Friday Stuff

Chris Hayes takes a look at the latest odious batch of Trumpers in this election cycle (Kari Lake in AZ of course, this Royce White clown in Minnesota, Mark “Keep Your Skirt Down” Robinson, Eric Hovde, Micah "I Talked To God" Beckwith, etc., also including Connecticut’s Dave McCormick running against Bob Casey)...great point by Hayes that only Our Ochre Abomination can really pull off the Trumpist act, and even THAT is debatable anymore (and apparently, Bronzer Beelzebub is coming to town - we should all act accordingly)...



...and David Pakman was included in the Hayes clip above pertaining to Royce White (and yeah, what a moron White is to act like, yeah, I spent campaign $$ at strip clubs, BUT IT WAS FOR FOOD YOU DUMB LIB)...in this video, Pakman gives us wingnuts cheering on a potential terror attack to make Biden look bad of course and help Mango Mussolini this fall...disgusting is one word for this all right...



...and Thom Hartmann brings us the totally unsurprising news that “the land of the yellow rose” wants women who have had abortions to be subject to the death penalty...yeah, I’d say the mask is completely off (he also points out other “pro-life” insanity in Repug-run locations, and the info about doctors not wanting to complete their residencies at hospitals in red states is telling also...says absolutely nothing good about health care access for women in those places...more from Hartmann is here)...



...and on the subject of reproductive health care, Beau tells us about 3 Dem U.S. Senators trying to get rid of the utterly wretched Comstock Act at long freaking last, since, in addition to mifepristone, our Philistines in robes could be using this ridiculous law to try to ban mailing birth control also (more here)...



...and Farron Cousins discusses Dems continuing to overperform in elections leading up to this November...we still have lots to do, including canvassing, phone banking, sending out postcards to voters, and a long way to go, but we need to keep making a difference as our time and means allows in order to help Dems since the other side is either batsh*t crazy, totally beholden to corporatist monsters, or both...



...and I knew the story of how Michael Schwerner befriended Robert Reich when they were both younger, with Schwerner of course being one of the 3 voting rights organizers who was murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi 60 years ago, and how Reich has stood up to bullies in his own way as a tribute to his friend...I’ve more or less said that this blog, such as it is, is my attempt to do the same thing – something in me kind of snapped long ago over all the triumphalist bullsh*t from Commander Codpiece and “Deadeye Dick,” and we should have no illusions at all that you can draw a line right from that to the MAGA crowd as far as I’m concerned...



...and in a week where an acting icon left us yesterday, I wanted to make sure to also note the passing of Anouk Aimee, who was all over the place in movies mainly in the ‘50s and ‘60s...an appreciation follows...



...and apparently the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is waiting until the last proverbial minute to sneak a bunch of potentially catastrophic rulings (more of them anyway) under the door (here) before they leave town and head for vacations paid for by corporate high rollers (in at least some cases)...with that in mind, I couldn’t help but think of this newer tune (the title anyway, not the "monkey" part...more here).

Thursday Stuff

Beau gives us his take on the Louisiana idiocy about displaying the Ten Commandments in all classrooms in that state...I really don’t think it takes going out on much of a limb here to agree with Beau that this likely won’t survive a court challenge; we know what The Supremes have turned into, but I have a feeling that even they wouldn’t want to touch this...hopefully I’m right (and nice work by Beau to work in the tenets of The Satanic Temple, which actually bolsters my argument)...



Update 6/21/24: Gee, this didn't take long, did it?

...and I know I gave Beltway pundit Chris Cillizza a bit of a pass recently because of his “stop normalizing Trump” clip, but he kind of negates that a bit here as far as I’m concerned, and I’ll explain...he praises Maryland Dem governor Wes Moore for pardoning 175K folks apprehended on low-level pot busts, which, as Cillizza notes, makes sense partly because pot has been decriminalized apparently in that state anyway...not a thing wrong with that, but Cillizza casually says, “Oh if Trump wins, then Moore can position himself as a prez candidate for ‘28”... Cillizza casually assumes that we’ll still have elections in the catastrophic event that the Gropenfuhrer actually wins in November, which is typical of the naivete of the Beltway elite media class as far as I’m concerned...



...and on the subject of media knuckleheads, Sam and Emma (not them) inform us that Kathleen Parker (yes, her) recently called for Biden to drop Kamala Harris as his VP and instead choose (wait for it...) Hillary Freaking Clinton! Of cooouurrse! as Cenk Uygur might say. What could possibly go wrong, I wonder (and the clip features the aforementioned Wes Moore politely telling the utterly odious Brian Kilmeade of Fix Noise to more or less stuff it because Moore supports President Biden)...



Update 1: Another reason why HRC should go away is noted here; namely, she endorsed George “The Ethnic Benefit” Latimer in the Dem U.S. House NY-16 primary against Jamaal Bowman.

...and Project 2025 has been covered pretty well I believe in the lefty blogosphere (I think that’s what it’s still called), including by Leeja Miller, but John Oliver adds to that canon here, with all of the utterly batcrap implications, as Sam Seder might put it (and Don Jr.’s fiancée, in that clip with Russell Vought, looks pretty damn frightening all right)...note to self: do everything possible to avoid “Milf Manor”...NSFW/H...



...and Trae Crowder gives us his take on the declining mental state of Combover Caligula (also NSFW/H)...



Update 2: More here.

...and I don’t know who this “Heartland” commentator is, but he’s absolutely spot-on when it comes to that shameful proposal to put a Confederate monument at Arlington...more here (Bri-Fi voted No because he isn’t a total idiot, despite his other issues...this commentator is right on other matters too, including Flori-DUUUH!, the "land of the yellow rose" and Repug Party politicians overall)...



...and a true acting icon has left our midst as far as I’m concerned, and that would be Donald Sutherland...as one of his iconic characters from the clip below might put it, “finest kind”...



...and given that tomorrow is the summer solstice, I think we can break out this tune for the occasion.

Wednesday Stuff

Jon Stewart brings us more idiotic blatherings from Mango Mussolini about crime, which (to hear a Repug say it) will ALWAYS be up when Dems are in charge, even though statistically it’s down across the country...I honestly didn’t know about Andrew Clyde of Georgia and the gun stores he owns that have been involved in mass carnage events (typical for his wretched party)...



...and Farron Cousins explains that U.S. House Repugs apparently don’t know how the law works...I honestly didn’t know Biden claimed executive privilege on the Robert Hur recording, which, as Cousins notes, Biden is allowed to do, which makes the contempt vote against Garland (with this guy voting Yea also) even more ridiculous (and once more, to do something about Bri-Fi at last, click here)...



...and when it comes to Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, Chris Hayes points out a typically wacky scheme from #45 on tariffs, basically leading to a tax increase of about, oh, roughly 133 FREAKING PERCENT!!!...also, all G7 leaders are facing disapproval ratings because of inflation (again, coming out of the pandemic), though Biden’s -18 number is actually good by comparison...



...and I wasn’t necessarily looking for items related to Juneteenth, but perhaps these will suffice...Jesse Dollemore discusses a Rachel Maddow clip of Bronzer Beelzebub exploiting black voters, appearing at some venue supposedly for African Americans (though it’s filled with the white bread mayonnaise crowd) and then making a bee line to Charlie Kirk, who has made disparaging remarks about MLK, among his other offenses (and when it comes to politicians reaching out to African Americans, let’s damn well not forget this)...



...and Leeja Miller takes a typically clear-eyed IMO look at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion...good job to link DEI with Affirmative Action from the ‘60s and JFK and the EEOC, which of course is also the reason the wingnuts need to hate it I realize...Miller discusses the benefits of DEI as well as the pitfalls, and I don’t mean the unsurprising and utterly brainless wingnut snark...terrific point that when wingnuts complain that, supposedly, they’re being told to shut up, in fact, they’re only being asked to FREAKING LISTEN!!! (NSFW/H)...

...and growing up in Philly as I did, you of course have to have an allegiance to the hometown teams if you want to seriously call yourself a fan, and that usually means developing an animus towards opposing teams and players (in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, it was easy to feel that way about the Dallas Cowboys, for example...many still feel that way, but I honestly don’t anymore, though I want to see the Iggles beat them of course).

All of this boring pretext is to point out that an opposing team player had to be really good and play the game the right way to earn your respect. And I don’t think that standard was met any better than by Willie Mays of the New York (and later San Francisco) Giants, who just left us (he’s pictured above making his legendary catch in the 1954 World Series against Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians; when you analyze how hard the ball was hit, the direction it took and how Mays outran it, “The Catch” remains a truly remarkable feat even today).

(On Ken Burns’s great series “Baseball,” we learn that Mays had a signature move of sorts. When he was in the outfield and a ball was hit towards him, he would punch his glove with his fist to indicate that he had a bead on it and was going to catch it. He did that also on the ball hit by Wertz.)

I have no doubt that there will be commemorations involving the number 24 at parks all over Major League Baseball for the remainder of the year, as there should be. And I think this is an apropos selection for the occasion (which, as far as I’m concerned, should be a celebration of Mays’s life and baseball career more than anything else...great tune is by The Treniers).

Tuesday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell tells us about Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking out against the 1/6 insurrection around the time it took place, but apparently all if forgiven since he took a lunch meeting with the Gropenfuhrer...let’s see now...principles? Democratic ideals? Naaah...I guess I have to Google that because Cook has no clue otherwise (and that also goes for The Mittster, “Cancun” Cruz, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, and the other sorry life forms who rightly spoke out against Bronzer Beelzebub for the events of 1/6/21 but have since decided to cower in servile compliance instead)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us of Sinclair pushing more BS about Biden’s mental fitness based on some mess from the Murdoch Street Journal (yet another reason not to waste one second of your life with local TV news, which is indeed unfortunate)...I knew Sinclair was terrible, but I didn’t know exactly how bad until I saw that mashup...I didn’t know whether to laugh or throw up in my mouth (NSFW/H)...



...and Sam of The Majority Report discusses a similar moment in a video clip edited to make it appear the Biden was wandering off and giving a thumbs up to no one in particular, when he very definitely was congratulating some parachutists instead (GREAT job by Sam to point out that all Israel is going to do by conducting mass slaughter is to hasten the next generation of terrorists)...



Update: When the Washington Examiner is the voice of reason, you're officially scraping the bottom of the barrel (here).

...and Bernie Sanders and UAW President Shawn Fain discuss Biden’s economic accomplishments on behalf of communities in need of assistance (as opposed to Our Treasonous Convicted Felon of a *president, who did nothing when he had the chance)...



...and turning to matters involving our Brit cousins, Jonathan Pie tells us that the laughably-named “reform” party, including Nigel Farage, may be outpacing the Tories in the upcoming UK elections (more here – definitely NSFW/H)...



...and the temperature is going to climb in these parts and elsewhere, so please be careful in the heat (keep fully hydrated and all that).

Monday Stuff

John of The Damage Report tells us about 13 million Southern Baptists opposing IVF, even though Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence said he’d support it...suuuuure he would (proving that these folks are the most enlightened minds of the 12th century)...



...and concerning another issue that a politician should keep his/her/etc. nose out of (bad sentence I know), David Doel presents a clip of news host Kyle Clark commendably holding Richard Holtorf’s feet to the proverbial fire on abortion...see, Holtorf opposes it for everyone else but he supported one for his girlfriend (Holtorf is one of 5 running in the CO-04 Repug primary, including Bo-Bo Boebert...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and on the subject of journos standing up to Repug BS, Jesse Dollemore discusses Boris Sanchez of CNN fact-checking Wisconsin U.S. House Rep Tom Tiffany over the latter’s “Biden crime family” BS (here)... Tiffany is an idiot, but I don’t think he was unwavering in his nonsense; as Dollemore says, if Tiffany had been on Fix Noise, OAN or Newsmax, he would have sounded convincing enough, sadly...and as far as the utterly absurd allegations about the Bidens and Burisma (the Ukraine prosecutor was canned because he WASN’T GOING AFTER corruption, not because the Bidens supposedly called him off when he WENT AFTER corruption), I give you this and this (all of which makes me recall this post – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and let’s not forget that, while the “party of Lincoln” is trying to distract with “values voter” BS over IVF and abortion, they’re also trying to block millions of workers from getting a pay raise, as Farron Cousins explains (and for more on Biden and the economy, I give you this)...



...and Sam of The Majority Report discusses coming up with their own flag inspired (if that’s the word) by Martha-Ann Alito (and as usual, Rashida Tlaib is spot-on, and nice job by Sam to clarify exactly what Harlan Crow is buying for Almost Silent Clarence Thomas...and yes, I’m also pissed at Schumer and Dick Durbin for not putting up a fight on Thomas and Alito, primarily)...



...and RIP Mark James, who wrote this hit for "The King" (and performed by Dwight Yoakam also).