Friday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us about Marjorie Traitor Greene “screwing the (metaphorical) pooch,” if you will, when asked about Vlad The Butcher (NSFW/H)...yeah, let’s just ask Emmy Lou and Jim Bob down at the Piggly Wiggly what they think of RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, but not lil’ ol’ MEEEE of course...to do something about her at long last, click here (primary is 5/21)...



(Any by the way, concerning Marge’s “partner in crime” Bo-Bo Boebert, I’m staying away from anything having to do with Boebert’s son and all of the charges he faces, which sound pretty bad...allegedly of course. I hope he gets whatever just desserts may be coming his way, as well as restitution as much as possible for the alleged victims. However, I think it’s wrong to involve underage family members in this stuff...and I know Boebert is 18...unless they come looking for a fight of course. And I would feel that way if we were talking about President Obama’s daughters, Chelsea Clinton, or Dubya’s daughters or Barron Trump...I remember some of the vile stuff about Chelsea Clinton from the '90s, which I thought was particularly gutless, and I swore I’d never sink so low...I honestly don’t think I have. So, I’m going to do my best to not include anything on Tyler Boebert...just letting you know in advance.)

...and speaking of gutless, it looks like that U.S. House coward Tim Burchett of Tennessee falsely accused a man named Denton Loudermill of being a shooter in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade, and then Burtchett smugly used the occasion to try and dress down the “Tennessee Holler” guy who rightly called out Burchett over it (with Rick Strom of TYT also)...



Update 3/27/24: Good.

...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Repug U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, who apparently thinks supporting the commendable bill from Dem U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois on IVF means that this country will turn into “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” or something (“human animal chimeras”??? WHAAAAA?????!!! NSFW/H)...



...and in case you want MORE evidence of pointless cruelty from the “party of Lincoln,” Farron Cousins is here to tells us that the Repugs in charge of primarily southern and western states want to see kids starve, saying no to basically free federal dollars for nutrition, while Biden fights for more $$ against childhood hunger (about $10 billion total)...



...and I think we need to be reminded periodically of individuals who helped grease the skids, you might say, to put us on a path where we’re all enduring terminal late-stage capitalism, and one of the most notorious figures IMO is former Nixon Solicitor General (and, fortunately, defeated SCOTUS Justice nominee) Robert Bork – Robert Reich tell us about Bork...yep, he was big into anti-trust, which sounds nice, but Bork had to be reminded, frequently, about the ever-expanding power of corporations...cutting prices to cut out competition, cutting wages also (neither of which Bork cared about of course)...and with just about anything putrid in our politics, you can draw a line right back to The Sainted Ronnie R (more here)...



...and happy 80th birthday to Roger Daltrey (and kudos to Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who for this).

Thursday Stuff

OK, so before anybody gets all “oh, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao was a ‘middle-of-the road’ Repug” (spoiler alert: they don’t exist), let us NEVER forget how he completely blew up the filibuster, fought campaign finance reform tirelessly until Citizens United, and fronted for Our Ochre Abomination while they both utterly polluted our courts with wingnut ideologues, including the SCOTUS (and the infamous example below has to do with the ongoing effort from Tangerine Palpatine and his minions to destroy our democracy, which that U.S. Senate death eater from Kentucky doesn’t care about preserving either...more here, here and here)...



...and when it comes to our utterly corrupt High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR, Chris Hayes tells us that these nine frauds in robes (well, 6 at least) have decided to hear Combover Caligula’s claim that he’s immune from being held liable for trying to lay waste to our democracy and should be allowed on the ballots in this year’s presidential election...I don’t know if this is worse than Bush v. Gore as Hayes says, but it stinks to high freaking heaven all right (“delay is all that matters,” indeed)...a four-year-old child can see that #45 is guilty as hell, but it’s all about making sure he has another shot at An Oval Office from his Trumpist lickspittles (Gorsuch, “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett) – hard to come up with the words about how vile and repugnant this is...



...and Trae Crowder gives us his take on Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence underperforming in Michigan, along with the “uncommitted” Biden voters in response to Israel/Gaza...#46 is going to have to come up with something to try and get these people back into the fold (gee...maybe a cease fire and banning all weapon sales to Israel for starters, maybe??), and I agree with Crowder when it comes to the question of the “greater good” (support Biden to keep out you-know-who), but “Dark Brandon” should have seen this coming (NSFW/H)...and “surge pricing” from Wendy’s??? Are they serious???...



...and speaking of the carnage in Gaza, it’s taken me a day or two to get around to the Aaron Bushnell story I know, but better late than never I guess (David Doel explains)...GREAT discussion of how some journo outlets are a little more up front in the headline on the cause of the self-immolation (i.e., Russia) but much less so when an “ally” is the subject of the protest (i.e., Israel)...and yeah, “Mrs. Greenspan” definitely didn’t cover herself in glory either for the reasons Doel and the X/Twitter person point out...and kudos to CNN for getting the reporting right on this, which is a bit surprising, but good for them (and the thing with Biden and the ice cream cone was indeed a bit odd, but I’m not going to get exercised over it)...



...and John of The Damage Report brings us the story of an ad by CA Dem guv Gavin Newsom about Tennessee not wanting women in that state to leave and get the healthcare they need (with Danielle Moodle, who makes GREAT points in her commentary...and yeah, we're about in the world of "The Handmaid's Tale" for sure here)...



...and from what I can tell about this trial involving Don Henley and the lyrics to some songs from “Hotel California,” it looks like the person contracted to publish a bio on the band took some liberties with material implicitly understood to belong to the band and not the book author, but what do I know about this stuff (here)...kind of put me in the mind to hear this tune.



Update 3/6/24: Well OK, then.

Wednesday Stuff

Dana Bash of CNN interviews reporter Marshall Cohen about the revelation that Trumpist legal lickspittle Kenneth Chesebro, who has already pleaded guilty to his role in the ’20 fake electors’ scheme, was apparently also running a fake Twitter account to undercut the election in a much bigger role than had been previously disclosed (in Michigan) – figures (more here)...



...(and speaking of Michigan, I’m not going to say that I don’t care about the ”uncommitted” Biden vote, but let’s not forget about this either.)...

...and sticking with the Trumpist goons, Jesse Dollemore (definitely not him) discusses Jen Psaki (and DEFINITELY NOT her) calling out Tangerine Palpatine and his minions for what they are, and by extension, the typical corporate media “both sides” BS regarding this year’s presidential election...and no, I’m not saying you’re not allowed to criticize Biden either, but only just keep perspective on what we’re dealing with, that’s all (NSFW/H)...



...and when it comes to positive legal stuff (as opposed to the first clip), Emma of TMR interviews Mark Joseph Stern of Slate about KBJ of The Supremes taking the lead in going against Georgia basically engaging in double jeopardy about a guy who was acquitted in one case and found guilty in another, both times for reasons of insanity, and in response Georgia tried to engage in jury nullification and have the guy tried on both charges all over again, but Jackson rightly said no...indeed surprising that this was a unanimous decision doing the right thing from the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR...



...and continuing with what I guess you could call a “Crime and Punishment” theme (careful with that axe!), Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins inform us that, when they’re not trying to kill IVF, Alabama (of course) is putting inmates to work in fast food joints, making the state about half a billion $$ a year...better not ask what they might end up slipping into the “secret sauce” for your Big Mac...to be fair, though, it sounds like the convicts want to work, so good for them, and they shouldn’t be penalized additionally for that, to the tune of about 40 freaking percent of their damn pay!...the second story has to do with Democrats introducing legislation to prevent hedge funds from owning single-family homes...and dear God; Wall Street may end up owning 40 FREAKING PERCENT! of the single family homes in this country by 2030??!!...

via GIPHY

...and staying down south in Ron #DeathSantis-stan, this CBS News story with Norah O’Donnell and Manual Bojorquez tells us about the measles outbreak in that state, which (as far as I’m concerned) you can lay squarely at the feat of that state’s joke of a surgeon general, Dr. Jospeh Ladapo (more here)...



...and I have to admit that there are times when I find myself having to mellow out a bit with a newer tune, and I definitely think this will suffice...hope it works for you also.

Tuesday Stuff

More Perfect Union informs us here of the biggest scam in US health care, and that would be Pharmacy Benefit Managers, negotiating rebates on behalf of the pharma behemoths while the rest of us get screwed as always (promoting one type of drug over another on a “formulary”), pretty much overcharging the consumer like crazy, and one of the worst cases of price gouging like this from the PBMs has to do with insulin, as the video tells us...shocked to give credit to a Republican Attorney General, and that would be Dave Yost of Ohio, but kudos for doing the right thing on this mess (a related post is here)...



...and Thom Hartmann makes it pretty clear that, if we were expecting relief on this stuff or anything like it from the “party of Lincoln,” particularly those detestable bipeds in the U.S. House...well, we had damn well better keep wishing and working to elect Dems, since “MAGA Mike” and his pals are looking to shut down the government again if they can’t kill more Americans...basically, the Repugs want to make LGBTQ people extinct (ban on gender-affirming care and trans sports) and DEI, along with Planned Parenthood of course, in exchange for funding the government (first half of shutdown would be 3/1 and second half on 3/8...have to admit that I didn’t know that that insane Austrian postcard painter went after the trannies before the Jews and non-Aryans, but yeah, I guess that fits...also didn’t think about how this would hasten a recession for real along with the Saudis trying to put the screws to Biden and the Dems, but sadly that fits also...and Dan Crenshaw says this is “the hill we will die on,” huh? Hey, that’s your choice, dude)...



Update: More here.

...and as long as we’re discussing the “lower chamber,” let’s not forget Andy (“Kill Them All”) Ogles of Tennessee, who recently turned into a genocidal nut in response to Israel’s bombing of Palestine (including the murder of men, women, and particularly kids...and no, Ogles hasn’t apologized, and I don’t expect that he ever will...NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of insane right-wing lunacy, did you hear about the recent neo-Nazi march in Nashville, Tennessee (by the “Blood Tribe,” huh? Charming...)...fortunately, Justin Jones was there to let us know (Emma of TMR provides more details)...



...and John and RayyVana bring us more on Alabama’s IVF insanity...and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to hear Biblical references in a court decision from “the land that time forgot,” absurd and appalling as that is...good point to note how prohibitively expensive IVF is anyway, and the costs for that are just about entirely out of pocket (as well as the cost to clinics of having to fight the inevitable lawsuits in the event that fertilized eggs are accidentally destroyed...also hadn’t thought about potential ripple effects of this awful ruling in other states, but we’ll see I guess)...



...and yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ recording this tune along with “You Can’t Do That”; this month marks 60 years since the Fab Four arrived in this country and appeared on Ed Sullivan, giving parents consternation all over the place and wondering what their kids were turning into I’m sure...the timing of the Fab Four was perfect, and they basically created a whole new music industry in the process.

Monday Stuff

David Pakman tells us that Our Ochre Abomination is literally planning mass deportations and detention camps, according to reporting in the WaPo, in the beyond-horrible possibility that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule were to gain the reins of power again...and if you think, “well, he’s only talking about LGBTQ people, Muslims and other minorities and brown-skinned types and others I don’t like, and he would NEVER come after MEEEEE,” then you must be living under a rock (more here)...



...and one of those who would enthusiastically help Mango Mussolini achieve this hideous reality is this execrable life form named Jack Posobiec, who recently said that he wants to get rid of democracy and apparently replace it with some “Christian” nationalist theology, or some such treasonous garbage (Mike Figueredo explains)...I know the temptation is to apply scorn and ridicule towards these freaks like Posobiec, and that is deserved, but we shouldn’t laugh them off because of the presence of Project 2025, which provides the framework for the garbage Posobiec and his pals want (including this Russell Vought character...more here)...NSFW/H...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen offers more proof that that disgraced quitter of an ex-college football coach Tommy Tuberville may be truly the stoo-pidest biped life form in this country (hard to beat Louie Gohmert, but I think Tuberville has)...the Repug Alabama U.S. Senator is too dumb of course to form an intelligent answer on the law making it harder for the residents in his state to conceive via IVF (and OF COUURRSE Dobbs is cited as a precedent...HRC said these lunatics are coming after contraception next, and she has a disturbing habit of being right about this stuff)...I’m glad Cohen’s video includes the clips of the young couples whose lives have been turned upside down by this fundamentalist insanity...



Update 2/27/24: Keep digging that hole, Coach, you moron (here).

...and Leeja Miller explains why 3rd parties won’t save us...good point that they seem to rise concurrent with over-the-top wealth gains by the investor class...I’d like to see a bit of a deeper dive into the $$ behind Dr. Jill Stein and RFK, but the video is comprehensive enough...excellent discussion of “Uber Alles” Buchanan in ’00 and Flori-DUUUH’s ridiculous “butterfly ballot” fiasco in Palm Beach County...and oh yeah, we should NEVER let Ralph Freaking Nader off the hook either...good discussion about “proportional representation” in other countries (including Denmark) and how we really should be moving towards that (NSFW/H)...



...and I thought Beau provided some great push-back here on the question of Biden and student loan forgiveness (apparently the latest round will benefit 150K people and a billion dollars, but the REAL overall numbers are $138 billion and 3.9 million people...and I’m sure the Repugs and their “think tanks” are finding ways to bubble up lawsuits through our courts to try and shut all of this down, because that’s all they’re good for....”A billion here, a billion there...pretty soon you’re talking about real money” indeed – more on the SAVE plan is here)...



...and RIP Sun Records drummer Jimmy Van Eaton, who “brought the sticks” for “The Killer” Jerry Lee, Billy Lee Riley, and others on that label.