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.