Tuesday, October 06, 2026

Tuesday Stuff


Ali Velshi of MS NOW takes a look at the impact of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck on Arizona’s 6th U.S. congressional district, where the Dem candidate (and U.S. Marine vet) Joanne Mendoza is trying to unseat Trumper Juan Ciscomani...apparently the district is more than a quarter Latino in terms of population; looks like, based on the Repug and Dem candidate votes, it’s a pretty “purple” district (R for U.S. House and prez and D for U.S. Senate)...Ciscomani’s vote for that legislative atrocity is getting called out by Mendoza (interviewed by Velshi), which is as it should be, since the SNAP cuts are particularly ruinous in this district apparently...and I realize wingnuts like Ciscomani will be blaming Former President Biden for whatever they can for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer (and I'll have something related to SecDef Kegseth shortly)



...also, it seems that s*xual predator (and former Repug U.S. House Speaker) Dennis Hastert recently died...this TYT segment from awhile back includes a discussion of what likely were payments from Hastert to at least one victim...I get the point here that investigating what were likely hush money payments sounds a bit illogical, though I don't think those payments should have escaped scrutiny either (clip also includes John Iadarola, Ben Mankiewicz, and the beyond ridiculous Jimmy Dore...NSFW/H)...



...and Sam Seder of The Majority Report talks about a local news station in Iowa calmly taking apart the typical propaganda from the Gropenfuhrer on a proposed $10 billion steel plant in that state...”they’ve already started building” – maybe in the fever dreams of Dementia Donnie, but not so much in the real world...no permits issued, no plans for surrounding infrastructure that would be needed, etc....I also hadn’t realized that Janet Mills in Maine has not endorsed Troy Jackson in the latter’s U.S. Senate contest against “Disappointed” Susan Collins; kind of wondering why the hell not...also, speaking of Maine, I keep waiting for charges to be filed against Graham Platner for those allegedly awful actions that forced him to leave the race; if that happens, I’ll acknowledge it of course...



...oh, and speaking of SecDef Kegseth, it seems that he’s trying to institute an Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon, something else that has not a damn thing to do with helping our military escape the Iran quagmire created by this awful regime (Mr. Newberger gives that the treatment it deserves IMO here)...



...for another take on matters tied to spirituality a bit, however, I give you this from Rachel Maddow on why protest matters...Maddow discusses the cumulative impact from a mass movement even when those protesting may be impacted to varying degrees, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that ties into a faith tradition since that also has to do with belief and a lack of empirical evidence...I have to admit that I’m not familiar with the latest protests in Ireland, so I can’t comment on that...also didn’t know about the protest march against ICE in California; props to them for that, nor did I know about the upcoming anti-ICE march in Seattle led by Japanese Americans and their descendants who were victimized during World War II, as well as a similar protest outside Tucson, Arizona against opening another ICE concentration camp...additionally, there was an anti-ICE protest in Williston, Vermont led by clergy trying to shut down an ICE surveillance center...anti-ICE protests are ongoing in Alexandria, Louisiana also as we learn...props also to the Interfaith Alliance, trying to register people to vote on moral grounds...there is also resistance to the Trumpist jackbooted tactics in Utah, where Repug Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is getting pressured to turn over voting data to our criminal ruling cabal...there will be additional reminders here about the next “No Kings” protest on October 17th also FWIW...



...additionally, I should point out that yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Contra scandal, with Eugene Hasenfus getting shot down in a plane carrying military supplies for the Contras fighting an insurrection against the Nicaraguan government under the Sandinistas, which was in violation of U.S. law (doing my best here to make sure that that appalling episode under The Sainted Ronnie R doesn’t get the “memory hole” treatment)...makes me recall this tune.

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