Farron Cousins tells us that the ARP was written in such a way that you can’t put $$ in the general fund of a state or commonwealth to cut taxes, so OF COURSE 21 Republican legislatures are SUING over it...as actor Bradley Whitford said forever ago about the Repugs, tax cuts are their Jesus...
...and speaking of idiotic Republican state legislatures, Rachel Maddow tells us how those culprits in Missouri are trying to block Medicaid expansion...
...and MSNBC’s Alex Wagner speaks with Jacob Soboroff on Dems and Repugs at our southwest border and who is trying to do some good and who is looking for photo-ops (yeah, I’m sure you know who’s who on that score, right?)...
...and speaking of illegal immigration, it looks like Repug Montana U.S. Senator Steve Daines recently lamented over homegrown meth, apparently, versus what is coming over the border (is Daines a subject matter expert here, I wonder? Mildly NSFW from David Doel – paging Walter White)...
...and I don’t know much about Dr. Naomi Wolf, but it looks like she got owned on Twitter by Ken Klippenstein for trying to spread some anti-COVID-vax nonsense (John I. and Francesca explain)...
...and today marks the 40th anniversary of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the shooting of three others, including Press Secretary James Brady, by John Hinckley, Jr. (here - I realize Hinckley used a .22-caliber revolver and not a .38 which this tune is about, which is fortunate – sorry anyone was shot at all, but all four people probably would have been killed – but even though I know I’ve been overdoing it with the gun songs, I thought the occasion called for this one...and speaking of guns, there is this).
Last Thursday marked the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (shop shown in pic), which took the lives of 146 people and led to labor reforms including the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (John and Wosny Lambre draw a parallel between this and the fight for unionization of Amazon workers)...
...and Kyle K., echoing Wosny Lambre a bit, tells us why the Repugs have no ideas – I think this is a startlingly spot-on commentary for the most part, though I also think he dumps on the ARP in kind of a dumb way...yeah, it could ALWAYS be better, but look at the merits of it more seriously please...and I seem to recall Dems pushing back on the Dr. Seuss/Mr. Potato Head nonsense, contrary to Kyle’s claims (NSFW)...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us about some of the debate on the DC statehood push (yeah, no mines and car dealerships, huh, and that latter part isn’t even true as it turns out – God, the stoo-pidity)...
...and I'm looking for something a little mellow for the weekend (and I guess with the ILGWU in mind) - hope this will suffice.
Chris Hayes tells us about Georgia’s ridiculous new laws to curtail voting in that state, along with State Rep Park Cannon getting assaulted and carried off when she tried to witness the signing of the bill by that state’s illegitimate Governor Brian Kemp (here) – there should be all kinds of stuff in response, including destroying the U.S. Senate filibuster and passing the “For The People” act to overrule this...I also saw Charlie Pierce I believe make the excellent suggestion that Major League Baseball should move this year’s All Star Game from Atlanta - good call...
...and sticking with voting, I thought Beau of the Fifth Column was spot-on again here, on the subject of Dominion and their defamation lawsuit against Fix Noise for $1.6 billion (he may be right about more people getting sued at The Roger Ailes BS Factory)...
...and in keeping with the theme of Republican election nonsense, Rachel Maddow tells us about Aaron Van Langevelde in Michigan, the Republican vice chair of the that state’s Board of Canvassers, who sided with the rule of law in counting the votes in the ’20 election between Biden and Trump (yeah, he had to do what he did or he could have been sued also, but he gets kudos for standing up against what I’m sure was a tidal wave of BS from the Trumpsters not to certify the results)...
...and returning to the theme of the latest gun carnage, Joy Reid speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep (and U.S. Army vet of the 82nd Airborne) Jason Crow...and again, we’re returning to the theme of blowing up the filibuster, which desperately needs to happen...
...and related to the prior clip, this Now This video tells us of all of our U.S. Senators and U.S. House members bankrolled by the NRA...
...and speaking of pointless cruelty, Farron Cousins tells us about our “good friends” the Saudis bombing the crap out of Yemen, with a quarter of the casualties being children (15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers...)...
...and in an effort to be a bit hopeful here, I present this Meidas Touch clip on Attorney General Merrick Garland; yeah, wouldn’t it be ironic if Garland ended up making a bigger impact in this job than he would have as a Supreme Court justice, a role he was cheated out of by Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao?...
...and since what’s old is new again given the voting garbage going on in Georgia (and with the pic at the top of this post in mind), I present this tune from back in the day.
In response to that thoroughly execrable POS #CancunCruz here, I present the following video of actual grieving human beings from our most recent gun carnage in Boulder, CO (“We have to be loud, not silent.” Indeed...and oh yeah, there's this too)...
...and sticking with Repug U.S. Senatorial asshats, David Pakman tells us that John N. Kennedy is concerned about “idiot control” instead of gun control (maybe he should start with himself)...
...and in response to Cruz and Kennedy, I present this clip of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger (who was hardly a lib, it should be noted) talking about, in essence, the utter fraud of the misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment (and Burger mentions cars too)...
...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about all the moolah Cruela DeVos “earned” while taking up space as Trumpster Ed Secretary (pardon me while I puke)...
...and gee, did you know that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao said the filibuster wasn’t racist? Uh, suuure – “just say ‘oops’ and get out” (and c’est dommage on this too, Sen. McTurtle... and yeah, “What indeed are the Democrats going to do about the filibuster?” That is indeed the question, but I guess they’d better ask “President” Manchin)...
...and it looks like U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Y’all-Qaeda) used our currency as an attempted excuse to attack Georgia’s “souls to the polls” Sunday voting initiative, trying to claim some “holier than thou” high ground (and call me a filthy unkempt liberal blogger, but what the hell is she doing commenting on voting in Georgia? Oh, and isn’t the “sabbath” from dusk Friday to dusk Saturday and not Sunday anyway? David Shuster explains)...
...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, kudos once again to Rachel Maddow for connecting the dots on Texas Repug Sen. John Cornyn’s opposition to Vanita Gupta at the DOJ – more here (God almighty, how much of an idiot do you have to be to vote for these characters like all of the Repug senators in this post? Maybe it’s just as well that I don’t know)...
...and given what just happened in CO, I have to tell you that I'm not done with my gun songs (particularly in light of this treasonous numbskull from that state), so here's another one.
It makes me mad that the entire “A” block of The Rachel Maddow Show from last night is apparently unavailable by itself – at least, I can’t find it (re, our wretched history of trying to get common sense gun laws passed – I found out that the latest lunatic alleged to commit mass gun slaughter in Boulder a few days ago was born the year of the Columbine massacre, which is truly a pitiable, disgusting symmetry as far as I’m concerned)...I say that with the following excerpt in mind because the entire nearly-half-hour segment was positively epic (lots of talk on social media on how Maddow quite rightly pilloried Joe Manchin...and I’m tired of this ridiculous garbage of, oh, we’d better make Manchin happy or else he’ll become a Repug and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao will be back in charge again – how much longer is the majority of this country going to allow itself to be held hostage because about 30 or so percent of it, from largely but not completely southern and western rural states, is certifiably insane?)...
...and I know I already linked to this, but David Doel reminds us about that vile NRA tweet about overturning the Boulder ordinance banning AR-15s and limiting magazine sizes shortly before the latest gun carnage in that city (hey, where was the “good guy with a gun” while people were being shot to pieces? And no, I’m not trying to trivialize the loss of life in any way)...
...so, if we’re not talking about common sense gun reforms, what IS the “party of Lincoln” focusing on instead? Do you even need to ask? Sam and Emma on TMR tell us (In a weird way I guess, it’s almost refreshingly honest to hear Asa Hutchinson say that that ridiculous Arkansas anti-abortion law was written in such a way that it would be challenged to the point where it would be appealed to the SCOTUS...their end game here is to criminalize abortion in all forms, and also prosecute women and their physicians and health care providers if one is performed, as well as criminalizing birth control; as far as the “pro-life” wingnuts are concerned, they’re both the same thing...actually, Sam offers a pretty sound analysis at the end of how the SCOTUS “sets up the tea leaves,” if you will, to be read by future plaintiffs so they’ll know what cases to bring before the High Court to overturn whatever precedent they want)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “The Day In Doomsy History” from 3/24/11, in which the late, great Ed Schultz called out former U.S. House Speaker “Man Tan” Boehner on the latter’s alleged “focus on jobs, jobs, jobs,” when in reality (in typical Repug fashion), the majority party in the House at that time went after “values” B.S. related to abortion, Planned Parenthood, those scary Muslims, NPR, English only, “In God We Trust”...what a typical joke...
...and I would argue that the wingnut distraction machine is currently in overdrive on the situation Biden inherited on our southwest border, as reporter Brian Karem tells us (mildly NSFW/H)...
...with the Repugs yelling “OMIGOD THE SCARY BROWN PEOPLE ARE COMING TO RAPE AND KILL US!” partly because they don’t want people paying attention to the "For The People" Act, which is now in the U.S. Senate (and God only knows what will happen to that or ANY further legislation with the utterly wretched filibuster in place)...
...and gee, wasn’t Saint Ronnie Reagan once the hero of those nutsos at Fix Noise? You know, the “tear down this wall” guy? Oh, but now, Putin is the "man crush" for these methane dispensing bipeds, huh? Figures...
...and with all of the horrors in the news, I feel like I need a bit of a palate cleanser if you will, so I present the following in honor of the recent 90th birthday of Captain Kirk – glad he’s managed to “live long and prosper,” you might say :-).
I just don’t know what the hell else there is that's left to say at a certain point – an update from our most recent gun carnage, this time in Boulder, Colorado, is here...and to think we’ve been covering this same old tired, stupid ground on this for at least 12 years based on this (expired links and all), though much longer in actuality I know...and what great timing for this tweet...
Update 1: The NRA is absolutely the scum of the earth, but we knew that (here).
...so, given that they’re blowing off the gun crisis in this country, what are Repugs (and their corporate media acolytes) focusing on instead? Why, the situation at our southwest border that was allowed to deteriorate under Our Traitorous Orange Pustule instead (though of course Biden is getting blamed for that now...K.O. introduces some reality here)...
...and as part of the whole, “Don’t pay attention to 10 people killed and 21 injured in a Colorado mass shooting – look over there instead!” nonsense, the “party of Lincoln” is complaining about gas prices which (and everyone sing along at home with me) always go down in the fall and winter and always go up in the spring and summer, as David Shuster explains...
...oh, and in “the sunshine state,” they’re also trying to criminalize civil disobedience (what country am I living in again?)...
...and I guess this constitutes little more than a bad joke at this point, but I feel like pointing it out anyway – apparently, that syphilitic orange sack of trans fats that allegedly served as our 45th president is going to try and launch his own social media platform, as Farron Cousins tells us...
...and given the headline story, I offer the following without further comment.
It appears as if Dem U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants a “redo” on “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged FBI investigation (John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us more... I took what Jayar said at the end to mean that people would remember the theatrics of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, in particular with Huckleberry Graham, more than they would the actual facts and evidence, and unfortunately I think that’s correct)...
...and Sam and Emma tell us that Trumper Lee Zeldin got a little testy when asked whether or not Biden own the election last year...what a tool...just say the freaking words! (and of course, as noted, he was on this list)...
...and while I think there is something to be said about religious oppression contributing to the “incel” insanity, from institutionalized religion overall, at a certain point, it also comes down to individual choice...God knows the Catholic Church hasn’t budged for centuries on this subject, though it should, but I also don’t recall an “incel” movement over centuries either...sexual oppression isn’t a legitimate excuse IMHO to get a gun, go to some Atlanta massage parlors and kill 8 people (Thom Hartmann tells us more)...
...and I thought this was a good segment from Chris Hayes on the dustup in Tennessee over the bust of Confederate traitor and murderer Nathan Bedford Forest in the state capitol (Hayes speaks with state rep London Lamar...as usual, if the Repugs don’t like the outcome of the game, they want to pick up their ball and go home)...
...and speaking of games, David Doel tells us that Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard got a huge bonus after laying off a gang of employees (nice freaking guy – I’m definitely not a gamer, and I don’t intend to be especially after this...mildly NSFW)...
...in reality, though, I guess the title of this tune is emblematic of what I used to play at happy hour on Fridays many moons ago (that and Tetris of course...definitely assisted the experience to have a few belts before I popped my quarters, but please don't imitate this, I hasten to add).
It looks to me like FL Gov. Ron DeathSantis is taking a page out of the Repug playbook of “Don’t pay attention to what is actually important – look over there instead!” with this typically stoo-pid pronouncement that “critical race theory” isn’t going to be taught in schools in The Sunshine State (believe it or not, I’d actually never heard of that, so this made me look it up...I’ll admit that, being a filthy unkempt liberal blogger, I SHOULD HAVE known about it, so yeah – thanks, I guess? And yeah, “please clap”...John and Brett tell us about it)...
...and Sam and Emma V. tell us about the Biden staffers let go or reassigned because they used pot – not sure why this step was taken if these people passed a security clearance (definitely not on board with legal weed for recreational use for selfish personal reasons, but if people want it, it should be the law of the land or state or wherever...medical pot should just be the way it is with marinol prescribed anyway, decriminalization should be federalized and dispensaries should be able to operate like regular businesses...all that being said, I think Emma is right that Biden was adhering to the letter of the law somehow, but yeah, firing the staffers is pretty dumb given that his veep actually joked about taking a toke)...
Update: It's kind of infuriating to find myself aligned in any way with utter idiots like Nebraska Repug Gov. Pete Ricketts (here).
...and this Now This clip tells us about the 12 Repugs who voted against honoring Capitol police, which was more than the number of the “party of Lincoln” who voted to hold Our Traitorous Orange Pustule to account for his role in the 1/6 insurrection (the latter folks are also included in this video)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I should note that we have new disturbing video from the 1/6 riot against the Capitol cops, with commentary from David Shuster, along with Cenk and Wosny Lambre (great point at the very end from Cenk about how the wingnuts truly define “law and order”)...
...and Jeff Waldorf tells us that the Trump figure at Madame Tussaud’s in San Antonio (didn’t know they had one there) had to be removed temporarily because people kept punching it (which, to be fair, also happened with Dubya and President Hopey Changey, sort of)...
...and with the last clip in mind, I thought I’d present this tune which, to me, contains one of the all-time great rock lyrics...”I love you from the bottom of my organism”...genius!
Yeah, RoJo should be gone from “the word’s greatest deliberative body” (please), but he’ll probably be around until 2022, but hopefully not longer than that (to do something about that, click here)...
...and Brian Williams speaks with journalist Kurt Bardella about the aftermath of the Atlanta massacre, including the remarks of Texas congressional idiot Chip Roy (and apparently the alleged shooter asked if he'd spend the rest of his life in jail (here)...well no, actually – since GA has the death penalty, you may get a date with a needle instead... and I’m sorry, but I don’t believe Chris Wray that the attack wasn’t racially motivated...given his stonewalling of Sheldon Whitehouse, I don’t believe Wray on anything)...
...and leave it to the Swanson TV Dinner Heir to come up with the completely wrong take on this, as John and Yasmin Khan tell us, with the Fix Noise host saying “the left” is blaming white supremacy for the Atlanta shootings...yeah, nice straw man you got there Tucker; we’re still learning more about the latest white kid with a grievance and a gun who allegedly decided to go nuts and I don’t think a link to white supremacy has been established...but would it really be a surprise if we found out that it existed? Also, I know the police said they didn’t even think the shootings constituted hate crimes against Asians, as we alluded to earlier, though that’s coming from the same police force that made that remark about the alleged shooter “having a bad day”...
...and given all of this, you would think Repugs would provide SOME support to renewing the Violence Against Women Act (commendably introduced by Brian Fitzpatrick), but....naaaah (yep, the “party of Lincoln” wants crazy stalking boyfriends to be able to get guns, and of course, as David Doel tells us, the “R” team automatically hates anything having to do with the LGBTQ community...and Debbie Lesko doesn’t get brownie points here because she was in an abusive relationship; as Doel points out, she’s straight-up lying here...mildly NSFW)...
...and speaking of Repugs behaving badly, apparently Pat Toomey blocked a bill to prevent private debt collectors form seizing ARP checks (here) – how pathetically predictable...
...and while we’re on the subject of Republican U.S. senatorial mistakes, I should have realized that there is NO LIMIT to how low that numbskull Rand Paul will go to try and make himself look intelligent (though he will always fail), especially against someone FAR MORE ACCOMPLISHED THAN HE WILL EVER BE – in this case, Dr. Anthony Fauci...Hey Kentucky, just how stoo-pid are some of you to continually elect this clown and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao anyway...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that it looks like the 2020 redistricting may be a little more complicated for the Repugs than we first thought; they might up accidentally oppressing their own voters; HR1, however, would make that matter moot...we’ll see (and “Democrat” is not an adjective)...
...and given the Brian Williams clip and those horrible remarks form Chip Roy (yeah, as if the only people allegedly believing in justice are from Texas - what a POS), I think this tune is appropriate.
John and Francesca of “The Damage Report” tell us about some corporate media nonsense involving Jeff Zeleny and FL Repug Gov Ron DeathSantis on COVID-19 (yeah, nothing like trying to muzzle Rebekah Jones who's making every effort to tell the truth on how the "sunshine state" is coping – nice to see Francesca get the opportunity to lead in the segment)...
...and Fix Noise is of course another culprit when it comes to propping up Repug politicians, and as Farron Cousins tells us, a former neo-Nazi skinhead named Frank Meeink told us recently how much the Roger Ailes BS Factory markets hate...
...and Nicolle Wallace interviews former CISA head Chris Krebs about the report that the claims by the Trumpsters during 2020 were typical BS (though this was interesting of course)...
...and maybe it would have been more appropriate to present this Meidas Touch/Heather Gardner clip yesterday instead of today about poverty and the people who make $$ off of it in this country, but better late than never I guess...
...but for more information on how to return prosperity for all in this country, I think Robert Reich has some information here that we should all look at closely, in particular our politicians of course; yeah, this stuff is boring and wonky, but it’s pretty damn important too...
...and on this day 20 years ago, the cover of "Songbird" by Eva Cassidy hit #1, five years after her death.
(Note: I should emphasize that authorities aren't sure whether or not the Atlanta shootings are definitely hate crimes, but I thought it was timely to show this pic light of this.)
Mrs. Joe Scar and Willie Geist speak with NBC News reporter Blayne Alexander about the violence in GA, which appears (allegedly) to be perpetrated by yet another young white male with issues of some kind or another (and “having a bad day”? Really?)...
Update: Once more, The Onion dances on that razor's edge between reality and satire (here and here).
...and Thom Hartmann wonders if we’re coming to the end of the conservative era (God, I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath; Thom says he thinks the American Rescue Plan and Biden’s recent speech could be the beginning of something much better, with the bad old days initiated by the Powell Memo ...he gets kind of cut off in mid-sentence at the end)...
...and oh look – John and Ben Dixon tell us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is threatening Dems with gumming up the works in the Senate even more than he’s done already; somebody pointed out that getting rid of the filibuster is risky given that all it takes is for one elderly Dem in that body to leave us, and a Repug governor of that state could appoint someone from his party and McConnell would be back in charge again (somebody like Pat Leahy should have 24/7 protection for that reason, but I think it’s far riskier to leave the wretched filibuster in place)...I honestly think it’s more than voters acting dumb when they vote for the R’s; I want to see ES&S get the same treatment as Dominion and Smartmatic and let’s see what happens...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us about Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s greeting to new AG Merrick Garland, particularly on “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh (“Welcome, Mr. Attorney General. Here’s enough work to keep you busy for at least the next year and a half”...but kudos to Whitehouse for this)...
...and David Pakman tells us about Repugs taking credit for the American Rescue Plan (and I know I already mentioned Roger Wicker), but to be fair, Maria Salazar was taking credit for something unrelated to the ARP as noted here (and I seem to recall recently praising Adam Kinzinger for voting for Trump’s 2nd impeachment, when of course, in the end, Kinzinger turned out to be just a typical wingnut)...
...and speaking of stuff that has to be seen to be believed, these corporatist a-holes who basically pull the puppet strings for any politician belonging to the “party of Lincoln” never cease to utterly disgust me with their callow behavior, as this Koch-ette lobbyist from the Commonwealth Foundation demonstrates once again as she’s called out by Dem State Rep Malcolm Kenyatta (on the issue of a $15 an hour minimum wage, and I’m sure it isn’t hard to figure out where she sides on this)...
...and sticking with “Now This,” I thought this was a good response from The Rev. William Barber...
...and happy St. Patrick’s Day – hope you’re all “wearin’ the green” for your Zoom meetings :-).
Farron Cousins reminds us that red states did a worse job overall of handling the COVID-19 pandemic than blue states (“you conditioned your voters not to listen to the smart people” – Nail. Hammer. Head.)...
...and when it comes to Republicans trying to keep their constituencies stoo-pid, I give you Mississippi Repug Gov Tate Reeves, who decided to forfeit millions in Medicaid expansion (here - Reeves should be recalled immediately, but I’m sure he won’t be)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen once more refutes a wingnut Repug U.S. Senator, and this time it’s Mr. Elaine Chao (yeah, so called “Operation Warp Speed” Trump promised to get 100 million people vaccinated last year, and the actual number was only about 3 percent of that – but let’s watch it with the “Democrat only” stuff, please...and in a related story, kudos to Dick Durbin for this)...
...and Cenk and Ben Dixon of TYT tell us that the military is now apologizing to the Swanson TV Dinner Heir – ugh (I really don’t understand Cenk’s U-turn here to attack progressives...I think that’s a topic for another day – and I’m sorry, but I don’t give a damn about his musician friend who’s misguided; he chose to be willfully dumb...I suppose this was inevitable because of the conservative representation in our military, but it’s still damn depressing)...
...and this Lincoln Project ad supports the nominations of Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke for positions in the Biden Administration (shouldn’t be necessary to advocate for these fine choices like this, though it is a good thing to do so of course – more here)...
...and happy upcoming 70th birthday to Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy.
Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao thinks that the people of this country don’t need more of a stimulus, if you will, in response to the COVID pandemic (I agree that the CNN reporter did a good job by talking to actual voters in this country and that people often don’t find out what’s really happening on issues since our news mannequins, for the most part, don’t fulfill the function of educating their viewers any more)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen gave what I thought was a pretty good example here of why congressional Repugs don’t deserve to be taken seriously in their opposition to COVID relief, with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (who apparently goes to great pains to remind people that he has a medical degree) pretty much nit picking around the edges as an excuse to get rid of the entire bill (and yeah, Chris Wallace pushed back slightly, but it was a love tap compared to what a Dem would have faced on that network)...
...and sticking with The Roger Ailes BS Factory, John and Bridget Todd tell us of Laura Ingraham’s fear mongering on HR 1 (and “Democrat” voters...typically disgusting from this shameless harpie)...
...and as long as we’re on the subject of Fix Noise, I thought I’d bring you this commentary from Beau of the Fifth Column responding to the latest garbage from the Swanson TV Dinner Heir...
...and Sam and Emma of “The Majority Report” tell us about Ilhan Omar speaking in favor of the PRO Act to help unions...great stuff, but it won’t matter unless the Senate gets rid of the filibuster because they will NEVER get Repug support for this or any other legislation...
...and turning to world news, David Doel tells us about Palestinian kids arrested for picking vegetables in the disputed area of the West Bank, apparently based on the complaints of Israeli settlers illegally living there (Want to know where tomorrow’s terrorists will likely come from? Look no further)...
...and in the matter of COVID, I thought this was a good PSA featuring all living former presidents but for a pretty obvious (and justified IMHO) omission (I’ll temporarily put aside my beef with Dubya)...
...but unfortunately, it won’t matter for yet another person we’ve just lost, and that would be Bliss Michelson of WRTI-FM...almost too broken up for words right now – deepest sympathies to his family and friends (I don’t know a lot about classical music, but this elegy features a double bass, which was Michelson’s area of expertise...one of them anyway – when we have FINALLY rid ourselves of this COVID scourge, there should be monuments put in every town, village, township, city, state...you name it...with the names of the people lost from those communities).
I’ve got a couple of admittedly boring “hot takes” related to race that I feel like sharing; I crave your indulgence on this for a couple of minutes.
The first is that, even though I honestly tried to avoid all of the Harry/Meghan/Oprah stuff, I did manage to figure out what the controversy is all about (namely, that one or more people in the British royal family made a remark about what the skin color would be of the baby Meghan Markle was expecting). Well, here’s the way I look at this. Yeah, a remark like that is stupid and idiotic, but you keep that stuff under your roof and don’t go blabbing to the media about it, especially to Oprah Winfrey. And from what I hear, the “skin color” stuff came from Kate Middleton and Prince Philip. I honestly don’t believe that came from Kate Middleton because I think she’s smart and savvy enough to know not to say that; she may also have the kind of character as a person to know a remark like that is awful. Do I believe it coming from Prince Philip? Yeah, I do. But when I saw some brief highlights of the Oprah Winfrey interview, I thought the body language of the three of them communicated a lot. Namely, I think there’s a hell of a lot of baggage Harry is carrying around (probably from what happened with his mom and the media exploitation, which makes all of this a bit ironic), and I hope he gets help with that. And Meghan Markle sat there acting like she owned the joint, you might say. She, with Winfrey’s willing help of course, helped to create and exploit a situation to make her look like the victim, which I guess she is to some degree (to the point where, if you criticize her in any way, there will be a thousand social media posts appearing right away with the title of “I support Meghan Markle because I had the same situation, blah blah blah”...or, someone might say, “You’re as crazy as Piers Morgan,” which I definitely don’t believe is true). Basically, I think Meghan Markle is playing a game of 10-dimensional chess when it comes to owning the media narrative on this, and the Royal Family are still playing checkers by comparison.
The second has to do with remarks from that disgusting U.S. Senatorial mistake Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; he recently said on a Zoom meeting call that he felt safe during the 1/6 insurrection because the overwhelming majority of the protestors were white weren't Antifa and supposedly "love this country" (here - just a bit of "code language" here). Even though the bar is already incredibly low here since we’re talking about RoJo, I think he should apologize for that not just to the entire U.S. Congress as well as not just the constituents he allegedly represents in Wisconsin, but the entire country.
Now to the main stuff...Thom Hartmann tells us about the “Texas Taliban” trying to regulate women’s health (and by the way, women who miscarry may be prosecuted El Salvador as noted here...Nail. Hammer. Head on Thom’s remarks at the end)...
...and once again, what is the “party of Lincoln” focused on aside from controlling women’s health care? Why, making it harder to vote of course...
...oh, and also, those U.S. House lunatics of that party are losing what’s left of their minds over common sense gun legislation (David Pakman explains)...
...but they NEVER lose sight of fealty to their “dear leader” in exile, as Rachel Maddow explains...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” and again, we’re only going back a year to 3/13/20 (Kyle Kulinski tells us what Trish Regan and the late but not lamented Flush Limbore said about COVID-19, which started blowing up as a public health calamity despite that...I don’t know if Trish Regan was the nuttiest of the lot, and that’s saying something for that network of crazies, but I DO know that she disappeared from the air soon after she uttered these words...and it wouldn’t be a Kyle video without de facto “both sidesism” between the “R” and “D” parties of course)...
...and speaking of anniversaries, yesterday marked the 18th of the (formerly) Dixie Chicks and Natalie Maines saying that they were ashamed that Dubya was from Texas (re, 43’s Not So Excellent Adventure in Iraq - here), and for that, they were roundly criticized, including by the likes of Toby Keith, who, as far as I know, has never apologized for it...I know this isn’t an original observation, but anyone who thinks “Trumpism” is anything but the rebranded version of the latest stoo-pid Republicanism hasn’t learned history...really, ever since Nixon (but accelerated under The Sainted Ronnie R), then to Dubya, the Teahadists and Combover Caligula, it’s all been the same utterly debased downward trajectory in our politics from about 30-40 percent of this country to varying degrees...and yeah, this tune is probably a bit of a response to the Thom Hartmann video also (not to Thom, I wish to emphasize).
Brian Tyler Cohen brings us this clip of Katie Porter letting an energy industry lobbyist have it for his claim that oil and gas companies don’t get preferential tax treatment, with Porter and U.S. House Dems trying to get these thieves to pay up at long last...and as far as I’m concerned, the existence of Sleepy Ben Carson in ANY KIND of public sector job is the sort of “FU” insult typical of our prior ruling regime of frauds and criminals...
...and here’s a brief excerpt from President Biden’s speech last night on the one-year anniversary of COVID becoming a global pandemic (and I have no desire whatsoever to link to the right-wing hyenas yapping about this, unless it’s from TYT, The Damage Report, The Majority Report, or a like-minded platform...typical stupid garbage from these cretins to try and score cheap political points as usual)...
...and in response, Joy Reid tells us about the anti-mask bullies, who apparently are planning something coming up in Daytona, FL – likely another “super spreader” event...Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at length on Rachel Maddow last night and warned about this...
...and speaking of which, I thought this was an illuminating clip from Dr. Fauci about what we could be looking at with COVID-19 in future, particularly with the global variants out there (worrisome, but we’re on a much better track now than this time a year ago)...
...and when it comes to Repugs taking credit for COVID relief that they voted against, John and Bridget Todd give us the latest (and yeah, that includes Roger Wicker for sure, and Tom “Militarize Our Cities” Cotton decried payouts to prisoners in the Biden bill that were ALSO in the two Trump relief bills he voted for...figures)...
...and when everything starts opening up again for real, someday, I’d like to return to “Beantown,” but for now, I’ll have to settle for this video.
I thought David Pakman did a really good job here of dissecting the rantings of this Newsmax clown about “liberal cancel culture,” which of course is yet another diversion from the COVID relief bill that is FINALLY nearing completion, as well as HR1 to secure voting rights (getting worked on, I hasten to emphasize...will likely have a harder path in the "lege" than the COVID bill with the filibuster in place); once again, the COVID bill isn’t perfect, but kudos to the Dems for getting this done with ZERO REPUBLICAN HELP (and as we get closer to elections, I think we should get ready for a whole lot of this)...
...which is part and parcel of this, as Farron Cousins explains...
...so what ARE Republicans doing instead, aside from the whole “cancel culture” schtick? Well, Madison Cawthorn made a video of beating up a tree, presumably to “own the libs,” as John and Dr. Aqualus Gordon tell us (yeah, I think "performance art" covers a lot of this)...
...and while what Cawthorn did was stoo-pid, at least it wasn’t as offensively racist as what his same-party playmate Glenn Grothman said here (and kudos to Dem Rep Stacey Plaskett for giving Grothman the treatment he deserves...and because we're talking about The Comcast Network in this clip, Grothman wasn't called out for being the ignorant fathead that he is)...
...and returning to HR1, Robert Reich tells us that voting rights in this country are facing the biggest threat from Republican state legislatures since Jim Crow (no wonder they’re trying so hard to distract us...and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema quite rightly get called out here also; I'd love to see Biden take a page out of LBJ's book too, but we're talking about two completely different eras and two completely different personalities)...
...and as noted here, today marks the 145th anniversary of what was basically the first phone call, with A.G. Bell allegedly saying “Watson, I want you” or whatever it was – good luck trying to zero in on a tune with all of the songs about telephones, but I settled on this one.
Ari Melber speaks with lawyer Neal Katyal about the ridiculous new voter discrimination laws that Georgia is trying to pass (with a similar push for equally stupid measures going on around the country, including this...more here – an atypically odd question by Melber about the jury vs. following the evidence...usually he’s “on the beam” pretty much, but that left me a little baffled)...
Update 1: And as long as we're discussing Bri-Fi, I think this is a good question also (and why the hell is the Bucks Republican Party using a J&J "spoof" account for this? Oh, I get it - to try and trick people on a wait list for the COVID shot into picking up the phone under false pretenses...riiiight...and Pat Poprik apologized because she got caught).
Update 2: These people are always horrible and useless, and they're horrible and useless again here.
...and in a related story as they say, while I usually don’t pay a lot of attention to the NBA, I have to give LeBron James a lot of credit for this (I just know about this ad because Rachel Maddow discussed it last night)...
...and Chris Hayes talks to Paul Krugman about the COVID relief bill (the only caveat I would add is that it remains to be seen how much the relief bill will help folks living paycheck to paycheck BEFORE the pandemic hit, but yes, there’s a hell of a lot that’s positive that will help a lot of folks...and as long as we're discussing our current plague, I think this is appropriate)...
...and since every action must have a reaction I guess, that means that it’s up to Fix and Fiends to attack the American Rescue Plan – and by the way, Kilmeade’s claim about only 9 percent going to pandemic relief is a typical lie (more info is here), and I wouldn’t trust Dan Crenshaw on ANYTHING based on this...
...and Pap and Farron Cousins talk about the fracking ban in the Delaware River (yep, it is a big deal also all right, and for sure, this needs to happen nationwide, though it’s probably trying to chase the metaphorical horse after it’s already out of the barn, so to speak, but better late than never...Pap needs to get his rivers straight...big dif between the Delaware and the Susquehanna)...
...and happy belated 75th birthday to Matthew Fisher of Procal Harum.
(FWIW, I care ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the Oprah/Harry/Meghan Markle interview!)
David Doel tells us here about the wingnut preoccupation with 6 Dr. Seuss books that, allegedly, have bene “cancelled,” when In reality the estate just made the profit-driven decision to suspend publication, which they’re allowed to do; it tells you just how powerful the conservative noise machine truly is, unfortunately, that we’re paying attention to this at all as opposed to rejecting all of this for the rank stupidity that it is (and as the pic indicates, Theodor Seuss Geisel lampooned the “America First” movement back in the day; A.F. wasn’t totally conservative, but it was close)...
Update: Whatever comes after us may spend eons laughing over our stupidity (here).
Update 3/9/21: I was actually wondering if the Dems were going to respond to this idiocy...kudos to Tim Ryan for this...
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) March 9, 2021
...and speaking of rank stupidity, I give you this from Joy Reid, though that isn’t meant as a dig at her (there was a time when Michael Steele could have spoken out when he was part of the apparatus that he now criticizes, but I guess better late than never, and I have only a slightly better opinion of Charlie Sykes...between this, the Seuss stuff, the 1/6 insurrection and every Republican No vote on COVID relief...if Dems can’t make up halfway decent attack campaign ads next year, they might as well give up...more here)...
...and boy, do I respect the hell out of Ali Velshi for this; articulates how I also feel pretty damn well (in years prior to now, I spent a lot of time refuting right-wing B.S. – I don’t have the time to do that now, and I also don’t have the desire, to be honest)...
...and speaking of untruths, in this “Now This” video, Dem U.S. House Rep Julian Castro refutes the typically disgusting lie from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blaming undocumented immigrants for the increase in COVID-19 cases in “the land of the yellow rose” – nah, OF COURSE it doesn’t have anything to do with Abbott’s ridiculous decision to get rid of that state’s mask mandate...
...and John I. and Bridget Todd tell us more on the allegations surrounding Repug U.S. House Rep Madison Cawthorn (yep, pure as the driven slush all right)...
...and I was probably a little early with the Meredith Brooks number for International Women’s Day, so let me include this also.
Well, it FINALLY passed (here – with absolutely ZERO Republican support in Congress)...
...but not including the $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, as noted in the pic (explained by Cenk, John and Koa Beck...and again, it should be noted that Angus King is officially an independent)...
...and the frustration of Chris Hayes here with Joe Manchin and Jeanne Shaheen trying to limit the COVID payments is pretty damn obvious and apropos (and I don’t know how Biden DOESN’T have his thumb on the metaphorical scale here – yep, stuff like this may make the Dem Senate majority go “poof,” and the House is hanging by a thread too...but again, between all the cruel, pointless obstruction over COVID relief and what happened on 1/6, Congressional Dems have plenty of ammunition to use against the "party of Lincoln")...
...and, in addition to Stacey Abrams in GA for helping to ensure that the Dems had the Senate majority to get this done, I think Chris Murphy deserves a lot of credit for this presentation earlier in the week...
...and Thom Hartmann gives us some important context on what’s going on with the COVID economy, as well as Amazon raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour...
...and I know I linked to this earlier, but I’m including the video again, and actually, get ready to see a lot of this...as far as I’m concerned, politically, Kyrsten Sinema is a “dead Dem walking” for this, which she completely deserves; I’ll do as much as I can to promote her inevitable primary challenger (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such clueless political behavior from a Dem in my life)...
...and RIP Tony Hendra of National Lampoon and "This Is Spinal Tap"...
Willie Geist of “Morning Joe” brings us a segment with Dr. Vin Gupta speaking with a lady who had to move closer to a hospital for treatment of her ongoing COVID symptoms; the death toll from this plague is horrific enough, but another aspect to this story that I think is completely under-reported is how much care those afflicted will need, probably for the rest of their lives (love to be wrong on that)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 3/6/20 (just going around the block this time, as it were) with Dr. Irvin Redlener of Columbia University speaking about the level of incompetence coming from the Trump regime on the Covid-19 outbreak (I would say that Redlener was prescient with his 12-18 month forecast...just a note that videos from MSNBC’s web site auto play into each other...probably should have pointed that out awhile ago I know)...
...and this “Now This” clip tells us about the NAACP using a precedent related to the Ku Klux Klan to sue Generalissimo Trump over the 1/6 insurrection (and in a related story, I give you this)...
...and Sam and Emma of “The Majority Report” tell us about the Idaho state rep (some fool name Charlie Shepherd – and do I really need to identify the political party?) who spoke out against a $6 mil US gov’t grant to expand child care, presumably because mothers don't need the help (???)...we do so love our kids, don’t we...
...and David Doel tells us about the 7 Dem U.S. Senators (and one independent, Angus King of Maine) who voted down the $15 federal minimum wage proposal; I think some of them are flat-out opposed, like Carper and Coons (the big banks in DE tell them to jump, and they ask how high), but I also think some were looking for cover over this “ruling from the parliamentarian” BS...one of them, Maggie Hassan, is up in 2022 and is ALREADY asking me for $$$...she won’t get one dime from me now because of this...whether they’re opposed on the merits or over the parliamentarian thing doesn’t matter to me because the net effect is the same...and yeah, we know what a traitorous tool Josh Hawley is, but it needs to be pointed out again...and great TYT reporting on Manchin’s business interests...and as far as Sinema is concerned, this speaks for itself (I want to know who’s going to primary her so I can make a donation); if Dems don’t deliver on this, they can kiss their newly-won Senate majority goodbye (though I also think that David Sirota’s idea to “burn down the whole thing” is nuts too; I know that thinking is what “centrist” Dems count on, which makes them even more vile to me as far as I’m concerned...probably a lot more to say about this for another time)...
...and I’m looking for a way to ease into the weekend, and I think this tune will definitely help with that (hopefully for you too).
