Welcome to Doomsy’s News/Politics Catchup Post, Black Friday edition...Kyle Kulinski brings us the story of “Anarcho-Capitalist Extremist” (and aspiring James Bond villian from the looks of him) Javier Milei, who was just elected president of Argentina...yeah, it’s nuts all right, but it’s kind of a “break the glass” moment when inflation in that country is at about 138 percent...interesting point contrasting hard-core Trumpers in this country who are primarily older vs. Milei supporters who are primarily younger (NSFW/H)...and in other global news, this is a pretty wacky development also...
...and in the matter of giving aid and comfort to ultra-nationalist crazies in this country as opposed to overseas, Mike Figueredo tells us that King Elon I is losing advertisers on Twitter/X/whatever it’s called because – oh, I don’t know – HE’S ENDORSING ANTI-SEMITIC TROPES AND OTHER BS??!! (NSFW/H)...
...and when it comes to contrasting our economy with that of our South American neighbor noted in the first clip, Beau gives us his take on how he thinks people in this country feel about our own money matters, just in time for holiday shopping (good trend for Biden, but we’re a long way to next November of course)...
...despite that, we can still count on Fix Noise propagandists to try and gin up hysteria over “Biden-flation” or whatever they’re calling it these days, including that knucklehead Jason Chaffetz (here - John and Jayar discuss)...
...and Jesse Dollemore informs us that Maria Bartiromo was recently spreading more unhinged conspiracy theories (still flogging that Chinese lab leak business as the source of COVID-19...I’m going to go out on a very short limb here and predict that there will NEVER be a consensus formed around that as the cause of the pandemic..oh, and she also accused the FBI of pretending to be Trumpers helping to stage the 1/6 insurrection...what a wackadoodle this woman is)...
...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss how a right wing “think tank” has pushed to get rid of child labor protections in Flori-DUUH!, affiliated with this Dick Uihlein character...and yeah, I know about “Soros” this and “Soros” that, but to imply an equivalency between him and the ideological wingnuts on the other side, both in terms of $$ in politics and influence on legislation, is utterly ridiculous (I think Pap needs to get a freaking grip, basically)...
...and like some other items here, I know this is a couple of days old, but I was still sorry to hear about it...I know they’re Philly/Temple guys, but I’ve been basically hot and cold on Hall and Oates...I hope they get everything worked out (tune is about the energy crisis from that era, if you can believe it...the tune, that is)...
...and dear God, it really is that time of year again, isn't it?
I got a kick out of this pic, I have to admit (courtesy of Pixdaus and Daily Kos)...
...and here's another holiday fave, with an intro by Seth MacFarlane as Stewie Griffin (and again, the captions make this hilarious as far as I'm concerned)...
...and here's more holiday fun...
...and I kind of liked this also (hat tip for this to Daily Kos)...
...and here's a Thanksgiving message for those wonderful folks at the TSA.
Update 1: And here is another late addition.
Update 2: Might as well add this too (and yeah, "Man Tan" Boehner is long gone I know, but those who've followed him have done their best to make things worse).
Update 3: Imagine all the people that can be fed for $35 grand (here, getting serious for a minute).
Update 4: And since I add to this list every year, I might as well include this too (hasta la vista, baby!).
Update 5: And I suppose this is an apropos item too.
…and thank goodness the “culture warriors” of Fix Noise are trying to protect the holiday (more here)…
…and I guess this is an appropriate tune for the day...
...along with this.
Update: Yes, as I and others have pointed out, we know what The Lincoln Project is, but this is a wonderful ad.
Update 11/25/21: Well said.
Update 11/27/21: And here is a video about another holiday tradition.
I’m guessing that I’m not alone on this, but I find myself in kind of a place where I need to keep reminding myself why this date matters. And it does of course, primarily because of the human tragedy represented by this sorrowful occasion, but also because what I and others believe was the state-sanctioned murder of this country’s chief executive represented an assault on an institution of government (the executive branch of course).
I wrote about my own personal recollections of that day many years ago here, so I’ll try not to repeat too much of that. I’ll only say that, with the passage of time and acquiring a bit more of an adult perspective on things (which I guess is debatable), you can appreciate the legacy of the man at the center of all of this while still looking back at that time with what I guess you could call a bit of a jaundiced outlook.
In fewer words – the point of this is not to stain the legacy of our 35th president, slain on that infamous day in Dallas 60 years ago. However, I’d like to offer more history on his family and that era, most of which has already been added to our collective “memory bank” by now. And, like with all towering figures of history, there’s fact, there’s legend, there’s rumor and innuendo, and then there’s a place where all of that comes together (or, as the reporter says at the end of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”).
With this date in mind, I more or less assigned myself the task of reading “The Dark Side of Camelot” by Seymour M. Hersh earlier this year (purchased at a terrific little place called Second Time Books in Mount Laurel, NJ). I trust Hersh on this stuff; he’s a first-rate reporter and he puts together a scrupulously detailed narrative with tons of citations, going back to JFK’s grandfather, John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who (in Hersh’s telling) more or less created the Kennedy template of the glad-handing pol who campaigned with theatricality and maintained a larger-than-life presence in Boston’s “north end” (and managed to acquire and spread around lots of cash – JFK named his boat “Honey Fitz” as a tribute). His daughter Rose married Joe Kennedy, an unparalleled businessman who managed to acquire so much money in his own right that it likely will be impossible to ever trace all of it. “The Ambassador,” as Kennedy was called by his kids (out of equal parts fear and respect) earned the title for representing our government in the U.K. during World War II, at which time he butted heads with FDR and Winston Churchill over making peace with “Herr Hitler” because (as Kennedy saw it), England and the rest of the kingdom would never survive the Nazi onslaught.
However, Joe Kennedy changed his tune and did all he could to support the rising political career of his second-oldest son Jack (his oldest, Joe Jr., died in World War II). And while a lot of this wasn’t exactly news to yours truly, it was a bit mind-blowing to see the extent of the payoffs in the 1960 political campaign, primarily in West Virginia and Illinois. Also, Hersh makes a compelling case that Dem Missouri senator Stuart Symington was slated to be JFK’s running mate (which would have helped in the California Dem primary, which JFK lost), but Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn found a way to change that, likely through acquiring dirt on Kennedy.
And with that in mind...well, I didn’t mention the women, did I? Yes, there are the ones we knew about – Marilyn Monroe of course, along with Judith Campbell Exner (the go-between for the president and Sam Giancana...Hersh makes it pretty plain that Giancana and Johnny Rosselli were basically working some kind of a “back channel” in Cuba to get Cuban Premier Fidel Castro killed...there were many “back channels” in JFK’s presidency). However, I didn’t know about JFK’s quite likely first marriage to Palm Beach socialite Durie Malcolm (before Jacqueline Bouvier of course), and the escapades with Ellen Rometsch of East Germany, who quite probably was a spy; if the news of JFK’s dalliances with her had become public, then it very likely would have had the same impact in this country that the Profumo Scandal had in Great Britain, which was going on at about the same time. There were many others that I’m not going to try and list here (there’s also reports of the many naked pool parties at the White House in the first lady’s absence, though they appeared to reconcile in JFK's final months, partly due to the death of their son Patrick).
(I mentioned Castro earlier – Hersh posits that JFK pretty much spent most all of his presidency trying to get back at Cuba for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, even to this point where our interference on that island – which, aside from its proximity to our shores, really didn’t have strategic importance - may have precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also, as I read this, it became crystal clear how much Bobby Kennedy spent running interference for his brother and trying to clean up any controversies...especially after the Bay of Pigs, the two formed an ironclad bond to keep out those they perceived as a threat, which included the vast majority of the D.C. political, military and media establishment.)
One item saddened me a bit among the others, and that is when I found out that JFK’s speech at American University in D.C. (known as the “peace speech,” which was praised by former Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev) was meant to deter missile testing in the sea/ocean and the air, but not underground testing, which continued after Kennedy spoke those wonderful words. Also, by trying to “beat the Soviets to the punch,” the goal of the Kennedy Administration (as a bit of an undercurrent to the speech) was to lock in our advantage on nuclear warheads. I guess that’s just realpolitik at work, though (and Khrushchev was penalized for, in essence, getting played by JFK on the speech, and arguably the Cuban Missile Crisis also, as the Soviets saw it anyway; Khrushchev was deposed in October 1964, though fortunately for him as opposed to Kennedy, the price he paid was political only). It was also more than a little startling to read that JFK, in the final months of his time in office, contemplated an attack on what was believed to be a Chinese nuclear facility, even to the point where he approached Khrushchev for help (the Soviet premier angrily refused).
As I said, I thought Hersh did a terrific job, and his book is worth the read for sure. And again, my goal is not to denigrate JFK’s memory. However, I think we’re doing ourselves a disservice if we fail to take into account all of the history of any public figure who has captured our imagination and influenced both our politics and popular culture, for now and likely for untold future generations.
And with all of this in mind, I now give you a clip of the announcement from Walter Cronkite of Kennedy's assassination (narrated by Charles Osgood)...
Thom Hartmann says that Now We Know How Hitler Did It (comparing Our Ochre Abomination with you-know-who)...continually infuriates me that, given that millions of Americans fought ACTUAL real-life Nazis in WWII, including my father and men and women of his generation, now these cosplaying freaks are out in force as Thom says supporting the next wannabe Repug strongman (or woman, I guess, when it comes to Nimarata Nikki Haley, née Randhawa)...I don’t completely buy Thom’s comparison of Germany losing WWI and the rise of Nazism to us getting stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic fallout as a result, but it is worth considering, and he’s spot-on about everything else, which is truly scary and should give us more impetus to make sure these cretins NEVER get near the reins of power again, at a minimum (at maximum, they should be incarcerated themselves)...
...and to show how close we came to this madness the last time around, I offer the following from The Lincoln Project...
...and turning to a top story (tied to the prior clips a bit), Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss a recent segment on Joy Reid’s MSNBC program in which Michael Cohen and Peter Beinart debate whether or not Israel’s response to 10/7 will ensure Israel’s safety in the long term...and seconding what Sam says, yes, Peter Beinart has really come around, to his credit, with the flashpoint for discussion being Israel’s attack on the Al-Shifa hospital (and with that topic in mind, this is good, but this needs to be followed up with action on a two-state solution for real...and imagine having to protest in the street to get your government to negotiate for release of hostages, though, to be fair, I should note this also)...
...and shifting gears a bit to another of the day’s top stories, allow me to extend RIP wishes for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter...as many others have already said, may her memory be a blessing (I’ll always remember her absolutely icy response to a question from Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” about the Reagans, which, given the way that campaign played out in 1980, was completely appropriate IMO)...
...and as I’ve said before, I’m a little wary when it comes to TYT videos, but I thought Ana Kasparian did a good job here taking down Repug U.S. House idiot Ralph Norman, who is fighting the Biden effort to get rid of junk fees...and of course, in the Repug-run House, Norman’s amendment passed..and yeah, she takes a shot at the Dems at the end, but some of them deserve it on this issue...good job to play that clip at the end to basically emphasize that screwing over this country is definitely “baked in” when it comes to what passes for Repug political strategy...
...and I can tell that we’re edging closer to the holidays because Fix Noise is back with more of their idiocy, and this time, that nematode Jesse Watters, along with this Riley Gaines person, are both upset about a Target holiday ornament of a black Santa in a wheelchair; must be nice if this is the biggest issue you have to deal with in your life...and the “Dylanization” of corporate America? As in the “he not busy bein’ born is busy dyin’” Dylan? Really?? (mildly NSFW/H) – Jesse Dollemore brings us all the nonsense...
Update 11/25/23: Interesting bit of karma, I must say (here).
...and to wrap up this post on a more thoughtful and important note, I should point out that we recently observed the 160th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address (read here by Sam Waterston)...
...and speaking of recent anniversaries, Nirvana’s “MTG Unplugged” show aired 30 years ago on 11/18.
