoln" caterwauling about "voter fraud" (and I'm definitely a fan of Ground News also, FWIW)...I briefly forgot about how much the lies from McCain about Obama and ACORN managed to stick...glad to see Kris Kobach get dragged over propaganda on immigration and voting fraud (and the "Show Me Your Papers" law, along with Crosscheck), along with Samuel Huntington...and I'm REALLY glad to see Cleta Mitchell get her "time in the barrel" (and the Bradley Foundation) and it's shocking a bit to learn that Mitchell started on "Team D" and ended up with the likes of Ginni Thomas...the last 3:00 in particular really nails the issue...."That tarnishment of democracy becomes obvious only at a point when it's impossible to reverse it" indeed...



...and I thought Kyle Kulinski did a great job here of summarizing all the ways Dems in state government have improved the lives of their constituents, and the latest example of that is PA Dem guv Josh Shapiro, getting a “motor voter” measure put into place, which could get “tens of thousands” more PA voters signed up in the first year as noted here (and Al Schmidt, by the way, was the former Republican elections official in Philly targeted by Mango Mussolini and his minions over alleged “voter fraud,” referenced in the first clip of course)...



...and Cliff Schecter tells us about Rupert The Pirate stepping down from his perch at News Corp apparently, but handing the reins over to his son Lachlan, who might actually be worse, believe it or not (more here)...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us about Louisiana Repug John Raymond, who apparently is trying to run for the state house and has been endorsed by his party even though he has been charged with child cruelty (here...though of course, he wants to “protect” kids from LGBTQ individuals...uh huh)...Raymond is apparently a pastor-turned-politician (heckuva combo)... and I watched the first two seasons of “Survivor” and then said enough because I thought those people were suffering way too damn much for the sake of a freaking TV show; more to the point, this guy Raymond needs counseling at a minimum and should have nothing whatsoever to do with a job representing constituents in a public role...NSFW/H...



...and I know I spend a hell of a lot of time at this site basically documenting all manner of Repug-party misbehavior to varying degrees of illegality, but if you think that means that I’m going to turn a blind eye when the culprit is someone from the “D” party, you’re very much mistaken, and there is probably no better (worse?) illustration of that than Dem U.S. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey; as far as I’m concerned, he dodged an electoral bullet, so to speak, in 2018 when the R team ran the utterly awful Bob Hugin against him, and I said at the time that they won’t make that mistake again, and I’m sure they won’t...and yeah, Menendez is entitled his day in court as are we all, innocent until proven guilty and all that and everything is alleged, but I don’t want to imagine the awfulness of losing control of the U.S. Senate because Menendez wouldn’t give up his job despite all of the cries for him to step down at last (more here and here)...



Update: I wish I could say I'm surprised (here).

...and when it comes to the unruly children in charge of the U.S. House (who STILL haven’t passed the bills they need to fund the government - more here and here), it looks like Dan Bishop, Gym Jordan, etc. tried to rattle AG Merrick Garland, to no avail whatsoever (to Garland’s credit – Francesca and Mondale Robinson give us the details)...



...and given what I just said, I suppose I should note that the cretinous U.S. House mongrels in charge have come up with their idea of a budget, which, as Thom Hartmann says, can indeed be summarized by this statement; the rich get richer, and you die (Thom provides more discussion of Jordan’s antics against Merrick Garland...good for Jerry Nadler to call out Jordan for the liar he is)...and yeah, the budget games from these unruly children in the U.S. House is typical...I’d forgotten that Bill Clinton didn’t add to the deficits (interesting background on the “two Santa Claus theory”...more on wingnut Jude Wanniski is here)...



...and I don’t know if this qualifies as some kind of a “Gen Z” anthem or not, but at least it’s an upbeat number for us to drink and party to for what looks like a soggy weekend coming up in a few hours.

Thursday Stuff

Getting called out by filthy, unkempt liberal bloggers like yours truly is one thing, but when it comes from a hometown TV station that is taking you to task, then I would say that that’s a wholly other matter, as Kyle Clark of 9NEWS Denver recently showed us concerning Bo-Bo Boebert (to do something in response, click here)...



...and Blue Amp Channel gives us an ostensibly humorous item concerning the head of Boebert’s party in the House, and that would be “15 Votes for Speaker” Kevin McCarthy (and from the Reap What You Freaking Sow file, I give you this and this)...



Update: I had a feeling it would be a sh*tshow trying to get anything from the House after the 15 speaker votes lunacy, and it looks like I was right (here).

...and Jesse Dollemore informs us that, apparently, this Shannon Bream person at Fix Noise lamented the fact that Repugs get blamed for government shutdowns...uh, YEAH! (and the bar is set pretty low when Turd Blossom actually looks like a statesman; as usual, it’s all about the “optics” for our corporate media cousins as opposed to, y’know, actual stuff that impacts people’s lives...and here is the latest concerning that trash "news" network)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us here that Our Ochre Abomination would scribble “To Do” lists on the back of classified documents like the demented toddler that he truly is...here’s a video idea in response; I’d like to see someone pretending to be a head of a hostile foreign country with a classified doc they smuggled out of Mar-a-Lago, but then seeing ketchup stains on it or #45’s itinerary, and they have a good laugh over it and the camera freezes just as they’re getting ready to press a button launching an attack against this country...do I think this is funny? Hell freaking no, but maybe something like that could get the attention of the majority of this country that has just come to accept this insanity as so much white noise, and I have to reluctantly add that that includes your humble narrator at times (and if anyone came up with a video like that, it would probably be The Lincoln Project, since we can’t count on anything like that from the @DNC...probably worried about offending independent, Trump-leaning voters in an Ohio diner somewhere)...



...and speaking of The Lincoln Project, this is a pretty solid endorsement of “Dark Brandon” (not like there’s much choice I know, but credit where it’s due, something to give us more reason to support Biden and the Dems given this insanity...and good work by #46 here also)...



...and I should note that, given my pretty thorough disinterest in much of what country music has become, I didn’t know anything about Maren Morris until yesterday, but it looks like she’s had enough of that whole scene based on the following tune and “Get The Hell Out Of Here”...welcome to the fight (more here).

Wednesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore and Brittany Page on the “I Doubt It” podcast discuss alleged Democratic U.S. senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia saying he just wants to “bring people together” while he helps plunge millions of kids in this country into poverty...and Harris Faulkner is every bit as disgusting as usual, and I agree that the woman panelist on that Fix Noise mess should have just said “hey, the child tax credit was expanded in the American Rescue Plan of 2021, which EVERY REPUBLICAN VOTED AGAINST (here and here) and the credit was allowed to sunset, and President Biden is trying to bring it back” and left it at that (more here and here)...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us about the Princeton Gerrymandering Project (and yeah, I agree that it’s not much of a name either), which, fortunately for all of us, is keeping track of the awful gerrymandering going on in (primarily) Repug-run statehouses, leading into a commentary on Janet Protasiewicz winning the state supreme court seat in Wisconsin (Maddow interviews Ben Wikler about it...a link to the site Wikler mentions is here)...



...and David Doel tells us that Mango Mussolini plans to give a speech to the striking UAW members on the same day as another one of these ridiculous Repug “debates” that 45 intends to blow off again...yeah, ask the employees of Carrier in Indiana how much Preznit Fergus Laing looked out for their jobs as noted here (about 80 were saved vs. 600 or so getting offshored)...uh huh (pretty comprehensive report comparing the “R” and “D” teams on this, and props especially to Rashida Tlaib)...



...and it looks like conservative women are slamming Bo-Bo Boebert for her recent antics with her date while they were watching the musical “Beetlejiuce” in that Denver theater...yeah, all the outrage is completely deserved (and how's this for a typically laughable excuse...NSFW/H)...



...and I don’t know a lot about this Mission Democracy group, but this is one hell of an ad, harking back a bit to at least one during World War II where we needed to be on the lookout against insidious forces trying to thoroughly corrupt our way of life, then as now...



...and Adrienne Lawrence Esq. of Rebel HQ discusses the wingnuts going after John Fetterman and the relaxed U.S. Senate dress code (I have a lot of issues with “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” but this definitely isn’t one of them)...



...and the last clip was a bit amusing, but this one couldn’t be more serious; time to give these lunatics trying to turn this country into some kind of Christo-fascist corpocracy the treatment they deserve (from here)...



...and RIP British singer-songwriter Roger Whittaker; I can recall this tune getting played all over the place “back in the day.”

Tuesday Stuff

I apologize for being a little late to the party, as it were, on the mess with Kristen Welker taking over on “Meet The Press” and allowing Our Ochre Abomination to (as usual) lie with virtual impunity; this is partly because I was waiting for other folks to weigh in, as Beau does here (and more from my A-list “betters” is here and here...it’s all about rating and views/clicks and ad dollars, and #45 apparently still helps with all of that despite the fact that he’s utterly allergic to the truth)...



Update: I know Keith Olbermann has spoken almost reverentially abot Russert (speaking of "Meet The Press"), and K.O.'s entitled to his "take" of course, but I think we need to remember this too.

...and David Pakman tells us about President Biden making a deal with Iran to unfreeze assets for the release of 5 U.S. citizens detained by that outlaw country, and of course the wingnuts lose what’s left of their minds...



...and Rayy Vana and Nina Turner of The Damage Report tell us that Oho Repugs are trying AGAIN to get an anti-abortion ballot measure passed, and this time, they’re trying to add language to confuse voters even more (yeah, really trying to whip up that “anti-baby” voting bloc; I swear, do Repugs pass ANYTHING besides anti-abortion bills and tax cuts? And Frank LaRose is doing this stuff, by the way, to help mobilize his base since he may end up taking on Sherrod Brown for the U.S. Senate from Ohio next year, and if there is EVER somebody out there who deserves our support, it’s Brown)...



...and David Balaban of Rebel HQ tells us about a woman holding an anti-abortion sign who was questioned about the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, and as a result, ended up too stumped to continue the discussion, along with Our Treasonous Lying Fraud Of A Tiny-Handed Former *Preznit and “executing babies” (and no, that definitely isn’t a “thing”)..by the way, the catchphrase “abortion on demand” has been around forever, and it has ALWAYS been used to whip up the wingnuts into full froth (not that surprising, I realize)...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us that the Repugs keep fighting Biden on weed (and once again, I’m in favor of full decriminalization, but for it to be legalized, I think there should be a bunch of caveats, but that’s just me I know)...good call by Kyle to mention regulating the THC content; also, James Lankford is a Repug U.S. Senator and Pete Sessions is a Repug U.S. House rep, just to make that absolutely clear, though they’re both awful...



...and today is the 50th anniversary of the death of legendary country rocker Gram Parsons; The Eagles wrote this tune in Parsons’ honor.

Monday Stuff

Leeja Miller tells us all about the conservative attack on public schools and how the emphasis went from using them as a way to make those who'd recently arrived as immigrants familiar with this country to becoming a means to build a career ...a lot of important history and many good points, including how “school choice” is a “two-fer” – one, it attacks funding for teachers unions which traditionally vote Democratic as Miller says, and two, it’s an effort to eliminate public schools, in line with what Milton Friedman and the “Chicago boys” want for public education, which is to kill it altogether (and school vouchers are a tool to help accomplish that also) – didn’t know about that Grover Norquist quote, but it sure fits...and yeah the quote from Mike Pompeo is as stoo-pid and inflammatory as you can expect...and just as a reminder, the whole “litter boxes in schools” thing started because teachers set them up for students who might be stuck in lockdowns BECAUSE OF AN ACTIVE FREAKING SHOOTER, WHICH TIES BACK TO THE FACT THAT THIS COUNTRY PRETTY MUCH REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT OUR EPIDEMIC OF GUN VIOLENCE (more on that a bit later), and teachers quite rightly realized that some students might need to relieve themselves when stuck in a classroom for an extended period of time...this video also gives charter schools the treatment they deserve (NSFW/H)...



...and Thom Hartmann discusses some unanswered questions about January 6th, such as who planted the pipe bombs in D.C., who removed the panic buttons in the office of Dem U.S. House rep Ayanna Pressley, etc. (the 1/6 Commission with Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger was a good start, but so much more needs to be done on that front)...GREAT questions asked by Thom Hartmann about what we STILL don’t know about the 1/6 insurrection, including wondering if Tuberville is deliberately holding open military promotions in case, God forbid, Our Tiny-Handed Treasonous Orange Pustule gets back into An Oval Office and then he’d be able to appoint his favorites to those posts...and I also didn’t know about the bus being locked that contained the riot gear for the DC cops – ugh...and more on the recent “second bullet” revelation from retired Secret Service agent Paul Landis, written about recently by Will Bunch of inquirer.com, is here...



...also, Francesca, Cenk and Mark Thompson discuss the recent revelations about South Dakota guv Kristi (Unsafe At Any Speed) Noem and Corey Lewandowski (womp, womp)...and man, it’s hard to keep track of Lewandowski’s antics even with a scorecard...and GREAT point by Francesca that, somehow, we know every damn thing in the world about Hunter freaking Biden, who wasn’t elected to a damn thing, but garbage like this with Noem and Lewandowski manages to seep through and go largely untouched; as I’ve probably said before (and will say again in a minute or two), what people do in their personal lives isn’t an issue with me as long as they’re adults and everything is consensual, but the hypocrisy of these folks doing all this while they screech about how other people should live is the point...



...and I have to admit that I’m a little amused by this next item; it turns out that Repug party donors may be fleeing Tim Scott because they think he’s gay (mildly NSFW/H)...my problem with Scott has nothing to do with his personal life, which isn’t anyone’s damn business – it’s the fact that he gives you about two minutes of word salad when you ask him about abortions along with the fact that he’s from a party that is COMPLETELY BOUGHT AND PAID FOR BY THE DONOR CLASS...and yeah, that’s true of way too many Dems also, but definitely not all...



Update 9/19/23: Again, I don't care about the personal stuff with Scott, but I VERY MUCH care about nonsense like this (auto workers are NOT federal workers, you assclown).

...and Rayy Vana and Nina Turner of The Damage Report bring us the news that Dem New Mexico guv Michelle Lujan Grisham has temporarily suspended “open and concealed carry” in her state, with some exceptions, because of a recent spate of shootings, leading to wingnuts’ heads exploding of course...and I’m sure Rayy Vana means “gun control advocates” (an update is here, telling us that a federal judge, David Herrera Urias, has at least temporarily blocked the governor’s order, because Heaven forbid that we do ANYTHING to interfere with the almighty Second Amendment, or at least the wingnut misinterpretation of it...and by the way, as much as I wish we could, we can’t blame Combover Caligula on this one; the judge is a Biden appointee)...



...and happy belated 70th birthday to jazzman Earl Klugh.