Friday Stuff

I realize that the “Big Beautiful Gutting Of Our Government Services And Our Economy” will soon be in the grubby, ketchup-stained hands of Our Ochre Abomination, but I’m going to keep including clips on how ruinous it truly is...this clip form More Perfect Union tells us How “BBB” Transfers Trillions From Workers To Wall Street...the rate of CEO-to-worker pay has absolutely gone bonkers, starting around year 2000 or so...and yes, this is another horror story about how stock buybacks used to be illegal, but The Sainted Ronnie R just smiled and said, “Oh, it’s ‘Morning In America,’ so everything is fine,” and it magically became legal, and of course, this ruinous piece of garbage legislation is going to supercharge all of this mess (and I’d actually forgotten about the role the 2017 Tax Scam from Cantaloupe Capone has played in all of this by slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent)...video takes a look at Lowe’s, but to be fair, what that company has done has pretty much been replicated across a vast array of other industries...and I have to admit that I didn’t have “Little Marco Rubio Trying To Control Stock Buybacks” on my Bingo card – of course, he immediately fell back into line when the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch got their collective shorts in a knot (and who else but “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey shows up to shill for the one percent, amirite?)...and yeah, that guy with the “These Colors Don’t Run” shirt sure is proud of himself for not voting last year – about the kind of political engagement you’d expect that has led to our current calamity...



...and this clip form Robert Reich and More Perfect Union features former Biden FTC head Lina Khan telling us How Monopolies Steal Your Freedom...terrific analysis of what monopolies do to the industries they take over and how that affects us as consumers, including depressing wages, along with ridiculous non-compete clauses for all kinds of industries to prevent workers from getting better jobs...and no, you can’t just say “oh, that’s just capitalism, you pointy-headed lib”...this is predatory, rapacious greed, pure and simple, which (and I don’t mean to shock anybody) has NOT ONE DAMN THING TO DO with pure market competition...



...and Sam and the crew of The Majority Report bring us this item about Dem U.S. House Rep Jim McGovern pushing back on some U.S. House Repug named Brett Guthrie of Kentucky (of course); Guthrie apparently thinks his constituents on Medicaid are all freeloaders (and once again, I give you this from the Kaiser Family Foundation which explains that work requirements will drive people off Medicaid...18K people in Arkansas lost coverage without increasing employment due to work requirements...as Sam says, the overwhelming number of people on Medicaid ALREADY ARE EMPLOYED!)...



...and I realize that it’s hard to find humor at the moment, but I think this is apropos from Mr. Newberger...sometimes the only way we have to fight these cretins is to heap ridicule upon them (and a related item is here)...



...and as long as we’re talking about Flori-DUUH!, I give you this clip from Tennessee Brando timed for the release of the concentration camp in the Everglades, with Ron #DeathSantis starting a question with a lie about Zohran Mamdani in New York, accusing him of being a “communist” (please)...and of course, Our Ochre Abomination takes that softball and does what he always does, and that’s add lies and propaganda on top of that...and I think Brando is absolutely right; the racism and islamophobia aimed at Mamdani is going to be so far off the charts that it will likely be impossible to keep track of all of it...(NSFW/H)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" from 7/4/19: “Why America Is Just OK” from the New York Times...kind of an interesting curio given all of the MAGA insanity currently running amok, but if nothing else, this is an important reminder of what this country still is (despite Repug Party efforts doing their worst) and how far we still have to go...

...and part of me wants to fly an upside-down flag in front of Le Manse Doomsy, but I reconsidered and will present the following tunes for the holiday instead.