Friday Stuff

(I'm going to be cutting back on posting for a bit, just to let you know.)

I know I mentioned this previously, but here is the clip of John of The Damage Report telling us about “MAGA Mike” Johnson getting the treatment he deserved at Columbia (with Elise Stefanik and the equally odious Virginia Foxx...GREAT points by John about the “party of Lincoln” being totally disingenuous, to say nothing of patronizing, in criticizing the student protests, having typically no interest in dissenting points of view from their prepared talking points...I mean, Johnson and his pals could be in D.C. doing some, y’know, actual legislating that HAPPENS TO BE THEIR DAMN JOBS, but they’re doing this nonsense instead)...



...and for the reality perspective on Israel’s incursion into Gaza, I thought Bernie Sanders was spot-on here (and I was glad to see this...God only knows the condition of the remaining hostages after all this time)...



...and I have to admit that I’m not paying a lot of attention to the trial of Combover Caligula in Manhattan, but I thought it was interesting (as Farron Cousins explains) to hear from the hilariously-inaptly-named David Pecker of the National Enquirer about all the negative stories involving #45 and how they were handled (letting the Trump gang know about some controversy blowing up and how to try and resolve it, a tactic which might actually be illegal, in addition to being immoral as hell of course...as far as I’m concerned, Mango Mussolini should be in the slam already, but this is where we are...sigh)...



...and I should note that I was a bit anxious about the fate of Dem U.S. House Rep Summer Lee of our beloved commonwealth of Pa, but it looks like she whupped challenger Bhavini Patel in the primary, fortunately (Lee brought back a gang of dough to her district and won endorsements up and down the Dem ballot, which had a lot to do with her victory...and truly awesome to stick it to Trumpist sycophant Jeff Yass by the way, who funded Patel)...



...and we were able to get a bit of a refund already from the feds, and I hope you were able to get yours also; with that in mind, Josh Johnson of The Daily Show speaks with tax expert Robert Wood about how we can maximize our gains, you might say...basically, if you own a home, never sell it and hang onto it until you die...got it...



...and I need something kind of mellow to close out the week, and I think this works.

Thursday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore brings us the news of Repug Mississippi guv Tate Reeves proclaiming Confederate Heritage Month again (additionally, kudos to Dem former MS governor Ray Mabus for speaking out against this garbage...this clip pretty much lays bare the ridiculous claim that the “war between the states” had nothing to do with slavery)...



...and Kyle Kulinski lets us know that Newsmax and OANN were recently smacked with having to pay out to Smartmatic and (probably) Dominion over 2020 election lies (terms not disclosed...couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of scumwaffles – NSFW/H)...



...oh, and did everybody catch what Repug U.S. House Rep Tony Gonzales said recently about his colleagues, Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz and the incredibly-inaptly-named Bob Good in particular (here)? And yeah, innocent until proven guilty and all that when it comes to the rep from Flori-DUUH!...but we’ll see, won’t we?...



...and when it comes to bottom-feeders from the “party of Lincoln” in the U.S. House, we can’t leave out Marjorie Traitor Greene, can we, who was recently trashed by Thom Tillis, among others, including “The Mittster” – she looks even worse than usual after threatening to dump “MAGA Mike” Johnson, with the foreign aid package getting through anyway despite her ridiculous threats (Jeff Waldorf explains)...to do something about “Capitol Hill Karen,” click here...



...and Emma V. of The Majority Report tells us about faculty joining protests on college campuses against Israel, starting with Columbia of course – “This is absolutely not one of these times when it’s time to be silent” indeed (mildly NSFW/H)...and it looks like Harvard has joined in also as noted here...additionally, I don’t have a clue as to what the U.S. House Speaker thought he was going to accomplish, but I’m glad he got the treatment he deserved (here)...



...and this tune sure works for me any time of the year, including now (and on any issue also, including the one noted in the prior clip).

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen presents a clip of Dem U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff going after U.S. Senate Repugs for not moving on a border security bill co-authored by James Lankford, and of course U.S. House Repugs, doing the bidding of you-know-who, continue to act in bad faith (and yes, I know the foreign aid bills, concerning what Rosa DeLauro was saying, FINALLY passed for Ukraine, Taiwan and, unfortunately, Israel)...



Update 4/24/24: I meant that the aid package FINALLY passed the House; as noted here, it has now passed the Senate and Biden will likely sign onto it before too much longer.

...and while Ossoff quite rightly held the “party of Lincoln” to account, Dem Jasmine Crockett in the U.S. House brought the receipts, you might say, in response to typical BS talking points about immigrants driving up crime and increasing the size of municipalities and, by extension, big gumint benefits for blue states, when in reality, Texas grew by 2 congressional seats and New York lost a seat, as Crockett points out, as well as the fact that violent crime has gone down in all categories in Tarrant County and the rest of “the land of the yellow rose,” which shoots down another line of right-wing BS about immigrants and crime...



...and for more nonsense from the “loyal opposition,” John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us this clip of CNN’s Dana Bash and South Dakota Repug guv Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem trying to evade answering a question about abortion, of course, saying that there should only be an exception for the life of the mother (even though those “exceptions” are basically toothless)...Noem also says that “one tragedy shouldn’t beget another tragedy,” or something, meaning that the mother should be forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term, making Noem one of the most enlightened minds of the 13th century...



Update 4/26/24: Given the corporate media hagiography surrounding her, it's easy to forget what a monster Noem truly is (here).

...and for some truly absurd behavior from the Trump Party, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report gives us a look at the West Virginia Republican gubernatorial primary, complete with some truly ridiculous transphobic ads, which I guess shouldn’t come as a surprise, mainly from Chris Miller and Patrick Morrissey...oh, but their PACS aren’t coordinating with the candidates...yeah, tell me another one...and for the zillionth time, KIDS AREN’T GETTING GODDAMN BOTTOM SURGERY as Figueredo tells us...and of course, this Moore Capito guy has to do his own fear mongering on this too...and by the way, what does it say about this guy’s parents, including her mom the senator, that they thought her maiden and married names would be good enough for this guy and he didn’t even need a first name of his own, but I digress (NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins lets us know that the Dems won another special election recently, this time in Michigan...yes, as Cousins points out, these were pretty blue seats anyway, but the level of turnout is the key as far as I’m concerned, and we need to sustain that... I know Cousins isn’t telling us to rest on our laurels or anything, and neither am I, but I’m just saying that we should keep things in context, that’s all...



...and happy belated 65th birthday to Robert Smith of The Cure.

Monday Stuff

This New York Times retro video deals with the Columbine mass school shooting...we recently observed the 25th anniversary, believe it or not...I guess, like a lot of other people, I’ll be wrestling with exactly why the ‘90s was a time when (mostly rural) rage on the part of white kids whose brains were broken for some reason seemed to flourish, in this attack, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Branch Davidian siege, and assorted other incidents of violence...more than anything IMO, it’s the damn, stinking guns, but I would argue also that, in the “heartland,” our government’s failed neoliberal policies (and The Sainted Ronnie R is definitely to blame I believe, but he has company on both sides of the aisle), particularly towards our farmers and businesses that built up towns across the country, was a factor also, though there was plenty of violence in our cities too, and that remains the case across the country to this day, tragically...it takes more courage, imagination and will to tackle our gun violence epidemic across this country than I believe we possess at the moment, and I’d love to be wrong about that (more here)...



...and this Now This clip deals with Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), which are pretty much vehicles for wingnut indoctrination and provide no medical purpose for pregnant people seeking an abortion or related services (and CPCs don’t deserve one stinking dime of federal funding – trying to cut that off is yet another good move by the Biden Administration flying under the corporate media radar, if you will)...



...and John Russell and More Perfect Union inform us of the biggest labor win in decades, and that is Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, TN just voting to join the UAW...awesome! Now, onto Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, and South Carolina! (and here is more on the BS anti-union efforts on the part of Repug Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, among others, presented because we can expect this at a minimum in response to other pro-union organizing)...



...and Jeff Waldorf lets us know here that “Capitol Hill Karen” received a warning, apparently, to lay off “MAGA Mike” Johnson from some conservative personality named Sarah Posner, who came to Johnson’s defense, along with this Liz Peek person...jeez, a wingnut “food fight” (pass the popcorn...and to do something about Marjorie Train Wreck Greene, click here)...



...and this clip from TYT shows Dem U.S. House Rep Jim McGovern pushing back against Repug U.S. House idiot Guy Reschenthaler, who accuses Democrats of being guilty somehow of anti-Semitic incidents and sympathizing with terrorists, or some such nonsense...and by the way, when it comes to a ridiculous over-reaction against pro-Palestinian protests, you’d be hard pressed to find a more excessive response than that of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik as noted here...



Update 4/23/24: It looks like U of P isn't doing any better on this issue (here).

...and by the way, Happy Earth Day.