Friday Stuff

David Pakman presents a clip of Sean Inanity basically interrogating RFK Jr. now that the, shall we say, lapsed Kennedy scion has declared as an independent candidate for prez which could potentially draw votes from the Gropenfuhrer...such a transparently pathetic attempt to prop up #45 and defeat the monster that has indeed been created in part by The Roger Ailes BS Factory as Pakman notes...



...and as we see here, the other talking heads from that joke of a network are laughably bad also, with Laura Ingraham saying the charges against Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence should be dropped, which is absurd for the reasons Kyle Kulinski points out...



...and when it comes to the legal machinations related to Our Ochre Abomination, Jesse Dollemore tells us the 45’s lawyers are actually arguing that he didn’t have a duty to “support” the Constitution, but only to preserve, protect and defend that most important foundational document (as if there somehow could be a difference between the two sets of terms), as part of his filing against those who argue that Trump isn’t allowed to run for prez again given that he supported an insurrection (I can’t believe this alleged strategy was concocted by people who graduated law school and passed a bar exam)...



...and believe me when I tell you that it takes A LOT for me to take Joe Scar seriously enough to include a clip from him here, but I thought this was a pretty spot-on commentary (with Mrs. Scar and Willie Geist) about not just Combover Caligula, but the whole U.S. House “leadership”...really no need for me to point out the insanity of the remarks in this clip since it should be pretty goddamned freaking obvious – oh, and the bit about “what does you-know-who have against Obama” was unintentionally hilarious...gee, I dunno – how about FREAKING RACISM!! How about everything Trump and his old man did to African Americans in their real estate businesses? How about THE CENTRAL PARK FREAKING FIVE TOO??!! I think Geist kind of tiptoes around a bit on that by mentioning the birther stuff, but that’s probably as far as he’s allowed to go.

Scar made a name for himself by doing everything he possibly could to attack the Clintons for any reason whatsoever, and in a totally propagandistic fashion (here). He helped put the “R” Party on its current abhorrent, utterly ungovernable path, so he has NO ROOM WHATSOEVER to go tut-tut over that bunch now...



...and when it comes to those with power and privilege (harking back a bit to the first clip), Robert Reich gives us a lesson on the robber barons of The Gilded Age and what it took to defeat them; we’ll need the fully marshalled forces of working men and women and families all over this country to overcome the plutocrats who want to totally rig our politics and economy in their favor at the expense of everyone else...



...and Jayar Jackson and David Shuster of The Damage Report tells us that Almost Silent Clarence Thomas haz a sad because the SCOTUS apparently won’t look at New York Times vs. Sullivan, which is a foundational court precedent having to do with press freedom; Thomas is apparently PO’ed in light of the media reporting painting him as the thoroughly compromised fraud and ideologue that he is and of course, being an entitled crybaby, he wants to get back at people and entities offending his delicate sensibilities...



...and Thom Hartmann discusses the forces trying to destroy this country...1) the corporatist monsters who, as Thom says, want this country to be something out of a Dickens story in terms of poverty and having to plead for table scraps from the billionaires; 2) the MAGA chuds who think Mango Mussolini is God, and 3) the “tankies” who think we should have an autocratic state a la Putin, Viktor Orban in Hungary, etc. (and Thom does another great job IMO in explaining how life is quantifiably better in blue states vs. red states by just about every measure, with the color terminology rising to prominence in the 2000 election, let’s not forget...and by the way, apparently Steve Scalise doesn't want to be House Speaker after all, as noted here)...



...and given today’s date, I looked for a “13” song on the calendar and found this moldy oldie – enjoy.

Thursday Stuff

Mike Figueredo tells us how King Elon I has utterly wrecked Twitter/X/whatever by allowing all kinds of unverifiable and neo-Nazi crap to go and propagate without moderation of any kind whatsoever; of course, hollowing out the company’s infrastructure has gone a long way towards this sorry outcome, which is also amplified with all of the propaganda raging given the Israel/Hamas war...



...and speaking of propaganda, Farron Cousins tells us that Alabama recently trashed a bunch of training manuals for preschool teachers, books that cost $165 apiece, totaling about $16,500, because they were "woke"? Really??...one of the most clear-eyed commentaries I’ve ever heard about the state of Alabama, and no resident of that state should feel so much as a speck of pride after hearing what Cousins has to say...and they should also feel more than a bit of contrition over electing this clueless, provincial goober (and I don’t mean Gen. Hayden...and yes, I know what Hayden actually meant), but I’m sure they don’t...



...and on the subject of performative nonsense, Jesse Dollemore tells us that Repug U.S. House Rep Nancy Mace of South Carolina recently wore a scarlet “A” on her dress after her vote to oust her party’s speaker Kevin McCarthy, believing that she’s being punished for being a woman and being demonized for her voice, or something (showing no undertstanding whatsoever of the meaning behind that symbol from Nathaniel Hawthorne's timeless novel)...in response, I’d like to link to an article on Dem D.C. U.S. House delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton – given that she can appear but not actually vote on legislation, I would say that Holmes Norton has much more of a right to feel that she’s “demonized” than Mace ever will...



...and once more, I’m keeping TYT on a short leash, if you will, but I thought this was a pretty spot-on commentary by Ana and Cenk about idiot Repug lawmakers like “running man” Josh Hawley saying we should divert aid from Ukraine to Israel, which is a typically idiotic and cowardly sentiment from a member of the “party of Lincoln” (and apparently, Cenk has announced a run for president, which means to me that TYT has officially “jumped the shark”)...



...and Kyle tells us about politicians losing their sh*t over Rashida Tlaib with a Palestinian flag next to her office – too freaking bad!...GREAT point by Kyle that just because you may support the Palestinians, that doesn’t automatically mean that you support the Hamas butchers also...



...and I probably shouldn’t include this tune because this band is from Atlanta (hiss, boo – just kidding...go Phils!), but I think it’s a catchy number anyway.

Wednesday Stuff

Beau gives us his take on “bias,” which can take many forms, which likely led to the horrific assault on Israel by Hamas (and which played a role in the January 6th attacks, and 9/11 also as far as I’m concerned...you could probably go back pretty far with Beau’s observation, likely to Vietnam also)...he also had another commentary where he said he hasn’t seen any evidence to indicate that Combover Caligula gave away any intel that enabled Hamas to launch their horrific attack – I’ll accept his point since I think he has more of an inside track than I do, but I’m only saying that #45 wouldn’t know enough to know what it was that he could have given up; combined with other intel, it could have given Russia/Hamas what they needed...and yeah, I’ll never get a conclusive answer on that either, but at a minimum, I think the possibility should be considered and examined, especially because of this...



...and Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative speaks out in defense of his country (fractured as it is inside an open air prison that Israel created) on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN program...as Emma Vigeland points out, Barghouti may not be aligned with Fatah or certainly Hamas (Fatah recognized Israel but, to hear Barghouti tell it, Netanyahu didn’t recognize Palestinian land based on a 2014 agreement, a claim which I believe), but for Barghouti to claim that Hamas only targeted military assets is a cruel, sick joke...that said, it’s impossible to ignore the context behind the Hamas attacks as well as those of Russia against Ukraine...



...and this BBC report with correspondent Nick Beale tells us about the Israeli air strikes on Gaza and tells us about the casualties/possible hostages, including Brits and Americans (updates are here)...



...returning to political stuff in this country, Kyle tells us about Ronna Romney McDaniel saying that the Dems are “pro criminal” and “pro Fentanyl” or something...so glad to hear Kyle point out the double standard of the corporate media outrage cycle when a Dem puts his or her foot in it, but when a Repug does the same thing, cue the sound of crickets...I actually agree with what Kyle says here about 2016 vs. 2020 Trump voters; I think some of the ’16 people were well-intentioned but made an awful mistake, but the ’20 people are utterly nutzoid IMO...



...and Mike Papantonio/Farron Cousins discuss Credit Suisse bank, which – allegedly – is sheltering $$ again for individuals and entities trying to illegally escape taxation, even though C-S was caught doing this once before, which was discovered when whistle blowers came forward...I wish I could argue with what they’re saying about Eric Holder, but they have better information on him than I do and I suspect that they’re right...also mentioned is the pizza shop owner in Ohio who says he doesn’t want to hire “stupid people”...I understand how a business owner can be frustrated on that score, but no, that definitely isn’t something you should advertise...that being said, I’m not going to go nuts over this one way or the other...



...and on this day in 1968, George Harrison recorded this tune for “the white album” for his pal Eric Clapton, who apparently had a toothache (Harrison added the saxophones, to be precise)...even though “Slow Hand” has made some great legendary music, he’s pretty much persona non grata for yours truly given stuff like this.

Tuesday Stuff

(I realize this pic might have been more appropriate for Indigenous People's Day yesterday...oh well.)

Leeja Miller brings us another well-done video, this time on Why Conservatives Hate Immigrants...gets into our LOOOONG anti-immigrant history in this country, in which we vilified first European emigres especially those who were German, Irish and Italian, then Asians, and then African Americans and Jews, and finally (up to now) Hispanics and Muslims...didn’t know Lincoln passed the Homestead Act and the Contract Labor Act to help immigrants find employment in war industries during the Civil War, offering land and jobs...among other important points, the clip tells us that the “great replacement theory” BS actually goes back to the 1870s...surprised to hear that Obama deported more immigrants than Trump, but maybe I shouldn’t be...not surprised to hear that #45 got rid of the Family Case Management Program that was working (and was cost effective) under Obama...NSFW/H...



...and Emma Vigeland of TMR brings us more on the Hamas strike against Israel, with an editorial in Haaretz laying the blame squarely at the feet of Netanyahu (here) - the latest is here...Hamas is terrible and does a pathetic job of providing services for the Palestinians, and there’s no excuse for killing or maiming ANY civilian or taking anyone hostage, but as noted in the clip, there were plenty of warning signs that this could happen that obviously were ignored by the Israeli government...I see no immediate end to this horror show, though I’d love to be wrong and see some solution worked out – not likely I realize...and once more, let’s not forget this too...worth noting IMO that the last Israeli head of state who embraced peace was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and he was murdered by an Israeli nationalist...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us that the new “king of late night” according to Bill Maher (spare me) has called for civil war because “elections don’t work”...I agree with a lot of Kyle’s commentary on what an utter intellectual turd Greg Gutfeld is, but as far as Kyle’s “elections don’t matter” comment at the end correctly aimed at idiots who try to discourage voters, I would only point out that Kyle didn’t vote in ’20 by his own admission (or at least, not for Biden), so I really don’t think he has the intellectual high ground on that one...



...and Texas, unsurprisingly, has passed a law saying schools should have at least one uniformed, armed cop on the premises, who could be a retired officer or private security, but of course the Texas morons passing this law didn't provide enough funding for it, leaving school districts to pick up the rest of the cost (as Rayy Vana says, that’s $$ NOT used for textbooks, school lunches, cost of AC and heat for the schools or salaries to hire additional teachers...Nina Turner provides commentary also)...



...and this More Perfect Union segment discusses the plot to get rid of public schools (speaking of education), led by the Alliance Defending Freedom (I was equal parts horrified and enraged as I watched this; I can’t think of a word to describe the arrogance and sanctimony of these bottom feeders trying their best to destroy public education)...video also mentions the SCOTUS rulings of Zelman (’02), Montana (’20) and Carson v. Makin (’22) that have been whittling away at public education in favor of vouchers...looks like this will end up as another post where I’m unable to end on a note of “people power” coming to the fore...sorry – I’m sure I’ll be able to resolve that sooner than later...



...and I don’t know if you had a Gen Z, angst-filled heartbreak song on your musical Bingo card, but here it is anyway.

Monday Stuff

This news report from MSNBC tells us about the fighting that has broken out between Israel and Hamas (and yes, ANY loss of life or injury on ANY side should be condemned...an utterly horrific update is here) – I think it was Marcy Wheeler online who wondered how much Putin could be behind this, sharing intel from this country and you-know-who with our enemies to escalate tensions in the region to try and divert attention/resources from Ukraine...among other things, this is a disastrous failure of Israeli intelligence...the last president who I can recall was actually serious about some kind of peace in that region was Jimmy Carter; eventually, we’ll need to find a way to lead on that subject once more, but not for the foreseeable future, sadly (and by the way, let's not forget this when it comes to the "R" party and their lie about the $6 billion as noted above...more here and here)...



...and Sam and Emma give us what I think is a pretty good analysis on the recent comments from Hillary Clinton about “deprogramming” the MAGA nuts...those cretins from the “party of Lincoln” are sinking, SO DON’T THROW THEM A FREAKING LIFE PRESERVER!! And I hope that line that this might generate $50 million in fundraising on their side proves to be wrong (hopefully not more than that), but that may be correct unfortunately...and by the way, how the hell do you “deprogram” this? (these nut fundie "megachurches" have their fingerprints all over this too). And yeah, this response also comes right from the wingnut nether regions I realize...



...and as long as we’re mentioning those claiming to speak in the name of religion, retired Army Major Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ (not him) tells us about this William Wolfe character, some fundamentalist preacher who sez (to the equally odious Stew Peters) that this country should submit itself to Christ (or at least Wolfe’s interpretation of Scripture), ignoring the separation of church and state that is implicit in the Constitution...



...and this Damage Report clip discusses a recent WaPo article making the case that red state policies on health care shave years off of people’s lives (more here)...and doesn’t it figure that this does indeed trace back to The Sainted Ronnie R? Also, I should check on the “seat belt law” thing since I think that was federally mandated...Rayy Vana is pretty smart on this stuff, but she may be off there (with Aida Rodriguez...I thought Rodriguez’s remarks were kid of all over the place; I wish she had talked instead about how the “party of Lincoln” is fighting tooth and nail against Medicaid expansion in the states as noted here)...



...and today would have been the 83rd birthday of John Lennon...



..and happy birthday also to Jackson Browne.