David Doel comments here on the expulsion of “George Santos” from the U.S. House...I know I said before that Santos, barring a conviction, should remain in office until the voters have their say, and part of me still feels that way to be honest...this way, “MAGA Mike” Johnson can say, “See? We expelled one of our own, while those dastardly Dems continue allowing Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to represent here” (definitely tongue-in-cheek on that one), and also, by getting rid of Santos before he’s convicted, the Repugs have created a precedent that they DEFINITELY will use against Dems...in a weird way I admit, I’ll actually miss Santos and his ridiculous, brazen lies, acting as a walking, talking endorsement to NOT vote for Republicans...and I think Doel is right to point out that Santos’s offending his corporate sugar daddies was the straw that broke the metaphorical camel’s back here...
...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a clip of Bo-Bo Boebert doing what she does best, and that is acting like a total idiot, this time with an official from the Social Security Administration about productivity of folks working from home...and yeah, I think you can see already where this is going (a guy named Orrin Hank McKnelly from the SSA testifies...yeah, Bo-Bo throws around a lot of numbers here to try and sound smart, but fortunately McKnelly, the actual adult in this situation, backs up his own argument beautifully...note to Jesse, however; Louie Gohmert is no longer in the U.S. House, fortunately...to do something about Boebert, click here)...
...and I thought this was a pretty balanced tribute to SCOTUS Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was definitely conservative, but also tried to balance that I believe with some common sense rulings as noted in the clip...and call me a pointy headed lib if you want, but I honestly do not believe that she would have supported the Dobbs decision...
...and just in time for the holidays, it looks like Fix Noise is fighting the “war on Christmas” once more, as Jordan Klepper and Desi Lydic of The Daily Show tell us...
...and with the big day in mind, I present the following seasonal offerings...
...including this one as a tribute to Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.
Looks like it is time to play catch-up once again...to begin, Mike Figueredo tells us about King Elon I endorsing antisemitism on Twitter/X/the bird app/whatever the hell it is, and hemorrhaging advertisers as a result, apparently...and despite that, OF COURSE Musk is welcomed with open arms by “Bibi” for PR purposes, as Figueredo says, and yeah, that audio clip shows just how nutty Netanyahu is; he’s never going to stop trying to sucker the U.S. into another war in the Mideast...and I also think that Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL is a little ”out to lunch” here also, to put it mildly...I totally agree with Figueredo; it’s wrong to blame all Jews for Netanyahu’s carnage in Gaza, and it’s wrong to blame all Palestinians (or their supporters) for the cowardly atrocities of Hamas...and unfortunately, the truce is over and the wholesale ruin in Israel and Gaza has resumed as noted here (NSFW/H...more here)...
Update 12/2/23: I have to admit that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Musk’s recent interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin (and seriously, can you think of an individual who’s likely to give you more in the way of softball questions than business apologist Sorkin?), but I recently watched some of this segment on it with Vaush, and I honestly think Musk is mentally ill...and no, I’m not a life sciences professional and I’m not qualified to seriously make that claim. However, it’s been a looong time since I saw an interview that was this much of a train wreck...the closest I can think of is Tom Snyder talking to Charles Manson (or trying to, actually) many moons ago.
...and as long as we’re discussing the latest war in the Middle East, I should bring you this clip from Sam Seder refuting the beyond-ridiculous claim from U.S. senatorial mistake Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma (do I really need to mention the political party?) in an interview with David Asman of Fix Noise about how the employees of (presumably) Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza knew there were incoming IDF fighters??? Huh??? And by the way, I would call this linked article a voice of sanity on this issue (and this doesn't surprise me in the least)...
...and David Doel gives us his take on the cancellation of Mehdi Hasan’s show on MSNBC...and yeah, access, ratings and framing the stories a certain way for the audience is a big freaking deal...granted, Fix Noise does this on a much bigger (and more propagandistic IMO) scale, but MSNBC does indeed do a variation of the same thing...and yeah, I understand the ratings argument, but Michael Steele USED TO BE THE FREAKING HEAD OF THE RNC AND IS BASICALLY A NEVER TRUMPER!! And Alex Witt is also a charter member of the “both sides corporate media” club...ugh (I wish Doel had included a clip of a Hasan interview, but there could be a licensing/copyright issue there, as well as the timeframe of trying to get this video ready I realize...more from Dan Froomkin on this is here)...
...and when it comes to the economy and the positive impact of the Biden Administration IMO, Farron Cousins tells us about #46 visiting the Colorado district of Lauren Boebert to take a tour of a company called CS Wind, the largest producer of wind towers in the U.S (here)...got millions to expand business through the Inflation Reduction Act (which Bo-Bo Boebert called “garbage”...figures – to do something about the U.S. House mistake from CO-14, click here...and more good related stuff is here).
Oh, and speaking of financial matters, it looks like New York Times politics reporter Katie Rogers was trying to be cute recently over the story of the White House Christmas tree falling down and acting like that was symbolic somehow of this administration’s handling of the economy (here).
Given that, do you want to know who Rogers links to in an effort to find proof of Biden’s alleged misdeeds on this issue? The Washington Post? The Financial Times? Fox “News,” even?
No. Some rando on Twitter named “DC_Draino.”
What’s the matter? Catturd wasn’t available?
If Rogers is interested in the opinion of an actual adult who knows something on this topic, she should consult her co-worker Professor Krugman here (Krugman has likely forgotten more on this subject than Rogers will ever know...and more on this subject is here).
Here’s the Cousins video...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 12/1/20, in which Chucky Koch whines to his preferred media lickspittles about how the politicians he paid for aren’t doing every damn thing he wants (and yes, to echo Kyle Kulinski’s point, I think “American Ayatollah” is about right – this clip is timely a bit given that Koch has apparently decided to fund the presidential candidacy of Nimarata Nikki Randhawa as noted here)...
...and David Shuster tells us about Flori-DUUH! Republican Party chair Christian Zielger, married to the head of a Moms for Liberty chapter...in another instance in the “do as I say, not as I do” annals of Repug Party garbage, it looks like Ziegler is facing charges of sexual battery for engaging in a threesome and getting a little out of hand it seems...more here (and I didn’t see the clip with Marjorie Trailer Park Greene – important to hold her to account of course, but to be honest, I can only deal with so much of this stuff)...
Update 12/7/23: There are folks making snarky remarks about this, but it is a seriously disturbing development in this already awful story...rest assured that, if anybody at any point ever mentions Bill Clinton and Monica Whatsername again, respond with this...basically, there's a very graphic cell phone video, allegedly, and I'll leave it at that.
Like you I’m sure, I was taught when I was brought up not to celebrate misfortune. And normally I would abide by that. But for this occasion, I think I should make an exception.
HE’S FINALLY GONE!!!
The Eternal Molly Ivins reminded us in December 2002 that “Dr.” Henry Kissinger “cannot travel to Britain, Brazil, and many other countries because they cannot guarantee his immunity from legal proceedings.” Ivins also pointed out that “Kissinger is wanted for questioning about the international terrorist network called Operation Condor, which conducted killings, kidnappings, and bombings in several countries, including (the U.S.), such as the 1976 bombing in Washington, D.C. that killed a noted Chilean dissident and his companion.” (stuff is all behind a paywall now). Also, as Ivins noted here, the noted political satirist Tom Lehrer basically gave up when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
Continuing (as noted by journalist Christopher Hitchens), Kissinger and President Gerald Ford traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia in December 1975 (Kissinger was Ford’s Secretary of State); at the time, the U.S. was the primary supplier of Indonesian military hardware. After the visit concluded, Indonesia launched an invasion of nearby East Timor, which included a massacre in the capital of Dili affecting a quarter of the Timorese population. The U.S. announced a doubling of military aid to the region soon after the conflict began; according to Amnesty International, Asia Watch and even the Indonesian miliary, 200,000 people were killed in a conflict that lasted for 24 years until East Timor voted for independence.
Additionally, Kissinger was responsible for the infamous “salted peanuts” memo to Tricky Dick that he mentioned to Dubya in response to the quite logical calls to get us the hell out of #43’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq, noted here (the memo was written by Kissinger in ’69 in response to calls to get us out of Vietnam).
I have no doubt that there will be a lot of Kissinger hagiography coming our way for a little while, but I would only ask that you consider all of this also (in addition to what is presented in this clip...there’s probably a bit of repetition, but I think that’s good under the circumstances...and let's not forget this too...more Kissinger stuff is here and here)...
...and turning to domestic matters, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that Sen. Cornpone Kennedy of Louisiana recently confronted Dr. Megan Ranney about gun violence in Chicago; yeah, pretend hicks like Kennedy and his Repug party playmates just love to yammer on about how allegedly evil those dastardly blue states are...and yeah, gun violence is a problem all over this country, but try cleaning up the mess in your own backyard first before you try to talk down to anybody else (more here)...
...and given the prior clip, it may come as a bit of a shock (well, maybe not really) to learn that the “party of Lincoln” is running out of dough...yeah, as Farron Cousins sez, they haven’t done anything to benefit most of this country, which they just don’t do anymore anyway and haven’t done for awhile, but they haven’t even done anything to benefit their fat cat donors either, and that is REALLY the point of no return when it comes to financing these clowns, though I’m sure those sweet dark money donations will arrive in time for the next election cycle...
...and apologies for being a little behind on this clip, but Leeja Miller discusses the pros and cons of term limits...and I agree with a good bit of what she says, but let’s not forget that Robert Bork got a vote in the Senate, which he lost...meanwhile, Obama’s SCOTUS pick Merrick Garland COULDN’T EVEN GET A FREAKING HEARING IN THE SENATE BECAUSE OF “GRIM REAPER” McCONNELL!...and I have to admit that it does give pause to yours truly to realize what Miller is saying about Bernie Sanders, AOC and term limits; great argument in her favor I must say, as well as what that would mean for congressional staffers and having to turn to lobbyists even more than we do already...and I think mandatory retirement ages for Congress and the judiciary on the federal level are something we should move forward on, to be honest, but good luck with that given the octogenarians in those bodies...and yes, our inability to amend the Constitution over about the last 50 years is very definitely baked in by the “one percent” and the “party of Lincoln,” and “Cancun Cruz’s” antics are part and parcel of that IMO...and boy, is she ever right about the corrupting influence of $$ in politics; I almost threw up when I heard that $10 million was spent on “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh (NSFW/H also at the end)...
Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union tells us that, with all of the global carnage going on primarily in Gaza, stocks in defense companies are doing pretty well, which is typically gross...didn’t know about the “NSC 68” memo...clip does a good job of pointing out the winners and losers in our out-of-control defense spending in this country...a select group of shareholders are the big winners of course, and regular consumers and our military personnel are each “the biggest loser” you might say...template for this was created by FDR during WWII as the clip notes, though I cannot possibly imagine that he envisioned what all of this would become in peacetime...Eisenhower, among others, saw this coming, which is why he made the speech about the “military industrial complex” of course...
...and related to what is going on in the Middle East (hopefully the cease fire in place will hold), Ana Kasparian of TYT tells us about the shooting of 3 Palestinians in Burlington, VT...suspect is someone named Jason Eaton...I thought this was a pretty good analysis by Ana, but then Wosny Lambre comes in and references “the so-called Hamas terrorists”??? What the hell is “so-called” for when THEY RAID A MUSIC FESTIVAL AND TAKE ISRAELIS HOSTAGE, INCLUDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN??!!...yet another reason why I’m careful about TYT clips, to be honest...this story is a littler personal for yours truly since we’ve been to Burlington a few times; it’s a beautiful little town nestled amidst the white mountains – just proves that random violence can strike anywhere, as if we needed to learn that lesson once again...Vermont has folks of all kinds of political affiliations, though, based on our experience, New Hampshire right next door has more folks who are inclined to side with the “R” party, and no, that’s not a blanket condemnation (I watched this clip twice to make sure I didn't screw this up, and yeah, Wosny Lambre really said "so-called" Hamas terrorists...and I thought this was a good column on the ongoing conflict)...
...and staying in New England for this one, Jesse Dollemore tells us about some Fix Noise guttersnipe named Lucas Tomlinson who cites a “reporter” yelling out that Biden is too old (in some place on Nantucket), when in fact, Tomlinson is the reporter doing that...yeah, “journalistic ethics”...what does that mean? And when it comes to Biden and the polls, I would ask that you consider this (and here is some reputable sourcing on the Rainbow Bridge story on the U.S.-Canada border)...
...and happy belated 80th birthday to Randy Newman...
John and Yasmin Khan of The Damage Report inform us that the leader of the Philadelphia Moms for Liberty chapter was busted as a registered sex offender...namely, this Philip Fisher, Jr. person, though there could be more of a backstory here to be fair...Fisher claims here that he’s being railroaded by Lyndon LaRouche, which would be a pretty neat trick since LaRouche DIED FOUR FREAKING YEARS AGO! (more here - and no, John, I don’t think this stuff is a coincidence either)...
...and David Pakman tells us about neo-Nazis marching in Wisconsin...namely, these “Blood Tribe” troglodytes (and I know this is a side note, but I wonder how many of these lunatics have infiltrated pro-Palestinian protests in response to the carnage in Israel and Gaza?)...
...and I know this clip is a few days old, but I didn’t want to ignore it; Repug U.S. House Rep Chip Roy of Texas recently blasted his own party for accomplishing nothing, which is exactly what the donor class pulling the puppet strings for his party wants...before anybody decides to feel sorry for Roy, though, allow me to present this (Farron Cousins explains...Roy's remarks should be included in every single damn campaign ad run by ANY DEMOCRAT running for the U.S. House, including this worthy choice)...
Farron Cousins makes a pretty convincing argument that Republican U.S. and state congressional majorities wouldn’t exist without gerrymandering...yep, launch wars and pass tax cuts – that’s about it...and yes, Dan Crenshaw, Gym Jordan and other life forms owe their political existence to this odious tactic...one answer is to lean on these charlatans to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act...
...and Brittany Page and Jesse Dollemore discuss some recent article in “the old gray lady” about dumb voters who may lean for Trump ("Kamala, but not Joe"? Is that really a thing?), believe it or not (continuing to flog this narrative which has probably generated at least a thousand inches of column space...and this Trump person is a financial analyst? Judas H. Priest, people!...and yeah, one way to reach voters like the two profiled, as opposed to calling them names, is TO HAVE A COHERENT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY THAT MAKES SENSE SINCE EVERYBODY IN THE DAMN WORLD IS PLAYING WITH THEIR FREAKING CELL PHONES, OK DNC?? AND MAYBE MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT SHOULD BE WORTH CONSIDERING ALSO, PARTICULARLY SPANISH?? And I don’t absolve myself when I say that about the devices, just to let you know...and yes, keep beating the drum about Project 2025 – mildly NSFW/H)...
...and Leeja Miller makes the case that the U.S. is neither a pure democracy nor a pure republic...important history on our country’s founding and how influenced we were by prior forms of government in nations that went before us, such as ancient Greece and Rome...important civics stuff that every citizen of this country should know about...great point to mention that what led to Rome’s fall wasn’t going from a representative to a pure democracy; it was going from representative democracy to a FREAKING EMPIRE!...to me, the best part of this is Miller ripping the mask off these people who yammer on and on that we’re a republic and not a democracy and how that’s code for returning this country to an era of racial and sexual oppression and continuing to coddle the richest at everyone else’s expense (and trying to legitimize all of the “stop the steal” BS with the veneer of flowery academic language in that report...another great point from Miller is that those yelling that we’re a republic and not a democracy know that that demographics are not on their side, though they won’t admit that that’s the main reason for their complaint...NSFW/H also)...
...and Sam Seder continues to ask the hard questions about Israel’s incursion into Gaza...and no, I haven’t forgotten about Hamas kidnapping Israelis that started this latest horror show...boy, is Sam right to ask what the hell the number of casualties is for Bibi to stop bombing in Gaza, leading into the discussion about the NLRB ruling about McDonald’s, which I think I highlighted previously, but yes, it’s such a big deal IMO that it’s worth it to discuss it again...and once more, Sam is right about the individuals behind the president you vote for, as opposed to the person him or herself (NSFW/H as well)...
