Tuesday Stuff

I’m going to go meta again with some stuff...I’m going to try and open things up a little bit so not every post is full of “what ridiculous, idiotic and possibly illegal thing did our *preznit do over the last day or so” since even that stuff is part of his strategy to crowd out other more important IMO info in the news cycle (there is some Trump-related stuff in this post, but again, I’m trying to rein that in where I can)...also, posting isn’t going to be on a regular cycle, you might say, for a little while still.

And as part of “opening things up,” I give you Don Lemon discussing the Minnesota state GOP, which recently held a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin at their state convention in Duluth (yep, THAT Derek Chauvin)...but not to worry, because Baby Ben Shapiro jumped right into the fray to defend Chauvin (more than a bit of a “tell” that Shapiro says in essence that Chauvin’s conviction set back race relations due to the extent of property damage as a result of the protests against Chauvin, and I would SERIOUSLY doubt that dollar number anyway...this is a typical “law and order” wingnut argument, though, completely and utterly failing to recognize the human suffering of Floyd, his family and friends)...I honestly can’t think of a time when I’ve had an issue with Keith Ellison – he pretty much nails every issue he’s involved with as far as I’m concerned...also, I don’t know what it says about this country that some guttersnipe like Tony Hinchcliffe can be treated as an alleged comedian, but it can’t be anything good...NSFW/H...



...and keeping with legal stuff, Rachel Maddow informs us that the Gropenfuhrer is destroying the DOJ in court...we get an update on former border patrol officer Greg Bovino, who was relieved of his duties after he failed to deport a third of the population of this country, but not to worry again, because Bovino apparently is still able to jet to a white supremacist conference in Portugal...oh, and Bovino also apparently was trying to prosecute someone in Chicago who allegedly threatened him, but oopsie! – looks like we get still more legal nonsense from this regime, and the case collapsed...and apparently, the same thing happened to the case against the “Broadview Six” who protested at an Illinois ICE facility...nice work by the defense attorneys not just rolling along with the charges getting dropped and deciding to try and get to the bottom of this madness instead...not a good idea to try and hide prosecutorial misbehavior from a judge, you Trumpist legal nitwits...Maddow speaks with Chris Parente, a lawyer representing one of the Broadview Six defendants...



...and staying in that locality, Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with Dem nominee for the U.S. Senate from Illinois (and Lieutenant Governor) Juliana Stratton, who apparently would go after the SCOTUS (thank God!), to say nothing of trying to resurrect the John Lewis For The People Act...glad Cohen mentioned health care, since there has been roaring silence from the “D” team on that among other issues as nearly as I can tell (and of course, utterly forget about the “party of Lincoln”), and I have no doubt that Stratton would fight on that issue also – we definitely need to do battle once more for Medicare for All (I think she says a lot of good stuff here generally about a range of topics)...



...and Farron Cousins brings us the tale of HHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin trying to ban flights to sanctuary cities – this is still MORE illegality from this regime, since what Mullin is proposing is in direct violation of the Constitution as Cousins points out...also it would punish Dems, Repugs, businesses, individuals...and all just in time for the 250th and the World Cup...brilliant! (John Fetterman should feel really stoo-pid for voting to confirm this guy...also NSFW/H)...



...and I realize that The Onion News Network gets a little edgy at times, but given this, I think there’s a point to their humor here...



...and the weather is just too nice in these parts to not include a bit of an upbeat seasonal tune, so here goes.

Monday Stuff

OK, so House Repugs get a bill passed which basically is trying to “disappear” trans people by banning LGBTQ-plus clubs, as well as a knock-off of the “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” law in Flori-DUUUH!, and it also forces teachers to ‘out’ trans students to their parents, opening up this endangered group to possibly verbal and physical abuse (and kudos to Mike Figueredo for courageously telling his story)…”trans refugees” shouldn’t be a thing IMO, but it is in this country, to our shame…I’m sure you have an idea of where this is going, so I’ll just get there – EIGHT F*CKING U.S. HOUSE “DEMOCRATS” voted for this garbage bill along with every Republican – the 8 were Henry Cuellar, Donald Davis, Cleo Fields, Laura Gillen, Vicente Gonzales, Marcy Kaptur, Eugene Vindman (I’ll remember this the next time I get a text from his brother Alex), and the utterly wretched Marie Gluesenkamp Perez…oh, and Gluesenkamp Perez, Gillen and Vindman are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus (truly, you can’t make up this stuff)…fortunately, Dem Rep Mark Takano actually knows what’s going on with this issue…and yeah, I’d like to tell Gluesenkamp Perez what she can do with her “banana bill”; looks like somebody is trying REALLY HARD to appeal to moderates with something of ultimately no consequence while those unicorn “moderates” decide to vote for the Repugs anyway (and as Figueredo points out, Gluesenkamp Perez is even wrong on the state reg she’s criticizing…so many layers of “DUUUH!” here) – I know we’ll need all the “D” seats we can get this fall, but it would almost be worth it if she lost…good for Figueredo to put up that graphic at 10:52 with the phone numbers to call these 8 frauds and tell them to leave Team “D” and join the intolerant fascists who they seem to align with…really deflating to see how odious the influence of AIPAC is on our side with NOT NEARLY ENOUGH politicians opposing those bloodthirsty warmongers…I would add to Figueredo’s observation about purging these centrist Dem election pretenders by saying that progressives are largely the ones going out and doing the “nuts and bolts” stuff to try and win elections (phone banking, texting, canvassing, newspaper Op-Eds, putting up signage, getting folks to the polls), so we should be listened to for that reason if for no other…the lady in that TikTok video also made a lot of sense IMO (NSFW/H)...



...and Belle of the Ranch gives us more on the Gropenfuhrer abandoning promises to our vets...didn’t know about the E.O. on 5/9/25 designating a “center for warrior independence” on the west LA VA campus where homeless vets in that area and around the nation can received the care and benefits that they’re entitled to...so the VA Secretary was supposed to present an “action plan” to Dear Orange Leader within 120 days for a facility to house up to 6K homeless vets to be built by 1/1/28...but oopsie! – there’s exactly nada in the budget for that...oh, and everyone associated with this project had to sign NDAs, just like how an honest and above-board organization is supposed to operate (#joke)...I agree that housing 6K vets in one LA location isn’t such a good idea (should be spread out across the country to make it easier to provide care and assistance); makes it reek of nothing but a PR stunt even more...



...and Corrine Straight of Really American tells us about Deidre Henderson, who is the lieutenant governor of Utah standing up for election security and debunking the nonsense from Great Orange Satan and his flatulent biped followers...that state’s Repug legislature was able to get some “opt in” measure passed for mail-in ballot voting starting in ’29, which creates another obstacle (almost shocking to hear common sense from a Repug, but credit where it’s due, and kudos to Henderson for doing all of the hard work to find out that 27 people out of 2 million in her state were confirmed non-citizens registered to vote...more on these Restoration of America cretins is here)...



...and Jen Psaki gives us a bit of an overview of the shady deals from Cantaloupe Capone (are there any other kind with him?) just in time for the 250th anniversary, as reported by the NYT, including of course the now-$13 million scam at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool...one firm was involved in the 1/6 insurrection, and another has to do with that stinking ballroom...and oh yeah, there’s also the matter of promoting a video game company behind this beyond-ridiculous steel cage fight on the White House lawn on 6/14 (which is also Flag Day of course)...also, this “250 pardons” scheme from Pumpkin Pol Pot has BAD, TERRIBLE IDEA written all over it (and all to shake down still more suckers)...Psaki speaks with Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders...and of course, it’s not surprising that this regime of guttural lowlifes (at least the DOJ in this case) are pursuing charges against E. Jean Carroll, who apparently is at fault for having the tremendous courage to fight back against Our Sexual Predator-In-Chief (removing my tongue from my cheek on that one)...



...and speaking of the “American State Fair,” or whatever that’s supposed to be, Mr. Newberger gives us a bit of a preview...



...and I liked this newer tune as a bit of a “mellow Monday” selection – no argument with the title whatsoever.

Friday Stuff

This New York Times report tells us how a SCOTUS ruling could separate this Haitian nurse and mother (Harlaine Dominique) from her son and her mother...the report lets us know that tens of thousands of Haitians work in health care, and while we rightly praised them during COVID, now they’re treated as persona non grata by way too damn many people, including our ruling regime...Dominique has temporary protected status, but our bought and paid for SCOTUS could bring the TPS program to an end at the urging of Combover Caligula and the fascists running our government including Baby Goebbels (and Dog Killer Noem for a time also)...and we also learn that the Trump regime restricted Medicare access to TPS holders, not allowing Dominique’s mother to potentially get the kidney transplant she needs; hard to catalogue all of the barbarities of the connivers and grifters in our executive branch, but that’s another one...



...and in this clip from The Damage Report, we find out more on redistricting efforts to remove African American representation and how those efforts are failing in the courts (for now, and hopefully for good) in Alabama and South Carolina...looks like some Repugs in “the palmetto state” came down with an attack of sanity and joined the Dems to oppose redistricting because they saw that their seats could be imperiled...Tennessee and Louisiana also eliminated black districts, with potentially Georgia and Mississippi trying to do that as well...on top of that, it looks like Flori-DUUUH will join in on this, even though they have a state law prohibiting gerrymandering (yeah, like Repugs care about laws and the will of the voters – too funny)...kudos to the Congressional Black Caucus for keeping up the fight...I think John Iadarola brings a lot to the table in this discussion, and I don’t mean to pick on Sharon Reed quite so much, but I don’t think she has much insight here...



...and Yasmin Khan discusses NJ Repug U.S. House rep Tom Kean Jr., who gets tracked down after having missed a bunch of votes...if Kean has a legitimate health issue and he needs treatment, I hope he gets it and I’m not trying to trivialize that (even though our congressional politicians get health care that WE ALL should be entitled to), but damn, to be missing for 75 DAYS???!! AND MISSING 88 VOTES??!!...oh, but he still could definitely “make bank” in stock trades despite his incommunicado status...and yeah, we know the Gropenfuhrer has been “having his way” in the Repug primaries, but I firmly believe the general election will be another matter, though we need to keep working for Team “D” to achieve the best possible outcome...



...and Tennessee Brando tells us about New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart getting heat for introducing Cantaloupe Capone at one of the latter’s rallies, so OF COURSE along comes someone named Will Cain of Fix Noise to say that only “the left” thinks they can make a political impact, or something, with Brando rightly reminding everyone about Colin Kaepernick and the fallout from him taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality (yeah, I think Dart was wrong also, but most jocks are Republicans, so I’m not going to get worked up over it – yeah, they should see the error of their ways, but they’re not going to join “Team D” because I say so)...Brando also uses comedy as an example here, mentioning the utterly wretched and completely unfunny Tony Hinchcliffe and comparing him somewhat to Redd Foxx and Don Rickles...and oh, it’s the fault of “Washington elites” (according to that nematode Tim Burchett) that the economy is wrecked and our quality of life is lousy; these Repug knuckleheads ARE COMPLETELY IN CHARGE OF OUR DAMN GOVERNMENT!!!...I particularly like what Brando said at the end concerning the Dems; ”the establishment can’t keep taking credit when the progressives win” indeed (NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of sports, Jimmy Kimmel lets us know that, apparently, fans of the New York Knicks are whooping it up over the team’s postseason success, powered in a big way by Villanova alums Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges (the latter was stoo-pidly traded away by the Sixers, who could run a clinic IMO on totally screwing up a franchise rebuild)...also, it looks like Uday Trump Jr. got married again without his father in attendance, who no doubt was hard at work coming up with some new grift at our expense...I hadn’t seen a pic before of that whatever it is (arena, I guess) that they’re constructing on the White House lawn (yet another desecration) in time for that UFC fight for the Gropenfuhrer’s 80th birthday...”Sir, many people don’t know that ‘dumb’ has a ‘b’ in it, or so I was told, and I was indeed the first person to discover that...thank you for your attention to this matter – now excuse me while I have my third annual physical this year”...oh, and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. spotted a pair of black snakes while he was hanging out with “Dr. Crudité,” apparently because neither of them have anything more important to do, so of course he handled them in such a way that he could easily get bitten (truly, what a rocket scientist)...also, it looks like the Trump mobile phone has a flaw that exposes personal security information – can’t imagine how dim a bulb you have to be to buy one of those things, but there are still marks out there waiting to get played I guess...



...and as previously noted, we observed the birthday of one octogenarian rock n’ roller this week with Bob Dylan, and Wednesday marked that of another one, Bruce Cockburn, and with that in mind I offer the following tune...trying to wrap up the week with a bit of a hopeful message (lyrics here - mildly NSFW/H also).

Wednesday Stuff

Ali Velshi brings us the important question, “To whom does this democracy actually belong?,” which is something I think all of us need to be asking, especially now...also, apparently Hawaii is fighting back against Citizens United; have to admit that I’m shocked to hear that a Repug state rep on the island, Kainani Sousa, is the one leading the charge in getting a bipartisan bill passed banning corporate spending in their state’s elections, and in the process, redefining what a corporation actually is (and kudos to Dem state senator Karl Rhoads also)...I think Tom Moore is a damn genius for coming up with a way for states to regulate corporations and pull an end-run pretty much around that tragic and despicable SCOTUS ruling...I know I touched on a similar effort in Montana previously, and kudos to those folks also...



Update 5/29/26: A related item is here.

...and keeping with domestic politics, Belle lets us know that the “party of Jim Crow 2.0” tag bothers the GOP – cue the world’s smallest violin...and why am I not the least bit surprised to find out that one of the individuals taking umbrage is the thoroughly vile Repug U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah?...oh, but there are 4 African American Repug U.S. House reps, so Hangin’ Judge JR is right when he says racism is dead I guess (SMDH)...Belle is right that four, against a 200-member caucus, is nothing to brag about, especially since none of those mentioned are running for re-election (those knuckleheads in Flori-DUUH will probably make Byron Donalds the next governor)...it would be freaking hilarious if the “party of Lincoln” ends up diluting the makeup of their previously “safe” districts with these gerrymanders to get rid of black representation to the point of putting MANY MORE seats in play than those that they expected...oh, and speaking of idiocy from the “daddy party” (give me a break!), John Cornyn could have walked right back to the Senate for another term, but with the thoroughly odious Ken Paxton as the nominee from the “all hat, no cattle” state, that puts that election somewhat in play for the “D” team...I mean, yeah, it’s Texas, and I have no illusions about how long the odds are (here), but it’s possible as of now (here)...



...and Farron Cousins brings us the latest on the wingnut consolidation of the media landscape...looks like James Murdoch (son of Rupert The Pirate) just spent $300 million to purchase Vox Media, which has truly been an important outlet as Cousins points out...and yes, as Cousins says, all of this consolidation is truly right out of the fascist playbook; not at all hard to see the direction this is going – for yours truly, the beginning of the end of this came when media organizations became more preoccupied with “balance” to keep wingnut goofballs happy than to report on verifiable truth and reality (and speaking of wingnut media idiocy, there is this – I’m sure Sharyn Alfonsi expected that for her courageous segment on CECOT, but it’s still a pretty damn putrid way to treat a skilled, seasoned employee)...NSFW/H...



...and turning to our regularly scheduled pre-emptive Middle East war, Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that Cantaloupe Capone apparently is too busy to explain to us what’s going on (yeah...like he actually knows)...I’ve had issues with Seth Moulton in the past, but he did a pretty damn good job of trying to untangle this mess (and why do I have a feeling that Cheetoh Hitler is going to pull the same tactic of “we have a cease fire, but bomb them anyway” over and over like our *preznit’s best bud “Bibi”?)...we revisit that great quote form John Kerry in his Senate testimony in 1971 about asking the last man to die in Vietnam for a mistake...commenting on military matters is above my pay grade a bit, but I would only suggest that though Admiral Cooper handled himself capably IMO in the hearing, it’s obvious that he was left holding the metaphorical bag by our regime of grifters and frauds, and I DEFINTELY don’t have a problem with Moulton’s incisive line of questioning; when all we get are lies, half-truth and evasions, EVERYONE from this regime should feel like they have massive targets on their backs, for political fallout I mean, and that goes for Admiral Cooper also...



...and as a bit of a follow-up to O’Donnell, Kyle Kulinski lets us know that even Fix Noise can’t defend the Gropenfuhrer and his Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran, saying that Our Sweaty Orange Bronzer Boy needs to open the Strait of Hormuz AND keep Iran from enriching uranium (and yeah, I know, we had a deal under Obama, blah blah blah)...not sure if that generic hairdo in this segment is Tomi Lahren or not...good point by Kyle that there WAS a deal for Iran not to enrich uranium before the U.S. and Israel decided to bomb them, including that girls’ school where over 100 people were killed...I have a feeling that Kyle is right when he says that the “price tag,” if you will, on this wretched war of choice has yet to arrive, but it’s coming for sure...NSFW/H also...



...and RIP Sonny Rollins.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Jayar of The Damage Report let us know that it looks like Our Ochre Abomination is doing his best to cover up his doctor’s visits again (if Don The Con is supposed to be so damn healthy, then why does he have that horrible hand bruise in this pic?)...didn’t know the National Trust for Preservation sued to halt construction of that stinking ballroom; good for them...so OF COURSE #47’s consigliere Todd Blanche is all “oh, we have to have the stinking ballroom to protect my boss and all future presidents, but the National Trust wants to see all the presidents get shot, instead” or some such idiocy...oh, and we find out NOW that, in addition to that damn bunker, the Gropenfuhrer wants medical facilities under that damn ballroom too? He’s doing all he can to prevent EVER HAVING TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE, PEOPLE!!!...good point by Jayar about the double standard of the Tangerine Toddler wanting all this secret stuff, but he apparently has no issue whatsoever with going to one of his damn golf courses in full public view...and how con-vee-nient that the damn ballroom is supposed to be built by September 2028...



...and Thom Hartmann echoes that quote from LBJ that “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you,” and Thom lets us know about a study from Delaware that pretty much confirms that, with whites turning against the social safety net when they think it benefits non-whites...”white resentment beats white self-interest every time” – if you want just one example of that, look at Kentucky; they just voted out Thomas Massie, who, imperfect as he was, was nonetheless trying to hold Cantaloupe Capone to account, with the latter responsible for utterly decimating the bourbon industry in that state (mainly trading with Canada) because of those beyond ridiculous tariffs...oh, and ICE apparently is trying to build crematoriums inside their detention facilities; didn’t we fight a war against a nation that once tried to do that?...Thom interviews author George Koch about the latter’s book “Bullies, Parasites and Slaves: Replacing Exploitation with Mutual Care”...”Our hard work goes to subsidize their excess” indeed, referring to the “one percent” I’m sure, and that supermarket example is likely apt also...



...also, don’t be too shocked, but apparently we had a SCOTUS victory on continuing to allow Medicare to negotiate on drug prices, according to Peter Maybarduk of Public Citizen, despite the pharma industry litigating this and misleading the public for about 20 years and spending “tens of millions” trying to defeat it...and oh yeah, there was an $8 billion handout in the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck to drug firms to try and gut price negotiations...if the national Democratic Party had any brains, they would be combing through that godawful legislation line by line (and also doing that concerning the terrible DOGE cuts from King Elon and Russell Vought) and crafting attack ads for EVERY DEM CANDIDATE based on that, but I’m definitely not getting overconfident on that one...



...and Dan Lieberman of More Perfect Union brings us the story of the “party of Lincoln” under Dear Orange Leader trying to find a new way to steal your Social Security...report is focused on Iowa, featuring a lady named Susan Ludeking, among others including former Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski...a big culprit in all of this mess is the aforementioned DOGE cuts last year that forced out thousands of employees from the Social Security Administration, as well as former SSA employee Jessica LaPointe...glad to see this report lay the blame squarely at the feet of The Sainted Ronnie R, who IMO is more responsible for the unraveling of this agency than anyone else, though successive Repug politicians have been after this vitally important agency ever since, and now it’s in the unsightly bruised hands of Combover Caligula...”grow some balls” to save Social Security indeed...



...and Mr. Newberger gives us the following on the “Trump Mobile Phone”...always a scam or grift by our ruling regime to bilk gullible rubes...



...and happy belated 85th birthday to Bob Dylan.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn who, along with fellow officer Daniel Hodges, is suing #47 over his $1.8 bil insurrectionist slush fund (Dunn is running for the Dem nomination for the MD-05 seat about to be given up by Steny Hoyer)...good point by Cohen that, by in essence trying to make all of these scumwaffles millionaires, the Gropenfuhrer is trying to incentivize them to pull more garbage like they did on 1/6...I have issues with Bri-Fi for sure, mainly because he didn’t have a damn thing to say about the DOGE wreckage, and I’ll NEVER believe his naïve explanation that he thought Medicare/Medicaid wouldn’t be hit by the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck, but in the matter of this payoff to the treasonous insurrectionists, Fitzpatrick is on the right side, albeit with the bar set pretty low...and Dunn is spot-on IMO in saying we need to elect the RIGHT democrats, not just someone who’s going to bring the metaphorical water pistol to a Howitzer fight (NSFW/H)...



...and sticking with the theme of mainly Repug toadies giving Our Ochre Abomination everything he wants, John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report let us know that “MAGA Mike” Johnson cancelled a vote on the bill to implement the War Powers Resolution and sent everybody home instead (the bill passed the Senate when Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who no longer has anything to lose politically, commendably flipped his No vote to Yes)...here comes my obligatory announcement once more that WE HAD A F*CKING NUKE DEAL WITH IRAN UNDER OBAMA THAT DEMENTIA J. TRUMP WADDLED AWAY FROM, CANKLES AND ALL...and yeah, the “accordion hands” are back too...I’d forgotten that this indeed is the same tactic as the one to prevent the disclosure of the Trumpstein files...and why do I have a feeling that that Raul Castro indictment is going to be the alleged excuse for still more military madness in Cuba...



...and Sam Seder of The Majority Report gives us his rundown on the Senate reconciliation bill that apparently is stuck because Pumpkin Pol Pot wants to stick his previously noted $1.8 bil slush fund for the 1/6 insurrectionists in it (which was called “stupid on stilts” by departing Repug senator Thom Tillis of N.C.)...the failure to introduce the resolution was commendably called out by Dem rep Jim McGovern of MA, as we see in the clip....by the way, the missing Repug U.S. House Rep is Tom Kean Jr. of NJ...



...and I know I spend the majority of my time here cataloging nonsense from the “party of Lincoln,” but here is an example of a Dem utterly caving, and that’s Colorado governor Jared Polis, who made the cowardly and ridiculous decision to grant clemency to election denier Tina Peters (good catch by Kyle Clark of 9NEWS to find that paragraph in his clemency letter that was omitted by Polis)...if it were any other Trumpist knucklehead, maybe – maybe – clemency COULD make sense...however, Peters, being an election official, knew EXACTLY how to mess up the voting apparatus in order to help Our Treasonous Orange Pustule, so what she did was a particular kind of evil above and beyond what we’ve come to know and despise from this regime of bottom feeders (and I would call this a completely deserved response to Polis)...

...and I thought this was a well-done Lincoln Project video with today’s holiday in mind...



...and here is an apropos selection for our annual observance.

Friday Stuff

David Doel tells us of Jeff Bezos appearing on CNBC with Andrew Ross Sorkin, with the Amazon plutocrat and “death by a thousand cuts” owner of the WaPo praising Cantaloupe Capone...and Bezos thinks #47 is “calmer”?? By wrecking this country and starting an unprovoked war with Iran? In what universe does THAT make sense? And boy, is Doel ever right about all kinds of business networks but NOT A SINGLE UNION OR WORKERS’ NETWORK...that graph from the Economic Policy Institute does indeed tell a sobering story...I have to admit that that utterly disgusting story about permanent tax audit immunity for Cheetoh Hitler and his failsons was something I just learned about, and coming on the heels of that $1.8 billion slush fund for the 1/6 insurrectionists...and oh yeah, we get that line from Bezos that “you can double the taxes I pay and it won’t help that teacher in Queens”...you wanna bet??...I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say that billionaires shouldn’t exist, but they sure as hell should be taxed on their wealth like we used to do in this country...Bezos raking in $18 billion but still claiming a tax loss to the point of qualifying for a 4K credit truly is galling...and I’m sure Tom Steyer is making nice noises because he’s running for governor in CA, but I still wouldn’t trust him to be honest...mildly NSFW/H...



...and in a somewhat related item, Brittany Page informs us that, according to some conservative douchebag, saying “tax the rich” is worse than saying the “N” word, supposedly...oh, and leave it to “Both Sides Smerky” to be all over it on CNN...“but I’m not sure that (some rich corporate grifter) is entirely wrong (about the phrase being a slur),” huh? That’s about on brand for Smerky...as Page says, this is in response to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying he would indeed tax the rich, so OF COURSE King Elmo, “Zuck,” the aforementioned Bezos, etc. have to go crying to their corporate media cousins about it...awww, what a shame that these spoiled little brats have to pay a tax on their second homes worth $5 million or more (break out the crying towels)...sooo Steve Roth is going to take his business to Flori-DUUUH now? Good luck hiring skilled people from a whole other candidate pool...good for Page for digging into this Roth guy and finding out that he made bank by basically killing a lot of “mom and pop” businesses in neighborhoods to build strip malls, throwing a lot of people out of their jobs in the process (while wrapping himself in the “just world” hypothesis)...glad to hear Page point out that it’s likely extremely rare to find someone who is truly self-made and didn’t get to prosperity without some help or inflicting pain on someone else, either intentionally or not...



...and Farron Cousins lets us know that Congressional Dems are trying to figure out how much people paid to get pardons from Our Ochre Abomination...I’d be surprised if the Dems get much of a response from these nutzoids they sent letters to, asking them how much they paid off the Gropenfuhrer, but it’s certainly worth a try...pretty despicable that the law allows a lobbyist to get paid so they can pay off our crime boss-in-chief (allegedly!) to get that golden “Get Out Of Jail Free” card...kudos to Dem reps Dave Min and Raul Ruiz and Dem Senator Peter Welch...and that means that folks who were owed $2 BILLION in restitution won’t get paid now?? This is YET ANOTHER story that would have gotten the 24/7/365 treatment if it were ANYBODY ELSE (and CERTAINLY a DEM, which would be deserved actually), but since it involves Dementia J. Trump, it will likely be treated with a shrug by our fourth estate stenographers...I agree with Cousins that the Dems are smart to be doing the legwork on all of this staggering corruption now as opposed to later...



...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that it looks like the WHO has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Congo with 80-plus deaths so far...oh, and did I mention that Bobby Brainworms and his boss have taken this country out of the WHO?...also, as Kyle says, Apartheid Clyde and DOGE utterly wrecked the CDC and US AID, so there’s no response coming from those critically important agencies...I would say that Jeremy Konyndyk has summed this up pretty well in a pretty damn terrifying series of tweets, and how much do you want to bet that China finds a way into this mess since we stoo-pidly abandoned our responsibilities on the world stage, further diminishing our prestige? (NSFW/H)...



...and Stephen Colbert delivers his final “Late Show” monologue, with some cameos...it looks like our alleged Hantavirus response is being led by a penile implant specialist and vaccine skeptic; definitely don’t feel “warm and fuzzy” about that (tied to the prior clip a bit)...and a scandal involving a Rome “sexy priest calendar”? Feel free to insert your snark here...and it looks like some dancing Chinese robot is trying to “bust a move” but it didn’t quite work out (still making my way through all of the clips from the last show)... I’m sure whatever nonsense Byron Allen manages to come up with starting next week in Colbert’s slot will merely be a bad joke in response...



...and nothing like an upbeat newer number to take us into a holiday weekend, is there (and from a local band too).

Wednesday Stuff

Belle of the Ranch reminds us that the Tangerine Toddler has destroyed half of Canadian tourist visits with all of his “51st state” BS and “Governor Carney” garbage, losing revenue to the tune of $4 billion per year...looks like Myrtle Beach got hit the worst according to Belle, based partly on cell phone data...good point by Belle that, when our Canadian neighbors get used to a new travel routine away from this country, it’s not like you can just magically flick a switch and everyone will come back; trying to repair this damage in particular, along with EVERYTHING ELSE destroyed by this regime, is going to take time and work, and money...



...and sticking with our northern neighbors, this report from CBC News: The National lets us know that our spiteful, petulant egomaniac in An Oval Office just pulled this country out of a joint defense initiative with Canada – God only knows why (maybe because Daddy Vlad told him to??)...and I think John McKay’s analysis of “stupid foolishness” is about right...Canada has “failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments,” huh? And that’s even though PM Mark Carney said Canada had fulfilled its pledge to spend 2% on defense (as opposed to the insane amount that WE spend, as opposed to other vital needs?)...oh, and did I mention that this joint U.S./Canada initiative goes back to World War II?...



...returning to our shores, Jordan Chariton of Status Coup News reports on 3 NJ congressional representatives (Dems Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Analilia Mejia) who visited an ICE prison in Delaney Hall, where we learn that those detained are being served food with live worms in it (also, green sausages and chunky milk)...oh, and apparently a pregnant woman was detained and she ended up losing the pregnancy in part at least because she wasn’t given medical treatment...also, let’s include a man with an untreated head wound in all of this and let HIM suffer without assistance also...oh, but GEO Group made $254 mil in profit, so it’s all good (all done in our name, people!)...



...and RIP Barney Frank...so many reasons to pay tribute to him IMO, mainly for the Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed in 2010 after the “banksters” blew up the “big casino” in 2008, and also because Frank took absolutely no mess, as shown in this clip during those beyond-ridiculous Teahadist town halls that spring up against the Affordable Care Act due to the efforts mainly of deep-pocketed donors like “Americans for Prosperity” (again, the timeframe on that was around 2009-2010)...



...and Rachel Maddow discusses the group “secret handshake,” which apparently is behind the Trump/Epstein statues on the National Mall and the “golden toilet”...well, now they came up with “Operation Epic Furious,” which definitely looks like an old school arcade game as Maddow says, stationed at the War Memorial...the group also made an online version of this game so you can indeed play at home as if you are #47 and you can wage war against Iran in the game (or burn more Epstein files if you wish)...as far as the group behind this is concerned, “long may they wave” indeed...



...and happy 80th birthday to Cher.

Tuesday Stuff

This clip from TYT Investigates brings us ER physician Dr. Megan L. Ranney, who is my latest heroine for presenting facts about gun violence, an issue she knows well, unfortunately...oh, and along comes “Cornpone” Kennedy, the Oxford senator pretending he’s from the South, trying to confront her over her logical arguments, including some snarky nonsense about fried foods...it’s actually quietly enraging to see Kennedy act like such a bumpkin – the idiots who sent him to the Senate in Louisiana probably have a total amount of functioning brain synapses that you can count on one hand and have fingers left over...yep, another “low turnout, Republican wins” election (damn fools, the lot of them...oh, and based on this, it looks like it’s time not to politicize gun violence again – I think you can still Google “John Oliver Song of the Summer,” by the way)...



...and oh yeah, I realize wingnuts like Kennedy just LOVE to mention gun violence in Chicago because that to them is an example of a place with strict gun laws but persistent high crime, even though a sizeable percentage of gun violence in Illinois is committed with weapons brought in from Wisconsin and Indiana, which have looser gun laws by comparison (about 6 in 10 guns as noted here).

...and Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network lets us know that Cheetoh Hitler apparently returned from his China trip with absolutely nothing, and now Putin will go to China and he and Xi may end up signing about 40 different agreements; looks like “President Deals,” and this country, got played yet again...China and Russia will apparently come up with some proclamation on a “multi-polar world”; we’ll see what comes of that of course...oh, and in another “win” for the Gropenfuhrer, it looks like Iran is going to institute something called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, for managing the passage of ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz (and just remember, before all of this madness in Iran started, ships could proceed through the Strait unencumbered and world economies could operate without worrying about what would happen to their energy...so much winning!)...I know Meiselas has to acknowledge that social media post, but I don’t take one syllable of what Our Treasonous Orange Pustule says seriously (I’m surprised he didn’t end that rant with “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”)...I’d never heard of Barak Ravid before, but it does indeed look like he’s Pumpkin Pol Pot’s stenographer...and this Elbridge Colby character sounds like another Trumpist lickspittle; if anyone from this regime would actually pay attention to Canadian media, they would see how we’re getting laughed at by our “neighbor to the north” also...as Meiselas says, when #47 gets humiliated as he just did by Xi, Combover Caligula’s go-to move is to beat up comparatively smaller countries like Greenland...and oh yeah, inflation is back at about 5 percent...and Our Lunatic-In-Chief also wants to add a helipad to the White House lawn, which would destroy the area even more...the cherry on the icing of this sh*t sundae for yours truly, though, is this taxpayer-financed “lawfare” fund to reward the 1/6 insurrectionists, to the tune of 1 billion and 776 million dollars...any Republican politician want to criticize any of this, including this guy? Bueller???)...



Update 5/21/26: Concerning the "lawfare" fund, I'm glad to see this.

...and I don’t think I’ve included anything from one-time Capitol policeman Michael Fanone before (who was injured during the 1/6 insurrection as we know), but here, he comments on PA U.S. Senator John Fetterman getting bribed potentially paid off leaned on by Repug megadonors to get him to join the “R” team...Fanone is spot-on in saying that Fetterman should have told these characters to pound sand when they approached him, but noooo – Big John decides to try and lecture the rest of us instead...I thought this was a pretty thorough takedown on all of the Trumpian garbage going on; I realize it’s not possible to cover all of the ruin of this regime, but let’s not forget DOGE (tied to Project 2025 of course) and the destruction of US AID, which will ultimately kill over a million people in the developing world (mostly kids) and also screw over our farmers who would have shipped food to those places...also, I think this was recorded before Fetterman’s 50-49 vote in favor of the Iran war as noted here (the 7th time the Senate has tried to rein in Cantaloupe Capone on this)...



... and Ali Velshi informs us of state courts rebutting ICE practices...in addition to the fact that the Trumpist gulag mentality doesn’t work for the stated purpose of allegedly keeping us safer, it’s also extremely unpopular, as we’ve surmised by now but Velshi emphasizes here...11,600 lawsuits filed by detainees against ICE between last July and now according to an analysis by Kyle Cheney of Politico...looks like the Gropenfuhrer has only won about 1,200 of those cases, which is about 10 percent as we learn...good point by Velshi that this expanded detainment under Trumpist Todd Lyons was definitely NOT the way we had done things previously while an immigrant was awaiting a hearing on whether or not they could enter legally (and oh yeah, as Velshi and the courts tell us, NOBODY CAN JUST FREAKING MAKE UP NEW LAWS BECAUSE THEY FEEL LIKE IT!!! – that goes for Lyons and any other psychopath in our ruling regime)...I realize there really isn’t much in the way of new stuff here, except that someone has brought some numbers to this discussion of Trumpist cruelty to quantify things a bit (to say nothing of the ridiculous taxpayer expense for prosecuting all of these cases that got tossed)...



...and Mr. Newberger gives us a pretty spot-on IMO parody based on a story in the headlines (which I touched on previously)...gee, I guess only wingnut “humor” is allowed, since he’s been demonetized – what a joke, literally...mildly NSFW/H...



...and RIP Beverley Martyn, performing here with her one-time husband John, who sadly was an abusive jerk...despite her travails, she managed to etch out a notable career, though she didn’t break open like her peers including Judy Collins, Laura Nyro, etc., which is a shame I think.

Monday Stuff

Robert Reich discusses the fight against the media takeover by billionaires...and Don The Con just approved a merger in which one of these scumwad outfits, Nexstar, would control 80 percent of what we see and hear (these are the idiots who tried to get Jimmy Kimmel fired)...we also get more on the destruction at “The Tiffany Network” due to the Ellisons (and it looks like CNN may be next for the chopping block – at least Ted Turner won’t be around to see the destruction of his once-proud channel)...also, the Ellisons are ready to bring the proverbial hammer down on TikTok, which I'm sure will lead to decreased ICE surveillance among other negative impacts (kind of sad that 1 in 5 Americans get their “news” from TikTok, but that’s where we are unfortunately)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss Repug U.S. Senator (for now) Bill Cassidy of Louisiana holding “Bobby Brainworms” to account, with our utter joke of an HHS secretary deciding to cherry pick data on upgraded sewer treatment plans supposedly providing better health outcomes than vaccines...suuuure...also, I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of math also, but dealing with it is part of living in the world of reality...and I also have to admit that the contrast in COVID fatalities between Taiwan and Flori-DUUH is pretty damn stunning (and by the way, heckuva job, all you methane dispensing biped life forms in Louisiana who just voted Cassidy out of office as noted here...I had problems with the guy for sure, but he voted for the Gropenfuhrer’s impeachment, and I guess that was the proverbial bridge too far for you Trumpist numbskulls...have fun watching your quality of life disintegrate even further by rewarding politicians who will do absolutely nothing for you)...



...and as a bit of a compare-and-contrast exercise between the Kennedy scion and someone who actually knows what’s going on in this country when it comes to medical issues generally, I give you Thom Hartmann speaking with epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding on the Hantavirus threat issued by the WHO (which the Tangerine Toddler pulled this country out of)...so, it looks like there is now a “person to person” mutation, which is this so-called Andes strain of the virus...also, it looks like you can be positive with the virus even before you show symptoms – oh, peachy...luckily, this seems to be confined to cruise ships, but hopefully that will continue to be the case...20K workers including scientists were canned at HHS/CDC to pay for more stinking billionaire tax cuts...oh, and by the way (as Dr. Feigl-Ding points out), Bobby Brainworms isn’t going to approve more COVID boosters, putting us all at risk even more...the Bird Flu stuff (the potential anyway) sounds pretty nightmarish also...nice work, all you assclowns who made sure in ’24 that we were stuck with these characters (the Trumpers I mean of course)...



...and for more news from “across the pond,” Jonathan Pie informs us that the “Labour bloodbath” is underway, with the possibility of Keir Starmer being replaced as PM by Wes Streeting (who?)...Pie calls this potential move going “from beige to opaque”...great stuff...typically spot-on knife comparison between the current ruling party and what “reform” would have in mind...”When you offer no solutions, people begin to believe the lies of the right” for sure...(NSFW/H)...



...and this “cold open” from Saturday Night Live gives us Will Ferrell as Jeffrey Epstein, with appropriate shots taken at Cantaloupe Capone, Crazy Eyes Ka$h Patel, SecDef Kegseth and “Dog Killer” Noem (and "Couch Boy" too)...



...and RIP Clarence Carter.

Saturday Stuff

(For those of you keeping score at home, it’s not your imagination – posting has been a little goofed up lately, and it may remain that way for a little while – I’ll let you know if and when that changes.)

To begin, Jesse Dollemore informs us that the AP reports that Crazy Eyes Kash Patel participated in some “VIP snorkeling” event around the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor last year apparently, which, as Dollemore correctly points out, is hallowed ground...another ridiculous and insulting escapade from our ruling regime of grifters and bottom feeders...Patel should never have been confirmed to his position as FBI director, but short of that, he definitely should have been canned long ago, and that should happen PDQ as a result of this...not just Patel, but anyone else in a government position who participated in this disgusting event should be FIRED!!! (NSFW/H)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about another Trumpist numbskull, and that would be Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who apparently had no idea that renewable energy could be stored in batteries, which is particularly STOO-PID since North Dakota, the state Burgum comes from, now generates about 40 percent of its energy from renewables... Burgum’s “come to Jesus” moment is brought to us courtesy of Dem U.S. House Reps Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island and Dave Min of California (and I believe the rep asking about that madness with the Lincoln Monument reflecting pool was Joe Neguse of Colorado) ...glad to hear Burgum getting hammered by his boss paying companies making wind farms a BILLION DOLLARS to stop a wind farm project already underway (and it sounds like Burgum was trying to blame Biden for supposedly not fixing water fountains in D.C., or some such nonsense)...oh, and when you’ve got Big Time Teahadist Rick Santelli railing against inflation on the Trump Business News Channel, then I would say that you have a problem...



...and Logical Leftist Jeff Waldorf tells us about rancher Mark Pieper of Hay Springs, Nebraska, who says, “I guess I’ll just die” because of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck passed by Congress (and signed by you-know-who) that cut about $900 billion for Medicaid over the next 10 years and ended up closing Pieper’s dialysis unit at Chadron Hospital where he sought treatment (cuts affect 41K Nebraskans)...hospital was 90 miles away and Pieper drove there 3x a week, but now, the alternative is 200 freaking miles away...oh, and only about 15 percent of some bogus “transition fund” set up in that wretched bill goes for patient care, and the amount is miniscule compared to what was removed for tax cuts for the stinking rich (typical for the “party of Lincoln”)...and as if all of this couldn’t get worse, somehow it does since Nebraska has now implemented Medicaid work requirements (80 hours per month, the first state in the country to do that)...oh, and leave it to this Brooke Rollins character to call 34 million Medicaid recipients “lazy”...”racism and hatred – they are expensive” indeed...446 hospitals in this country are at risk from Medicaid cuts, 83 in California alone as we learn in this clip...



...and with his time running down, Stephen Colbert (with the help of David Letterman) gives “The Late Show” the sendoff it deserves (the cake made a spectacular impact I think...I don’t know about you, but I could use a good laugh over wanton destruction that doesn’t affect anybody)...



...and Seth Meyers gives us “A Closer Look” – apparently, Chinese social media is having fun at Pumpkin Pol Pot’s expense given that #47 is in their country at the moment...and raking in $4 billion? I realize our corporate media isn’t going to be impolite enough to mention THE DAMN EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION, but it looks like, in terms of the reality-based community, that is definitely in play here for our ruling regime...well, at least there won’t be a Trump Tower in “the land down under” (kudos to the Aussies for that)...also, I can just imagine the BS excuse for allowing Eric to join the entourage overseas (and good point about the double standard if, say, “No Malarkey Joe” had brought along Hunter)...and man, I think Apartheid Clyde’s mind is out where the buses don’t run somewhere...also, I know I’ve said a million times already that we already had a freaking deal under Obama to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but I guess I’ll have to keep repeating that as long as life forms like Huckleberry Graham refuse to point that out...and I know #47 has no core convictions about anything except getting paid and keeping out of prison, so I take absolutely nothing that he says at face value...



...and here’s a newer number for the kids to enjoy this weekend, hopefully.

Thursday Stuff

Luke Beasley lets us know that it looks like that fossil Virginia Foxx got put in her place for writing a pretty damn snarky letter to a kid in elementary school (and by the way, the “shut up” moment from Foxx had to do with ABC’s Rachel Scott asking “MAGA Mike” Johnson about his efforts in trying overturn the results of the ’20 election...more here)...apparently, a 10-year-old commendably wrote a letter to Foxx asking her to reinstate the EV credit that Foxx and her party stoo-pidly got rid of (at the behest of the Tangerine Toddler) as a classroom assignment, and Foxx replied in a typically nasty way, even though “fourth grade” was marked on the return address (and of course Foxx cites Fix Noise and the Murdoch Street Journal in her response to the young man as “sources”...and Foxx attacks the kid’s teacher also?? Again, typical)...



Update 5/15/26: More here.

...and Jesse Dollemore talks about Pumpkin Pol Pot threatening to “map opponents at home” in some ridiculous “strategy document,” where his minions lump in “transgender ideology” with the legitimate threats to this country from ISIS and al Qaeda – what utter fools in our ruling regime...and yet again, they’re blaming Biden and “Democrat” administrations for allegedly allowing terrorist organizations or whatever to enter this country, and all without a single spec of legitimate proof...and oh yeah, they’re also blaming the killing of Charlie Kirk on an “extreme transgender ideology” (one response is here)...mildly NSFW/H...



...and don’t look now, but the WaPo committed an actual act of journalism recently and discovered that former DHS head Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem blocked FEMA funds to blue states last year, as you might expect (but OF COURSE red states got everything they were entitled to in that department)...basically, as Cousins points out, $91 million a month of FEMA assistance dropped down to about $3 million per month on average for blue states...I don’t know if there’s any legal recourse available, but at a minimum, they should decide not to send federal funds to Washington as a response; let some of these red states that take in more federal dough than they pay out try to live with the consequences...



...and Steve Harness of Really American tells us that, apparently, Trump pal and “reality TV” guy Kevin O’Leary (from “Shark Tank”) wants to build some mega data center in Utah, and to say the residents aren’t happy is an understatement...oh, but O’Leary accuses the protesting residents of being “Chinese operatives”? In freaking Utah??...also, I’m not sure of the legality here of “Mr. Wonderful” basically doxxing a couple of folks legitimately protesting another one of these water-draining, temperature-raising, environmentally destructive data centers (and O’Leary wearing flip-flops through all of this is pretty gonzo, I must say)...”behind every terrible man is a carboard cutout of that same man” is freaking hilarious!...and yes, I know that Utah overall is a pretty damn red state sadly, but that doesn’t mean we should discourage fine folks trying to do the right thing (more from Elevate Utah is here)...NSFW/H...



...and I would call this one of the more imaginative undertakings from Mr. Newberger – it’s been awhile since I saw that pic, but I would call this a pretty spot-on parody...



...and today would have been the 90th birthday of Bobby Darin.

Wednesday Stuff

John of The Damage Report tells us of the latest grift from our ruling regime of bottom feeders, and that’s this idiocy with the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial...Dementia J. Trump wants to color it blue at an initial projected cost of $1.5 to $2 million (something exactly NO ONE has asked for), though the actual cost ended up being about $13 million, in part because the fraudsters in our executive branch bypassed the competitive bid process by declaring this job to be some kind of a national emergency...oh, but the Tangerine Toddler wants the pool to be blue by July 4th, huh, in time for the 250th? So of course WE THE PEOPLE end up paying for this mess (with Yasmin Khan...I think her “breakfast nook” example is apt, and if this damn pool is going to now be blue...and again, NOBODY asked for this...then the pool will no longer be “reflecting” anything as Khan says...more here)...



...and Rachel Maddow informs us that Louisiana Repug guv Jeff Landry is suddenly all “Hey, don’t blame lil’ ol’ me for trashing the primary election that’s underway – it’s all the fault of that danged Supreme Court for ruling the way they did in Callais!,” an explanation that will be believable at exactly half past FREAKING NEVER!...I know I’ve been beating the drum on this a lot lately, but I think it’s warranted...glad to see a Landry recall effort is underway; it will be hard sledding I know in that state, but it’s a battle worth fighting – zero percentage in lying down and taking this Repug garbage, and kudos to the brave folks in Alabama and Tennessee also...Maddow speaks with Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP (not a lot of tools in the toolbox, you might say, but whatever we have need to be used for sure, such as massive blue turnout as Clarke says, battling in the courts and the media, shaming these bad political actors on this wretched SCOTUS any way possible, etc.)...



...and Brittany Page tells us that it appears that the Philistines on the SCOTUS will let women have mail-order abortion pills (mifepristone) until tomorrow 5/14 – how generous of them (snark)...no problem with sending a gun through the mail, though...”proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free”...medication abortions now make up about 63 percent of the total, and I think it bears repeating that, if you ban medications used for abortion (which is wrong merely for that reason), you’re hurting the ability of women to access these medications for potential life-threatening reasons, such as managing miscarriages...speaking of life-threatening, we learn here that medication abortion is less deadly than childbirth, with higher rates for African Americans...also, it looks like misoprostol can be effective on its own, as we learn here, so OF COURSE Louisiana passed a bill stating that that was “a dangerous controlled substance” also (between this and the prior clip, I wonder if something is "in the water" in "The Pelican State"?)...



...and Kyle Kulinski says he believes that an alliance is taking place between liberals and leftists against Mango Mussolini and his minions; I hope Kyle is right, but I’m not going to concede that one way or the other...if I take out a policy position, I’m not going to care when Michelle Goldberg or Nicholas Kristof give me some “tut-tut, you loony leftist” screed on the pages of The Old Gray Lady, which is likely to happen (and that goes for this “ContraPoints” person too)...Kyle presents a clip of David Sirota interviewing Graham Platner, with the latter saying we should be done with neoliberalism...that policy worked during the presidency of Bill Clinton, allowing him to get back to the White House (and we hadn’t had a Dem there for 12 YEARS, people!), but those days are looooong gone...I think Platner is spot-on, to be honest, in saying that the Dems need to be all about populism and supporting labor to the maximum extent possible; also, there was a recent dustup with Platner saying we should lower or get rid of the gasoline tax and fix our infrastructure with a fund paid into by the rich – Platner is absolutely right that funding our infrastructure (to the extent that we actually do it) by a gas tax is regressive, and I think he’s correct on this also, though I’ll admit that the political reality is a whole other matter...also, the ascendancy of Pumpkin Pol Pot was more than anything else a “whitelash,” as Kyle aptly puts it, and Kyle is right also that we need to be as united as possible to go after the Trumpist life forms who would subjugate all of us (NSFW/H)...



...and Stephen Colbert of The Late Show lets us know that Combover Caligula’s war of choice in Iran has pushed inflation to its highest rate in three years (and the bit about #47 saying “I don’t think about anybody’s financial situation – I don’t think about anybody” should indeed be played on a continuous loop in EVERY CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL BY ANY DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR OFFICE ANYWHERE THIS YEAR)...well, at least Pumpkin Pol Pot has flown to China – would that he would leave this country for good (and can’t the Secret Service just take gramps’s cell phone away from him at a certain point? Posting 55 times in 3 hours when he should be freaking asleep)...oh, and I’d actually forgotten about “Trump Mobile,” but of course that turned out to be yet another scam (and the ranting of that pinhead who got rooked into ordering four of these alleged phones is pretty funny, I have to admit...and to be scammed by Uday and Qusay and not even the “big man”? Sad)...and this Hantavirus scare isn’t amusing in any way I realize, especially since Bobby Brainworms and his boss have pulled this country out of the WHO...



...and this song was released on this day 60 years ago...also, I believe that Bob Spitz is working on a bio of the group, which will likely be good – Spitz’s tome on Led Zeppelin is the definitive literary work on the band IMO.