Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Tuesday Stuff


(And in case anyone thinks this meme is an exaggeration, I offer this.)

Lawrence O’Donnell talks about Repug U.S. Senator “Disappointed” Susan Collins doing nothing in response to the recent ICE murder in her state (more here)...actually, she DID do something, but it was to green light ICE’s budget (casting the deciding vote) allowing for the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero to take place...oh, but Collins DID hold a hearing about increased security for SCOTUS justices (those testifying were Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett)...here’s a pro tip: with respect to Kagan, if you’re looking for ways to increase the safety of SCOTUS justices (and I don’t advocate violence or anything illegal), maybe you ought to consider NOT ISSUING DECISIONS THAT SCREW OVER THE MAJORITY OF THIS COUNTRY, OFTEN UNDER THE GUISE OF THE “SHADOW DOCKET” WHICH SHOULD ONLY BE USED WHEN A QUICK RULING IS NECESSARY!!!...and oh yeah, Bronzer Beelzebub told ICE to halt vehicle stops in an effort to try and get everyone to forget about the ICE Gestapo up to Election Day...typical...and oh yeah, once more, the excuse of a vehicle supposedly fleeing the scene is used as an excuse to commit murder, which makes it pretty damn clear that the Trump gang has no understanding of legal police procedure whatsoever...



...and Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh of “Demcoracy Now” tell us of Bronzer Beelzebub getting sued over a language change in the Endangered Species Act to now include extraction and drilling for oil in previously protected habitats...once more, heckuva job, all you numbskulls who voted for Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence because inflation had risen to the ungodly rate of 3 percent and you were afraid to cast your ballot for the scary DEI brown lady (snark mode off)...attorney Ben Levitan for Earth Justice is interviewed – sounds like, in true Trumpist fashion, none of this destruction constitutes “harm” somehow, as far as our ruling gaggle of bottom feeders is concerned...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us about How The 1% Won While We Lost Healthcare...we’re a year into the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck, and we now have data to prove how ruinous it is, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy...the richest 1% will get $117 billion in tax cuts, more than what the bottom 60% got, which was basically nothing anyway, while the law also had the largest cuts to federal health care funding in the history of this country ($1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act)...Medicaid and CHIP enrollment fell by 3.8 million...increase in ACA premiums caused 4.2 million to drop coverage entirely...8 million people lost health care coverage over the year from July ’25 to July ’26...by the way, “The Jungle” was written by Upton Sinclair (minor point, I know)...Thom also talks about how FoodNet, a collaborative program among the CDC, USDA, FDA, and 10 state health departments to track infections by eight known food pathogens, was gutted to now track only 2 of those pathogens...so sorry to hear about what happened to Thom’s niece...




...and this report from More Perfect Union lets us know Why Flori-DUUH! Doesn’t Care If You Live There Anymore (hosted by Natasha Del Toro)...this includes a profile of the inaptly-named Indian Creek, where the richest people in the country live (contrasted with folks including a business owner profiled who are just trying to survive at this point)...and yeah, the uber-wealthy include Bezos, Sergey Brin, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, and the usual corporate suspects who are driving out those who aren’t obscenely wealthy like they are...report focuses on COVID and the aftermath, in which the “have mores” (from California, New York and elsewhere) flocked to the Sunshine State and competed with housing supply against existing residents, to the point where the state has the least affordable housing in the country, and that goes for renters as well...and yeah, Lex Luthor Scott is making noise like he cares about this, but let me know if and when that concern turns into actual legislation/policy that makes a difference, OK?...54 percent of the population in the state is “house burdened,” meaning that 30 percent or more of their earnings go into paying for shelter...and forgive me if I don’t give a fig that the state’s GDP has gone from $1 trillion to $1.7 trillion if most of the people living there are left behind, also because of the state’s regressive damn tax structure...and oh yeah, Griffin is a big-time “rainmaker” for the Trump Party, which shouldn’t be surprising I know...and it’s actually written into the state’s constitution that a wealth tax can’t be passed? I knew Repug governance was awful, but that’s an almost subterranean level of evil...nice wrap-up with the “boat” metaphor, BTW...



...and Seth Meyers brings us “A Closer Look” on our *preznit getting the treatment he deserved from the crowd at the FIFA World Cup final game while his pre-emptive war in Iran falls apart and his speech full of election delusions gets universally panned...and as far as that pic of Trump with the G7 leaders is concerned, I KNOW there’s a photo of Dubya getting the similar treatment probably 20 years ago, FWIW...and I’m sure Spain thinks very highly of Don The Con also, though that didn’t bar him from appearing on stage with that country’s soccer team after they won (SMDH)...interesting montage of all the boos, I have to say (and props once again to Charles Barkley)...and it also looks like the Trump Curse (if you want to call it that) is getting to Maria Bartiromo, who looks like her human form is devolving more and more whenever I see her...



...and I now give you another seasonal selection.

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