Saturday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us all about Repug U.S. House Rep Clay Higgins, who recently broke the stoo-pid meter carrying on about “ghost buses” with FBI employees supposedly masquerading as insurrectionists on January 6th at a hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray...of course, if Higgins cared about buses for real that transported insurrectionists to the Capitol, he might want to investigate this, though he doesn’t of course, and won’t (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and on the subject of giving aid and comfort to anyone seeking to destroy our democratic form of government, Second Thought brings us this video about Project 2025, The New Fascist Playbook ...clip was made before Tim Scott dropped out with barely anyone noticing...and I think J.T. Chapman’s “tankie” views come through a bit when he says that there isn’t much difference between the “R” and the “D” party in presidential elections – if I honestly believed that, I can assure you that I’d be doing something else besides spending the time and effort I do with this dumb little blog...however, he’s definitely right to sound the alarm about “Project 2025,” which of course our corporate media basically ignores (he also forgot to note Cornel West as a Dem candidate, albeit an unlikely one I know)...”When you have a higher power on your side, it’s pretty easy to justify horrific acts” indeed (pertaining to the faux religiosity of the cretins behind the effort to wreck our democracy)...and I honestly didn’t know that this “unitary executive theory” BS went back to The Sainted Ronnie R (I thought it came from Dark Lord “Deadeye Dick” Cheney), but I probably should have guessed that...Chapman also has what I think is an unduly dark vision of Biden’s electoral prospects – I’m more worried about the fallout from the Gaza carnage than anything else as noted here – but we definitely can’t take anything for granted either and need to put in the work to ensure sanity prevails...this video is OK, but Leeja Miller’s clip on this subject is better IMO...



...and speaking of Miller, her latest segment has to do with Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who had a lot to do with keeping religion out of public school, though of course that’s something the wingnuts will abolish once and for all if, God forbid, they get the chance with this Project 2025 madness...yes, faith is important to yours truly, but I also believe that faith and spirituality are personal and nobody has the right to force their beliefs on others (briefly NSFW/H)...the story of how O’Hair, her son and granddaughter met their end could be a video by itself...sorry I’m going out of order a bit with her clips...



...and Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report interviews Sophia Moccio and Aaron Habrack, nurses at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, who are on strike primarily for safe staffing ratios, and of course RWJ, being total bastards, decided to cancel health insurance for their striking employees after the job action exceeded a month...damn, out for 83 days? And the story they tell about RWJ is sadly typical for other hospitals that I‘ve heard of; it’s all about returning shareholder value, and everyone and everything else be damned, including patients...



...and staying with the topic of health care, this More Perfect Union presentation tells us about 10 million poor families across the country losing Medicaid coverage because of something called the “unwinding,” (ending of COVID-related coverage pretty much), with this taking place in states run by Republicans of course, including the governor and legislatures (continually disgusts me how easily they manage to do this particularly when it comes to the health of children)...



...and I had a new tune by The Beatles last week, so how about a new one from The Rolling Stones also?

Thursday Stuff

I know I’m a little behind on at least one of these clips, but here goes anyway...David Doel tells us about the recent “rally for Israel” with “MAGA Mike” Johnson, John Hagee, Van Jones, etc. (yeah, when you’ve got the “use the Jews as cannon fodder to rapture our asses up to heaven” guy leading the way, that tells you how bonkers all of this is...and no, I haven’t forgotten that Hamas launched that beyond-cowardly hang glider attack on that concert and killed innocent Jews and others and took a bunch of people hostage, which kicked off this latest insanity, and that needs to be put right as much as possible, including making a full accounting of all of the victims, releasing ALL hostages and putting those Hamas murderers in a prison cell and throwing away the key...an opinion or two on that is here...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Our Ochre Abomination basically went “straight up Adolf” in a recent speech, comparing those who oppose him to vermin, leading to a recent bout of Fix Noise humanoids Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham deciding to attack those who rightly called out #45 over it (more here...another item I'm behind on I'll admit)...



...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, Kyle Kulinksi tells us about Fix Noise reporter Jason Donner, who is suing the network because he said he was fired for fact-checking lies about the January 6th insurrection...even if he has a case, I hope he’s prepared for the fact that the minions and life forms who congregate to that channel like cockroaches on a dung heap are going to do their best to make his life utterly miserable...and I’m not going to say that some kind of lefty bias doesn’t happen on MSNBC or CNN (MSNBC is pretty much a safe space for Dems I realize), but to argue that those two networks are comparable to the channel of Rupert The Pirate is utterly absurd (NSFW/H)...



..and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us that, while he wasn’t making a speech condoning mass slaughter by Israel, the new U.S. House speaker managed to get a stopgap budget passed, with help from Dems of course...looks like the “D” team went along because it keeps current funding levels, but yeah, these 2 CR deadlines look typically ridiculous, which again is all we can expect I suppose when the “party of Lincoln” is in charge of the U.S. House...what a pitiable joke...



...and to prove that we’re living in some kind of a post-Stanley Kubrick timeline of absurdity, Jesse Dollemore tells us that the “QAnon Shaman” is running for Congress from Arizona...hey, at this point, I’m not sure how he can be any worse than Paul Gosar, Bo-Bo Boebert, Marjorie Traitor Greene, Scott Perry, or some of the other upright bipeds currently taking up space in our nation’s capital...



..and happy belated 91st birthday to Petula Clark.

Tuesday Stuff

Mike Figueredo talks about Fix Noise and the wingnutosphere trying to gin up fear and outrage over supporting Israel amidst their slaughter in Gaza...and that weirdness with those two alleged Hamas-sympathizing kids was cringe all right, but not in the intended way (and yeah, isn’t Sean Inanity just great to give his speech saying, “I’m hearing Nazi slogans in the halls of Congress” – proof? – “and on those college campuses, and this reminds me of Nazi Germany...you have 30 seconds to respond” as if somehow that would be enough to argue the point, which of course Inanity wouldn’t allow anyway...and GREAT point by Figueredo to mention the Charlottesville tiki torch neo-Nazis and wonder if Inanity was living under a rock during all of that...and I also think this is a spot-on related post; when you find yourself losing the guy responsible for this, yeah, that's pretty damn bad...NSFW/H).

(And oh yeah, if Inanity really cared about comparisons to the Nazis, which he doesn’t of course, he might have a word or two to say about this.)...



...and related to the carnage in Gaza, Jesse Dollemore discusses Dem State Rep Angie Nixon of Flord-DUUH! giving an impassioned speech on behalf of innocent Palestinians (and yes, there ARE innocent Palestinians – quite a lot, actually), asking how many must die, and this ghoul named Michelle Salzman says “all of them”...and listen, I haven’t forgotten about the Israeli victims of that concert as well as releasing the hostages (and making a FULL accounting for those hostages likely killed) and bringing the Hamas cowardly murderers to justice, but I also don’t think that means that the IDF can say “Oh, Hamas is using human shields at a hospital, so that means we can bomb that hospital to ashes and the people inside too”...it’s going to require a pretty huge degree of leadership on our side to stake out a position in this that gives Hamas the warranted treatment IMO but also slaps down Israel as well, and I have to tell you that I’m not optimistic about that)...



...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us the news of “MAGA Mike” Johnson’s proposed budget, which separates Israel and Ukraine funding (I think Ukraine should get what it needs and Israel shouldn’t get a dime, but I understand that that runs directly in opposition to the political reality)...and yeah, Chip Roy and Marjori Traitor Greene are psychos and we knew that, but once again, there are people who vote for these sociopaths, and they need to be ridiculed also IMO...can’t find the words to communicate my disgust with the fact that we’re dealing with this beyond ridiculous budget brinksmanship again from the “party of Lincoln”...JUST FUND THE DAMN GOVERNMENT AND ALL THAT ENTAILS FOR THE COMING YEAR AND BE DONE WITH IT, YOU IDIOTS!! Apparently, though, Johnson is willing to maintain current funding levels as noted here, which (again) should be a given, but with this bunch running the House, nothing is certain I know...



...and speaking of money matters, Farron Cousins tells us that it seems that a certain Treasonous Tiny-Handed Orange Pustule of a former *president is having trouble running his businesses, which of course may end up going down the drain anyway given all of the legal stuff going on... couldn’t happen to a more deserving scumbag...



...and David Pakman tells us about a Texas Republican city council candidate named Brad Benson who was charged in a child porn-related case hours before an election...yes, innocent until proven guilty and all that, but why is it that this stuff keeps happening with those associated with the political party screaming the loudest about “groomers” on our side?...



...and I had a bit of a women’s empowerment theme going yesterday so maybe I should have included this video at that time, but better late than never I guess (and don't try this at home, kids).

Monday Stuff

Cliff Schecter of Blue Amp Channel discusses Michigan state senator Danya Polehanki, who responded to former Detroit News reporter Charlie LeDuff, who used a vulgar, coded insult towards Attorney General Dana Nessel...gosh, maybe there are jobs some men shouldn’t have because they’re too emotional :-)...and by the way, on the subjects of strong women and journalism, I was sorry to hear about this...



...and David Pakman tells us that “MAGA Mike” Johnson hasn’t disclosed bank accounts in 7 years of tax filings – oh yeah, “modest means” my ass, you lying POS...and isn’t it just too precious to listen to this Fix Noise hairdo act like living “paycheck to paycheck” has only existed under Biden instead of...oh, I don’t know... MAYBE THE LAST 20 FREAKING YEARS AT LEAST, AND LIKELY LONGER THAN THAT!!!...



...and Francesca of The Damage Report talks about the new U.S. House Speaker and this “Covenant Eyes” app that he uses in his house, so basically, he can rat out his son if he watches porn?? And make $20 for doing so – typically weird combination of someone’s twisted notion of morality with a capitalist inclination to make a fast buck or two (clip of Johnson discussing this is from ’20)...



...and pursuant to the prior two clips, I know earlier I said that I was going to give Second Thought a pass, but I’m reconsidering that; I thought this was a pretty well-informed clip on “Christian” nationalism...nice to see that there’s a bit of a split between evangelicals and “Christian” nationalists, but not a lot...disturbing to see how African Americans and even Democrats embrace this stuff...yep, spot-on to call Christian nationalists “fanboys” obsessed with America itself, or their version of it more precisely...interesting that his data shows that those who actually practice their religion are more likely to support immigrants and oppose gun violence, to say nothing of NOT voting for a certain Treasonous Orange Pestilence...I think the stuff with A.J. Shortly (sic?) is interesting, though it does kind of take away the momentum somewhat...I’d forgotten a bit about the importance of Acts:15, sadly; glad to be reminded again here...



...and when it comes to what I guess you could call religious extremism, I would say that this was a rather interesting (shall we say) ad that came from a bunch in Kootenai County in Idaho...no, kids that young aren’t going to be introduced into a book about anal sex...and yes, the SNL skit was amusing, and we can laugh, but alleged adults are actually taking this sh*t seriously, and using a child’s voice in this ad is beyond despicable (Jesse Dollemore and Brittany Page tell us about it)...



...and happy belated 78th birthday to Neil Young.