Friday Stuff

Brittany Page discusses Apartheid Clyde threatening to sue and jail anyone (including Dem U.S. House rep Ro Khanna) talking about the “many millions of deaths,” particularly kids, because of the beyond-heartless decision of the Ketamine addict to destroy US AID (about 14 million by 2030, as we learn)...oh, and he thinks that MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion “makes the world a worse place” – truly a subterranean level of evil here (and not from Scott of course)...of course, it’s apparently beyond the capability of THE WORLD’S FIRST FREAKING TRILLIONAIRE to ACTUALLY GO VISIT THE PEOPLE IMPACTED BY HIS HORRIBLE CUTS if he’s looking for FREAKING EVIDENCE!!! (this too)...and I know I kind of blew off Dubya’s positive impact with PEPFAR in the past, which was definitely my mistake...apologies (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that, when it comes to Repug greed and stoo-pidity, Troy Nehls definitely deserves a place of infamy, telling voters to shut up and work harder, like Nehls supposedly (for $175K a year on our dime, let’s not forget)...oh, and Nehls may end up handing off his congressional seat to his identical twin brother (from the “land of the yellow rose”)...and once more, for the zillionth time, Iran DIDN’T HAVE A GODDAMN NUCLEAR WEAPON BECAUSE OF THE OBAMA/JOHN KERRY DEAL!!!...oh, and Diaper Donnie is the “second coming”? Wow, that Trumpist Kool-Aid sure has a hell of a kick to it, doesn’t it? (and one day, I hope and pray that we’re all done with the bleeping accordion hands, along with everything else)...oh, and the stock market is up 85 percent? In his slimy, s*xually abusing dreams (the reality perspective is here...NSFW/H also)...



...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that it looks like those MAGA-t sympathizers on CNN are getting a heaping helping of STFU from the lefty panelists on that network...kudos to Charles Blow for “bringing the heat”...I didn’t know 742 hospitals were going to close as a result of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck (which this guy supported, let’s not forget...and yes, he cast plenty of YES votes while it worked its way through the House); I knew the health care facility closure situation was bad (including Chandler Hall in Bucks County, PA) but I didn’t know it was THAT bad...I really don’t know anything about “Politics Girl” either, but good on her for naming the “elephant in the room,” which of course is the fact that we should have told “Bibi” and Israel to step the f*ck off decades ago...kudos to Kyle also for this whole clip, and I would ask if IDF snipers targeting journalists and doctors (and kids of course) is considered “tactical” also...better preserve clips like this in case somehow David Ellison gets his grimy hands on the brainchild of Ted Turner and turns it into the same blazing trash fire that is now CBS News under Bari Weiss (very NSFW/H also)...



...and the stock of Truth Septic continues to collapse since the invasion of Iran...stock was worth $33 a share when #47 was sworn in, and it’s now worth about a quarter of that as we learn from John Iadarola...the net worth of Cantaloupe Capone’s outfit continues to plummet as he keeps trying to reinvent it, which is typical for a scammy grifter like Our Ochre Abomination...also, the aforementioned King Elon’s Tesla stock is going down also, though not as badly as Dementia J. Trump’s...I also think there’s quite a bit of room for Tesla’s stock to fall – we’ll see...



...and this clip from the German news service DW talks about how the U.S. shapes the world over 250 years of power and policy (commentary by scholar Sidita Kushi on just how “isolationist” the U.S. truly is, as well as political scientist Calvin Thrall)...clip takes a look at the total number of U.S. military interventions, which currently stands at about 500...according to data, the only year we DIDN’T have a military intervention was 1974...there could probably be a whole other clip by itself on our LATAM interventions on behalf of United Fruit...to be fair, clip also discusses U.S. diplomatic efforts, though we’ve definitely fallen down on that lately while China has ascended, on that front as well as others...

...and for the upcoming holiday, I’d like to present this clip once more, which is a bit dated by now I know, but I really haven’t seen anything to refute much of what is said here...

...and I hope everyone has a happy, relaxing and fun-filled Fourth, and please be careful in the heat.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins lets us know here about Anna Paulina Luna-tic using Claude AI to write an amendment to legislation, presumably because doing the work she was elected to do (along with her staffers) was apparently too much of a hardship...the giveaway was leaving the AI prompt used by Claude in the draft of the legislation – just say “oops” and get out (and I LOVE the completely grown-up explanation of “Oh yeah? Well, EVERYBODY ELSE is doing it,” which I also don’t believe along with Cousins)...oh, and the amendment she either did or didn’t use Claude to draft had to do with sending our military to the southern border, so there’s that level of idiocy also...



...and on that subject, J.T. Cestkowski of Status Coup tells us that Ford was forced to hire back 300 engineers who were fired to make room for AI, which failed to match quality checks (the rehired engineers will “train up” AI and younger workers)...looks like Ford workers were forced to accept the same wage they would get for slinging burgers based on that on-the-ground interview...”AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind,” according to Ford’s CEO, revealing the dirty little secret no one in corporate leadership wants to acknowledge...not surprised to hear that Ford had to issue the most recalls of all carmakers; I once owned a Ford, and I’ll never make that mistake again...



...and I guess these first three clips have a bit of a theme, and in keeping with that, John Iadarola tells us about more and more opposition to data centers, including in Virginia...I could probably include clips on this subject every day if I wanted to...looks like our oh-so-august-in-their-imaginations tech overlords are starting to get a hint on how fed up people are with these monstrosities...part of me wonders what the hell some of these damn Republican voters were thinking when they cast their ballots for Cheetoh Hitler and the “R” team, but on the other hand, it’s more important to find a way to work together with these folks and try to bring an end to this “divide and conquer” BS from the one percent...and I don’t know who this Texas knucklehead is who’s prattling on about “drone warfare,” but if he thinks that’s a plausible reason to sink people’s retirement funds into these damn data centers, then he’s got more than a single screw loose (and “tech extremism” is indeed right out of the idiotic Trumpist playbook, assuming anybody knows what that actually means)...



...also, the “Logical Leftist” Jeff Waldorf gives us an update on Target killing their DEI initiatives to try and placate Combover Caligula, and by at least one measure, it ended up costing the company about $12 billion...also, the NY state pension fund (which held Target shares for its pensioners) issued a no confidence vote against former Target CEO Brian Cornell in response (a boycott by Georgia pastor Jamaal Bryant was the primary push-back against getting rid of the DEI initiatives)...I have to admit that I’ve never heard the term “rainbow capitalism” before...I thought this breakdown was pretty good in talking about how the shareholders treated the DEI matter versus how the customers treated it (mattered to the latter group but not the former, which is why gutting the initiatives blew up in Target’s metaphorical face)...



...and Trae Crowder gives us an update on the madness with the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool – I hadn’t seen that pic of the guy whose job it was to clean the pool, but he does indeed look like he just walked off a soundstage with Mumbles, Flat Top and Tess Trueheart (Dick Tracy refs, BTW)...also, I really could care less about the FIFA World Cup, partly because the head of that org has sucked up to Cheetoh Benito so shamelessly (though I agree with Crowder’s sentiment that the overall World Cup experience has been positive for this country because our *preznit has decided to keep his tiny, ketchup-stained hands out of it, so far)...I’d also heard about the infatuation with ranch dressing by those World Cup fans arriving on our shores, as well as the Scottish fans drinking Boston pubs dry except for Bud Light, which is pretty damn funny IMO (NSFW/H)...



...and I now give you today's regional weather forecast.

Tuesday Stuff

Steve Harness of Really American tells us that the Great American State Fair is going like gangbusters...actually, no, it really isn’t...oh, but we do have the Confederate rag on display at the North Carolina exhibit of course, because, as Harness says, what would a Trump-sponsored event be without a heaping helping of straight-up racism?...and look at the crowds! Why, I bet there’s actually tens of people there! And oh yeah, there is this too – the sarcasm writes itself, truly (NSFW/H)...



...and Robert Reich lets us know how Cantaloupe Capone’s gerrymandering plot could backfire...Repugs lost 40 U.S. House seats in the ’18 midterms during Combover Caligula’s wretched first term, and are poised to have a result at least that bad in a few months (though the aforementioned gerrymandering might take a chunk out of that)...a bit of a timely IMO history lesson on our disgusting SCOTUS tilting the scales once more for the “R” team by pretty much blowing up all of the VRA...I have tons of respect for Reich, but as far as I’m concerned, the “D” team should be pressing every conceivable advantage; more than “seat for seat,” we should be looking at ways to out-game the “party of Lincoln” to the fullest extent possible...only one political party supports the John Lewis For The People Act, and until that is eventually passed, I don’t care how dirty our side needs to fight when it comes to outsized voter representation...John Oliver had another good segment on this that I’ll try to get to, worth mentioning if for no other reason than for the laughably racist moment with outgoing Flori-DUUUH! guv #DeathSantis (cringingly awful, I mean)...



...and Belle of the Ranch lets us know that the “party of Lincoln” is continuing its attack on Social Security, to the point where funds are drying up faster than anticipated, with a reckoning potentially coming in six years...yep, looks like the usual political suspects are going to do their worst to ensure this vitally important program is privatized by 2032...at this point in our history, well into the beyond-awful second term under Our Treasonous Orange Pustule that voters, in their dunderheaded stoo-pidity, awarded to #47, I cannot imagine why any sentient life form would trust ANYTHING with the Trump name attached to it (re, Trump Accounts)...Belle is spot-on when she says that you’re not supposed to get stinking rich on Social Security, but it IS supposed to be a safety net against the ups and downs from the Big Casino run by the banksters...being the filthy, unkempt liberal blogger that I am, I’m going to keep pointing out that the main fix here is to get rid of the cap on earnings subject to Social Security withholding, and I’m sure that suggestion will go continue to go nowhere (love to be wrong)...



...and David Pakman presents Dem Sen. Richard Blumenthal stumping another Trumpist judicial nominee, and that would be another Federalist Society flunky named Matthew Byrne...as we can see, Blumenthal is asking if Biden won the ’20 election and if the Capitol was attacked on 1/6/21, which a third grader should be able to answer with a Yes...and oh yeah, #47’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran is supposedly winding down or something, but he still wants $87 billion even though millions in this country have lost their health insurance and health care facilities are closing without Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements...oh, and Meta is releasing its own AI-powered prediction market app – just what we all need according to exactly no one, amirite?...



...and ripped from recent headlines, I give you the following from Mr. Newberger (can't think of a word to describe the utterly pathetic behavior from Our Ochre Abomination)...



...and Sir Paul truly is a marvel for continuing to crank out good new music, including this tune.

Monday Stuff

John Iadarola of The Damage Report discusses the fact that the firing of Stephen Colbert by CBS has apparently blown up in the metaphorical face of “The Tiffany Network”...looks like, according to Nielsen data, two-thirds of Colbert’s audience has evaporated...wow, you mean Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” isn’t a ratings dynamo? Color me (not) shocked...oh, and it looks like they’re trying to revert a Bari Weiss firing involving Draggan Mihailovich, without success apparently, while also trying to keep another producer from resigning...and as noted previously, Nick Bilton is another one of “Bari’s kids” who is in WAAY TOO DEEP here...



...and as a bit of a follow-up, Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ informs us that it looks like CBS is going to get hit with a fine b/c Stephen Colbert played a song on his final show that he wasn’t supposed to (the “Linus and Lucy” theme) – good job!...looks like the money the network will have to pay for illegal use of the music will go to World Central Kitchen, which I think is a nice touch (as Khan says, it wouldn’t be surprising if Colbert and Lee Mendelson, who owns the copyright for the music, were in on this)...some of this is probably also covered in the “Damage Report” clip I know...

...and Jesse Dollemore gives us Pee Wee German leaning into still more of his unending torrent of utterly racist garbage...yes, I know there’s not much in the way of new stuff here, but I don’t think that means that the architect of the human rights abuses from this cabal of guttural lowlifes should get a pass either...oh, and Will Cain of Fix Noise is indeed a “dipsh*t” as Jesse points out, just sitting there letting Miller’s poison flow uninterrupted...as you listen to Miller’s verbal diarrhea (and I apologize for inflicting this on you), I would ask that you keep in mind that folks in red states (the largest audience for this crap) take in MUCH MORE from the federal government than folks in blue states do, so let’s dispense with this fiction that poor whites are better at service jobs and contributing to our economy than folks emigrating to this country and living in blue states...take a look at who is overwhelmingly employed at hospitals, assisted living and memory care facilities, etc...it’s not Billy Joe Jim Bob or Betty Jean Dupree or their neighbors in the trailer park, but people holding multiple jobs who’ve emigrated from the countries Miller despises...and by the way, pre-colonial Africa was a vast continent of diverse civilizations, characterized by powerful empires, advanced trade networks, and rich cultural traditions; far from isolated, these societies flourished through innovation, complex governance, and bustling trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean commerce centuries before formal European colonization began...more of Miller's garbage is here, and Cain's "Team America" reference is unintentionally hilarious (NSFW/H)...



...and this clip from the New York Times lets us know about Georgia residents who have had their property seized to extend power lines...the official story is that this is happening for both business and residential users, but unofficially, this is happening to build more damn data centers which are going to consume more and more damn energy...personally, I don’t believe that statistic that using eminent domain to seize the land outright is used only 1 percent of the time, as that spokeswoman for a utility tells us...at least one resident was able to negotiate a better deal so that he could possibly move, but anyone else who owns any property at all could be looking at the same fate as these folks, especially if you live in a red state...



...and happy belated 100th (!) birthday to the incomparable Melvin Kaminsky...



...and here is another summer selection.