Friday Stuff

Steve Schmidt gives us another "Warning" episode on the fact that the Repugs are going to fall in line anyway behind Our Convicted Felon Of A Former *president despite the fact that #45 was found guilty on all 34 counts in his recent criminal case concerning election-related payoffs to Stormy Daniels; I believe it was Chris Hayes who made the excellent point that Our Ochre Abomination has now been held to account twice by everyday citizens of this country, whereas the rich and powerful continue to coddle him, no doubt hoping for more stinking tax cuts in the disastrous event of Combover Caligula getting returned to An Oval Office (and this speaks volumes also as far as I’m concerned...more related food for thought is here)...



...and when it comes to coddling the well-to-do, Jesse Dollemore lets us know about the WaPo apparently spiking the initial story of “Strip Search Sammy” Alito’s upside down flag from a week or so after the insurrection, “in a pre-Dobbs world,” or whatever nonsense justification they’re coming up with – “democracy dies in darkness” all right, and also from a lack of vigilance in order to appease treasonous wingnuts (and pertaining to the High Court, this sure figures, doesn’t it?)...



...and in case you thought political intrigue against lefties was confined to our shores only, David Doel lets us know about Faiza Shaheen apparently getting booted out of the British Labour Party because she liked a tweet from Jon Stewart (British PM Rishi Sunak just called for a “snap” election, so that makes this a timely story)...yes, this is ridiculous, but as someone who’s been exposed somewhat to the rough-and-tumble of British politics, I should say that it’s hard to overstate how thoroughly the media “across the pond” utterly hates Labour (Jeremy Corbyn in particular), but yeah, this story also proves that the Labour Party is a mess anyway, and I’m talking about the party’s “leadership” (and nice work by Stewart here)...



...and given the prior clip about the WaPo (and, I would argue, the Shaheen clip also), I think it’s important to be mindful of how the fourth estate helps to poison the life blood of democracy, not just in the U.S. but elsewhere...I think Thom Hartmann is typically spot-on here...he saves some fire for Bill Clinton signing the telecommunications bill in the ‘90s, but more than anyone else, The Sainted Ronnie R needs to be held up to ridicule IMO for no longer enforcing antitrust law and gutting the Fairness Doctrine and the equal time requirement for TV news orgs (more here)...



...and Kyle Kulinski brings us the story of Iraq war vet Tomas Young, who, in his dying moments, called out “Deadeye Dick” Cheney and Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History over our Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Mesopotamia - may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (I originally had this slated for a couple of days ago, but I moved it for the Rachel Maddow clip on Fani Willis, which I thought was a little more timely)...



...and Jeff Waldorf informs us of an individual named Ben Pollock, the father of two MAGA rioters captured by the FBI who attempted to place a stone honoring insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt and others from the 1/6 Capitol attack at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day; Pollock was rightly turned back at the gate to the cemetery, apparently (more here)...



...and Ana and John of TYT bring us the story of microplastics found in human and dog testicles – and yeah, why exactly is it that they’re looking at testicles anyway, but I guess it’s a good thing that they are (and I think John is exactly right to focus on the BS that we let corporations get away with when it comes to poisoning our air, water, and food)...



...and RIP Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly (and I'll bet you knew that this was coming, right?).

Thursday Stuff

We know of course that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a *president doesn’t possess any instinct towards self-reflection whatsoever, but if he did, I wonder if he’d regret this (in light of this of course - guilty on all 34 freaking counts!)...



...or this...



...or this...



...more to come, but I think this tune works for now.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us about Bo-Bo Boebert, running in CO-04 of course since she bailed on her CO-03 constituents over that “Beetlejuice” stuff, having a hissy fit over quite rightly getting called out by Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for taking credit for infrastructure funds in her district from a bill she voted against, namely the Infrastructure Bill (Cousins’ disgust is commendable IMO...mildly NSFW/H...to do something about Boebert, click here...and it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to point this out, but maybe Boebert ought to shut her yap when it comes to trying to criticize other families besides her own)...



...and as we await the word on whether or not Our Ochre Abomination is going to be convicted in the NY criminal case, David Pakman lets us know that – oopsie! – more classified docs were found, this time in Trump’s bedroom (and one way you can tell that this is legit is because Trumpers aren’t automatically yelling, “OH YEAH? WELL, BIDEN DID THAT TOO!”)...



...and Rachel Maddow reminds us that the case that was supposed to be first, instead of the NY criminal case, was the Georgia election fraud garbage where Our Treasonous Orange Pustule asked for about 11,780 votes, but Repugs in that state threw every roadblock they could come up with to prevent that (trying to hurt the case against #45 I mean), including going after Fulton County, GA DA Fani Willis in all kinds of disgusting ways...



...and Robert Reich lets us know that Dementia J. Trump and the “party of Lincoln” want to wreck our bank accounts, take away health insurance and student debt relief, make permanent those stinking, ruinous tax cuts from December 2017 that EVERY REPUBLICAN voted for, including this guy, etc. (and to do something about Bri-Fi, click here)...



...and I’m sure it comes as no surprise whatsoever to learn about oil companies colluding to raise gas prices in an effort to hurt No Malarkey Joe at the ballot box – Faiz Shakir of More Perfect Union brings us the infuriating details (especially concerning Scott Sheffield, former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, who coordinated with our dear friends the Saudis to cut the supply of oil and keep gas prices high)...



...and happy belated 80th birthday to Gladys Knight (and kudos to The Pips too).

Tuesday Stuff

Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ lets us know about the Gropenfuhrer’s decision to sue George Stephanopoulos in light of the ABC News host making the completely true statement that #45 was found liable in the E. Jean Carroll rape case (and isn’t it just too precious to see Nancy Mace try to manufacture fake outrage?)...at about 3:29, the clip switches to the lawsuit against Jessia Tarlov, maybe the only sane person on Fix Noise at this point, filed by Trumper Tony Bobulinski, because Tarlov also quite accurately said that Bobulinski’s legal fees were being paid for by a Trump Super PAC (shocking to see Tarlov supported by Fix Noise, but credit where it’s due...and as Khan reminds us, Bobulinski was supposedly the “smoking gun” from James Comer in the Hunter Biden sham investigation)...



...and when it comes to right-wing insanity and The Roger Ailes BS Factory, Desi Lydic of The Daily Show “Foxsplains” the alleged assassination attempt against Bronzer Beelzebub...I realize this is humor, and Lydic knows that of course, but she really isn’t too far off from what passes for alleged thinking on the part of Trumpers.

And just as a reminder, life forms like the person driving the vehicle with this obnoxious bumper sticker are part of what we're fighting againat...



...and Cenk Uygur, Jordan Uhl and Jules Suzdaltsev of TYT tell us the sorry tale of Repug U.S. Senate hopeful Royce White getting caught using campaign funds for going to a strip club and (allegedly!) all manner of other improprieties (and you can put me in the “maybe criminals SHOULDN’T run for office” camp, as it were)...



...next, Thom Hartmann speaks with Alex Lawson on the subject of How Social Security Works...good news on how well run SS and Medicare are, extending solvency into 2099 (looks like the trust fund is doing well, fortunately...more proof that we need to get rid of the stinking cap on earnings subject to Social Security withholding...and yeah, the “banksters” are absolutely salivating over trying to get all of that dough...still more evidence is provided in this clip as to how utterly scammy Medicare Advantage is...more here)...



...and Beau gives us his take on Schumer and the U.S. Senate Dems putting “R” party members in that body in a metaphorical box by utterly caving on the immigration bill, only to see the “party of Lincoln” walk away from it anyway, leading to voters not thrilled with the performance of their “R” party senators (would LOVE to see that translated into votes against these charlatans, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that...I’m loathe to give Schumer credit for ANYTHING, but apparently knuckling under was the right call)...



...and RIP harmonica virtuoso Phil Wiggins of the duo Cephas and Wiggins.

Monday Stuff

Brett Erlich of The Damage Report named Dementia J. Trump as his “garbage person” recently for #45’s approval of a “Never Surrender” banner getting unveiled at Yankee Stadium during the national anthem, which, as Erlich quite rightly informs us, is hypocritical at the very least considering Bronzer Beelzebub’s reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the anthem for reasons that made a hell of a lot more sense...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report lets us know about the Supremes approving a racist gerrymander in South Carolina...I think Figueredo means that all the SC districts are represented by Republicans EXCEPT James Clyburn’s...yeah, this whole “presumption of legislative good faith” is every bit the utter BS that you can expect from our Philistines in robes on the High Court, and yeah, this falls right into the laps of Alito and Thomas, and Figueredo goes over the Alito flag stuff again, which is fine by me...and once again, AOC nails it...and in a related matter, it appears that more lunacy is coming from this bunch based on this (NSFW/H)...



...and David Doel lets us know about the ICJ ruling about Israel’s incursion into Rafah and a commencement speech by Harvard graduate Shruthi Kumar; apparently the university (or its parent corp?) isn’t going to let 13 pro-Palestinian students graduate (I don’t know about you, but I smell a lawsuit coming...hope so anyway)...and yeah, the attacks against Karim Khan of the ICC are about as ridiculous as you can expect, especially from Huckleberry Graham...



....and I’d been meaning to get to this video since I got back, and I’m finally doing that now...Leeja Miller explains why everything is more expensive, and she chalks it up to corporate mergers and price gouging...basically, about 806 billionaires can hire all the lobbyists to write governmental rules however they want...the clip ties into the importance of antitrust law, with important history from that era dating back to the late 1800s, including that dealing with magnates John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and George Pullman (and I didn’t know about Pullman protecting his casket from workers who might abuse his corpse, which I have to admit is a whole other level of crazy...and examining the legacy of TR is a whole other subject, but to be fair, he indeed stepped up antitrust enforcement when he ascended to the White House)...video is a GREAT primer on how unregulated monopolies can get totally out of hand, effectively screwing over all of us and potentially (or, in the case of Nazi Germany, ACTUALLY) leading to fascism...one of the nearly forgotten names who are responsible for our current sorry state is indeed Aaron Director of the Chicago School of Economics, and I’m glad to see his metaphorical feet held to the fire once more...didn’t know the history of the IBM and AT&T antitrust lawsuits, to be honest, and how that led to the innovations that I believe have been overall positives for the way we live now...and yes, kudos to No Malarkey Joe for stepping up antitrust enforcement, which is yet another issue where the Dems should be doing a better job of messaging to voters (and I know this is a recording...and you can definitely count yours truly as a “neo-Brandeisian”...NSFW/H also)...



...and I thought this was a well-done Lincoln Project video with today’s holiday in mind...



...and every once in awhile for the holiday, I include the following tune because, to me, it speaks to military heroism in the face of great personal sacrifice...

via GIPHY

...which is something the above individual will never, ever understand.