Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins presents an ad from the Republican Accountability Project against the Gropenfuhrer and his boasting about ending Roe; the ad points out that 33 million women live in states where abortion is effectively illegal (and it looks like U.S. Senate Repug idiot Joni Ernst went out of her way to remind everybody which party is responsible for this atrocity)...



Update 1: And apparently Lex Luthor Scott wants to join the party, as it were (here).

Update 2: Gee, isn’t it great that we made women’s health care the responsibility of the states instead of enshrining Roe into law the way those dirty hippies wanted (#sarcasm – here)?

...and it appears that Marjorie Traitor Greene recently gained the support of equally useless U.S. House idiot Thomas Massie in Greene’s bid to try and oust Johnson as House Speaker...and the Mayorkas impeachment in the Senate got the treatment it deserved (here – NSFW/H)...



...and this clip from Sam Van Pykeren, Ari Berman and Mother Jones explains How Minority Rule Is Threatening U.S. Democracy Like Never Before...the point is that this country has been governed by a privileged class since its founding, and that is taking on new dimensions in our current era that we have to be on the lookout against and fight as our time and means allows (I know he’s hawking a book, but Berman is a pretty bright guy when it comes to this stuff IMO...one of the great points is the obscene amount of wealth from our politicians in this current time – how the hell can you expect them to represent us as opposed to their rich pals unless we scream out heads off, as it were? - clip is slightly NSFW/H also)...



...and the next time you hear anybody say, “oh, the two major political parties are the same...there’s no point in voting,” show them this clip of Dem U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff in Georgia going after the guy who is STILL somehow U.S. Postmaster General, and that’s Trumpist holdover Louis DeJoy...Ossoff calls out DeJoy over the beyond-ridiculous mail delays in Georgia, particularly around Atlanta apparently (here)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss what the media gets wrong about Trumpers with author David Masciotra...interesting background on the “exurbs” and how they took off in the ‘90s, right about when Fix Noise started and all of the rage against the Clintons was at full froth, and how the wealth level of those folks definitely belies their “populist” myth (see Jim Worthington of the Newtown Athletic Club in these parts)...yes, I believe Masciotra that a lot of the Trumpers are better off than we think, but there are PLENTY of individuals without a “pot,” if you will, who have signed on also...

...including individuals such as the asshat driving this vehicle (no idea of how wealthy this person is, but I'm guessing he/she is somewhere in the shrinking "middle class")...



...and this definitely isn’t the way I was planning to end the week – RIP Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band...I’m sure a few folks will recall “Ramblin’ Man” and “Blue Sky” among other tunes, and they’re great, but I’m settling on this one.

Wednesday Stuff

Chris Hayes informs us that Repug U.S. Senator Tom (“Militarize Our Cities”) Cotton recently opined on Xitter/whatever King Elon is calling it about basically disrupting protestors any way possible, up to and including using violence (here also...and 139 separate incidents of running over those exercising their rights, huh, including the action of this loser? And yeah, I get it that it’s frustrating to sit in traffic when people are making a disruption, but the right of peaceful protest is articulated in the First Amendment to the Constitution, a document with which Cotton should familiarize himself)...



...and when it comes to putting wingnuts in their place, Jesse Dollemore brings us this item about George Stephanopoulos rather politely caling out New Hampshire Repug guv Chris Sununu for saying that he’ll support Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence after first saying he’d support Nikki Haley – I know there were folks tripping over themselves to praise Stephanopoulos, and he does deserve credit, but I think what was displayed is all the push-back that was allowed given the circumstances (I think both George S. and Hayes have been told how far they can go when calling out members of the “party of Lincoln”...Jesse is right of course to recall the wingnut caterwauling over Bill Clinton, though I most definitely do NOT agree that the impeachment was “necessary” – censure and move on, I always said, FWIW, and here is more Sununu family idiocy towards the Clintons...NSFW/H)...



...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report let us know that the stock of Truth Septic is continuing to take a nosedive (more here...yep, another scam from Our Ochre Abomination – and how would you like to be Jerry Dean McLain of Oklahoma from this story?)...



Update 4/20/24: Way too damn funny (here).

...and I know I’m a little delinquent on this item, but Sam and Emma of The Majority Report let us know that it looks like the nomination of Adeel Mangi to the federal appeals court is just about dead, for racist Muslim reasons of course from the usual “R” Party suspects as pointed out here (and leave it to some corpa-Dems in the Senate to pile on also, sadly, including Jacky Rosen in Nevada...and yeah, she’s in a tough re-election, but I don’t think that makes her position the right one by any means...as noted, this is a tough issue for Biden since he’s trying to build support from the Muslim community any way he can, from the self-inflicted wound of supporting our “ally” in Israel)...



...and Alec Opperman and More Perfect Union tell us about all the ways the food companies in this country are slowly poisoning us...interesting parallels between the purveyors of so much of our processed garbage and corporate villains like Philip Morris and how the former decided to market their products in much the same way as the latter, and with comparably ruinous health effects (more info here and here)...also, to protest the price gouging of Kellogg’s, click here...



...and I know I said yesterday that there are 2 belated 80th birthdays I want to get to, and here is the second one for Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.

Tuesday Stuff

Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that Repug U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (long “A,” in case you were wondering) of Idaho opposes the monthly child tax credit passed during COVID relief which pulled about 35-40% of kids out of poverty, and then it ran out and we said whoopsie! and Repugs blocked renewing it (along with President Manchin I believe)...sounds like there’s some half-assed scheme to try and bring the tax credit back tied to corporate tax cuts – OF COOOUUURRRSE!, as Cenk Uygur would say (more here)...



...and Farron Cousins informs us that U.S. Senate Repugs recently told MAGA Mike Johnson to not be a coward...yeah, I can’t think of the Kubrickian absurdity behind those Repug lowlifes in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” now supposedly being the responsible adults vs. the other chamber, or some such nonsense...I mean, Team “D” could be the ones yelling about this stuff instead, but I guess that’s too controversial for Dem Senate “Leader” Chuck Schumer (who will NEVER get called out in our corporate media for being utterly spineless)...



...and speaking of those unruly children in the U.S. House, David Pakman tells us about an incident from last December with Bo-Bo Boebert that we’re just finding out about now where she was apparently “three sheets to the wind” and trying to force a “selfie” with Combover Caligula...pathetic for so many reasons (and to do something about Boebert, click here)...



...and the prior clip is probably an appropriate segue into this one, where Leeja Miller points out all of the distractions that we’re faced with from our media consumption...yes, like Miller, I’m definitely not trying to be “holier than thou” either – one person’s mental break online can be another person’s source of ridicule I suppose, though I definitely don’t advocate attacking folks for going to Tik Tok or scrolling over Facebook or Instagram if that’s your “jam”...if Lauren Boebert actually acted like a reasonable adult in her job, then yeah, it probably would be excessive to include a clip having to do with her getting hammered at some fundraiser or whatever, but in her case, the hypocrisy is the point... interesting historical context on the rise of our preoccupation with celebrity, and I knew media consolidation was bad, but I didn’t know we’d gone from 50 companies down to six...ugh! – and yes, lay the blame at the feet of The Sainted Ronnie R, though he’s hardly alone on that one...one of the reasons why this clip is important IMO is because it explains how our preoccupation with what I would call “celebrity piffle” sucks all (or most) of the effort out of actual political engagement, as Miller points out (more here and here – NSFW/H)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias discuss state Repugs in AZ trying to get rid of judicial retention elections so the wingnuts in robes can stay on the bench for-evah...some minutiae and fine print stuff discussed here by Elias, but this is what the “R” party does to stay in power since their numbers to do that through the electoral process are dwindling (and when it comes to judges, the goal of the “R” party of course is to stay in power to render more goofball decisions to take away voting agency from the majority of this country and hand more of it to the ”one percent”)...



...and there are a couple of belated 80th birthdays I’d like to acknowledge if I can, and here is one for John Kay of Steppenwolf...one reason why this tune is awesome is because it tells Kay’s early life story on the run with his mother from then-Soviet occupied East Germany to West Germany; I think it’s pretty safe to say that that experience informed some of the band’s more political work, which we can all draw from for inspiration as far as I’m concerned.

Monday Stuff

Like many of you I’m sure, I wanted to read up a bit on Iran’s attack on Israel with drones and missiles, which was widely anticipated after Israel blew up part of Iran’s embassy in Syria. And yes, Israel has the right to defend itself (and as I’ve said before, the murdering Hamas cowards should release all 10/7 captives immediately and turn themselves over for prosecution on criminal charges by an international court), and no, I don’t approve of ANYONE getting killed in a hostile action (and Israel should have declared a cease fire months ago IMO, but of course that would have interfered with their goal of exterminating the Palestinians). But only a total idiot – or “Bibi” Netanyahu, which are just about the same category as far as I’m concerned – would NOT have expected Iran to strike back in the manner in which they just did (an update is here).

So, with that admittedly long-winded explanation out of the way, I went to CNN’s website to read about the latest updates to the story. And I poked around on the site a bit reading some linked content, and I found myself wondering why I didn’t go to their site more often.

And then I saw this...

Oh, riiiight...I remember now. This network continues to give a paycheck to Michael Smerconish.

With all of the stories out there about internet revenue collapsing and online influencers having to scramble for a buck, to say nothing of legacy media consolidation and layoffs (haven’t heard of any recently, and I hope that means we’re done with that, but I’m afraid that will change as we progress through the year...love to be wrong)...with all of that going on, there’s never a “rainy day” for corporate media punditry, or so it seems.

I don’t know if Smerky is the biggest offender out there when it comes to “balance” at any cost, “access” opining to keep his audience jaded and (I would argue) uninformed to the desired level possible to gin up views and clicks, but he’s definitely in the upper (lower?) echelon in that category to my taste. He’s perfected his act of naysaying in the face of common sense and verifiable reality as perceived by anyone with greater than a double-digit IQ, in both print media in the Philadelphia Inquirer and also on AM talk radio (as stated, being “contrary” in the service of right-wing talking points is indeed a growth industry). So I suppose I feel a bit of guilt since the locale in which I reside is pretty much responsible for allowing Smerky to perfect his wretched act before he hit the big time. And I am quite sure that Smerky, ensconced on his corporate media perch, won’t have to worry about his next paycheck as long as he continues with his contrarian schtick in response to the biggest stories of the day, especially if it involves Dear Leader Trump as noted or anything having to do with the “R” party.

(And oh yeah, when it comes to Smerky, let’s not forget this, this and this.)

(And by the way, to the point of the headline - "F" Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence! If Smerky doesn't think #45 will get a fair trial in NYC, fine. Ship Bronzer Beelzebub off to GITMO, then.)

Now to the videos...Beau of the Fifth Column informs us that Biden is still trying to get a vote in the House for an aid package to Ukraine, and it sounds like, if that happens and Marjorie Trailer Park Greene gets her vacate motion on the calendar, then the Dems will support Johnson...a bit of a Faustian bargain I would say...and the “laundry” stuff has to do with this, and not, it isn’t a headline form The Onion...as Beau says, the pending legislation would mean our appliances would be LESS energy efficient and we would end up paying more in our utility bills...I think this is as close as Beau gets to being genuinely disgusted - once again, the T-shirt tells the story...



Update 4/16/24: Looks like attacking energy efficiency and raising our utility rates is off the table for now (here).

...and John and Sharon Reed of The Damage Report tells us about John Fredrickson, a Nebraska state senator who gave an impassioned speech against an anti-trans bill and managed to move some wingnut hearts and minds, apparently...and I knew there were a lot of garbage statewide bills to suppress the trans community, but 540??!! Jumpin’ Judas H. Priest on a pogo stick!! (I don’t think Reed brings a hell of a lot to the table in these discussions, but maybe that’s just me)...



...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us that the company operating the vessel that hit the Key bridge in Maryland apparently has a long history of safety violations (one of the reasons I’m selective about these videos with Papantonio is because his default position is to hate on anything having to do with our government, when I believe going to the Coast Guard first about a problem like the one discussed makes sense since an employer is much more likely to sweep a potential problem under the proverbial rug such as the series of issues really that led to the boat accident that took out the bridge; also, Maersk is an absolutely huge international shipping company, and I think that a voice on behalf of our government is more likely to make an impact on them than a single whistle blower) ...



...and The Lincoln Project comes after RFK Jr. pretty hard in this clip, which I think is definitely deserved, though I’m not sure that it was necessary to mention that Jr. is a recovering heroin addict...



...and I now give you the latest installment of This Day In Doomsy History from 4/15/11...given that today is tax day, I think it’s apropos to focus on money matters, and with that in mind, Rachel Maddow gives us a clip of President Obama presenting some instructive math on how the “party of Lincoln” will NEVER stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it and manage to feather the collective nest of the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch, as they last did in December 2017 as mentioned here (and the actual number from the video is about $198K, but $200K is close enough)...



...and we managed to do OK for the feds and for PA, and I hope everything worked out for you when you filed also.