Friday Stuff

What's up first is a clip from JT Cestkowski of Status Coup News...it appears that the Charleston Post and Courier is reporting that a young woman who was underage at the time apparently has a corroborating witness to her story of alleged sexual abuse/assault from the Gropenfuhrer...correct to note that a local newspaper is doing the fine work here that our bought-and-paid-for corporate media should ALSO be doing (looks like the Epstein horror show was going on near Hilton Head, which is how South Carolina ended up in this godawful mix)...also appears that summaries of the accuser’s testimony were released by the DOJ, but they were heavily redacted of course (and not the so-called “302 summaries” from the FBI/DOJ)...bottom line is that there are notes of more interactions between #47 and this young woman (an underage girl at the time) that should be made public at a minimum, possibly leading to further legal action (NSFW/H)...



...and San Seder of The Majority Report speaks with Iddo Elam, contributor to a Hebrew news site in Tel Aviv I believe...Israel is now occupying southern Lebanon as noted in the clip, and of course, since we’re talking about the IDF, that means there’s a denial of aid to folks getting attacked...Sam asks where the Israeli public lines up on this, and it sounds like they were pretty on-board with the war in the beginning though not quite as much now, with some protests across the country (along with air raid sirens because the “iron dome” isn’t impenetrable of course, and I’m not surprised to hear that “Bibi” is censoring reporting of missiles getting through and causing damage to people and property)...didn’t know that many Israelis have bomb shelters, but that figures I suppose...probably difficult in that area of the world to parse the conflicts in the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, though all three to one degree or another are at least in part a product of Israel’s intransigence IMO (sounds like Iran is a more accepted conflict in terms of Israeli public approval than Lebanon)...



...and Tennessee Brando informs us that “Couch Boy” is in Hungary to try and prop up Viktor Orban as his boss falls apart (#47 of course - more here)...I definitely agree with Brando that Vance could potentially be worse than Cantaloupe Capone because Vance is truly beholden to the elites who have put him where he is, notably Peter Thiel, The Heritage Foundation and the other monsters behind Project 2025, whereas #47 feels loyalty towards absolutely no one, which, given the utterly crazed, loathsome state of our politics overall, might actually be preferable (the latter I mean, notwithstanding the horrible geopolitical chaos unfolding, which Vance would also be leading)...I can easily picture Vance supercharging efforts to criminalize women seeking reproductive health services as well as LGBTQ individuals of course along with the poor and minorities merely for existing (and doing everything we can imagine to clamp down on any forms of protest at all), only with Vance being more methodical about it than his boss who focuses on issues like a gnat on meth...and yeah, Mr. “Hillbilly Elegy” is indeed threatening to use nukes on Iran, and I firmly believe he would have done that by now if he had already parked his butt behind the Resolute Desk...and I think Brando is spot-on to say that Vance will try to flip the script on his boss in a heartbeat...and I never imagined The Swanson TV Dinner Heir as a Repug *preznit nominee, but in a “through the looking glass” way, I can envision it, sadly (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I know this is a long-ass description of the next clip, but I believe it matters...Liz Scheltens of More Perfect Union tells us what those affected don’t want you to know about a wealth tax, focused on the movement to tax stinkin’ billionaires in California, including Sergey ($245 bil) Brin of Google...looks like CA is proposing a one-time 5% tax on their worldwide assets of about $100 billion or more as we learn in the clip...it’s pretty damn plain that Gavin Newsom has his eye on “the big chair” in Washington, and that’s fine (hard to be worse than what we have now), but to be honest, I think he looks weak on this issue as well as LGBTQ rights (just look who his funders are I guess, though at the end of the clip we learn that Newsom is open to the idea of a federal wealth tax)...and I think taxing millionaires in MA by 4% so kids can have two free meals at school (helping parents with food costs and kids with damn near everything else) is a good trade (also including transportation costs)...pretty funny to me that, as opposed to the rich leaving “Tax-a-chusetts” in response to the millionaires tax, the number of ultra-wealthy people grew by 40 percent...so OF COURSE Fix Noise is leading the charge against trying to replicate this in CA, but oh, that trash network is big into “family values,” right? GMAFB!...as we learn, the CA initiative would tax wealth, not income, and it would apply to a smaller group of folks...yep, it definitely tracks that wealth inequality has worsened, to put it mildly, over the last 50 years...also, we’re reminded of the “Big, Beautiful Clusterf*ck” directing billions from Medicaid (patients, hospitals, etc.) to billionaires (and I remember Bri-Fi in PA-01 swearing up and down that Medicaid wouldn’t be touched by that awful giveaway of a bill...he’s either a liar or an idiot, or both)...according to what one health care provider in CA tells us, keeping this awful status quo in place would turn health care into what we experienced during the worst of COVID, but this time it would be permanent...Dave Regan, the president of the SEIU, is interviewed...I know this is a broken record, but I need to keep saying that it used to be illegal for CEOs and people running companies to hold stock shares as part of their compensation, but that changed because of The Sainted Ronnie R, which has a lot to do with the explosion of billionaires (and subsequent decrease in tax payments by these folks)...obviously, I think these billionaire crybabies need to “grow a pair,” especially since we’re talking about a FREAKING ONE-TIME ONLY TAX...I keep hearing about how awful the homeless problem is in San Francisco, for example; well, if you REALLY WANT TO FIX IT, then you need targeted funding from something like this to promote “housing first” or a model of some type to get people into shelter, since they really can’t do much of anything else with their lives without it...and kudos to Jensen Huang of NVIDIA for standing out the right way here...



...and Stephen Colbert on The Late Show gives us his take on our two-week cease fire with Iran, though in that area of the world, it’s hard to tell whether or not the bombing will ever truly stop (I wish it would, but I know better, especially since our “ally” Bibi is also bombing Lebanon as noted...are we ever going to get to the point where we just say that Netanyahu is as freaking nuts as Combover Caligula??!!)...oh, and our alleged geopolitical geniuses have now given Iran yet another victory in that that nation can say, “we’re not reopening the damn Strait of Hormuz unless the bombing in Lebanon stops”...is it just me, or does it look like Iran has gamed out every possible scenario under which they can come out on top in this insane conflict? And yeah, we get Stephen’s take on the Orban/Vance “bromance” as alluded to previously...



...and yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the death of folksinger Phil Ochs, who took his own life by hanging; he had suffered from bipolar disorder and alcoholism...we all need help from time to time, so please reach out if dealing with everything is too overwhelming, especially now.