Friday Stuff

I guess, surprising almost no one, “Democratic” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin has announced that he won’t run for another term, leaving his seat open and meaning it will quite possibly flip to the “R” side, adding to the already tough sledding the Dems will face in next year’s elections in that body in particular (and let’s not forget that the "Team D" has another problem with Menendez in New Jersey that they’d better figure out)...with that in mind, I bring you this clip from The Damage Report from October ’21 in which we learn about Manchin blocking Biden’s infrastructure bill because of clean energy investments...yes, a “skinny” version of the bill eventually passed (maybe “emaciated” is more precise?), but no thanks to Manchin (we also learn that Manchin has supported $9.1 trillion in military spending – no “offsets” required for that, huh? And yeah, the bit with Manchin arguing over discretionary spending onboard his yacht with the boat protestors is particularly "on the nose" for him...and when it comes to Manchin, I think this bears repeating)...

And speaking of our military, Happy Veterans Day tomorrow (though I need to point out this related disgusting absurdity from that quitter of a college football coach).

...and with the theme of what I would call neglected domestic spending in mind, Leeja Miller discusses the idea of universal basic income, or UBI for short (I didn’t know how far back the idea of UBI goes, to the 1700s, at least, with Sir Thomas More in England and Thomas Paine in this country...also didn’t know that MLK and the Black Panthers supported UBI as well...additionally, I didn’t know that “Tricky Dick” supported a negative income tax, which works in a similar manner as UBI – and the Earned Income Tax Credit was a move in this direction, but it wasn’t nearly enough...I knew a little about the annual dividend program in Alaska, but I learned more about it in this clip...I strongly suspected that none of the programs mentioned here had a damn thing to do with workforce participation but had EVERYTHING to do with the well being of the recipients of the dough, but it’s nice to get that confirmation...Manchin is mentioned at about 28:00 in this clip, but only because he blocked the expansion of the COVID child tax credit...figures...kind of wonky stuff, but important...and yeah, short-term up-front costs always trump long term positive benefits for sure for those who oppose this stuff; Thom Hartmann had some thoughts on UBI here...briefly NSFW/H)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip discusses what states could do to lower drug prices; creating boards to set ceilings for drug prices makes a hell of a lot of sense, and I was shocked to hear that the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR actually went along with that in Arkansas; clip focuses on the effort in Michigan (God, I wish those in Democratic alleged leadership would watch these clips, because they have a lot of good ideas on which to run campaigns)...



...and turning to Mango Mussolini, David Pakman tells us that, in the nightmarish scenario of #45 regaining power, he would want to us the military right away (good for Pakman to mention Posse Comitatus...and speaking of Thom Hartmann, a related item is here)...



...and David Shuster tells us that VA Repug guv Glenn Trumpkin is falling down on trying to restore voting rights to felons (with Adrienne Lawrence, who makes good points at the end, but to be honest, she lost me a bit when she started talking about housing reparations)...good for Shuster to mention Fairfax County, which definitely has a troubled racial history...and as noted previously, given last Tuesday’s electoral results, I don’t think we’ll be hearing about Trumpkin as a prez candidate for a little while...



...and returning a bit to the Rashida Tlaib censure BS from Wednesday, Mike Figueredo tells us that Debbie Wasserman Schultz recently said that those opposing her resolution of Israel’s support for invading Gaza last month “have no soul,” and OF COOOOUURRRSE she and that execrable toad Josh Gottheimer joined 20 other House Dem members to vote in favor of censuring Tlaib as previously noted (NSFW/H)...I know we’re going to need to re-elect every Dem politician that we can next year, but it sickens me that that means supporting characters like these 22 frauds (and to help Rashida Tlaib, click here)...



Update 1: When it comes to the Israel/Gaza carnage, I think there’s so much that we don’t know about what exactly led up to this, and with the understandable (to a point) outrage on both sides, I’m afraid it will get lost in all of the “fog of war” stuff (and yes, I know the loss of human life is paramount, and an accounting to the last person must be made on all sides, as much as possible, anyway).

I have a hard time believing any of the culprits in all of this, but I’m actually tempted to go along with Hezbollah (again, to a point) when they say that they didn’t see this coming. You can accuse me of being a conspiracy nut (never stopped me before :- ), but I have a sneaking suspicion that this leads back to Russia somehow. Putin won’t admit it, but he knows that he’s in a stalemate in Ukraine (as is Zelenskyy, unfortunately, especially with the weather getting worse), and staging an attack like this might just end up fracturing our support of Ukraine at the expense of jumping in on the side of Israel as we have. And that ALSO goes against world opinion pretty much and puts us in bed with “Bibi” more than usual (the Israeli PM, for my money, has always been a blundering idiot who ended up getting played by all sides...Putin is detestable of course, but you don’t rise through the KGB unless you figured out how to stage stuff like this). Also, the use of sympathetic media including online channels to box us in with Netanyahu (again, to overextend ourselves and making it harder to support Ukraine) is something Russia is good at and ties in nicely to a Putin objective.

Oh, and of course, all of this helps A Certain Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former Chief Executive, which ALSO is desirable for Putin.

Am I right, or am I full of it? We’ll see.

Update 2: "From the river to the sea" indeed (here and here...if somehow the hospital bombing link turns out to be wrong, I'll update this post - I'd like to believe it is, but I'm sure it isn't unfortunately).

...and in this clip, Brittany Page defends Housing First as an example of providing shelter for those who have other issues (such as chemical dependency) that need to be addressed and cites Houston as a success story...I’m a little unclear on what exactly the dustup with TYT is all about, but I think the video provides important information...I think Ana Kasparian is right in that this issue is complicated (I would focus on the role of private equity firms in pricing housing out of sight), but that doesn’t mean that we should throw up our hands over it either...if TYT wanted to be honest actors here, they would invite Page onto the show with Cenk and Ana to discuss this, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that...



...and happy upcoming 70th birthday to Marshall Crenshaw.



(Also, posting may be iffy for the next week or so...don't know yet.)

Wednesday Stuff

Well, color us surprised! https://t.co/F91BvG3WNZ pic.twitter.com/rIEzwLJ7Ry

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) November 8, 2023

This may be a little “inside baseball,” but I’ll mention it anyway...when I put these posts together, I generally try to mix things up to try and keep them interesting (to me, anyway, which is the only audience I truly know for certain of course)...with that admittedly boring intro out of the way, I’m just letting you know that I’m leading off with Jesse Dollemore for the second day in a row, which I try not to do, but I think he totally killed it in this clip on the unbelievably cowardly censure of Dem U.S. House Rep Rashida Tlaib (and I’ll tell you straight up that I’m GENUINELY ANGRY that 22 alleged “Democrats” in the House supported this despicable act – the vote I mean of course). I believe Tlaib’s offense that could have potentially destroyed our republic as far as these cowards are concerned (and don’t worry, I’m not absolving the “party of Lincoln” either) was to utter the six words in the top pic of this post in defense of innocent Palestinians (and yes, overwhelmingly, they DON’T support Hamas, though Netanyahu’s destruction is forcing them in that direction). Well then, you can expect yours truly to introduce this phrase when appropriate in the future when it comes to honoring the rights of innocent Palestinians (and innocent Israelis).

By the way, doesn’t it always figure with our party? We overwhelmingly did great in the off-cycle elections yesterday (I think a couple of these “Moms for Liberty” nuts won in schoolboard contests in Nazareth, PA, but in not a lot of other places that I could see)...Andy Beshear won in Kentucky, the Ohio amendment in defense of abortion passed, Virginia’s state government is in the hands of Democrats (I guess that means that Glenn “Trumpkin” won’t be mentioned as a ’24 Repug prez candidate any more)...a lot of good stuff happened (also, closer to home, Diane Marseglia and Bob Harvie were returned as Dem Bucks County, PA commissioners). Yes, Tate Reeves “won” in Mississippi because the voting machines in Jackson (a largely African American and Democratic area) somehow ran out of paper – oopsie! – though that wasn’t an issue for Republican districts of course. Yes, there were plenty of positive developments...but now we have to deal with this madness too.

Update 11/10/23: In the matter of the recent elections, leave it to Former Senator Man-On-Dog to think that abortion somehow is "sexy" (here).

On a simple-human-decency level, censuring Tlaib is pointless performative cruelty. However, I’d like to point out another level in which this is ridiculously self-destructive.

Dem U.S. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan isn’t up for re-election until 2026, but I vividly remember his 2020 election against John James (to say nothing of Biden’s contest against Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Orange Pustule). The Peters campaign absolutely set a record for utterly browbeating yours truly NON FREAKING STOP for about EIGHT GODDAMN MONTHS with texts, Emails and phone calls. And yes, the election was close in Michigan, not just for Peters, but for Biden also. And I maintain that the margin of victory was provided by an utterly astronomical turnout in Detroit (something on the order of 90 percent as nearly as I can recall, which is truly unheard of, voting straight “D” up and down the ballot). And do you want to know who had a hell of a lot to do with that?

RASHIDA FREAKING TLAIB, YOU GODDAMN IDIOTS!!! And don't you think you'll need her to do something like that again this time a year from now? Especially with an open Dem seat?

I would ask that you keep all this in mind while you watch Jesse Dollemore’s great clip (and I agree that Jamie Raskin is about a thousand percent right also...also, Brad Schneider likes to text me for $$$, so he can officially f*ck all the way off now)...



Update: More on the elections are here, here and here.

...and sticking with the ongoing Israel/Gaza tragedy (and yes, an accounting needs to be made of everyone killed and taken hostage, and that goes for Palestinians as well as Israelis), Kyle Kulinski gives us his take here – I don’t completely buy Kyle’s argument that Biden is “plummeting in the polls” because of the Middle East (referencing that garbage Siena/NYT mess again)...yes, the Dems are going to have to find some way to press for a two-state solution and get serious about the Palestinians in a way in which “Bibi” utterly refuses, and I’ll admit that a lot of pro-Palestinian voices have been heard lately (which is just Democracy 101 as far as I’m concerned); I’m just asking that we keep this in perspective, that’s all...Kyle discusses Ryan Zinke who’s been busy recently (focused yesterday in that monuments bill business); today, he’s just trying to ban all Palestinians from the U.S., that’s all, which is illegal for probably six different reasons at least...Kyle kind of “jumps the shark” a bit by bringing up Japanese internment during WWII – yes, it was awful, but what’s the freaking point?...

...and Farron Cousins tells us that the re-election campaign for Bo-Bo Boebert in CO-03 is in chaos now because of that vaping/handsy business with her ex-boyfriend at the “Beetlejuice” concert...what a thoroughly stoo-pid way to set your career on fire, though it fits her profile of course (and to help her opponent, Dem Adam Frisch, click here)...



...and Francesca and Nina Turner of The Damage Report tells us that, apparently, Mr. “Mystery Money,” “MAGA Mike” Johnson, intends to pass CR after CR after CR, etc. to keep our government running (and of course they’re going to try their Dickensian BS and hope Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz doesn’t file another motion to vacate...what a damn joke...and Turner is absolutely right about domestic spending)...



...and nice job by The Daily Show to give Johnson the spanking he deserves here (sorry – couldn’t resist...slightly NSFW/H)...



...and yeah, not much to see here - just a brand new tune from The Beatles, that's all :-).

Tuesday Stuff

And here is today's voting guide...

To begin, Jesse Dollemore tells us of Steve Scalise not admitting to George Stephanopoulos that Biden won in ’20...and by the way, I’m tired of hearing the typical BS from Repug liars like Scalise that states didn’t follow the voting laws on their books, or whatever (makes me recall this post)...there were over 60 lawsuits at my last count about this stuff, and I’m pretty sure the only one that was successful in PA had to do with a handful of addresses on secret ballot envelopes WHICH DIDN’T AFFECT A DAMN THING IN THE OVERALL VOTE (and oh yeah, Combover Caligula keeps running his maw with demented utterances to verbally assault us)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen discuses “Mayor Pete” speaking with Stephen Colbert about Christo-fascist Mike Johnson attacking Buttigieg and gay/trans individuals in this country (and with all due respect to Cohen, something else that doomed Tom Emmer in his bid for House Speaker is that he supported certifying the 2020 election as noted here)...



...and in this clip from Crooks and Liars, former Trumpster and now Repug U.S. House Rep Ryan Zinke rose in support of a bill under the false belief that it only was intended to preserve monuments of our founding fathers, so of course Marjorie Traitor Greene jumped in to allege that Robert E. Lee founded our country (wrong answer, Marge!)...fortunately, Dem Rep Chellie Pingree politely set everybody straight (here)...

via GIPHY

...and Farron Cousins tells us more about the exodus out of Flori-DUUH!, including 15 major insurance companies, and newly arrived Repug voters also departing as a result...not that I’m sympathetic to an insurance company, but just stating a fact (you couldn’t pay me enough money to move anywhere near “the sunshine state”)...



Update 11/10/23: Not even close to a fan of Vivek R. and I'd rather watch paint dry than any Repug candidates' debate, but I have to admit that this was one hell of a roast.

...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report take a caller discussing the incredibly disappointing Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and her utter failure to support teachers in her district (WA-03...I have to admit that I had high hopes for her, especially since she won with comparatively little national Dem Party support, but it looks like her seat may get flipped because of what appears to be her Sinema-esque behavior)...



...and I haven’t made up my mind on this tune to be honest, but I have to admit that I like the harmonies, so here goes.

Monday Stuff

Leeja Miller gives us probably the best takedown of the Powell Memo I’ve yet seen, picking apart its weaselly and propagandistic language and faux-legalese...“equality feels like oppression when you’re the one benefitting from historical inequalities” indeed...once again, we owe a debt IMO to Jack Anderson for unearthing the Powell Memo in all of its infamy, though it was too late to keep Powell off the High Court of course... interesting that Chucky Koch disagreed with the Powell Memo, saying it didn’t go far enough and businesses weren’t committed to “free enterprise,” which is giving away the game a bit I’d say...good for Miller to mention Powell’s role in the Bellotti 1978 SCOTUS decision, though, to be fair, she should have also mentioned Buckley v. Valeo from ’76, along with Consolidated Edison and Central Hudson Gas & Electric, both in ‘80, which played roles in the “corporate money as speech” movement as well...also didn’t know that Powell hired, unknowingly apparently, more gay clerks than any other justice, including Paul Smith, who had a role in Lawrence v. Texas, which our current Taliban-esque High Court may yet demolish also...



...and Farron Cousins tells that, apparently, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao showed signs of life recently, leaping to the defense of the big money Repug donor class, his one and only constituency (who Powell was considering in his memo of course)...one day, he’s going to shed his mortal coil as will we all, and if I see that day, I’ll smile quietly to myself because he likely will earn a trip straight to Gehenna...and yes, I know, judge not lest ye be judged...and by the way, Brave Sir Josh Hawley’s alleged plan to get money out of politics is yet another “bait and switch,” but we knew that, right?...



...and David Pakman tells us about fellow Repug U.S. Senators turning on the quitter of a college football coach Tommy Tuberville...ABOUT FREAKING TIME!! And I understand that Willard Mitt Romney is trying to “split the baby” and not totally blame Tuberville, but I would submit that Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin has the right to dictate whatever policy he believes is important in his role as Defense Secretary; Austin isn’t the one supposedly out of line here...



...and Symone Sanders-Townsend of MSNBC looks at issues at stake in elections tomorrow in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Mississippi (more on the Tate Reeves/Brett Favre stuff is here...and when it comes to Virginia, please don't forget this and this)...



Update: More on the importance of Virginia's elections tomorrow is here and here.

...and this More Perfect Union video discusses Why 30% of rural hospitals are closing...and I know you’ll be shocked..well, not really...to find that The Sainted Ronnie R changed the formula of how Medicare reimbursed rural hospitals, which is a big factor leading to the closure of so many, along with the pigheadedness of Repug-run state governments in not expanding Medicaid, which is basically walking away from free federal money – and if 230K Mississippians are uninsured, imagine what the number is across the entire country...the clip also presents more information on why NO ONE should be suckered in by the utter scam of Medicare Advantage...more on the Save Rural Hospitals Act is here...



...and happy upcoming 80th birthday to the one and only Joni Mitchell.