Saturday Stuff

I now give you the latest installment of This Day In Doomsy History (more or less) from 12/18/18, in which Casey Michel reports on the World Congress of Families Conference in Moldova (more here)...want to know how Vlad The Butcher managed to get such a grip on American (allegedly Christian) evangelicals and, by extension, the Republican Party, leading the way to the installment of The Gropenfuhrer in 2016? This has a lot to do with that (with this Allen Carlson character travelling to Russia to form the WCF)...yes, Putin is beyond contemptible, but the Russians know how to play this country politically and maximize the impact of our divisions...I’m definitely not saying we should give up in response, but I AM saying that we should understand what we’re up against, and we should call out the traitors and collaborators working with the forces in Russia seeking to defeat us...I think the National Prayer Breakfast should be ripped up by its roots and utterly destroyed for all of the damage that it has done to this country - and by the way, speaking of how evil Putin is, I know I haven't had a video about the Ukraine war for a long time; that has more to do with the fact that those videos end up being age restricted on YouTube - I definitely haven't forgotten about it, for what it's worth...



...and as if we need a reminder (though I know we don’t really), Fix Noise is beating the drum for the return of Trump (and by extension, Putin’s influence) by calling for a civil war that they pretty much would gladly cheer on from the safety of their luxurious studio in NYC while “the rabble” ate each other alive, all for ratings (with Ingraham and that nematode Jesse Watters leading the cry – Jesse Dollemore tells us about it)...



...well, for more positive religious news, Beau tells us that Pope Francis has said that the Catholic Church can bless same-sex unions, though this doesn’t mean that they’ll participate in a same-sex wedding...still, though, this is definitely good news IMO and a big step forward for an institution that, shall we say, moves at a glacial pace on this stuff...



...and More Perfect Union brings us another fine clip, this time about the fight to save a nursing home in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, which apparently is pretty bedrock conservative (some sneaky stuff playing out with the town council and attempts at privatization, to say nothing of across the whole country, with costs going up and the level of care going down)...pretty galling to find out that 700 nursing homes across the country have been forced to close since 2020...great to see the residents stepping up in response; we can all profit from such a fine example...



...and I hope these selections are helping you get into the holiday spirit, if you aren't there already.

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins brings us the story of Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabilly Sanders deciding to take health care away from 78,000 kids in under a year by kicking them off Medicaid – oh yes, go kicking and screaming about “Dark Brandon”; he doesn’t run your punk ass state...you allegedly do...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about St. Louis cops who crashed a vehicle into a gay bar and then arrested the bar owner for supposedly putting a hand on a cop, though that is being contested (the officer allegedly made a homophobic slur)...and there’s also a video of reporter Jesse Blackburn in PA being accosted by a cop for doing nothing wrong, as far as we can see (Blackburn reported on a case in a public area, but the local constable got in his face anyway...I didn’t see the clip of the break-in by the cops in Connecticut)...



...and Sam Seder of The Majority Report speaks with Ari Tolany, research consultant for Women for Weapons Trade Transparency; they discuss the piece Tolany wrote for In These Times on “How Israel Got an Endless Supply of U.S.-Made Smart Bombs”...the amount of munitions we’ve sent to that country and continue to send is jaw-dropping...and I know this is a broken record, but so much of the garbage that currently afflicts us can indeed be traced back to The Sainted Ronnie R, who made sure Israel started getting these precision-guided munitions in return for pulling out of Lebanon (and I would say that the reporting on this stuff is “deliberately opaque” also)...



...and here’s another clip I meant to get to previously; John of The Damage Report, with Ramesh Srinivasan and Mondale Robinson, tell us about the wingnuts losing what’s left of their minds over a “Nutcracker” presentation by Dr. Jill Biden at the White House...there actually was a time in this country when perpetual outrage over every little thing wasn’t being manufactured endlessly; the person primarily responsible for this now as far as I’m concerned, more than anyone else, is Roger Ailes...I don’t know of course what his fate in the great beyond is for doing this, but I can’t imagine that it’s anything good...



...and I'm continuing to work my way down the list of seasonal tunes with these selections.

Thursday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen discusses the “Mayor of 9/11” and the $148 million judgment against him for maligning the mother and daughter Georgia poll workers in the ’20 election...Rudy! obviously has never learned the phrase “when you’re in a hole, stop digging”...this guy could have absolutely coasted, but because he aligned himself with Mango Mussolini, he’ll likely be disbarred and spend the rest of his life paying off debts for his malfeasance (more here)...



Update: This trick didn't work for Alex Jones, and it won't work for Rudy either.

...and I want to go a little “inside baseball” here a bit and point out the following...when I’m in holiday mode like this, I’m more prone to skip around certain videos that might have been a little more topical previously...that’s not my cunning plan by any means, but it’s just the way things turn out sometimes; I’m saying this because this fine Majority Report clip with Emma V. on Israel’s Gaza incursion might have been more timely earlier in the week or last week, but it just got bumped for other stuff...educational for yours truly, I have to admit, because I’d hung onto the possibility of a two-state solution for the Palestinians when in reality that may have been just a liberal pipe dream given all of those stinking settlements on the West Bank...even Yitzhak Rabin apparently said that the Palestinians should have “less than a state” or something, and he got his brains blown out just for that...makes me despair over this issue even more actually, and I realize that’s not constructive either, but I just don’t know how else to react over this, aside from cutting off Israel at its metaphorical knees unless it agrees to mediation to get its remaining hostages freed, assuming they aren’t already dead (and this makes me detest “Bibi” and his cadre of “true believers” in Israel and this country even more, including that shameless harpie arguing with the interviewer)...



...and it’s also an incredible downer to watch this clip from David Doel on PA’s Dem U.S. Senator John Fetterman...I think Fetterman has made the political calculation that he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of remaining in the U.S. Senate unless he cozies up to AIPAC, which sadly is probably correct, and no, I don’t know what the answer to that is either at the moment...I should say that I’m not completely comfortable with Doel’s framing of “not many Israeli civilian deaths,” though the power balance numbers he presents when compared with casualties in Gaza are irrefutable IMO...yes, I’m very concerned about Fetterman’s clownish behavior also when it comes to the Gaza carnage, but I’m not ready to totally give up on the guy based on this alone, though it is pretty bad (haven't forgotten that we could have been stuck with "Dr. Crudite") – hopefully there will be no other reason for me to bail on him (and yeah, to say you’re not a progressive after all those tweets is beyond belief; THAT is more concerning to me than anything...slightly NSFW/H)...



...and as a bit of a “compare and contrast” exercise, Mike Figueredo sez that AIPAC is planning to spend $100 million to get rid of progressive candidates (I don’t need any additional reasons to detest AIPAC, though this is pretty damn disgusting also; imagine the better ways that money could be put to use for their nation as well as the Palestinians on Gaza)...according to Ryan Grim, though (mentioned in the TMR clip), AOC told AIPAC what they could do...and before anybody asks, “Why didn’t John Fetterman do that?,” let me point out that, at best, PA is plus 2 or 3 on the D side (which is basically a tossup as far as I’m concerned), but AOC's district is about a +14 in favor of the Dems, so she can afford to take that position...and I think Shri Thanedar is a lying idiot also (NSFW/H)...



And by the way, here are links to help members of “the squad”...

Jamaal Bowman (click here)

Cori Bush (click here)

Pramila Jayapal (click here)

Summer Lee (click here)

AOC (click here)

Ilhan Omar (click here)

Ayanna Pressley (click here)

Rashida Tlaib (click here)

...continuing, here are more seasonal offerings.

Wednesday Stuff

Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur of TYT bring us the oh-so-woeful story (snark) of Almost Silent Clarence “The Job Is Not Worth Doin’ For What They Pay” Thomas...more great reporting from ProPublica...as I read these astounding dollar figures that the Thomases borrowed (and let’s not forget that this includes Ginni too, who gave aid and comfort to the 1/6 traitors and of course is still part of the cadre that wants to overturn our government), I couldn’t help but remember the incredibly paltry sum by comparison that forced Abe Fortas off the High Court and led to the conservative hammerlock that Tricky Dick created, which exists with The Supremes to this day...



...but the big story on Action News, as they say, is A Certain Treasonous Orange Pestilence not being allowed on the presidential ballot in Colorado for inciting the 1/6 insurrection...yeah, this whole thing is headed straight for the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR as alluded to above, which is probably where this whole matter belongs (and if they find a way to rule in Combover Caligula’s favor, there should be crowds with torches and pitchforks in front of 1 First St. NE...David Doel tells us more...and speaking of Action News, my sympathies for real over this)...



Update 1/2/24: Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is truly a hero as far as I'm concerned (here).

...and returning to the story of Christian and Bridget Ziegler and the former’s attempt to get paid before he steps down from his Repug Party post in Flori-DUUH!, Farron Cousins tells us that Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz took a break from cavorting with underage teenage girls (allegedly!) to say that politicians accused of involvement in sex scandals should resign...you first, pal...



...and I give Chris Hayes so much credit for this incredibly clear-eyed analysis of why the Gaza attacks must end...yes, Hamas started this with their indefensible assault on October 7th, but as Hayes tells us, the vast majority of Gaza has been destroyed, putting huge numbers of people at risk for disease, starvation, and continuing slaughter...and no, pointing that out doesn’t automatically mean siding with Hamas; the murdering cowards of that despicable organization should be held to account, but in an international court...

(OK, so YouTube flagged the clip as age inappropriate somehow, probably because of the film of the kid from Gaza with part of his leg missing. I think that's ridiculous, but I don't own the platform - here's the link to the video...yes, the kid missing part of his leg is terrible, but calling attention to atrocities like that is part of what Hayes was doing...more here.)

...and Kyle Kulinski brings us the latest “woke Pope” developments, with Francis commendably calling out the IDF as guilty of terrorism for targeting Christians in churches; shouldn’t be that controversial to state such a plainly obvious fact...#46, IMO, is getting played on this by AIPAC, and when push comes to shove, those cretins won’t be there for him next November...I have a feeling Kyle is right on what this has done to Biden’s support among younger voters, and his support by Muslims is pretty damn microscopic now unfortunately...



...and I know it's hard to keep up anything approximating a holiday spirit given these stories, but please allow me to keep trying anyway with these selections.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore and Brittany Page discuss the Moms for Liberty idiots in Flori-DUUH! who remain defiant despite the rape allegation and the story of the “three way,” particularly Bridget Ziegler, who refuses to step down from her role on the Sarasota school board...and yeah, it sound to me also like Christian Ziegler wants to “get paid” (an update is here)...



Update 1/2/24: Looks like Christian Ziegler may be on his way to the gray bar hotel - hope he has a good lawyer (here).

...and great job by the student in Sarasota giving Ziegler the treatment she deserves in the public meeting here...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us the latest on the efforts of the Repug Party to destroy the Constitution and rewrite it to give the rich every damn thing they want...it sounds like the next battleground will be our thoroughly bought-and-paid-for SCOTUS, who may rule that the six state challenges to the Constitution from long ago are still in force, giving the wingnuts the magic number of 34 to call a convention, which would be awful, requiring us to fight even harder to oppose it...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about the umbrage from the usual right-wing suspects over the film “Leave The World Behind” based on the book (here...and yeah, it sounds like the wingnuts are showing absolutely zero self-awareness, Part The Infinity as Charlie Pierce might say, and all over one line of dialogue from one scene apparently which has white people fee fees all in a tizzy, and I can’t think of a word to describe how pathetic It is that these knuckleheads are apparently caterwauling about it when they are TOO LAZY TO ACTUALLY GO SEE THE THING THEY’RE COMPLAINING ABOUT! And no, I didn’t see it yet either, but I’m not the one yelling about it)...



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff

The latest clip from Second Thought tells us How The Far Right Infiltrates U.S. Education (I honestly didn’t know that Dennis Prager has 3.2 million YouTube subscribers...ugh...those poor kids; if I was being forced to watch a video of Jordan freaking Peterson, I might end up wanting to “go postal” myself...and why am I also not surprised to see that this motley outfit has gotten such a buildup in Flori-DUUUH!? And why is it no damn surprise either that this garbage can be traced back to The Sainted Ronnie R? –“capitalism is not equipped to solve the problems it creates”...and IMO “we sold our souls for short-term profit maximization” should be written on the headstone of the very last boomer who sheds his or her mortal coil...and I heard about the dustup with Nebula, but I didn’t want to say anything b/c I wasn’t sure how verifiable the rumor was; I’m glad it wasn’t as severe as I’d heard at first)...



...and don’t look now, but our corporate media is actually DOING SOME INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING INSTEAD OF PRATTLING ON ABOUT THE POLITICAL “HORSE RACE”...Lester Holt and reporter Sam Brock of NBC News inform us of the utter scam of Medicare Advantage, with claims routinely denied...of course, the Medicare enrollment period just ended; not sure why this report didn’t air during enrollment instead of after it...



...and I know I’ve alluded to this before, but I’m going to do it again – Rachel Maddow tells us that this Congress is the most pitiable bunch of losers we’ve seen since Herbert Hoover and The Great Depression (22 bills passed with our current gaggle of idiots and frauds as opposed to 21 about 90 years ago)...and yes, this is symptomatic of a slow lurch towards authoritarianism, which we have to fight with all of the legal means at our disposal (more here)...



Update 12/19/23: I updated this item to correct the number of bills; I admit that math was never my strong suit :-).

...well, for some good news, this video from More Perfect Union tells us about the successful unionization effort by the UAW at the Blue Bird plant in Georgia, which should be helpful in the EV-powered future for vehicles such as school buses...great to see a victory for labor in hostile terrain; I suppose this clip is a bookend of sorts for yesterday’s nonsense with Marjorie Traitor Greene saying she didn’t want jobs in her district because it would take workers from existing businesses (translation: she doesn’t want workers to benefit from a labor competition which is a positive outcome of job growth and economic development...and kudos to that brave Bluebird worker who gave the TV interview)...



...and here are more seasonal tunes.

Sunday Stuff

Nina Turner of Rebel HQ tells us about Marjorie Trailer Park Greene railing about the EV plant in her district (more here)...as of now, 4 Democrats are running in the primary election scheduled for next May...and yeah, I know this is a pretty solid “R” seat despite Greene’s lunacy, but there’s no percentage at all if we do nothing in response.



And speaking of Republican idiocy, I believe I need to communicate the following item.

First of all, I have to confess that I shop very infrequently at Home Depot. And yes, I know the person in charge of Home Depot is a Trumpist a-hole who believes workers in this country are lazy and deserve absolutely nothing from our government (here). And I’ve gone out of my way to the Lowe’s in my area from time to time as a matter of principle, but unfortunately, Home Depot has a better selection for what I need.

Well, I journeyed to the one in my area (Fairless Hills, more or less), picked up some seasonal stuff, and while I was exiting the parking lot, I found myself behind a certain individual with the bumper sticker shown below.

(I should also note, by the way, that Home Depot, and actually the Lowe’s in Middletown also, are pretty much wingnut central. Bumper stickers like the one in the pic are definitely not a “one off.”)

To me, this puts a bit of emphasis on the fact that WE NEED TO GET FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS REGISTERED TO VOTE if they aren't already and we also need to MAKE SURE THEY GET TO THE POLLS. Life forms like this character in the Lincoln 4x4 pictured above most definitely will be voting, and we need to do all we can to electorally neutralize him and others like him (and yes, a guy was driving).

...continuing, David Doel tells us about all the wingnut umbrage over a Dem staffer who allegedly filmed gay sex in a Senate hearing room, so of course this person was fired, and OF COOOURRRSE wingnut media are losing what’s left of their minds over it...and no, I don’t condone it either, but can we get a freaking grip, people? Also, I like the way Doel presents that clip of Generalissimo Trump using white nationalist dictator rhetoric again at one of his hate rallies, with Doel basically saying to us, “what do YOU think matters more?” (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this gives me a chance to work in a couple of more seasonal tunes.