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.

Thursday Stuff (updates)

(By the way, I know the House is inching closer to a final vote on the Big Beautiful Bullsh*t Bill , but I’m going to keep putting up videos attacking it for a little while longer.)

David Pakman gives us the clip of Repug Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska giving her “death stare” to reporter Ryan Nobles who had the affrontery (as far as Murkowski is concerned) to call her out over her sellout vote on Trump’s trash bill to reward his campaign contributors and stick the rest of us with the residue...I wonder if Murkowski will be so brave to Rand (Fake Ophthalmologist) Paul who said the words in the first place?...



Update 7/5/25: Speaking of Alaska, I think this pretty much says it.

...and AOC cuts right to the heart of the matter on the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck...”you should be ashamed”...and yes, she’s right, but the other side has proved that they’re not capable of shame, so...and I knew the whole “no taxes on tips” thing was a joke, and as far as I’m concerned, the cap of $25 grand is more or less throwing money at you when the john calls the cab and tells you to get the hell out...



...and Kyle Kulinski goes down the whole laundry list of cuts from DOGE as well as everything that will be destroyed because of the “BBB,” including scientific and medical research...and oh yeah, as a result of Our Ochre Abomination’s immigration roundup of college students in particular, we will indeed suffer a “brain drain” in this country...of course, that doesn’t diminish the cruelty inflicted on other workers who pretty much make our economy run on a daily basis (NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins informs us that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Giveaway To The Rich” will kill 51K people a year; health experts signed onto a letter earlier this year saying as much...with the focus on gutting Medicaid, it’s easy to look past all of the other myriad monstrous ways this disgusting bill could ruin our lives, such as heating and cooling assistance as Cousins points out...



...oh, and in the likely event that this horrible legislative monstrosity passes and gets signed into law, what is next on the checklist for Dementia Donnie? Why, rounding up and deporting U.S. citizens, which #47 says is his “next job”...more lies and BS from this delusional narcissist and clueless egomaniac (Jesse Dollemore tells us about it)...



...and I guess, for better or worse, I had this newer tune in mind when I read about this (there were, and are, worse evangelical characters than Swaggart IMO, but as far as I’m concerned, he was emblematic of the moral rot of that band of zealots all the same).

Update: To be fair, here is Bri-Fi’s statement in opposition to the “Big, Beautiful Generational Ripoff” (Thomas Massie was the other No vote on the "R" side...more here).

So Bri-Fi says he opposed Medicaid cuts in the Senate version of the bill, and that’s why he voted No on the final version. My question is this; how the hell else did he think making that beyond wretched 2017 giveaway permanent would be paid for (an earlier vote in favor is here)?

If Bri-Fi cared so much about Medicaid cuts, then why was he NOT one of the 12 U.S. House Reps who opposed them in this letter to House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson? Oh, riiight...Bri-Fi can’t go against his leadership, or else MAGA will primary him – got it.

If Bri-Fi seriously thought that gutting the social safety net was NOT how this garbage bill would be paid for, then he truly is an idiot and/or a liar. I mean, the “Freedumb” Caucus is nuts of course, but at least they’re showing their craziness and deceit out in the open.

Oh, and by the way, the carnage has already begun.

Update 7/4/25: Rep. Robert Bresnahan (PA) should go to jail for insider trading for this.

Wednesday Stuff

John and Jayar of The Damage Report inform us of Dementia Donnie blowing off the funeral for Dem state rep Melissa Hortman and her husband...I realize it isn’t exactly front-page news to point out that Cantaloupe Capone is a heartless, narcissistic monster, but part of the reason I’m mentioning this is because everything pertaining to this Vance Boelter person (the alleged assassin) has somehow fallen off the media radar, as nearly as I can tell anyway, particularly given the fact that this guy had a weapons cache and a bunch of other Dems he was apparently targeting...gee, you’d think that would be worth a few more stories at least, along with the possibility that he might have had an accomplice or two...??...with all of his myriad outrages, I’d forgotten that Our Ochre Abomination didn’t even issue a statement in response to the shootings of the Hortmans, along with John Hoffman and his wife (and apparently Boelter may or may not be on a suicide watch as noted here – don’t look for a speck of sympathy from me)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us that almost a quarter of those polled according to yougov think we’re already in a dictatorship...peachy...Thom says that if you intimidate a couple of people in certain jobs/industries, you can intimidate other people in those jobs/industries, and he may be right...and once again, it’s a comment to how dark a place we’re at when someone like Thomas Massie stands as a voice of reason, but that’s the case for now, so OF COURSE a Super PAC now arises to take down Massie in Kentucky, and Thom is correct about Chris LaCivita and the Swift Boat Lying Liars from about 20 years ago (more on the War Powers resolution with Ro Khanna and Massie is here)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us how underwater Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is when it comes to his approval rating, which is only bound to get worse after the passage of his Big Beautiful Obscenity, with 53% of those polled saying we’re going in the wrong direction; I know the BBB number was bad, but only 35 percent approval? Yeah, that’s a pretty subterranean polling number...



...and Sam and the crew from The Majority Report tell us that it looks like Dem U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff recently tried to get Repug Doug Collins to explain exactly what is proposed to be cut by $17-18 billion in the VA budget, though it appears to be a reduction in headcount, which will no doubt mean a reduction in services for our veterans (typical Trumpist move to stonewall anyone conducting oversight)...figures for this bunch...and apparently it was too much trouble for Collins to properly prepare for the hearing even though all he had to go over was a 26-slide Power Point presentation...”the dog ate my homework” indeed from Collins...



...and I think this clip puts Trumpist spokes-liar Karoline Leavitt in the context she truly deserves...



...and here is another seasonal tune.



Update 1: Damn straight (about the "Big Beautiful Atrocity")...

Update 2: Don't give Bri-Fi a moment's peace over this...

Tuesday Stuff

(One more time, click here to contact your U.S. senator and tell them to vote NO on the "Big Beautiful Atrocity"...more here).

Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ brings us more voter remorse over #47, including the woman laughing about the “Trump mobile” scam (ummm...I wouldn’t be laughing if I knew how hard I got utterly played, but that’s just me I guess)... I have to admit that I get a little fed up with how Joe Rogan is taken seriously as some kind of a political prognosticator, but I guess that’s just the reality...and Thomas Massie definitely isn’t a “profile in courage” by any means, but at least he can “read the room”...and yeah, the “four dipsh*ts of the apocalypse” are indeed saddling up (NSFW/H)...



...and Belle of the Ranch gives us more background on Combover Caligula’s Medicaid cuts, and she commendably blows up some of the rhetoric on BBB...the CBO has released their numbers, cutting Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA by $1.1, mostly out of Medicaid...also, 11.8 million people losing health insurance by 2034, all for massive tax cuts for the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch...also, $325 million to create an additional bureaucracy and paperwork hurdles to require constant tracking of people receiving Medicaid, and possibly Medicare too to make sure they remain eligible...and yes, the Senate version is actually worse when it comes to work requirements and proof of attending school...and of course, the Repugs are saying this will only affect undocumented workers, which (and you’d better fetch the fainting couch when you hear this) is a BIG FAT LIE; “non-verified citizenship” only affects 1 in 10 of those who will be kicked off Medicaid...I have a feeling that passing this bill will truly be the reckoning for the utter stoo-pidity of anybody who voted for Cantaloupe Capone, as well as the rest of us who will pretty much be collateral damage...and oh yes, it’s time to dump on LGBTQ individuals again; for the umpteenth freaking time, KIDS AREN’T GETTING BOTTOM SURGERY! THEY’RE GETTING REVERSIBLE PUBERTY BLOCKERS, WHICH MOST OF THEM WANT BECAUSE THEY’RE SERIOUS ABOUT TRANSITIONING!!! And as Belle says, we’re only talking about 13K surgeries per year in a country with about 330 million people...and by the way, every freaking bit of this mess was completely predictable, and individuals like yours truly, filthy unkempt liberal blogger that I am, were yelling as loud as we could to warn everybody...



...and Tennessee Brando brings us Repug U.S. Senator form North Carolina Thom Tills going scorched earth on BBB...of course, Tillis is on his way out the door, but credit where it’s due I guess...and oh yeah, let’s pillory Obama again for saying “if you like your doctor, you can keep him,” which admittedly was a mistake, while also not counting the DAILY TORRENT OF LIES from the “party of Lincoln”...imperfect as the ACA was (and still is), it still covered millions who would have otherwise been left to fend for themselves...and with respect to Brando, work requirements in Medicaid would cause the largest increase in the number of people without health insurance; the Kaiser Family Foundation breaks that down here, so Tillis is wrong on that score...also with respect to Brando, Clinton, Obama and Dubya were right to ignore Our Treasonous Orange Egomaniac (NSFW/H also)...



Update 1: I suppose this was inevitable given the election results last year, but the fight was still worth it.

And by the way, don’t give “Fake Ophthalmologist” Rand Paul and “Disappointed” Collins any credit. Their opposition was political theater; the result was predetermined (and yeah, Lisa Murkowski sure reached for the "chicken switch" also...and even though he was a commendable No vote, now John Fetterman can begin his vacation down the shore).

Also, here’s a message for those clueless election losers at the @DNC...this is a golden opportunity to put into place your thus-far-nonexistent social media strategy. It shouldn’t be up to a British-sounding comedian to explain to this country how monumentally awful this legislative atrocity truly is.

Update 2: A LOT more like this (as far as I'm concerned, Warren should be the Dem Senate leader for real).

And now, for no particular reason, I’d like to step back and “go meta” a bit and discuss “how the sausage gets made” around here.

I happened to come across a couple of Rebel HQ clips in which they presented Marjorie Trailer Park Greene getting called out by Dem Rep Melanie Stansbury as well as another clip with another Repug numbskull named John McGuire getting the same commendable treatment from AOC. I actually tried to listen to Greene and her “Democrat colleague” this and “Democrat colleague” that, as well as this guy McGuire peddling his garbage in front of Dem governors J.B. Pritzker and Tim Walz. I actually stopped watching both clips after a few seconds, even though I’m sure Stansbury and AOC did indeed respond effectively. Here is why...Greene and McGuire proved that they are both stupendous liars, and even though I give Rebel HQ credit for putting up the clips with AOC and Stansbury, I refuse to give bandwidth to people who plainly are trying to cram as much disinformation as they can in a limited space (referring to Greene and McGuire of course). Given that they don’t know or don’t care about verifiable truth and reality, Greene and McGuire simply do not deserve to be taken seriously on any topic as far as I’m concerned (makes me recall this post).

(Of course, putting Greene in charge of ANYTHING, let alone a House subcommittee, is a great big middle-finger-raised-on-high from Not Your Father’s Republican Party aimed right at our democratic form of government, but that’s a whole other discussion I know.)

Now back to the videos...I suppose this item makes the following relevant again...



...and RIP Lalo Schifrin, who composed this memorable theme among many others...



...and this may be the longest “moving” song I’ve ever heard, but it’s kind of a badass tune IMO, notwithstanding “AI Melania” on guitar :-).

Monday Stuff

( know the Senate is trying to ram through that disgusting legislation – to contact your senator and tell them No, click here.)

Hunter Avallone of Occupy Democrats brings us the tale of the Norwegian tourist who was stopped at Newark Airport and sent home over an ant-Trump meme (oh, but DHS says that’s wrong as noted here)...and when you’ve lost a bulb as dim as Joe Rogan, I would definitely say that you’ve gone WAAAY too far...and of course, Pam “Blondi” figures into this mess somehow, because of course (and kudos to Dem U.S. House Rep Madeleine Dean for giving it right back to this clueless bimbo)...and Avallone is right; it makes you wonder who ICE is really looking out for if they’re preoccupied with trying to nail people who don’t genuflect properly before the altar of Cantaloupe Capone (and apologies for scaring anyone with that pic)...

via GIPHY

...and Farron Cousins tells us that the “Sunshine State” is proposing a new migrant detention center based in the Everglades, an “Alligator Alcatraz,” if you will, which of course would utterly destroy the ecosystem of that area (I mean, I realize it’s not as if any Repug actually cares about that I know), in addition to representing still more cruelty and barbarism from Our Ochre Abomination and the “party of Lincoln”; apparently the alleged genius who came up with this sadistic idea was Flori-DUUH! Attorney General James Uthmeier...(more here and here – also here and here...NSFW/H)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report let us know that, while they were on their way out the door to begin their vacations, our wretched SCOTUS under Hangin’ Judge JR allowed Mango Mussolini to determine whether or not birthright citizenship applies to residents born in this country to parents here temporarily or under protected status, which kind of flies in the face of...wait, let me think for a second...oh yeah, THE 14TH FREAKING AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION!! And for now, this garbage decision only applies to 28 states, but just wait until cases start popping up in other localities currently not affected that will enshrine this dictatorial insanity there also...one of John’s great points is that our joke of a SCOTUS isn’t even defending actual laws, but merely decrees from Bronzer Beelzebub which may or may not stand up in other courts, which is probably as pathetically servile as you can get...also, good for John for mentioning the INSANE inconsistency in this SCOTUS doing all it could to destroy Biden’s attempt to forgive student loan debt on the one hand, but on the other hand, giving Our Treasonous Orange Demagogue EVERYTHING he wants here, and in other decisions...



...and RIP former Dem U.S. House Rep Caroyln McCarthy, who got into politics when her husband was murdered and son critically injured by the Long Island subway gunman (here)... powerful testimony about her career to combat gun violence (she doesn’t mention fighting the NRA in this clip, though that definitely was part of her courageous profile)...



...and here’s a new hit tune that we can sing along to while our economy does the “big swirl in the hopper”...



...and I would say that it’s time for another seasonal selection.