Thursday Stuff

Apparently that death eater in Kentucky, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, is opposing the stance of RFK Jr. (Trumps HHS nominee) to revoke approval for the polio vaccine (here); once again, a conservative only cares about an issue because it affects them personally...yeah, McConnell sure cares about the well being of young kids among others (snark), which is why he rejected additional child care funding in Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill as noted here and here...you’ll be forgiven if you’ve forgotten about BBB since our corporate media gave it the memory hole treatment and the utterly useless losers at the @DNC didn’t bother to remind anyone about it during the election...this is a surprisingly lucid commentary IMO from TYT without Cenk losing his mind about “corporate Democrats” to the point where it utterly biases anything else he has to say (John I. and Jayar Jackson have good observations also)...



Update: And I guess we can look forward to more of this, unfortunately.

...and speaking of the “party of Lincoln” opposing measures to protect the health of this country, Farron Cousins answers some questions about Repugs wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid (more here)...and no, as Cousins says, that doesn’t mean more $$ in your paycheck, you numbskull (not referring to Cousins of course)...I know I’ve harped on this incessantly, and apologies for that, but if we had AN ACTUAL FUNCTIONING DEMOCRATIC PARTY THAT COULD COMMUNICATE POLICY TO VOTERS INSTEAD OF JUST SHAKING THEM DOWN FOR DOUGH, then the message would be communicated that YES, THE DEMS ARE THE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTY THAT WILL ACTUALLY LOOK OUT FOR YOU ON THIS ISSUE AND MANY OTHERS (sorry for the “all caps,” but I think it’s warranted)...



...and speaking of the incoming bunch of grifters and frauds, we’re reminded that the U.S. House report on the quite probably illegal (alleged!) escapades of One-Time AG Nominee Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz was just released, and it reeks to high heaven probably worse than anyone can imagine (the fact that he wasn’t charged in Flori-DUUH! is a testimony for yours truly as to how utterly corrupt that state is...NSFW/H – more here)...

I need y'all to listen to this. This is who Trump picked to be the top law and order cop in the United States — which begs the question: What have we become as a nation that we tolerate this shit? What the fuck have we become? 😳👇 pic.twitter.com/FP3SAX5J7C

— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) December 24, 2024

...and Belle gives us some background on Our Demented Toddler-In-Chief’s railing against Panama, claiming that he wants the U.S. to take back the Canal...great context on how little the U.S. pays to ship goods through the Canal (and maybe we should give this guy some credit for negotiating that way back during his presidency), as well as the good points about how our military intervention in central America including the Canal region has contributed to the refugees approaching our southern border who #45/47 wants to imprison...



...and Jesse Dollemore lets us know that firefighters are finding out that they should have supported Harris/Walz instead of refusing to endorse, which was basically good news for Bronzer Beelzebub - what's done is done for now, though...



...and with this tune, I ring down the curtain on the seasonal selections for another year – hope your holiday celebrations are all you ask for.

Merry Christmas 2024

I may include this clip from The Lincoln Project every Christmas; a terrific timeless message (first added it in 2021, and as far as I'm concerned, it has never been more true than it is at this moment)...



...and once more, I give you the holiday light show that I first included here on 12/23/10...



...and this tells us about a successful Toys for Tots campaign this year (sponsored by the U.S. Marine Corps) in Idaho...



...and here are some scenes from a Christmas village in Finland near the Arctic Circle...



...and all the best of the season from me, Nat and the gang (the "festival of lights" came really late this year, but if you observe, I hope it's enjoyable also).

Tuesday Stuff

This clip from More Perfect Union tells us about Amazon workers trying to organize and shutting down a warehouse on Staten Island over the holidays...God almighty, imagine getting written up by management for water and bathroom breaks (and how typical for an oligarch like Jeff Bezos in this day and age to simply pretend a union doesn’t exist and arguing that in court); I’m as guilty as anyone else of ordering stuff from Amazon, especially this time of year, and if I can change my behavior in any way on that, I will...there’s an “Amazon Fresh” store (which I guess is groceries mainly) down the street from Le Manse Doomsy, so I‘ll make a point of avoiding that at a minimum...



...and this Rebel HQ clip brings us Repug U.S. House Rep Tim Burchett (who infamously told us that his father once said that we can’t do anything about gun violence, so Burchett decided to wash his hands of the problem as noted here) trying to gin up some alleged controversy about illegal immigrants getting counted in “Democrat” states (and once again, “Democrat” is always a noun, not an adjective), leading to greater electoral representation somehow – fortunately, Dem Rep Jasmine Crockett drops a few truth bombs, as it were, on how Texas uses an increase in minority populations (maybe the majority now, actually) to somehow justify increased funding for services in white Republican districts in that wretched state (and by the way, given what illegal immigrants contribute to our economy, I don’t have an issue with counting them in the census)...and I’m not up on anything having to do with Caitlin Clark or women’s basketball players; nothing against them, I hasten to add, but I’m just preoccupied with other stuff, that’s all (Jackson White provides commentary)...



...and leave it to The Daily Show to put the right "2024" spin on this holiday season...



...and ho, ho, ho – it looks like a certain white bearded individual with a red suit is looking to “get his freak on” before he does the whole thing with the sleigh and reindeer and dropping off gifts for the kids and everyone else 😉...



...and we only have a handful of seasonal selections left, but I think these deserve to be included also.

Monday Stuff

I’m going back to the prior election (painful as that is I know) to bring back this reminder about all of the fundie nut jobs out there who cast their ballot for Bronzer Beelzebub and also did so in 2016 (Calvin University's Kristin Kobes Du Mez is interviewed on the subject..."oh yes, dear white father Trump, lead us around because we're too dumb to do it ourselves, and make sure you hate the same people we do, and protect our privilege"...)...



Update 12/24/24: And by the way, if anybody wonders why attendance at organized religious services is down, I would arge that garbage like this is part of the reason...one response is here.

...and David Pakman informs us that this may be the absolute worst “I told you so” moment for the MAGA numbskulls, who will likely STILL be too dumb to realize how badly they’ve gotten played...and just as a reminder, Social Security operates independently of the federal budget, so anybody who says that one contributes to the other is lying for sure (here), though Pakman is right that President Musk and the Repugs will do everything they can to try and slash it along with Medicare/Medicaid (and Aaron Rupar is indeed pretty knowledgeable on this subject)...



...and even though I suppose we’re done with the latest idiotic brinksmanship on the budget (at least for a little while), I just want to revisit this clip from Chris Hayes in which he commendably reminds us that President Elmo and Vice President Trump tried to cut about $190 million in funds to fight kids’ cancer so our poor, oppressed billionaires (snark) can have more stinking tax cuts...don’t think for a minute that these guttural lowlifes will be shamed to the point where they won’t try something like this again...

Chris Hayes: “President-elect Musk, the richest man in the world, worth 250 billion dollars, took 150 million dollars from kids with cancer.” Pure. Fucking. Evil. No wonder the trumps love Elon so much. They like to steal money from kids with cancer too.pic.twitter.com/JHMuGrUFlW

— 😱 Scary Larry 😱 🇺🇦✊🏻🇺🇸🗽 (@aintscarylarry) December 21, 2024

...and I don’t know who this guy is in this very NSFW/H clip, but I’ve been waiting for someone to go after Dem turncoat Lindy Li after her “stench of loser” remark about Democrats as well as her apparent endorsement of Pete Hegseth for Trump Secretary of Defense, calling him “a pretty good guy” as noted here, notwithstanding, y’know, the alcoholism and apparent abuse of women (here), as well as the fact that I’m sure Hegseth doesn’t know a damn thing about overseeing a federal agency in an administrative capacity.

(Also, I know I’ve taken shots at the @DNC and will continue to do so because of their utter strategic negligence in the just-ended campaign, but apparently, Li was part of what passed for a brain trust in that organization and seems to show no remorse whatsoever for her failed electoral performance, which isn’t surprising...rats fleeing a sinking ship and all that.)...

Lindy li you’re a Liar & a Clout chaser @lindyli pic.twitter.com/3HKuLhEMYJ

— 2RawTooReal (@2RawTooReal) December 21, 2024

Update: And by the way, @DNC - every damn word of this!...want to know why turnout was depressed in the last election?

Upddate 1/14/25: “I’ll take ‘Developments That Could Have Been Foreseen By Just About Everyone On Earth’ for $100, Alex” (here – and yeah, I know he’s dead).

...and I don’t know about you, but I feel like I need all of these holiday selections that I can find after some of these videos in order to keep what’s left of my sanity, especially since we’re coming into the home stretch.

Sunday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us about CREW filing a complaint against “Curtsy Kyrsten” for spending in typical lavish fashion for herself on trips using campaign funds (apparently), which is an issue in part since she really didn’t campaign for her seat so she really doesn’t have an excuse to have the dough in the first place; even for Sinema, these charges are utterly disgusting as Jesse says and she should go to jail...more on Sinema and “President” Manchin “doing the deed” on Biden’s NLRB nominee is here (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Belle (I guess that’s what she refers to herself as now – no issue on my end) tells us about the Gropenfuhrer actually being correct about getting rid of the damn debt ceiling...of course, we’re talking about a human being whose brain operates like a gnat on meth and I’m sure he’s already forgotten about this (#45/47 of course)...she’s right about the debt as a percentage of GDP and how that just about always goes up under Repug presidents and comes down when Dems occupy An Oval Office...by the way, we used to have something called the “Gephardt Rule” (named after this guy) which automatically raised the debt ceiling when the federal budget passed, but House Repugs got rid of it a few years ago (Dems in the House brought it back in 2019 with some modifications)...

via GIPHY

...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about Flori-DUUH! guv Ron #DeathSantis putting the kibosh, as it were, on a bill in his state to join a national compact which would allocate electoral votes based on the popular vote total (and as always, there’s a tweet involved from you-know-who, which actually made sense in terms of getting rid of the damn electoral college, but again, we’re talking about a guy whose brain is basically pudding at this point...I was thinking of #45/47, but maybe that applies to #DeathSantis too...and I refer to him that way because of his efforts to cover up COVID fatalities in the “sunshine state”)...



...and I know I’m a little behind the news cycle on this one, but I didn’t want to forget it; Seth Meyers gives us his take on DRONES!!! (more here)...I know it’s WAAAY too much to ask of our fourth estate to spend a fraction of their time obsessing about DRONES!! instead on the policy ramifications of what our incoming group of billionaire ne’er-do-wells plan to do to this country...and yeah, MAGA-loving Jeff Van Drew is acting like the utter man-baby he truly is on this issue (and OF COURSE he runs to Fix Noise with his idiotic theory about Iran sending drones I suppose to KILL US ALL!!! OMIGOD!!!)...



...and I've got a few more seasonal selections to go as we get ready for the big day.