Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and lawyer Glenn Kirschner give us their take on the latest legal machinations involving Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former *President (and I thought this was more than a bit of a “tell” also, as in, preparing for a revolt of “the great unwashed”)...



...and Francesca, Maz Jobrani and Farron Cousins of TYT tell us about 2 more recent train derailments that could impact neighboring communities, though it doesn’t appear initially that the Arizona incident will cause anywhere near the calamity of what happened in East Palestine, OH, though the Puget Sound oil spill in Washington state will impact tribal lands unfortunately...as I and others smarter than myself have said before, most people hate government until they need it to do something, and in this case, the rail lines will apparently have to be compelled to upgrade their trains or face criminal sanctions – it will take federal action of some type because they sure as hell won’t do that on their own...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about “right to work” laws getting overturned in Michigan (incredible that 40K jobs were lost in MI because of RTW...and Emma is talking about this, by the way...also, kudos to the Temple University grad students as noted here)...



...and Beau discusses the 21 percent of those polled who said they trusted Fix Noise less after the revelations about what Tuckums, Ingraham and Sean Inanity really thought about the ’20 election despite what they said on the air (which of course came from the Dominion lawsuit...this is combined with the 11 percent who didn’t believe the network anyway, and it sounds like about 1/3rd of their audience is wavering a bit – not an overwhelming number, but definitely a dent in the metaphorical wall)...



...and I’ll tell you at the outset that this item is difficult, but I believe it needs to be mentioned – last Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of the murder of Rachel Corrie, who ended up giving her life in protest of Israel bulldozing Palestinian homes that were alleged to shelter terrorists...the following is an interview with Corrie discussing her reason for protesting recorded two days before her death...this post contains more information on Corrie’s killing from a bulldozer, but some of the images could be triggering, I have to tell you...still, though, the tragedy of her death needs to be remembered in its utterly unvarnished horror (I also have to be careful about putting up content that Blogger finds to be “sensitive” because I’ve gotten dinged for that already)...



...and in searching for a tune to commemorate the latest legal difficulty for Our Ochre Abomination, I now present the following.

Monday Stuff (updates)

A much-young-looking Cenk Uygur tells us that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History lied about 935 times in the runup to the Iraq War, which began 20 years ago today approximately (the second war that is...more here, here, and here)...



Update 1: And let's not forget about this too.

Update 2: More food for thought is here (from the "what's past is prologue" department).

Update 1 3/21/23: And for anyone who doubts this, I have a name for you - Ashleigh Banfield.

Update 2 3/21/23: Yeah, I think this about says it.

Update 3 3/21/23: Maybe the best take on this yet (here)...

...and God forbid Former Commander Codpiece would show a speck of the contrition former British Prime Minister Tony Blair feels in this CBC report, though that doesn’t bring back anyone from the dead or help anybody whose lives were destroyed...



...and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! speaks with author Neta Crawford on the many costs of the war, which will only grow over time (our military, Iraqi civilians, regional disruption, and on and on...more on Operation Inherent Resolve is here)...



...and it appears that Dem U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Repug U.S. Senator Todd Young have managed to put together a coalition to repeal the resolutions on both Iraq wars, which truly is the least “The world’s greatest deliberative body” can do (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: What an utter, unbelievable, pathetic f*cking joke! (here).

Votes like this tell you who our government really represents...the war machine and the investor class. Everyday people (the 99 percent, basically), not so damn much.

Update 3/29/23: OK, this is a little better.

Update 4/2/23: More here.

...and I know I’ve brought this clip back a few times, and I’m doing it again today because I think it truly captures the utterly insufferable arrogance of the foul, fetid Bush gang, on Iraq and a few other matters also, including Saddam Hussein’s alleged relationship with al Qaeda (mildly NSFW/H)...



...also, here is Keith Olbermann speaking with Jon Soltz of Vote Vets about "the surge" in October 2007 and what it did/didn't manage to accomplish (I can STILL remember the screaming at Dubya to get us the hell out of there during this timeframe in particular and his characteristically stubborn refusal to do so)...



...and I’m going to give the last non-musical comment on this to The Eternal Michael Brooks, who cut through all of the BS on this and called the war what it truly was five years ago...



Update 3/25/23: More here...and by the way, I know Bedbug Bret wrote some piffle at “the old gray lady” saying the war was a good thing – I think the best response to that nonsense is here...I would bother to reply if it was full of the typical triumphalist BS that came spewing forth from any of the war’s initial supporters, but since it doesn’t, I’ll keep my powder dry, as it were...Stephens is merely ridiculous with his tone of “well, this went wrong and that went wrong...but the war was still the right thing to do,” but at least he’s showing a molecule of self-reflection...that’s about all, though.

...and I can think of no more appropriate tune for this day than this one (and this too).

Friday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the latest idiocy from CO-03’s U.S. House mistake, Bo-Bo Boebert; here, she confronts Biden’s director of the OPM for something that (allegedly) happened under Our Ochre Abomination (just say “oops” and get out; in response, I give you this)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a pretty powerful Vote Vets ad making the case to stop showing Fix Noise on our military bases (NSFW/H)...



...and John and Cenk of TYT tell us that new Repug guv Sarah Huckabilly Sanders of Arkansas has started rolling back child labor protections in her state...yeah, pretty much straight out of the playbook for these cretinous plutocrats like her (more here)...



...and Beau tells us that Russia apparently messed with/collided with a U.S. drone in international airspace (of course, Russia says it was in an airspace designated for their “special military operation” near Ukraine...yeah, as Beau says, it sounds like this will be something for the diplomats to scream about and that will likely be it)...



...and staying with the brutal Ukraine incursion waged by Vlad The Butcher in Russia, this DW report tells us about the battle over Bakhmut, and it looks like a counter-offensive will be staged with newly-acquired Western weapons (with correspondent Ralph Martin and analyst Frank Ledwidge)...



...and speaking of people laboring under deadly oppression, that unfortunately is an appropriate segue to this clip from More Perfect Union about what the residents of East Palestine, OH are dealing with from the Norfolk Southern catastrophe (NSFW/H – God bless these people, truly...and this could have happened anywhere – either Biden or the U.S. Senate, or maybe both, should try to put together some type of an independent commission to look into this, starting with who was responsible for overruling the Obama-era upgraded brake requirement for the trains, even though we know who was guilty on that one...forget about those wackadoodles running U.S. House doing any kind of oversight on this, unless it involves denying women abortions, trying to cancel drag queen story hour or anything to do with Hunter Biden’s laptop)...



...and Chris Hayes tells us that the “party of Lincoln” has decided that their propaganda on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is that the fall of that institution has to do with “wokeness”...Hayes quite rightly IMO draws a line from regulatory rollback crippling SVB to causing Norfolk Southern’s assault on East Palestine (more related idiocy from The Roger Ailes BS Factory is here)...



...and I hope everybody is having a nice St. Patrick’s Day and managing to stay out of trouble :-).

Thursday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us how the “party of Lincoln” has weaponized all kinds of antagonism against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, etc., along with the news that people of conscience out there are saying they don’t want any part of that and are leaving the “Republic” Party in response (kudos)...interesting take on fear turning into hate...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us about some wingnut author named Bethany Mandel who apparently wrote a book about How “Woke” Radicals Are Indoctrinating Your Children, even though she can’t explain what “woke” means...figures (NSFW/H)...



...and Ana and Rm Brown of TYT discuss some Republican clown in Oklahoma named Jim Olsen who thinks it’s OK to wail on special needs kids because the Old Testament says it’s fine...monstrous (and GREAT point by Ana on wondering where the hell the parents are when bills like this to actually protect their kids are introduced, instead of yelling about kids reading history that makes the parents uncomfortable...the anti-spanking bill apparently didn’t get enough votes for approval, though it will likely be reintroduced, as noted here)...



...and Alonzo Bodden of Rebel HQ brings us the story of Minnesota state senate Republican idiot Steve Drazkowski, who apparently has never encountered anyone suffering form hunger, particularly kids, which led him to oppose a bill providing relief to his constituents...so many damn examples of Repuli-can’ts opposing various measures to help others because they can’t conceive of the actual problems themselves – hard to find a word for the selfishness on display (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: This guy is in a hole, and he really should stop digging (here).

...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 3/15/11, in which Sam Seder (in a segment that used to be called “That’s Bullsh*t”) discusses former Wisconsin Repug Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public sector unions (more here)...I think this is a timely reminder because the cretins behind Walker’s garbage versus working folks are now back to try and get wingnut Dan Kelly elected to the state supreme court, which could potentially be disastrous for the ’24 elections and other reasons (to support judge Janet Protasiewicz instead, click here...more here)...



Update 3/26/23: And this sure figures about Kelly, doesn't it?

...and I have to admit that this is kind of a tough musical selection given that Jim Gordon, legendary sessions drummer for The Wrecking Crew, was convicted of murdering his mother and was sentenced to life in prison, but before he came to pieces, he gave some truly memorable performances, including this one.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us here that not only will Greg Abbott do NOTHING in “the land of the yellow rose” when it comes to his state’s failing energy grid, but he and his fellow Republican idiots are doing everything they can to sabotage renewable energy (figures)...



...and John of The Damage Report tells us about Walgreen’s deciding to cave on providing abortion pills in 20 states, including places where the pills are legal – and from the “screw around and find out” files, I give you this...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss even MORE linked Emails from Fix Noise from the Dominion lawsuit, with some Trumper named Raj Shah saying that “Rudy looks so F’ing crazy” while “America’s Mayor” yammered on about alleged fraud in the ’20 election...and yeah, I would say we have multiple smoking guns here from the producer for The Swanson TV Dinner Heir saying how stoo-pid he thinks Carlson’s audience truly is, but the people affected the most likely will continue not to care, unfortunately...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss the truly massive pro-democracy protests in Israel (about 200K)...and EVERY weekend? Wow (against what Israel is trying to do with limiting its supreme court)...



...and Rachel Maddow speaks with Guy Cecil, recently of Priorities USA, on what needs to happen to build a broad-based Democratic constituency across voting blocs/coalitions as opposed to “a confederacy of caricatures” which we have to some degree now...kind of wonky, nuts n’ bolts stuff I’ll admit, though its important of course...



...and here’s a tune for this day in the calendar; I guess the moral is to stay away from Roman knives for a little while.

Tuesday Stuff

John, Cenk and Jordan Uhl of TYT tell us about AOC speaking out on some U.S. House hearing on “wokeness” (GMAFB!) while some folks from East Palestine, OH wander the halls of Congress trying to get someone to help them...and yes, as far as I’m concerned (and others of course), you can draw a line between the Ohio train disaster and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank when it comes to the cause, as David Sirota notes here (I question Sirota’s punditry, but definitely not his journalism)...



...and speaking of the SVB collapse (biggest since Washington Mutual), David Doel tells us how Bernie Sanders basically nailed it in his warning five years ago after Trump loosened restrictions for these institutions (and I remember Gary Peters haranguing the shit out of me for a campaign donation when he ran for re-election, and he ended up voting to deregulate these financial criminals along with 16 other “Democrats”)...



...and to put a little more emphasis on all of this, Farron Cousins discusses a report from Moody’s (hardly a bunch of tree huggers) which tells us how bad the “party of Lincoln” is at writing legislation and overseeing the economy (I think Cousins’ outrage is commendable)...



...and when it comes to idiotic distractions from the “Republic” Party, this DW report tells us that Huckleberry Graham wants Biden to send our military into Mexico to try and keep fentanyl out of this country – with correspondent Andalusia Knoll Soloff...good job to point out the role played in all of this by the Gropenfuhrer’s horrible “remain in Mexico” policy...



...and I think the DW clip is a good lead-in to this one from Jon Stewart, who considers The Real Cost of America’s War Machine (NSFW/H)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to James Taylor, coming to the Mann Music Center in these parts on July 1st (here).

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes tells us about women denied abortions in Texas who are suing...good! Amanda Zurawski’s story is incredibly heartbreaking, and kudos to her for her courage in talking about it...every fathead anti-abortion politician should hear what she has to say, but of course they won’t...



...and David Doel (echoing the Hayes clip a bit) tells us that, basically, the majority of voters in Flor-DUUH! have no damn idea of what the hell is going on (and when it comes to Guv #DeathSantis vs. “the Mouse”...well, I’d hate to be paying property taxes in that state – more on that is here)...



...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Tennessee passing a law allowing that state to not issue marriage licenses to gay or interracial couples...and “interfaith” couples too? Who the hell is the state official who will be in charge of administering this garbage? The kid from “Deliverance”? (and yes, I know that has to do with Georgia...and heading up north a bit, it looks like Iowa has also issued its own ban on same-sex marriage)...



...and here is a periodic reminder that, yes, I do indeed point out Democratic Party idiocy when I believe it is warranted, and I think New York City’s nutty mayor Eric Adams deserves to be “called onto the carpet” for saying he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state (and oh yeah, there is this choice item involving Adams also)...



...and I have to admit that I was amused by this item; Stephen Colbert was able to use AI to simulate The Swanson TV Dinner Heir telling us what he really thinks of Mango Mussolini (among other news items from a recent monologue)...



...and here is kind of a dreamy little number for the kids to help us usher in the new week (hope everyone remembered to set your clocks forward).

Friday Stuff

David Doel talks about “Tuckums” presenting his typically lying/slanted take on the 1/6 insurrection with doctored footage from what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided to him recently (which of course should be provided to ALL news orgs, but McCarthy won’t do that unless he’s compelled to of course, probably by legal action of some type)...



...well, to refresh our memories, I present the following clip of Chris Hayes speaking with filmmaker Evan Hill, who helped to put together that amazing 40-minute New York Times documentary of what took place, including the Rosanne Boyland stuff (and yes, it is awful)...



...and with the treasonous events of 1/6 fresh in our minds, Thom Hartmann asks “What Do GOP Seditionists Offer Other Than Tearing America Apart?” (good question, and definitely a good point by Thom to mention John C. Calhoun and his “nullification” BS and how that links to Marjorie Traitor Greene...and God, is Thomas Massie ever a cosplaying airhead and a coward...Hartmann gives us yet another important history lesson, this time with absolutely staggering numbers on the slaves brought to this country before 1840 and the economic effect on poor Southern whites, and you damn well better believe that there’s a parallel between that and the current day, exactly the sort of history the “party of Lincoln” is trying to make illegal...more related idiocy is here)...



...and if you’re looking for a plan to return the Dems to control in the “lower chamber,” Rachel Maddow speaks with Ezra Levin of Indivisible about targeting the 18 U.S. House Repugs representing districts won by Biden in ’20 (one target is GOP Rep Mike Lawler in NY...and I’m sure Bri-Fi in PA-01 is one of the reps mentioned also, but knocking him off, while not impossible, is going to be a heavy lift, and I don’t say that gladly, despite his ‘moderate’ cred even though he votes with his party at least 85 percent of the time)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about the Gropenfuhrer’s short list of VP picks for ’24...interesting theory about Nikki Haley in particular; diabolical enough to completely make sense, unfortunately, and I don’t think Kristi (Unsafe At Any Speed) Noem is going to buy much either (have to admit that I didn’t know about the real estate license scandal)...we’re loooong past the point where Former President Fergus Laing needs to be wearing an orange jumpsuit (maybe at looong last?), which would make this whole discussion moot, even though it would pave the way for #MeatballRon, who is dangerous for a similar but different set of reasons...



...and I, among others, point out the insanity of what goes on in our spheres of news and politics to try and motivate all of us to positive action, but another consequence could be turning into oneself leading to depression, and I have to admit that I do feel a bit of responsibility on that score even though I honestly believe that I need to do this...you can consider presenting the following video as a form of outreach, especially towards Generation Z and Millennials (we learn that rural youth have twice the rate of suicide as urban youth, and isolation and access to guns are identified at likely causes...”research shows that suicide rates are lower in states with stricter gun safety laws” - telling stuff indeed)...



...and if there is ever a clip to present as we near the end of a week, it’s this one, with “The Governator” speaking for about 12 minutes or so against fascism – well done (more here)...



...and RIP Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd – since he’s the last surviving member of the original band, and particularly since he’s featured on this tune, I believe I need to present it, which is probably a first for this site (and I’ll overlook that Confederate rag for the occasion).

Thursday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen presents this clip of a gay Missouri Republican criticizing another straight member of his party for an anti-LGBT bill in the state legislature prohibiting discussion of sexual orientation (more here)...and boy, is Cohen ever right about the Dems needing to get on board with a Spanish channel (NSFW/H)...



...and Sam of The Majority Report tells us about Georgia U.S. House idiot Mike Collins, who blames diversity and inclusion for train derailments (and once more, let’s not forget that the Obama rule for trains to use upgraded brakes was negated by Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John of The Damage Report tells us about Republicans pushing for a 6-week abortion ban, which is effectively a full ban, along with more bogus “investigations” by the U.S. House, including the “weaponization” of the government, by Gym Jordan...I know we touched on the investigations thing earlier, but it bears repeating IMO (with Jayar at the end..."Due date abortion?" "Gender-selection abortion?" Is Ronna Romney McDaniel smoking a blunt or something?)...



...and David Doel brings us the clip of the recent exchange between Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and Repug U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma...a lot of important context provided here by Doel, illustrating what an entitled tool Mullin truly is (to say nothing of the fact that Mullin likely broke U.S. House ethics rules by making $$ off his plumbing business while serving as an elected representative)...



...and this video from More Perfect Union provides more information on Cal-Maine Foods gouging consumers on the price of eggs, and how other egg producers possibly acted in collusion...gee, it sure is a shame that we don’t have a federal government that can, y’know, put together a commission with subpoena power to investigate this...OH, WAIT! WE DO!...



...and RIP David Lindley; this is another case where it’s hard to find a particular tune to highlight from his gargantuan body of work, but I always associate him with Jackson Browne for many memorable selections, including this one.

Wednesday Stuff

(A bit of housekeeping...I may be cutting back on posting about news/political stuff for a bit; I don’t completely know yet. I’ll keep you informed as best I can.)

I thought this was a typically spot-on commentary from Beau about the highest paying jobs when getting out of college (engineering – understandable IMO) and lowest paying (education – ummm, I agree with Beau; we have a problem here...”we do not value the thing we need the most” indeed)...



...and speaking of college, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Bernie Sanders educating Bill Maher in the matter of student debt...the only reason I’ve even acknowledging that lickspittle Maher at all (who, let’s not forget, achieved his fame and popularity with a hell of a lot of support from people with the ideological bent that he now chooses to piss all over) is because of how Sanders brings him around on the issue...and it turns out that the poll Maher cites was referenced by NBC News, but they didn’t conduct it, and the poll was basically conducted by an AI? Heckuva job...



...and sticking with education, this More Perfect Union video tells us about the billionaires funding the SCOTUS cases/attacks on Biden’s student debt relief, in particular the laughably misnamed “Job Creators Network” bankrolled by Bernie Marcus, The Mercers, Charles Koch & Philip Anschultz, the same cretins who want us stuck in dead-end jobs with lousy pay forever until we drop...



...and continuing with the theme of trying to improve your mind through diverse perspectives, John and Sabrina Rios of The Damage Report give us the latest polling on book bans – the numbers should be 100 percent opposed across the board of course, but we are where we are...and yeah, it figures that a majority of Repugs are on board, but not a majority of Dems and independents, thankfully...



...and I realize it’s “water wet, sky blue” stuff to point out what an utter joke of a supposed TV news network Fix Noise is, but Sam and Emma of TMR let us know about Howie Kurtz, the alleged media critic, commenting on how the Roger Ailes BS Factory chose to muzzle him over the revelations about his employer from the Dominion lawsuit; pretty solid analysis in particular from Sam IMO...



...and it looks like PA’s former U.S. Senatorial mistake ended up landing comfortably, as Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us, with “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey joining the board of a private equity firm (OF COOURRRSSE!)...and yes, it definitely deserves a dishonorable mention that Toomey, along with “Curtsy Kyrsten” of course, helped to scuttle legislation to close the carried interest loophole...



...and when it comes to Toomey’s replacement, Retired U.S. Army Major Richard Ojeda tells us about one of #45 fail sons name calling John Fetterman, who continues his courageous recovery from a stroke and depression (Fetterman I mean of course)...to me, it’s absolutely ridiculous to see the comparative media attention given to these lower life forms congregating at CPAC, but kudos to Ojeda for giving Ochre Abomination Jr. the upbraiding called for here...



...and by the way, happy International Women's Day.

Monday Stuff

Alex Wagner of MSNBC talks with Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker about that idiot Tennessee lawmaker, State Rep Paul Sherrell (and do you even have to ask which party?), who wanted to bring back lynching (more here – and yes, he apologized, which is what he should do at a minimum)...



...and continuing under the heading of Republicans Behaving Badly, I give you Brian Tyler Cohen discussing Jon Stewart’s interview with Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm about guns (NSFW/H...I know I’m a little behind the news curve on these two items, but I feel like they need to be addressed - here)...



...and I know I linked to this story on Friday, but Jesse Dollemore did a good job IMO in commenting on it, namely, FLA guv #DeathSantis wanting bloggers criticizing him to register with the state, or something...apparently, the “line in the sand” is if those correctly pointing out what a fascist he truly is are generating income for their time and trouble...and I have to admit that I didn’t have “agreeing with Newt Gingrich” on my Bingo card (here)...



...and Alabama U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville is proving once more to be one of the most enlightened minds of the 13th century with his claim that the Dems want “one gender”...commentary by Cenk and Ana of TYT, and GREAT point by Cenk at the end about what snowflakes conservatives truly are, calling we lefties every name in the book, but when we hold a mirror up to them, WE allegedly become the bad guys...



...and it looks like all of the non-musical clips in this post will pertain to members of the “party of Lincoln” behaving in a particularly bad way, and here is another example...Farron Cousins discusses TX rep Nate Schatzline sponsoring an anti-drag bill, who was caught...wait for it!...IN DRAG! And GREAT point by Cousins about how subjective a judgment it is to consider something “sexualized”...and here is what I think is going on with all of this anti-trans BS from these knuckle-draggers; it’s all about persecuting “the other” to rally political support, whether or not the “other” is an African American, a woman, an Hispanic immigrant, a trans individual, or just a plain ol’ liberal – no bar is too low for these cretins (more here)...



...and Patsy Cline died in a plane crash 60 years ago yesterday.

A Word Or Two On "The French Mistake"

(To begin, I have an observation that is really “inside baseball” I know, but I have to say it. What I’ve done in the past was write longer-form posts at times over on the Wordpress site where I can tag and categorize my content more effectively than I typically do here at Blogger, and I usually just link to WP from my Blogger posts. However, Wordpress has done such an effective job of totally shitting up their UI and overall functionality that I may just say the hell with writing new posts there altogether and do everything here. That explains a bit what I’m about to say next.)

There was a time at this site when I did my best to critique/pick apart what I considered to be wingnut propaganda on a variety of fronts, and my hope was that I could “get the word out” (as much as my admittedly limited reach allowed) before the spin on the topic in question became enshrined to the point where it pretty much morphed into the dreaded “conventional wisdom” within our corporate media. This applied to a number of topics, such as Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction during the sorry Bush reign, the whole “birther” nonsense under Obama and, in the present moment, our alleged “open border” with Mexico (propagated by Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former “President,” among others). To that end, I often spent more time than I would like otherwise at National Review, The Weekly Standard, AEI, Townhall.com, the Wall Street Journal and other right-wing propaganda outlets and would fill up posts critiquing, among others, Bret Stephens, Kurt Schlichter, Andrew Malcolm...the list went on an on.

I eventually ended up abandoning this exercise for at least two reasons: 1) I needed to preserve my sanity, and 2) I ran out of bandwidth to do that on a regular basis. Well, I’d like to return briefly to that here to take issue somewhat with a recent New York Times column by David French, formerly of The National Review (because, as the Times would no doubt tell us if they were directly asked, you can never have enough conservative columnists).

I have to admit that French these days is in the “never Trump” camp (see Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, Michael Steele, Nicolle Wallace, etc.) so he’s a little more enlightened than the typical Trumpist sycophant. It should be noted also that he served our country, which is commendable. However, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need to be called out on occasion, and I think his most recent piece in the Times is the opportunity to do exactly that (the subject is the “national divorce” insanity proposed by Repug U.S. House Rep Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, among others):

(Greene’s “national divorce” idea) is not a new concern for me. In 2020, I published a book arguing that political polarization had grown so extreme that it was time to be concerned about our national union. The second sentence stated the thesis: “At this moment in history, there is not a single important cultural, religious, political or social force that is pulling Americans together more than it is pushing us apart.”

That statement was true then, and it is true now. If anything, partisan anger has only grown. I finished the book before the spring riots that ripped through American cities in 2020 and before the insurrection of Jan. 6. Those wounds have not fully healed.

Did you catch that? French equated the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd with the 1/6 insurrection against our government and the legal, lawful result of the 2020 presidential election.

One of these things is not like the other...

Well then, with this in mind, I think it’s only appropriate to revisit the following from French:

French once defended Kevin Williamson, who said those who’d received abortions should be hanged (here).

He also claimed that lifting the ban on transgender military service will result in “thought control” (here).

And in case anybody out there is still wondering how we could have arrived at a place in our political discourse where we’ve declared open season pretty much on LGBTQ individuals (to say nothing of women needing an abortion or related medical care), I give you a screed from French 8 years ago where he went on record saying that homosexuality is “sinful” here (I realize that’s pretty much straight from the Catholic playbook sadly, but that definitely helped to speed our intolerant path towards jackbooted authority and the ultimate death of democracy IMO...I mean, I hope to God that doesn't happen, but we'll see).

I realize the Times is going to allow French a platform to inject his doctrinaire musings into what passes for informed political dialogue in this country regardless of what I say or do, but as far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t mean that he should be allowed to do so with impunity. And I intend to call out French and his ilk for exactly that as long as I’m able to do it.

We didn’t get to this sorry state in this country by accident. A lot of people who knew better either contributed to our political and ideological misunderstandings by active participation or other than benign neglect, and continue in that exercise. And French is definitely responsible too. And I don’t care how comfortable a living he manages to eke out for doing so.

Update 3/26/23: More here.

Update 5/8/23: More here also.

Friday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report talks about the SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR hearing 2 cases that likely will end up gutting President Biden’s student debt forgiveness program...to paraphrase The Eternal George Carlin, the “R” party wants us to be smart enough to work the machines but too dumb to know anything else, and making college more affordable runs in opposition to that disgusting goal (mildly NSFW/H...and great point about the debt that Mango Mussolini cancelled without a word of protest...and I have a feeling Repugs would have sued even if Biden had used the ’65 Higher Education Act, as Figueredo says)...



...and keeping with the theme of education, Thom Hartmann informs us about #DeathSantis and his attempt to take over public schools in Flori-DUUUH! (yeah, basically you can teach the history of old, dead white guys and that’s about it, as Thom says...and I didn’t know about the “Constitutional Republic” word game played by the wingnuts, but I guess you learn something new every day)...



Update: So, supposedly, I might have to register somewhere in order to criticize "Meatball Ron"? Too funny (here).

...and David Doel found an interesting media nugget of sorts about Politico supporting rail industry propaganda by running ads in their content while this Adam Wren person of that media org criticized David Sirota and The Lever for trying to raise $$ for their journalism, which was perfectly legal the last I checked...and good job by Ro Khanna and Chris Deluzio to step up here with legislation in response...



...and Beau tells us about Eli Lilly capping insulin at $35 a month (and yeah, I think there’s a connection to Biden and the Inflation Reduction Act also...on the one hand, this is great, but on the other hand, what took so damn long?)...



...and in a similar story, Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss Moderna deciding not to raise the price of the COVID vaccine; this comes after Bernie Sanders said he wanted to bring in the CEO to testify before the Sanders committee about why the drug maker wants to gouge consumers on pricing...



...and Robert Reich asks if there is a worker shortage out there, and he argues that the answer is no; I would call it a shortage of workers who don’t want to be completely screwed over by employers...



...and I know this is a few days old, but Rachel Maddow spoke with Dem State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh of Nebraska, on her state and the country overall losing its damn mind over “drag queen story hour” and other stuff affecting LGBTQ individuals including kids; I wish Cavanaugh good luck in her quest to push back against all of this insanity...



...and RIP Wayne Shorter.

Wednesday Stuff

Awww, let’s shed some crocodile tears for poor widdle Marjorie Trailer Park Greene who just wants a safe space from a woman and her son who supposedly turned into demons (gee, projection much, Margie?) while the GA-14 rep was at a D.C. restaurant...yeah, what goes around comes around indeed (Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us more)...



...and in the latest example of Wingnuts In Disarray, Kyle Kulinski and David Pakman team up to tell us that it looks like CPAC is doing the big swirl in the hopper, as it were, which is fine with me because I thought that gathering of hominid missing links received far too much media attention as it is, but I’m inclined to agree with Kyle that the whole thing with Matt Schlapp grabbing the junk of a male at the conference (allegedly of course) is a bridge too far for people like Mayonnaise Mike Pence, among others (and when even Fix Noise runs for the hills, you’ve got a problem)...



...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, Jesse Dollemore discusses Rupert The Pirate letting Wonder Boy Jared Kushner know about Biden ads and giving Combover Caligula talking points during the ’20 campaign; I think Dollemore is pretty spot-on, but I would only say that the GOP works for Fix Noise instead of the other way around...I’m definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so to speak, but I was saying that network was the media wing of the Republican Party 20 years ago, for what it’s worth (not much I suppose)...



Update 3/3/23: Totally deserved (here).

...and Sam of The Majority Report discusses how Our Treasonous Ochre Abomination screwed Biden on the EPA by forcing out about 1,200 scientists, along with that ridiculous CRA bill (more here) which doesn’t help either...GREAT point by Sam about how voting for a person of a particular party is really a mandate to maintain the functions of government, or not in the case of the “R” party...as Sam says, we’ve lost about 3,000 EPA employees total since 2004 thanks to Dubya but mainly Generalissimo Trump, as well as employees at the DOJ and the IRS also...



...and I know I touched on Blackstone yesterday, but this clip from More Perfect Union and Second Thought tells us how insidious Stephen A. Schwarzman truly is, profiting off the misery of others (and it doesn’t matter how much you claim to support the arts and endowments if you’re a scurrilous, rapacious capitalist weasel at your core, as Schwarzman is...and the utterly awful legacy of Pete Peterson lives on in Schwarzman of course)...



...and in the latest news about Flori-DUUUH!, we find out about Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of the “Republic” Party who introduced a bill to ban the Democratic Party; as noted here, though, assuming his joke of a piece of legislation becomes law in Ron #DeathSantis-stan, it definitely could boomerang in a way Ingoglia did not intend...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen brings us the latest on Dem U.S. House Rep Jamie Raskin schooling the clueless mistake of Colorado’s third congressional district; I started this post with the nuttiness of Marjorie Traitor Greene, so I guess it’s only apropos to include “Bo-Bo Boebert” too (and as far as the whole “Democrat Party” thing goes...and kudos to Raskin for pushing back on that...it looks like I need to bring this back also)...



...and happy 65th birthday to Nik Kershaw.

Tuesday Stuff

Farron Cousins gives us the latest developments in Flor-DUUUH!, and that would be a typically unconscionable law making it easier for #DeathSantis to sue his critics for libel and defamation (with the help of this Alex Andrade wingnut as noted here)...and yeah, wouldn’t it be sweet to see this boneheaded stunt boomerang on Repug-friendly media the way Cousins describes?...



...and this clip from TYT Indisputable with Sharon Reed and Jeff Wiggins discusses the “Karen” in Hatboro near these parts who lost it over some kind of Spanish language thing at a pizza parlor; I guess they were watching soccer on TV, which was perfectly legal the last I checked (I don’t think the possibility that this outburst was premedicated should be discounted either, partly because of her claim about “I have so-and-so followers” – the curse of social media strikes again, and I’m removing my tongue from my cheek as I say that...well, everybody knows what type of person this woman is now...ugh!)...



...and John and Rayy Vana of The Damage Report tell us about Margaret Brennan of the “third eye” network trying to claim that, by legitimately criticizing journalists and their news coverage, Bernie Sanders is “targeting” them somehow – good push back by Bernie as usual... definitely NOT the same as the Gropenfuhrer and his caterwauling about “fake news,” and marking the fourth estate for violence...kudos to John for working in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs...



...and for the sake of idiot Ukraine war “truthers” out there such as noted here (I honestly didn’t know that was a thing, but I guess I should never underestimate this country’s ability to be totally stoo-pid), I give you this from the German network DW and correspondent Mathias Bolinger (more here)...



...and Emma V. tells us about horrific child labor conditions at a meat packing facility involving dangerous sanitation practices (some outfit called PSSI, bankrolled by the Blackstone private equity firm); great report for Julia Ainsley of NBC News...yeah, typical for these corporate criminals like Blackstone to leverage themselves with debt into oblivion, then use that as an excuse for “belt tightening” to the point where kids are hired for work like that described in the video...a shame that we don’t have enough “muckraking” journos like Upton Sinclair or Jacob Riis these days, who probably would be vilified 24/7 by Fix Noise, Newsmax and others (and no, I’m not giving “Dark Brandon” a pass on this either as opposed to Mango Mussolini)...



Update 3/1/23: Kudos to President Biden for this.

...and with the prior clip in mind, I should note that we recently observed the 75th anniversary of Wood Guthrie’s song “Deportee,” performed here by his son Arlo (more here).

Monday Stuff

I realize this story is a couple of days old at this point, but I think it needs to be mentioned again; Jesse Dollemore tells us of “Dilbert” cartoonist and Trumpist wingnut Scott Adams basically setting probably his most important revenue stream on fire (i.e., the syndication of his lame-ass comic) because he couldn’t keep his racist pie hole shut, and a slew of newspapers dropped Adams in response as noted here...as someone who works ostensibly in IT, I can tell you that there was a time when the whole “Dilbert” thing was a bit of an interesting novelty, but at this point, Adams’s work is pretty tired hackery making fun of lazy, “woke” workers more than anything else (maybe it was always that and I just realized it a bit late...que sera sera...NSFW/H)...



...also, it looks like “Senator Snowball” is going to hang it up because he’s dealing with long COVID as noted here – sorry to hear that, but I think this is a bit of karma for a guy who opposed COVID relief for others (and profiting off the pandemic too as noted here...and I don’t think Di-Fi should get a pass here either)...Inhofe appears at about 2:12 in this clip; somehow, I don’t think he’s making jokes about ‘Rona now...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report brings us this clip of residents of East Palestine, OH (Jim Stewart in particular, as well as others) confronting Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on the destruction his company caused with the rail disaster that pretty much contaminated the town (and let’s not let guv Mike DeWine off the hook either; I believe it was his decision to do that burn of the leftover chemicals on the rail cars that completely fouled the air...personally, I’d like to know what the hell was supposedly so damn funny in that clip of DeWine ostensibly drinking the water...and yeah, the “Cult 45” homages to Our Treasonous Orange Pustule on display in that town are pretty sickening all right)...



...and the latest from Second Thought discusses American Fascism and the “groomer” panic (a very minor “nit” to pick...I wish he hadn’t included Mehdi Hasan in the beginning, since he definitely is not part of the crowd yelling about this, though maybe to refute it; another very small nit to pick is that I wish he’d found a way to go after Matt Walsh also, but he hits the major points for sure (including going after Chaya Raichik)...and I think it's correct to equate the “moral panic” over LGBTQ individuals with being left-handed, which was anathema for a time – and to me, the stuff at about 20:42 drawing a straight line between the “groomer” panic in this country and the Nazis was a real punch in the gut – kudos to J.T. Chapman for pointing that out in particular, and for doing his best to make these videos interesting and engaging...and I agree that signing up for Nebula is a great deal...all the best with the ways he’s trying to upgrade this content, though it stands pretty well on its own IMO)...



...and this Majority Report clip with Emma V. and Olayemi Olurin tells us about drag queens fighting back in Tennessee against ridiculous attempts in that state to put them out of business; I don’t know of a drag queen who every spread COVID or was responsible for a mass shooting (also NSFW/H...I have a creepy feeling that we can expect something like COINTELPRO 2 under a Republican government to go after African Americans, LGBTQ people, and anyone considered to be “woke,” whatever that means...these TMR videos go on a bit long at times, but usually that’s OK as far as I’m concerned)...



Update: I would call this an interesting bit of karma.

...and you can, in part, consider this clip my response to that racist idiot Scott Adams, and my contribution for Black History Month I guess; I always thought that was a stupid idea mainly because African Americans should be celebrated every month, along with everybody else.

Friday Stuff

Thom Hartmann asks if the “far right” has turned religion into an authoritarian cult; if you have to ask the question, I have a feeling you already know the answer (I'm not sure if Thom is referring to the Super Bowl “He gets us” ad or not, and he references David Green of Hobby Lobby...and I agree with Thom on Franklin vs. Billy Graham...and GREAT point by Thom that a lot of the states where these religious hustlers practice their con are also states that refuse to expand Medicaid, even though it’s basically free money...and not supporting Ukraine is more than a bit of a “tell” also from these charlatans as far as I’m concerned)...

...and John and Ana of TYT bring us Alaska state rep David Eastman – I have to admit that I didn’t have a Repug politician saying there’s an upside to child death on my Bingo card; more on this Eastman ghoul is here...and yeah, he’s a Trumper all right (related commentary from Thom H. is here)...



...and retired U.S. Army Major Richard Ojeda tells us about Marjorie Trailer Park ($700K) Greene saying that we need a “national divorce” (I can almost feel my brain cells dying when I listen to this horrible woman)...



...and turning to the East Palestine, OH rail spill, David Pakman tells us that...rut-row!...Norfolk Southern apparently eliminated a critical maintenance role that could have led to the accident...it sounds like something called the hot box detector was going off before the train derailed, but nobody could do anything about it – ugh!...



...and this is an absolutely terrific clip by More Perfect Union on the despicable con of “right to work” laws and the re-awakening (I would call it) of organized labor in this country in response...really important history of the labor movement presented in this video...



...and tomorrow marks what would have been the 80th birthday of George Harrison.