I think this is how change starts to happen – all the best to the two wounded officers (here)…
…and speaking of gun insanity, Prof. Daniel Hamermesh is my latest hero for this…
...and I give you once again another installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" from 10/14/09, in which Jon Stewart has a lot of fun with the "leave it there" network, although CNN apparently did a good job with the recent Democratic presidential debate...
As former PA U.S. House Rep Patrick Murphy reminds us here, yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole (and I think some important context on that is here; basically, the official story – which I believe – is that it was not officially determined that bin Laden was responsible until after Clinton had left office, and that’s why Number 42 didn’t retaliate)…
...and by the way, there should be a HELL of a lot more of this right about now - I can't recall a better time for the Democrats to make the case of what kind of a SANE alternative they offer to Not Your Father's Republican Party, but aside from stuff like this, I'm pretty much hearing the sound of crickets (well, until the debate I mean)...
…and speak of the devil, I'll read about it tomorrow, thank you very much; in the meantime, I thought this was a funny bit from Trevor Noah…
…and God almighty, what is it with Republicans using songs without permission from the artists (here)? Even though, in this case, it gives me an excuse for this whompin’ little tune.
I think this is an example of humor getting a little too close to reality - the sad part is that it's basically true (not an excuse for giving up, I wish to emphasize)...
...and good for Katie Nolan, laying bare the hypocrisy of the oh-so-august-in-their-imaginations National Football League here (and Terry Bradshaw had similar commendable words on this subject)...
…and I thought this was a nice report from Al Jazeera America on a program in Maine for teenage offenders that serves as an alternative to prison (always wonder why conservatives don’t advocate cost-effective solutions like this, but I guess their need to look for someone to punish outweighs everything else)…
…and I know I just featured Yo-Yo Ma last week, but I’m going to go against the grain a bit again; today marks what would have been the 80th birthday of legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti (once more, a bit of culture for y’all - the English translation of this is gorgeous all by itself).
40 years ago today, Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of nuclear arms reduction – so much to his life that deserves appreciation for his courage and sacrifice; I apologize for the occasional poor quality of this video, but I think this gives us an invaluable history lesson…
…and changing the mood big time, I give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 10/9/12 – I present an extremely NSFW clip from “Funny or Die” called “Blacks for Romney” (as in Willard Mitt, of course)…
…and I’m glad to see Ben Carson get the treatment he deserves for his callous ignorance on the Oregon gun shooting victims; of course, leave it to a comedian to do it instead of any of our corporate media pretend journalists (here)…
Chris Hayes talks with Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, on our awful bombing of that hospital in Afghanistan (not much to say about it except that we f’d up – as wrong as that is, at least we owed up to it, which I realize is the least we can do)…
…and God, I thought we were done with this nonsense (re., Cenk and Ana talking about the Oklahoma teacher disciplining the 4-year-old for writing with his left hand)...
...and speaking somewhat of religion (were we?), Bill Maher comments in "New Rules" about the version of Him who the Repugs truly identify with...
…and gee, I wonder if, in addition to the Hillary Clinton gaffe, Kevin McCarthy bailed because he doesn’t know how to communicate without sounding like he got smacked in the head with a two-by-four (Hungria??)…
…and happy belated 60th birthday to world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma – time for a bit of culture...
"Pent-up demand"? What the hell is that - the latest talking point from the Roger Ailes BS Factory? Fortunately, Alan Grayson speaks truth to stoo-pidhere (and by the way, just because we dodged the proverbial bullet on this now doesn't mean we're out of the woods for good - all of this nonsense could come around again in December, as noted here)...
...and hey, as long as the Repugs keep giving her the ammunition (here and here)...
...though, as far as I'm concerned, Bernie Sanders gets to the heart of the matter here...
...and yeah, I hear them howl pretty much every day.
This is how the rest of the world sees us on the gun issue – doesn’t make me happy to say that they’re smarter than we are, but it’s the truth (here)…
...and Pia Carusone, executive director of the anti-gun violence group Americans For Responsible Solutions, speaks with Alex Witt on this subject (not ready to let up on it yet)...
…and yet again, if you’re looking for incisive, thought-provoking reporting on a difficult subject, turn to a comedian, because you sure as hell won’t find it from the “news” organizations with initials for names; in addition to being funny, John Oliver does all of us a great service once more here…
...and this guy is coming to the TLA in Philly on November 1st - should be a good show.
…and I don’t think there’s a whole lot we can do about people disappointed because they’re not rich, apparently ingesting the lies our corporate media foists upon them, but you'd better believe there is something we can do about guns…
...and keeping with this subject, Jake Tapper talks to Mark Kelly about the fact that gun-free zones don't matter when it comes to this stuff, among other gun-related topics (here)...
…and to give you an idea of how long we’ve been fighting this battle, I present the following from here (though, to be fair, it took the murders of both RFK and Dr. King to enact this)…
…and 20 years ago last Saturday, O.J. Simpson was acquitted in the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman; I know this clip is an attempt at humor mainly because I don’t know what else to say about a crime that exposed such a raw racial nerve as that one did – Simpson was guilty as hell as far as I and many other people are concerned…he’s currently serving a 33-year prison sentence for unrelated felonies, and if he ever does get out, he probably won’t have much of a life left, which, as far as I’m concerned, is better than he deserves (more here)…
(And by the way, you DO know that this is a parody of "Strangers On A Train," don't you?)...
..and bad “Z”-list blogger that I am, I realize that I don’t focus nearly as much as I should on local stuff in our beloved commonwealth, so I’ll try to make amends with this clip, where PA-31 U.S. House Rep (and Dem U.S. House 8th District Democratic candidate) Steve Santarsiero talks with Jill Horner of Comcast about the budget impasse (and here is more on the severance tax that Steve discussed)…
...and happy belated 125th birthday to Groucho Marx ("I'm Against It," the theme song of Not Your Father's Republican Party)...
…and I know I already noted the 70th birthday of Don McLean last Friday, but I was really going back and forth between the tune I chose to embed and the other one, which is this, so here it is (don’t blink or you’ll miss the ending).
Well said indeed, Mr. President (more incredibly depressing stuff on this here, but it needs to be pointed out)...
...and here's a great idea, if I do say so myself (more on the Planed Parenthood thing in a minute)...
...and as long as we're on the subject of congressional inaction and stupidity, I give you this also...
...and oh yeah - here's Larry Wilmore pointing out what those morons in Congress were doing instead of trying to prevent mass murder in this country (here)...
...and it looks like John Oliver has done it again, this time on Fix Noise and its "terrorist refugees" video (here)...
…and Thom Hartmann brings us labor and economic news for the week…
Looks like Repug U.S. House Rep Kevin McCarthy was dumb enough to give away the game - and we all knew it was nothing but a game anyway (some really good questions posed by Rachel Maddow at the end...the Dems should no longer have anything whatsoever to do with this ZOMGBENGHAZI!!! idiocy...sounds like McCarthy needs a lot, including a copy editor and someone to acquaint him with the basics of the English language; God, I'm fed up with listening to stupid Republicans who don't know how to talk!)...
…and speaking of the GOP and their beloved "base" which I honestly don't believe can survive without Clinton hatred, I give you the face of simmering white rage – I think what is truly scary about these individuals is the matter-of-factness of their persecution complexes (though the quote “I can’t save my race by stomping other people” indicates more self-reflection that I usually hear about from these life forms)…
...and kudos to Glass Point Solar for this - yes, as far as I'm concerned, oil exploration, though necessary to some degree, is ultimately a race to the bottom, but emphasizing solar is perhaps delaying the inevitable for now...
…and once more, based on this, it looks like it’s time for this song – dear God.
Kudos to Larry Wilmore for giving it right back to Jeb! “Free Stuff” Bush here (oh, and did I point out that he’s the “smart” one of that family?)…
…and Cenk and Ana give Martin Shkreli, that total weasel of a CEO from Turing Pharmaceuticals, the treatment he deserves for price gouging on drugs, which apparently he has pulled before…
...and it looks like the water is running out in Tulare County, CA - gee, maybe we ought to do something about this climate change thing...paging Senator Snowball...
Good for Chris Hayes and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld for not letting up when it comes taking a good, hard look at exactly what kind of a fraud Carly Fiorina is (and why in God's name is Governor Bully still in this race? Why the hell aren't New Jerseyans bitching like crazy? And by the way, congrats to Hayes and his show for this)...
...and it's time for another installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" from 9/29/11, in which K.O. (in his Current TV incarnation) talks with Matt Taibbi about Occupy Wall Street..."maybe there just aren't enough funny hats" indeed - seriously, I think the "Occupy" movement can be thanked a bit for the thus-far successful campaign of Bernie Sanders, but as rotten as the politics of this country are (as opposed to somewhere where they aren't?), that's the only way to effect change...I keep looking for the "Occupy" folks to field a slate of candidates, and I guess I'd better keep looking...
...and, speaking only for myself, I could have done without Bill Maher's cheap shot at Hillary Clinton, but otherwise, I think this is a spot-on commentary about how the wingnuts choose their heroes or heroines (still wondering why they haven't embraced former Bucks County schoolteacher Natalie Munro, she who was fired for derogatory blogging about her students...the school board said it was also for performance...but give them time)...
…and speaking of George Zimmerman, as long as this idiot has made an appearance in the news once again (with this thoroughly repellent gesture), that gives me an excuse for this song.
Aside from Cole Hamels’ no-hitter, the five runs scored against Jonathan Papelbon in a 12-5 win concluding the Phillies’ series with the Nationals (here) may be the highlight of the year – I admit that that doesn’t say much about what kind of a year the Phillies have had, but considering their run from ’07 until ’12, they really were due for a letdown...oh, and what’s featured in this clip is pretty funny too – looks like Pap will be getting shopped to yet another team in the offseason – take those lectures of yours about how the Phillies are lacking effort or whatever and stick them where the sun don’t shine - at least Bryce Harper has his best years ahead of him (which is scary I'll admit), which is more than I can say for you…
...and a hat tip to David Sirota for this; Hedrick Smith interviewed John Boehner about the time that Boehner handed out checks from the tobacco industry on the floor of the House to preserve the tobacco industry subsidy, which was a pretty bald-faced admission of who those who voted in favor of the subsidy truly served...
…and thankfully, everything went well for The Holy Father when he visited this area (heh); with that in mind, I thought this was an interesting interview Thom Hartmann conducted with author Kevin Kruse on the subject of religion and the corpocracy earlier this year…
…and NOW IS THE TIME ON SPROCKETS WHEN WE DANSE! (Google it if you have any questions.)
Bye bye, Orange Man – in addition to the fact that his own internal polling among Republicans was pretty lousy (so why exactly are they tired of him now after continually sending him back every two years, I wonder?), I think this is a pretty clear indication that the inmates running the asylum of the U.S. House intend to try to shut down the government again…love to be wrong.
When thinking of the appropriate sendoff for quite possibly the very worst of the charlatans on Capitol Hill (definitely a club you don’t want to be part of), this video came to mind just about immediately…
…and once again, Shep Smith of Fix Noise goes off script, this time concerning the Pope – kudos to him (here)…
...though, as great as it is that the Pope is here, this story, sadly and tragically, needs to be kept front and center also...
…and I said last night that Rachel Maddow was back in a good groove again – this segment proves it (bye bye to you too, Raymond Burke, you whited sepulcher)…
...and switching away from the Pope for a minute, I have to admit that I’m particularly fed up with all of the garbage out there concerning Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held in captivity by the Taliban for five years, and fortunately, Lawrence O’Donnell apparently is too – the hell with Trump, who doesn’t possess anything remotely like a moral compass anyway; what about those who take Trump seriously…
…and I’ve been trying to come up with a musical selection for the Pope’s visit to the City of Brotherly Love (basically, except for anything related to the Holy Father’s visit, Philadelphia is basically closed until about Monday afternoon), and I settled on this.
Calling for the abolition of the death penalty was commendable of course, but I hope our corporate media doesn’t forget to note (though they probably will) what Pope Francis said in the last minute of this clip about how the U.S. is still making a killing, literally and figuratively, selling arms throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East (more here)…
(Oh, and I wonder where those supposedly fine, upstanding Catholics Antonin Scalia and “Strip Search Sammy” Alito were for the Pope’s address? I realize that it’s not a sin if they didn’t attend, but for all of their moralistic harrumphing, you would think they would have been there. Or was it that, because of the supposedly liberal leanings of the Pontiff, they came down with a case of the “Pope Frankie Flu”?)
Update 9/25/15: I thought this was some typically interesting information from Charles Pierce; I'm sure the Pope's text omission Pierce notes was accidental, but dag, wouldn't it have been awesome if it had made it into the speech.
...and Rachel Maddow (who, fortunately for all of us, seems to have found her groove, as it were, once again) had this interesting report last night in advance of the Pope's address to Congress ("Yes We Vatican" - clever)...
...and I give you "This Day In Doomsy History" once more from 9/24/10, with Jon Stewart delivering a GREAT debunking of U.S. House Republican claims that "oh baby, I've changed...really" - of course, what's really depressing to think about while watching this clip is that, because of typical lethargy from a majority of Democratic voters in off-year elections, the Repugs won the House anyway...
RIP Yogi Berra - if you ever want to get an idea of just how good a player he was and how important he was to those championship New York Yankees teams, look up the "Ken Burns: Baseball" series and try to view the segment called "My Man," where Yankees manager Casey Stengel (no stranger to malapropisms either) talked about Berra - this video features many of his highlights (more here)...
…and yeah, I think Cenk nailed this on the Pope a little while ago - typical for thw wingnuts…
…and I probably should have found a way to include this yesterday, but we learn about Fr. Greg Boyle helping ex-cons register to vote in California in the following video; once again, Al Jazeera America reports a story ignored by our corporate media…
…and I’m in the mood for something a little different musically…something in red, maybe?
If this clip doesn’t provide evidence that, overwhelmingly, Pope Francis is on the right track, then I don’t know what will (witness the "welcome" that awaits you from the usual conservative suspects, Your Holiness...to be honest, I don't know who's funnier - Alex Jones or Greg Gutfeld)…
...and Hillary Clinton is back with another clever campaign ad IMHO based on that ridiculous second Republican "debate" - as long as they keep giving us the ammunition...
...and I haven't been happy with Rachel Maddow lately, but this is some really nice reporting on that bogus "veterans" group that The Donald ended up publicizing; apparently the person behind it broke California law too - looks like you might be on your way to the gray bar hotel, you creep...
…and kudos to Chris Hayes for actually practicing journalism in response to more Repug idiocy, this time from Carly Fiorina, who apparently thinks that she can lie with impunity also…
…and by the way, today is National Voter Registration Day (more here)…
…and a belated happy 30th anniversary to Farm Aid, with a clip from the original concert with Glen, Waylon, Johnny and Willie.
Yes I know, he's really just an entertainer when you get down to it and you could argue whether or not he should be held to the same standard as a journalist, but I'm sorry...I thought this was a really repellent moment from Bill Maher, though he did make up for it a little with this (and I'll overlook the remark about religion...NSFW of course)...
(Actually, I had a talk with the teenaged one about the Irving, Texas thing, and he pointed out that Ahmed Mohammed probably would have been treated this way regardless of his ethnicity because the school apparently had a zero-tolerance policy, and also the boy was warned to put the briefcase away and he didn't do it. I'll admit that there may be more to this than meets the eye, but I'm tired of listening to Maher lecture liberals about political correctness, as if that's anywhere near the pressing issue that Maher thinks it is relative to the other real, honest-to-goodness issues we really have to deal with in this country.)
…and changing topics - I’ll admit that I’m biased on this subject, but I think those women on “The View” (Including Joy Behar, who I thought had more sense) were idiots to attack Miss Colorado for appearing in her scrubs in that pageant and talking the way she did about her patients – I don’t think there was anything wrong with that, and I think Kelley Johnson should be commended for it, actually…
…and “Who will you make peace with?” is a great question – I have a couple of candidates – TBD…
(I also vented in a topical vein here, for what it's worth.)
Putting aside the idiocy of the questions in New Hampshire aimed at The Donald (And you know what? Those questions were just out-and-out stoo-pid – the fact that any biped of the Homo sapiens variety out there would still think that we’re going to be overrun by Muslims, as well as that reference to the Clinton News Network…God, what a festival of duuuh!), Sen. Bernie Sanders gave what I thought was a good response on the issue of VA health care (here’s a thought – try NOT invading Middle East countries and creating more casualties, and maybe our VA wouldn’t be overrun), as well as his commentary at the last minute…
...and this is about as much of an analysis of that farce the other night as I care to watch (NSFW – and Jimmy Dore makes a GREAT point about Bernie Sanders at about 7:00, and boy, is he right with that last sentence at the very end)…
…and yet again, John Oliver makes an important point with humor, this time concerning our public defenders (here – and NSFW also of course)…
…and if I were to choose, I would probably pick Fallon over Kimmel, though the latter definitely has had good performers on his show, including this one.
Gee, maybe instead of paying attention to that stupid "debate" last night, we ought to be focusing on this instead (though I should say that I was starting to wonder about this too)...
…and this tells us the latest on Israeli whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu, back under house arrest after an 18-year imprisonment for disclosing information on Israel’s nukes (with commentary by Daniel Ellsberg)…
...and sticking with world stuff, I thought this was a good interview with Ishaan Tharoor of Jeff Bezos Daily about the stuff going on the Middle East that we should be paying more attention to than trying to scuttle the treaty with Iran (Alex Witt continues to bring us interesting TV IMHO, doing her part to fill an ever-widening void on that score from that "liberal" MSNBC network)...
...and happy 65th (!) birthday to Fee Waybill of The Tubes (clip is a bit NSFW).
I'm sure it doesn't need to be pointed out by now that Bernie Sanders is nobody's fool, people (a little late with this I know, but I wanted to offer a bit of a sane alternative to the freak show on display tonight)...
…and this video is the best reaction I can provide to go along with this (by the way, listening to Kristol Mess say how NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is supposed to have self-reflection, or something, just about made me vomit)…
…and I give you yet another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from two years ago on this date, in which that Martin Bashir (who supposedly was such a dastardly liberal that he had to be forced out at MSNBC for making a yucky but veiled remark about Caribou Barbie) gave us some appropriate context IMHO on how we got to the mess that Syria is right now (think our ol’ buddy Vlad Putin) – the takeaway for me, though, is the timeless quote from “Win with Winnie” Churchill about this country…
…oh, and just for the record, let it be known that I don’t think Chrissie Hynde needs to explain a damn thing to me or anyone else – anyone with half a brain (which eliminates most people on TV, I realize) would understand that she was talking about herself and absolutely no one else (here).
I thought this video was a very NSFW parody, but after reading this, I'm not so sure...
...and I know we observed the 14th anniversary of the attacks last week, but I'm adding this video now because it is still necessary, apparently, to remind those life forms on Capitol Hill that the James Zadroga Act for 9/11 first responders needs to be, at the very least, renewed - actually, it needs to be permanently funded...
...and Thom Hartmann brings us the latest in science and "green" news...
…and as long as I’m on the subject, I thought this was a great interview that Chris Hayes conducted with filmmaker James Cameron on the climate and making smart food choices…
…and this was some of the best political commentary I’ve heard in a while (and not from Tweety, of course) – once again, if you want to cut to the proverbial chase, you need a comedian…
...and there just isn't enough space to add all of the great stuff out there from Joan Osborne, including this.
God bless Moses Malone, a guy who, more than anyone else, did something for the still-utterly-moribund 76ers that almost no one had done before or has done since...
...and silly Chris Hayes - hasn't he gotten the memo about "The Clinton Rules" (yes, I'm being tongue-in-cheek; I'm sure he has)...
...and I know Bill Maher is being tongue-in-cheek as well in this very NSFW commentary, which I suppose is a spoof of some of "The Donald's" antics...yep, that skin color makes all the difference, doesn't it, Repugs?...
...and RIP Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon – yes, there was a time when I was into this band.
This happened 30 years ago today – yes, we would later find out that he was betting on baseball, but I’m sorry; I have a soft spot for Pete Rose, partly because the Phillies would never have won the World Series in 1980 without him…he did wrong, but hasn’t he paid enough? Just reinstate him already…
…and here is a dose of reality therapy from Mike Malloy…
…and yeah, this is pretty goddamn appalling (more here – the Martin O’Malley interview wasn’t bad, by the way, but Hayes couldn’t resist asking about that stupid so-called issue with Hillary Clinton’s Email)…
…and the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is set to expire (David Howley, a retired NYPD officer and 9/11 first responder, is interviewed here, urging Congress to renew the Act)…
…and I haven’t forgotten about the significance of this day either.
On the one hand, this stuff trumps any alleged shenanigans with an Email server and a personal account, but on the other hand, Governor Bully will never win the Republican presidential nomination anyway…
…and even though Jon Stewart is gone, Larry Wilmore, among others, is still around to speak truth to stoo-pid, this time on all the Kim Davis stuff here (nicely done, particularly at the end)…
…and why should I not be surprised by what John and Cenk are telling us here about the Gulf States doing virtually nothing to help Syrian refugees? Love the graphic, though...
…and kudos to Michael Stipe for this – always a sucker for jangly-sounding guitars.
Thom Hartmann brings us economic news from 9/8 (more on TANF is here, by the way, and those smiley-faced bastards are at it again – and kudos to Connecticut and Governor Dannel Malloy for taking care of our homeless veterans, which is truly the least we can do)…
…and hey, don’t get too stressed about this story about the NYC cops complaining about being held accountable for their idiotic “stop and frisk” policy, where 4 out of 5 people on average are innocent – if it were up to Governor Bully and this was NJ, he’d probably tell the cops to stick bar codes on everybody (here – definitely NSFW)…
...and I think the assumption here that this show of force is China's way of flipping the bird, as it were, to the rest of the world, is a correct one - damn, this narrator seriously needs to speak up...
I think K.O. answered Big Time better in response to this than I ever could (oh, and when it comes to Bushco and GITMO, let's not forget this)…
…and I’m sure Andy Parker is serious about what he says here – all the best (NSFW)…
...…and I give you the latest installment of “This Day in Doomsy History” from 9/7/09, in which Minnesota Senator Al Franken talks a Teahadist back to reality (yes, it can be done, though not easily)…
…and this story is particularly important for Memorial Day or Veterans Day, but really, it’s important year round…
I thought this was a neat little video on the history of Labor Day (more here and here)...
…and here’s a timely reminder on this subject addressed to The Orange One (yes, more work to do, as it were, but let’s have a little perspective here, OK?)…
…and yep, this sounds pretty open-and-shut to me also…
…and I usually feature that great cover by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band today, but I thought I’d change things up a bit.
All the best to New York educator Sheri Lederman over her utterly needless (should be, anyway) fight over using something called value-added modeling to evaluate teacher performance, another example of the many ills of standardized testing (and we can’t blame the Repugs entirely for this, with Andrew Cuomo and Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan sitting on that stupid panel telling us everything is OK)…
...and speaking of educators, this video is a backgrounder on the story of Natalie Munro, the Bucks County teacher who claims that she was fired because of disparaging comments about students on her blog, even though (as the clip reminds us) the school board said she was let go because of poor performance. If it turns out that the school board is right, then this really is an open-and-shut case, though it makes me a bit suspicious that a court found that she can’t sue the school board, as was recently ruled as noted here.
I’ll be honest; if Mrs. Doomsy and I found out that one of the teenaged one’s teachers had posted disparaging comments about students online, we’d be mad as hell. Would I necessarily want that teacher fired if his/her performance was good otherwise? I don’t know.
I just know that some friends of ours are teachers, and they basically are told that they have to work miracles in the face of mandatory testing, ever-diminishing budgets, incompetent administrators and “parents” who can’t even take care of themselves, let alone their offspring (and oh yeah, the supposed “crisis” over the alleged student shortage of STEM majors, which is nothing but a scam to generate more H-1B visas to create a glut of workers for a shrinking amount of jobs to keep wages depressed).
I also have a feeling that, with the incarceration of Kim Davis, the wingnuts are looking for a new “values” hero or heroine, and I have a suspicion that they may decide to make Munro the new object of their twisted affections, as it were…
…and speaking of faux outrage, good for Cenk and Ana giving it right back to Billo and the other news mannequins at Fix Noise being pulled by Roger Ailes’ puppet strings (here); I have to admit that I’m on the fence when it comes to Black Lives Matter – I think they should tone down the rhetoric and try more to build bridges instead of walls (protesting Bernie freaking Sanders??!!), though they definitely have a right to be angry and that should be respected – if BLM is a “hate group,” then I’m a Chinese aviator (NSFW of course...one more thing; Dr. George Tiller was murdered in his church, not at his clinic)…
…and I think this calls for this song one more time; haven’t put it up for a little while.
Silly Chris Hayes – doesn’t he know that purposeful, righteous shaming of our elected officials like this is sooooo pre 9/11 – OK, snark mode off; kudos to Hayes for saying this…
…oh, and in case you’ve been wondering what happened to our rain in these United States, this tells us of the awful flooding in Russia and China, which has a lot to do with the misery at the Green Island Zoo in Ussuriysk noted in the clip below (all of this is still under investigation, I should point out...and by the way, I'm definitely not trying to trivialize the enormous suffering going on - if you want to help, click here and here, though I don't vouch for these sites)…
…and it looks like Sesame Street figured out what was going on with The Donald long before anybody else (here – and no snark about Kevin Clash, please)…
…and I’d like to present the following for local folk in Bucks County, PA, and the Philadelphia area; local musician Gregg Parker will perform the music of singer/songwriter Harry Chapin exclusively at the first free "Harry Chapin Hall of Fame Petition Drive, Tribute and Benefit" at Old York Cellars Winery, 80 Old York Road tomorrow from 1-5 PM in an effort to get Chapin inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (didn’t know there was one – a no-brainer of a choice as far as yours truly is concerned…more details are in the linked story…there’s a YouTube clip out there of a tribute concert to Chapin from about ’82, and Pat Benatar did an absolutely amazing cover of this song).
Good news from the NLRB for contract workers and their efforts to unionize (more here)...
...and way to go, all you idiots in the PA legislature who keep fighting Gov. Tom Wolf over his sane, responsible budget - witness the effect of your sloth and stupidity (and yes, I know Chester Upland has had problems for a little while now, but Harrisburg is partly on the hook here too)...
Alex Witt talks to Shawn Henry, former FBI director and (now) consultant on rail security, on what we can do to help with keeping our trains safe both in this country and abroad (basically, “see something, say something” - maybe not terribly original, but an important reminder)…
..and with the supposedly "progressive" MSNBC network pretty much in full retreat, I need to bring some other voices to the table, as it were, so I now give you cartoonist Mark Fiore (who I probably should have included all along anyway)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, it looks like Mark Hamill is laying a Jedi mind trick on all of the gun nuts out there by sending out a tweet in support of Andy Parker, father of slain daughter Alison, the latest casualty from the utterly wretched plague of gun violence that self-inflicts this country (NSFW)...
...and I guess putting up this tune means that summer is winding down - sigh.
Rev. Al may have been exiled to a comparatively crappy time slot on Sundays, but that doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t have important stuff to say, as he does here to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, which would be called a hate crime if it had happened now…
…and once again, with the Katrina anniversary in mind, Vice News does real reporting on what’s happening with the Gulf coast…
…and I’m putting up this video once again for the benefit of PA’s own Senator Bob Casey, who apparently is STILL undecided about the Iran deal (to try and persuade him to favor the deal, click here)…
Update 9/1/15: Way to go, Bob and Sen. Chris Coons (here).
...and I'm definitely overdue for a new tune, and I think this is a great one.
Chris Hayes talks to Harry Shearer about the aftermath of Katrina and the condition of the levees surrounding New Orleans (the "wet ankles" quote is particularly noteworthy)...
...and I would say that Rachel Maddow does great work here in this Katrina retrospective, in particular remembering Tim Russert, giving Mike Brown the treatment he deserves, and making up a bit for all of her recent fluff on the clown car of Republican presidential candidates (here - and why am I not the least bit surprised by this?)...
...and good for Melissa Harris Perry to really articulate the disgust that comes to mind over the sad performance of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History during that debacle (here)...
…and I guess this musical selection is too easy of a choice, but I can’t think of a better one.
John Oliver continues to address important issues using humor, as he does here on the matter of a federal law protecting LGBT individuals (the stuff about the baker and the cake is a bit unsettling, though I’m sure it isn’t true – hope not anyway)…
…and I really should include something on this week’s horrific gun tragedy; be warned, though – you might find the video particularly unsettling, and You Tube may ask you to log in before viewing it (NSFW of course)…
…and if you didn’t think much of our ol’ buddy Vlad Putin before, my guess is that you REALLY won’t think much of him after you watch this (wonder if Former Commander Codpiece saw this when he supposedly looked into Putin’s “soul”? And by the way, the "Debunktion Junction" segment that followed was about Pat Roberts, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley protesting about Obama wanting terrorists to be moved from Guantanamo to detention facilities in Kansas and South Carolina...typical wingnut caterwauling - Maddow redeemed herself a bit with this report IMHO)...
…and Think Progress put up this video a little while ago on how The Donald’s supposed immigration policy is typically preposterous…
…also, Al Jazeera America brings us this interview with John Keller, a man who survived Katrina (which was beating the hell out of the Gulf coast about 10 years ago right now) and helped many others as well…
...and 40 years ago last Tuesday (ye Gods!), Bruce Springsteen released “Born To Run,” which, in addition to blowing everything else musically out of the water, as it were (he was on the cover of both Time and Newsweek after it came out), also saved his career since he was about to be dropped by Columbia Records (we now know how great his first two LPs, from those days of analog, actually were, but they weren’t considered that at the time) – all 8 tracks of “Born to Run” are great as far as I’m concerned, including this one.
Rev. Al pays tribute to civil rights icon Amelia Boynton Robinson, who recently passed at 104 – God bless her (and oh yeah, Al is getting moved to Sunday mornings on MSNBC, as part of that network’s supposed retreat from progressive programming, with other casualties including Ed Schultz and Alex Wagner; she wasn’t really progressive under any stretch of the imagination as far as I’m concerned – I say “supposed” because, with the possible exception of the years with “Countdown” at 8 PM EST with K.O., MSNBC wasn’t really ever “progressive” in the first place…and that includes Rachel Maddow who, as far as I’m concerned, is damn near close to unwatchable now)…
,,,and as this New York Times video tells us, to figure out what's going on with China's economy, try to follow the bacon (all I can say in response is the following: welcome to our world, at least when it comes to competition in exports)...
...also, Lawrence O'Donnell interviews Susan Sarandon about the effort to stay the execution of convicted death row inmate Richard Glossip in Oklahoma and get Glossip a new trial (petition is here)...
...and this may be hard to believe, but it's been 25 years since SRV left us - not sure that that void will ever really go away.
(Yes, I can assure you that I am indeed aware of the latest gun-related horror. And I don't know how the hell those life forms in Washington, D.C. in Congress can still continue to do NOTHING in response.)
By the way, there's a theme to these first three videos - see if you can guess what it is (yes, this clip is about a week old, I know - it took me that long to watch all of it without throwing up - here - Update 8/27/15: And with this in mind, by the way.)...
...and Cenk's completely justifiable outrage, mainly during the last minute or so, makes this clip NSFW, but if he didn't say that stuff over this awful story, I probably would; this has to do with those two clowns in Boston who urinated on the homeless guy and also beat him with a pole (oh, sorry - "allegedly") and claimed to be "inspired" by The Donald...
Update 8/27/15: And by the way, following up on Cenk, this to me is the very definition of "white privilege" (my guess is that Daniels watches a lot of Fox "News").
…and yes, it’s time once more for “This Day In Doomsy History,” but this time with a “two-fer”: first, I give you more indignation aimed at The Roger Ailes BS Factory from Chris Hayes, dated 8/23/13…
Update 8/27/15: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (here).
…and second, I still dig this Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tune from 8/26/10 (I’ll return to more contemporary selections one of these days, I promise).
Thom Hartmann talks with Mike Papantonio about how the inmates have truly taken over the asylum of Not Your Father's Republican Party...
...and here are some recent headlines from Vice News, a group doing real reporting (UK re-opening embassy in Tehran and Mexico’s using drones to help rare turtles, among other stories)…
...and al jazeera America talks to Gen. Russel Honore on the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (more on Gen. Honore from here)...
...and apparently it's necessary to put up this tune once more in response to this dope (more idiocy from McQueary is here - being a true wingnut, the only thing she knows how to do in response is double-down; h/t Atrios - Katrina was going on now, but its full impact would be felt on or about 8/28/05).
Bill Maher makes good points here as usual...and by the way, instead of the "sharing" economy, I might call this the "sponging" and "grifting" economy, where EVERYONE is CONSTANTLY ASKING YOU FOR MONEY, whether it's the public radio or TV station, the church, a political party and/or candidate...so goddamn done with it (NSFW of course)...
...and as Rev. Al reminds us here, it's always "jobs, jobs, jobs" for Not Your Father's Republican Party (in particular, "No Corporate Tax" Pat Toomey)...
…and Chris Hayes talks with economist Joseph Stiglitz about the recent market turmoil (yeah, it’s all Obama and Planned Parenthood’s fault – uh huh; by the way, Chris Christie is – big surprise – a thoroughly unrepentant liar whose joke of a presidential run will conclude shortly)…
…and with that story in mind, I give you the following.
