...and Farron Cousins tells us that there apparently are issues on the “home front” for Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack; this is a bit of a twist on the usual stuff, since, according to the source noted in the clip, Melania is “furious” with you-know-who over mentioning Barron Trump online...she’s another one from this sorry, pathetic cabal, but I grudgingly have to admit that, on this one occasion anyway, she has a point...kids should be off limits, though that never stopped the wingnuts from going after Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, or Sasha or Malia Obama...
...and with this clip, I suppose I’m going back a bit on my pledge not to pay much attention to that Repug prez candidates’ train wreck last Wednesday evening – c’est dommage...Jesse Dollemore rightly called it a “clearinghouse of assh*le-ry” IMO...we see ”Governor Bully” getting it from the crowd for going after Dear Leader Trump...and yeah, that whole “raised hand” moment was also typically pathetic for this bunch, and that includes the debate moderators, but seriously, what else could we expect from Fix Noise?...
...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, Brian Kilmeade (of course) mocks Jake Tapper for discussing climate change with Dem U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii...actually, knowledge of climate change goes beyond the ‘70s all the way back to 1959 as noted here (Emma of TMR tells us about it)...
...and Mike Figueredo tells us that even Repug voters don’t care about the “war on woke”; that talking point is polling at barely 50% among likely GOP voters...looks like this is a big reason why Guv #DeathSantis and his chances for the Repug nom for prez are fading away...awwww (report also tells us about all of the conventions cancelling from Flori-DUUUH! over this and other nonsense from that state’s utter clown of a governor...NSFW/H)...
...and I’m continuing to work my way down the list of summer selections with this tune.
(By the way, if you’re looking for analysis of sorts related to the Republican candidates’ clown show sans #45 on Wednesday evening, this isn’t the right place. I heard that Vivek got his head handed to him by Governor Bully...so many attack lines you can use to go at Christie if you want, but none would probably play for that audience. I guess this is about as good of an analysis that I’ve seen; as far as I’m concerned, those knuckleheads consume way too much of the attention of our corporate media anyway...if there was anything I might have been interested in, it would be to see someone ask Tim Scott about abortion again to watch him lose his mind trying to flip-flop his way out of answering...also to see if Doug Burgum has a pulse.)
Turning to the videos...I have to admit that I’m glad to see “Dark Brandon” go on the offensive here – would that WAAAY MORE DEMS would follow that example...
...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about the Bureau of ATF under #46 rescinding the ability of gun sellers to allow their weapons of mass carnage to be sold on the (presumably) open market (122 out of about 16,500 isn’t even one percent, by the way, but it’s still better than nothing; I more or less did the math on that...and I think Kyle is referring to this mess, by the way)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about the allies of Mango Mussolini getting humiliated after their mug shots were posted online in response to the Georgia election fraud charges from D.A. Fani Willis (the one for the “mayor of 9/11” is just too damn precious)...I wish they could have done a ”perp walk” for “America’s Mayor”; it definitely would have been appropriate...and I wonder if Jenna Ellis thought it was a photo shoot for Redbook or Good Housekeeping or something?...
...and pursuant to the prior clip a bit, Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that it looks like some of the fellow Georgia defendants of Our Tiny-Handed Treasonous Former *president are flipping on each other – what an unbelievable bunch of knuckleheads (I’d say it’s Keystone Kops Time, but that’s an insult to the Keystone Kops)...pass the popcorn...
...and I know we’ve been poking fun at the various bottom-feeders surrounding Former President Fergus Laing (as well as the “party of Lincoln” in general), but Thom Hartmann has a discussion with a caller over the very serious topic of foreign operatives who’ve likely been killed or gone missing as a result of the failure of Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence to secure top secret intel, which he likely sold to the highest bidder (MBS, Vlad The Butcher, etc.)...
...and somehow I have a feeling that, given all of the legal travails of the Georgia co-defendants in the election fraud case from Fulton County DA Fani Willis, it will be nearly impossible for everyone named in the indictment to follow the advice of the title of this song (though, on the other hand, maybe that’s what got them into trouble in the first place).
Chris Hayes speaks with journalist Noah Goldberg of the LA Times about the murder of CA shop owner Lauri Carleton, who courageously flew a pride flag over her shop before she was shot to death by some apparently “pro life” lunatic (here)...is it my imagination, or are there *crickets* from the other side in response to this? I guess that’s not surprising given the wingnut embrace of Kyle Rittenhouse, George Zimmerman, etc...
...and speaking of right-wing insanity, Jayar Jackson and Aida Rodriguez discuss how the wingnuts are realizing (maybe) that their anti-abortion and anti-trans talking points didn’t work in recent related elections in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, and aside from trying to suppress younger voters from exercising their franchise, the “party of Lincoln” doesn’t know what to do about it...of course, they could embrace policies shared by the majority of their constituents, but their “funders” wouldn’t like that I’m sure...GREAT point by Rodriguez about the REAL issues the wingnuts don’t want people to focus on, as opposed to trying to “trans” your kids...GMAFB! (and this is the politician Jayar was referring to, by the way; that would be Tim Burchett)...
...oh, and of course another area of attack for the “party of Lincoln” is in education, and one example is Arkansas, where schools are apparently defying Governor Sarah Huckabilly Sanders on teaching AP African American studies; that state’s DOE has ruled that the students won’t receive college credit I believe for the course, but the schools said they’ll go ahead with the course anyway (Rayy Vana, Cenk and Yasmin Khan...kind of a pointless slam by Cenk on Bill Clinton here, but I guess he can make a case for that)...
...oh, and when it comes to the wingnut outrage du jour, Jesse Dollemore tells us how the supposedly responsible opposition is giving it to President Biden for visiting Hawaii (at the scene of the devastating fires) and...petting a dog (here)? – Jesse really lays into the Gropenfuhrer, and I’m here for all of it and more (and meanwhile, apart from the DC media bubble, I give you this)...
...and in this latest video from More Perfect Union (“The Classroom”), Alice Cappelle asks ”Could The U.S. Have a General Strike Like France?”...I wasn’t aware of the U.S. overtaking Europe in the late ‘70s when it came to who worked more hours, but it does fit the sorry pattern of that era..and of course Maggie Thatcher (a “man in a frock,” according to the late, great Glenda Jackson) brought neoliberalism to the UK, and to the EU by extension...I’m not sure about the answer to the question either, especially since some states have passed laws making protests illegal (here), but that doesn’t mean that we should give up trying to organize...
...and considering what I’m sure may the unintentional hilarity of the nonsense from tonight’s GOP “debate” (pretty much a “race for second place” as those who spend more time preoccupied with this stuff than I do have pointed out), I didn’t think it would hurt to present something amusing for real, especially since this tune went gold 45 years ago on this day.
Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ informs us that Jessica Tarlov of Fix Noise laid a bit of a “truth bomb” on the other knuckleheads of her network who were spinning furiously to try and come up with some bad news on #46 (didn’t know about this “doom loop” tour, which is typically disgusting for those characters...saying she knows of a small town notable for “Jesus and meth” is sadly typical I’m sure)...
...and speaking of media idiocy, Kyle Kulinski is here to tell us that our beloved ”fourth estate” is basically zeroing out any mention of climate change in their reporting of the Hawaii wildfires (Media Matters did an analysis and found that 4 percent of the coverage mentioned the climate crisis, which is basically nothing...un-freaking-believable!)...
...and Jayar Jackson and Aida Rodriguez of The Damage Report tell us about Louisiana AG candidate Liz Murril (you can guess the political party I’m sure), who says that anything you can buy illegally online contains fentanyl, or something, including abortion bills which, last I checked, weren’t illegal...yet – hopefully that won’t change, but we’ll see with some of these goofball judges...also, I’m not going to try and verify what Murril is talking about here because I’m sure these words are intended for wingnut consumption and pretty much nothing else...Rodriguez paints with a pretty broad brush here IMO, but I find it hard to argue with her...
...and the latest video from Second Thought tells us about America’s Forgotten Socialist History...yeah, it all started with those damn Native Americans and their collective ownership (tongue-in-cheek here of course)...the clip mentions the organized labor movement from the 1820s to the 1860s, including the Knights of Labor (started in 1889, which grew to 700K members by 1886, the same year as the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, which took place on 5/1...that was the day of strikes across the U.S. to demand the 8-hour workday)...I think he’s wrong about the origins of policing in this country, though; it really goes back to landowners trying to keep their workers in line...and yeah, I’m talking about slavery on southern plantations basically...also discusses the 1894 Pullman strike...nice work to show how much socialists were part of the history of the ”red scares” and the movement towards racial equality in this country...I’d mention fighting the push for child labor, but unfortunately, that’s coming back in this country, which supposedly “loves the kids”...tell me another one...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 8/20/15...it looks like the “party of Lincoln” is going to try and stage a presidential candidates’ debate tomorrow night (or their version of a legitimate debate), with one rather large orange omission as noted here, and with that in mind, I bring you the following, which I thought was amusing (and with at least one of the candidates in this clip slated to make a return appearance tomorrow)...
...and I’m continuing to work my way down the list of summer selections with this tune.
Rayy Vana and Jackson White of The Damage Report bring us the news that a 3-year-old child died on one of Greg Abbott’s migrant forced bus rides ("oh, but they signed a waiver promising a job and a place to live"...more lies), this time to Chicago, and apparently at least one other child that we know about expired also for the same reason...if we had a government that actually represented us, we would have congressional hearings into this that actually mattered, but part of what’s going on here I’m sure is that the prison industrial complex in this country (which has a big role to play in all of this) are big campaign funders, which I’m sure has a lot to do with nothing happening; that’s overwhelmingly the fault of Repugs, but some Dems are also to blame too...
...so when it comes to kids, what is the “party of Lincoln” and their media toadies preoccupied with instead? As Newsmax’s Eric Bolling puts it, those “little felt Communists” at Sesame Street...what a pitiable joke (Ana and Cenk)...
...and as long as we're on the subject of conservative idiocy and/or the appearance at least of criminality, it seems like nary a week goes by without some mention of Alabama’s U.S. Senatorial mistake Tommy Tuberville, and this time, it has to do with him making bank on trading futures commodities...and gee, whaddaya know? His committee oversee those businesses, and apparently, he has other similar financial corruption issues, as Adrienne Lawrence and Brett Erlich tell us (and when even big stupid head Matt freaking Gaetz of all people supports a ban on stock trading, you KNOW it’s way past time for that...and when it comes to Tubervile, let's not forget this)...
...and this More Perfect Union video tells us how the National Right to Work Foundation (hmmm, just smell the Astroturf!) is doing the anti-union dirty work for Starbucks (and when you follow the money, yeah, it goes right to the typical wingnut billionaires who want to make as much money as they can destroying the planet and dragging everything and everyone down with them)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that a Montana judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by 16 young climate activists can go forward because of risks posed to the health of the plaintiffs...good news for a change...a long way to go until a (hopefully) victory, but progress...and as Cousins notes, now we have to identify someone to go after in the suit, which will be the hard part, but again, things are going forward for now...
...and RIP Bobby Eli of Philly International records, who co-wrote the following tune and played a big role in creating some of the biggest hits from the biggest groups of that era (the ‘70s primarily, that is).
Thom Hartmann asks Why Do Billionaires Fund Anti-Black and Anti-Trans political movements (the statistics Thom presents are staggering, with gun violence as the leading cause of death in this country)...also, I’d never heard a number before on all of the dough stolen from the middle class of this country stretching back to The Sainted Ronnie R, but $51 trillion probably makes sense – and it’s heartbreaking also to realize what happened once more to the For The People Act and who the culprits are for its likely demise; all of them should be summarily tossed (including Manchin and Sinema) and Dems elected instead (REAL ones in the latter two cases), but good luck expecting the Trumpers and independent voters to go along with that (and when it comes to the real-world impact of hating LGBTQ folks, I give you this...more here)...
Update 8/20/23: Ugh (and why is this not surprising?)
...and Cliff Schecter of Blue Amp Channel tells us about the billionaires who control Republican politicians (and more than a couple of SCOTUS justices), with commentary also from Lawrence Lessig...
...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report brings us the story of Wisconsin Repug state senator Cory Tomczyk, who is trying to sue a newspaper out of existence for publishing an anti-gay slur that he apparently said in public, in front of witnesses; he has also admitted to using the slur in the past...”waging lawfare” indeed (more here – mildly NSFW/H)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, Brian Karem of Meidas Touch discusses media consolidation since the ruinous years of Our 40th President...I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that so much of what afflicts this country goes back to that sorry era (I would argue even further than that, to Tricky Dick at least)...this is an update to the story of the cops shutting down the Marion County, KS newspaper; the warrant to allow this was approved by wingnut judge Laura Viar, who seems to have her own closet skeletons to hide, allegedly of course, as well as referencing the previously noted Wisconsin case...Karem correctly calls for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine (which would have to be updated anyway to take cable TV news into account, and it would have to survive the inevitable legal challenges), and I would also call for a return to the equal time requirement, and no, they’re not both the same thing – maybe a constitutional amendment for both? Yeah, I know, good luck with that too...
...and in keeping with the theme of “the fourth estate” (and hacks such as this guy - not Atrios of course), Sam and Emma of TMR speak with Jon Marshall on how the Repugs’ war on the “liberal media” puts us all at risk – I’d forgotten about Biden and the “disinformation governance board” or whatever that was...pretty sure Cancun Cruz and his fellow lunatics went nuts over it, despite, or probably because of, its well-intended goals (sad but not surprising that the COVID conspiracy BS got over four times the views of what I would call legitimate news, but not surprising...I wish I had a magic answer for this, but I really don’t; it’s going to be a hardass slog trying to reverse the damage to our discourse going back about 40 years, really)...
...and that chaise lounge chair, or whatever that is, looks pretty inviting I must say – I think this tune fits for the weather in these parts...hope it’s nice where you are also.
(The cartoon quote recalls one of the all-time great gangster pics IMO, FWIW).
Chris Hayes speaks with Noah Bookbinder of CREW, who makes what I would call a compelling case that Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack can’t legally run for preznit again because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment – works for me (citing a precedent in New Mexico)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with election attorney Marc Elias, who does a deeper dive into Mango Mussolini’s 4th indictment brought by Fani Willis, this one for the Georgia garbage (along with 18 others I believe), and RICO charges are in the picture this time...couldn’t happen to a more deserving traitorous scumbag (pretty solid analysis of this stuff from Elias IMO)...
...and Beau speculates on whether or not AZ will be the next state to bring an indictment against #45 – yeah, it kind of makes sense not to hop too quick on the “oh, AZ is going to indict him also” bandwagon as Beau says (and wouldn’t it be just too sweet if the state laying low with filing future criminal charges is our own beloved commonwealth of PA? And yes, I know the difference between a state and a commonwealth)...
...and Farron Cousins, sitting in for David Pakman, tells us about some Trump-loving maniac doxing the grand jury in the Georgia trial of Combover Caligula (and yes, as Cousins says, this stuff and the threats are never OK regardless of which side it’s coming from, but it seems to be coming overwhelmingly from the right)...
...and speaking of threats, it looks like conservative “Christian” broadcaster Steve Deace, on something called Blaze TV, sez we should just start the hangings now as opposed to, y’know, paying attention to dumb stuff like science and vaccine clinical tests (still ranting about COVID, unbelievably enough) – David Shuster tells us more (more on this idiot Deace is here)...
...and I have a feeling that this video was filmed in North Brunswick, NJ, but I’m not sure...I’ll have to check it out a little more (nice tune, though).
Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that Kayleigh McEnany apparently didn’t bother to "vet" her lie about Hunter Biden and his dad, saying the Devon Archer testimony was broadcast when – oopsie! – it was BEHIND CLOSED DOORS!...example number 45,232 that that network thinks their viewers are idiots (more here)...
...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory (featured in the Majority Report clip), it looks like frat boy goon (in Kyle Kulinski’s completely correct analysis IMO) Jesse Watters called climate change a “psyop,”...God, are those “before” and “after” pics of Lahaina ever heartbreaking...
Update 8/17/23: And when it comes to "Mrs. Kyle," if you will, I would call this a truly boneheaded take (Biden approved a disaster declaration for the island almost immediately).
...and Mike Figueredo tells us that it looks like the Repug state chair of Flori-DUUH! is attacking families of LGBTQ people fleeing their hellhole of a state (and twisting himself into metaphorical knots trying to blame the “Democrat Party”) since it’s apparently becoming obvious that they’re losing $$$ from queer tourism, you might say...yep, once more, all these life forms understand is money (and hatred of “the other” of course)...
...and Ana and Cenk of TYT bring us the story of Karen Lauritzen, who apparently was named Teacher of the Year last year in Idaho, who now plans to leave the state and move to Illinois because of wingnut outrage, due to Lauritzen basically recognizing that the U.N. actually exists and because she posted a picture of herself on social media with the apparently incendiary logo of “Love is Love” with a rainbow...yeah, I’m not hearing anything but wingnut stoo-pidity here either (Cenk really goes off, but I think he’s completely justified – I’d love to see somebody on the right push back against the crazies too, but naaah, that won’t happen, sadly...I’m a little leery of these two any more especially Ana to be honest, but I think they need to be given credit when they’re right...not exactly sure why Ana is so blasé in comparison, but I guess that’s her default setting now, if you will, for this stuff)...
...and this More Perfect Union video featuring labor author Steven Greenhouse discusses the “Joy Silk Doctrine”...sounds like this is kind of a back-door means to try and bring back the “card check” provision of the Employee Free Choice Act, which the wingnuts typically went bonkers over of course...”oh, this is so undemocratic! It takes away the right to vote!”...not really (under the EFCA, employees had a choice, hence the name), but it also takes away the “right” of employers to coerce employees into not unionizing, as Greenhouse explains...
...and I need to catch up on my summer tunes a bit, including this one.
I thought this was a pretty convincing video from Robert Reich explaining how Combover Caligula is really a fascist versus an authoritarian; of course, #45 now has his 4th indictment, this one in Georgia for election interference, along with his minions (here)...so much winning!...
...and I have to admit that I’ve fallen behind a bit again on my “Second Thought” videos; this one has to do with trying to unearth “The Secret Marxist Conspiracy”...didn’t know about Michael Minnicino, Gerald Atkinson and William Lind before; I may have heard of Lind in passing...the video does a great job IMO of showing how wingnut media types and politicians whip up their base into a frenzy to oppose “the other,” whoever that may be, in an ongoing effort to consolidate political and economic power for themselves...NSFW/H...
...and one way to suppress dissent of course is to go right after the media, which we learn about in the following clip (and I’m sorry I’m a little behind on this story) – this has to do with the newspaper publisher in Marion County, Kansas who was raided by the cops, supposedly for a document that the newspaper had already told the police about, likely leading to the death of the paper’s 98-year-old co-publisher and apparently the mother of the paper’s editor-in-chief (more here and here)...
...and another way to exercise authoritarian control is to use law enforcement to attack those deemed to be troublemakers or malcontents by virtue of their socio-economic class, race, ethnicity or other characteristic; witness the horrifying racist police abuse in Rankin County, Mississippi, basically sending out the so-nicknamed “Goon Squad” to kidnap and torture (or so the complaint states) two African American men, as Jesse Dollemore and Brittany Page discuss (NSFW/H)...
...and there were folks who pretty much saw authoritarianism coming (at a minimum) in this country, and one of them was Frank Zappa, who cracked the code” in the ‘80s when it came to the wingnuts trying to establish a “fascist theocracy” as Zappa correctly put it (and of course conservative Robert Novak told Zappa he was wrong, though neither are still with us to see Zappa vindicated...Brett Erlich of Rebel HQ tells us more...and I’ve read that that quote about fascism and America WASN’T attributed to Sinclair Lewis)...
...and if the prior clip isn't an excuse for a Zappa tune, I don't know what is.
Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about wage theft in this country; the Economic Policy Institute informs us that $50 billion is stolen from workers every year, including unpaid overtime, as well as the scam (noted in the clip) of forcing pizza delivery drivers to stock shelves as employees while still technically classifying them as contractors...that number dwarfs criminal offenses such as robbery ($500 million) and burglary ($3 billion) and surpassed all other types of theft in 2018 (NSFW/H)...
...and in the category of corporate criminals, Sam Seder of The Majority Report (no, not him) tells us about Jack Welch’s pernicious influence on climate reporting at NBC I believe (with author David Gelles...so many interesting points here about “Neutron Jack,” but one to me is how G.E. Capital was used to try and influence the earnings of the parent company by manipulating the price of the company’s stock – and yet another cautionary tale against rewarding executives with that type of compensation, a practice enabled by The Sainted Ronnie R that, prior to that, had been illegal and should remain so...and yes, drag Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek into this...”we are looking at decades of work ahead of us” to try and straighten out our economy and our political institutions indeed)...
...and turning from corporate to political idiocy, Jen Psaki tells us about all the individuals from the “party of Lincoln” taking credit for infrastructure-related and other spending who opposed it with every fiber of their wretched being while taking up space on Capitol Hill...
...and when it comes to politics to actually achieve a good ends, Kyle Kulinski tells us about Biden raising construction worker pay in essence, ensuring prevailing wage law is enforced, restoring the Davis-Bacon Act (from The American Prospect...yes, I know Clinton and Obama weren’t perfect by any means on the economy, though they got a lot right as far as I’m concerned, but for Kyle to automatically conflate them on this issue with The Sainted Ronnie R and the destruction Reagan waged on the middle class is beyond a joke – and I know Kyle is right on the policy, but I should point out that my cat has about the same chance of being elected president as Marianne Williamson)...
...however, as much as I’d like to, I cannot disregard the state of Flori-DUUH! and their assclown guv #DeathSantis for ignoring the various crises under his mind-numbingly idiotic “governance” (environmental, economic and public health-related), as Farron Cousins tells us...
...and RIP Tom Jones (no, not THAT Tom Jones); I’m referring to the co-author of the play “The Fantasticks,” which brought us this evergreen tune.
Leeja Miller tells us How Philanthropy is Ruining America (interesting) – so many great points, but one of them is how the philanthropy scam (and it is just that in many cases) is really just another means of tax avoidance for the uber-wealthy...didn’t think much about how crooked foundations can be until I watched this, and yeah, they can be sweet deals for family members with the right estate planning...and I’d never heard of ”philanthrocapitalism” until now, truth be told, and I also never thought much before about the importance of mutual aid orgs either, but I can see how important they became during and as a result of the pandemic...of course, the easiest answer is for the rich TO JUST PAY THEIR DAMN TAXES, AND THAT GOES FOR THE POLITICIANS ALSO OF COURSE (NSFW/H)...
...and when it comes to the High Priest, if you will, of scamming people and not paying what he owes, Jesse Dollemore (not him) tells us about Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack attacking the Georgia prosecutor looking to indict him for that infamous phone call to Brad Raffensperger...oh, and #45 made some typically disgusting remark about Biden’s sons...”A sociopath’s stand-up act” indeed, and I’m sure Jesse is totally spot-on about the 2024 elections (and even THIS didn’t satisfy the wingnuts of course)...
...and Beau tells us that the DOJ is looking at another potential area of illegality for the Gropenfuhrer, and that is fundraising after yelling about fraud in the 2020 election, and the “Save America” PAC, with an apparent assist from Bernard Kerik...I had to include this clip to show Beau’s great T-shirt if for no other reason...
...and when it comes to the minions of Dear Leader Fergus Laing, retired Army Major Richard Ojeda (again, definitely not him) informs us that Marjorie Trailer Park Greene’s boyfriend sez there will be a full-scale riot if Trump loses again – so tired of these pitiable life forms braying like sheep to the slaughter...
...and Luke Beasley, sitting in for David Pakman, reminds us of Bo-Bo Boebert taking credit for an infrastructure spending bill she voted against, of course (specifically for wind turbines), along with jabs from “Dark Brandon” at that assclown Tuberville and Mango Mussolini of course, and nice job by Beasley to run down the list of accomplishments from the Biden Administration at the end...good luck trying to get our beyond useless corporate media to pay attention, however...love to see that change somehow (and to do something about Boebert, click here)...
...and here are three more tunes from The Band to conclude my tribute to Robbie Robertson (blistering guitar solo from Robertson on this next number).
Brian Tyler Cohen and voting rights attorney Marc Elias discuss the failure of the anti-abortion ballot initiative in Ohio...and while it's true that the measure was to raise the percentage of votes required to pass a ballot initiative to 60 percent as opposed to 50, it definitely had to do with abortion, albeit indirectly (and even though it went down, look for Frank LaRose to try and use this to energize his campaign to win the Repug nomination and take on Sherrod Brown in that state’s U.S. Senate race)...
...and you’d better believe that the “fundies” are on board with eliminating not just abortion, but contraception, same-sex marriage, and the whole gamut of what you could justifiably IMO call social progress, to the point where preacher Russell Moore, who formerly was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, is apparently shocked that congregants dismiss quotes from Our Lord as “liberal talking points”...not sure why Moore would be surprised, since that’s the direction they’re going with their adoration of Dear Leader Trump...a lot of important history here about the rise of the evangelicals and the role played by The Sainted Ronnie R, echoing some of the Leeja Miller video from about a week or so ago, though I think this stuff bears repeating...and I think Mike Figueredo is spot-on to equate this with what you could call “late-stage capitalism” (NSFW/H)...
...with another symptom of our de-evolution in this country being the Trumpists ascribing to “the big lie,” as Rayy Vana tells us (and Republicans generally as far as I’m concerned)...yes, I know what these people are, but unfortunately, we need to pay attention to these life forms...
...and as Ana and John of TYT tell us here, the same forces behind the garbage I noted previously are coming for your kids too, and this clip tells us about what’s going on in Flori-DUUH!, in essence banning Shakespeare... “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, for I am sick when I do look on thee.”...and for those of you keeping score at home, that’s from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” appropriately enough.
Oh, and OF COOURRSE PragerU is somehow involved...that video which I think has to do with “Christopher Columbus” is as ridiculous as you’d expect, as is the one with “Frederick Douglass”...surprised the video doesn’t mention the Bowling Green Massacre too (a minor issue with Ana is that I don’t know of anybody on our side trying to dumb people down through education; if she has evidence of that, I wish she’d let us know).
Meanwhile in the world of reality, do you want to know what the REAL Frederick Douglass thought of slavery? I give you the following (from here)...
“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?
“I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”
Anyway, here is the TYT clip...
...and as a tribute to Robbie Robertson of The Band, I offer the following...
David Shuster discusses some Fix Noise hairdo named Julie Banderas twisting herself into figurative knots trying to defend Combover Caligula, saying being a narcissist and hatching schemes to stay in office isn’t a crime...hate to break the news to you cupcake, but where the first may not constitute illegality, the second definitely does (here)...
...oh, but the Gropenfuhrer wants his D.C. trial moved to a supposedly “diverse” location like West Virginia, as David Pakman tells us (which is about as “diverse” as the difference between alabaster and mayonnaise...I can’t take credit for that line – forget where I first saw it, but I think it fits... and the alleged “free speech” defense is typically pathetic, coming from a character who’s little game of “three card monte” is just about up...more here)...
...and Mehdi Hasan tells us about the great unwashed (led by their thrice-indicted former *president) trashing the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, including Megan Rapinoe, for their recent World Cup loss (with you-know-who ATTACKING THE WOMEN IN ALL CAPS ON “TRUTH SEPTIC”...I can recall when an alleged "man" doing something like that would be scorned en masse, but I guess those days are over, sadly)...
...and even though Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack is no longer occupying An Oval Office (and, God and the voters willing, never will again), his wretched legacy lives on in the person of wingnut judges and justices, including this loon Brantley Starr, who ordered lawyers for Southwest Airlines to attend “religious liberty” training...a lot to unpack here, but apparently a Southwest flight attendant named Charlene Carter sued her employer because she alleged that she was terminated for expressing her views opposing abortion on social media...sounds like Southwest fumbled it a bit in handling this case, leading to her winning an award...that’s how the system works I realize, but making the lawyers attend an 8-hour class from the Alliance Defending Freedom, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group,” over a minor wording mixup is beyond parody (Mike Figueredo tells us about it...NSFW/H)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 8/9/13, in which we learn about the role of the Koch Brothers in the climate change denial machine (and yes, David Koch now resides in some kind of an afterlife we can only imagine, but the awful legacy of he and his brother Charles live on in Project 2025, mentioned here)...
Update 8/10/23: As far as I'm concerned, blood is on the hands of every climate change denialist over this.
...and RIP Robbie Robertson – another musical icon leaves us; I’ll plan to feature some more tunes by The Band over the next day or so.
Jesse Dollemore tells us that it looks like attorneys will seek a restraining order against the Gropenfuhrer and his attempts to intimidate witnesseses and other social media nonsense, as well as the antics of #45’s attorneys...and I think Jesse makes a great point that this behavior should come as absolutely no surprise...yeah "Trumpty Dumpty" isn’t acting like a third-rate mobster, is he? Not much he isn’t...
...and Kyle Kulinski tells us how Mango Mussolini robs his supporters yet again, this time to keep Melania well-pampered apparently (and I have to admit that I’m getting a little tired of ANYBODY being politically infatuated with “Governor Bully” who has NO POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ON A DAMN THING TO HELP ANYBODY! “Oh, but he’s so courageous for coming out against Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack”...freaking spare me! He’s STILL polling in the single digits last I checked)...
...and turning to health care matters, this clip of “The Classroom” from More Perfect Union tells us how United Healthcare rips off both doctors and patients...a family member in the Doomsy household is in the health care biz (and make no mistake...it IS a business, though it shouldn’t be that IMO), and United Healthcare are truly one of the VERY WORST corporate actors in existence, particularly in this space (with Sean Morrow and correspondent Alec Opperman)...
...and now for something completely different, as somebody once said, and that is the very latest on manatee orgies in South Flori-DUUUH!, with Francesca, Cenk and Jordan Uhl of TYT (God, how “woke” can manatees get...and yes, I’m kidding...”if the manatees are rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’” indeed...I’d like to think that “pudding fingers” #DeathSantis would know not to say anything about this, but yeah, on second thought, he probably would, especially since the brother manatees were apparently letting nature take its course...more on manatees is here and here, probably more than you’d ever want to know :-)...
...and RIP acclaimed film director William Friedkin, who helmed “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” among other movies...concerning the latter of the two, I though this was a great story about getting permission to film the legendary scene with Gene Hackman driving the car chasing the elevated train...
...and I always associate this tune with summer - hope it provides a nice mid-week respite.
Thom Hartmann discusses some truly disturbing info buried in Jack Smith’s multiple-count indictment of Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, and that is the plan for what could have been basically another version of the Kent State massacre, but on a national scale (The Sainted Ronnie R’s remarks as CA guv led to the bloodbath Reagan wanted in Ohio on 5/1/70...I didn’t know the Kent State carnage led to an explosion of membership in The Weather Underground, but it doesn’t surprise me...frightening to realize how close we were to losing our government, and that’s not hyperbole - I mean recently...and of course Rojo and Sen. Grasshole are allegedly involved, and Tuberville also...feel like I’m picking up with this asshat from Alabama where I left off last Friday...and it looks like Jamelle Bouie noticed the same thing as Hartmann based on this)...
...and Chris Hayes speaks with PA Dem U.S. House member Madeleine Dean, who rips Senate Repugs who acquitted #45 (and silence from Bri-Fi too of course...I give Dean a lot of credit, but it’s almost quaint at this point to expect Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao to act in any kind of an honorable way)...
...and Beau tells us about the latest social media mess with Combover Caligula – he just can’t stop trying to grift, and he also can’t stop yelling and acting up like the demented toddler that he is (as I type this, there’s probably some stuff going on with the Obama-appointed judge...we’ll see of course)...
...and when it comes to Trumpist sycophants, it looks like the “mayor of 9/11” is in legal trouble too (“your tits belong to me,” huh? God, I feel like I need to be de-loused after this, and also for the anti-Semitic stuff too, and I mean no disrespect to Jesse Dollemore) – NSFW/H...
...and when it comes to the competition for the Repug Party nomination for preznit next year, it looks like Flori-DUUH! guv #DeathSantis is into “slitting throats”...(good one about not getting his hands dirty unless it involves pudding...and not to quibble with Cousins, but really, it’s only 45 people since Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms...I think Cousins is completely spot-on with the rest of his commentary, though)...
...and David Doel tells us about CNBC’s Jim Cramer quaking in his metaphorical boots over UAW President Shawn Fain and a potential strike (Cramer remains an unbelievable tool...and more on former UAW head Walter Reuther is here, by the way)...
...and for anybody in Ohio who may be reading this, I would just like to remind you of how important tomorrow’s vote is (more here)...
Update 8/8/23: Sweet! (here, and yeah, I think this about says it).
...and I’m continuing to work my way down the list of summer selections with this tune.
Farron Cousins tells us that the antics of Repug U.S. Senatorial idiot Tommy Tuberville of Alabama arguably just cost that state the Space Force; Mango Mussolini had made the decision to send the SF from Colorado Springs to Huntsville in Tuberville’s state (likely because that state, as you would expect, went for the Gropenfuhrer big time in ’16 and ’20), but it looks like “Dark Brandon” reversed that (more here – Nail. Hammer. Head. commentary from Cousins...”play stupid games, win stupid prizes” indeed...that state could have had Doug Jones instead, but they elected this hammerhead in Jones’s place)...
...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about Tuberville’s “it’s called summer” remark, leading into similar idiocy from U.S. House Repug Steve Scalise and his same-party pal Kevin Cramer of North Dakota in the U.S. Senate...Cramer won a close election because of that last-minute ruling that post office boxes weren’t allowed as acceptable residences for that state’s voters, which ruled out a whole bunch of indigenous folks who would have likely voted for Dem Heidi Heitkamp instead as noted here...by the time the ruling was overturned, the damage was done (I'm pretty sure that's what happened - I'll keep checking)...oh, and it looks like the cretins behind Project 2025 want to boil the planet also, as Kyle tells us...
Update 8/12/23: I said this somewhere else, but I'll say it again here; climate change deniers like Tuberville have blood on their hands for this.
...and speaking of the heat, John and Yasmin Khan tell us that prisons in “the land of the yellow rose” have reached 146 degrees Fahrenheit...but of course “all hat, no cattle” Greg Abbott couldn’t give a fig, just as he doesn’t care about any dead bodies found near his barbed wire in the Rio Grande River (here...and it's likely that at least 271 prisoners have died in Texas jails due to the heat over an approximately 20-year period, as we learn in the clip).
Oh, and being the pointy-headed lib that I am, I feel compelled to mention that such abuse of prisoners runs counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; this year marks its 75th anniversary, and of course this country signed off on it (more here and here)...and I realize one problem is that the language, commendable as it is, allows for some legal wiggle room for political weasels like Abbott and his pals...
Update 8/11/23: One more for Abbott's body count (here).
...and I realize this is a recurring theme for Repugs like “It’s Called Summer” Tuberville, but this New York Times report tells us about people down on their luck trying to deal with the baking temperatures in Flori-DUUUH!, focusing on “the city of the Mouse”... “I Feel Like I’m In Hell” is a thoroughly unsurprising sentiment from these folks just trying to survive...
...well, because I want to wrap up this post (and likely the week) with something a little more upbeat, I now bring you the latest form Leeja Miller about Why Unions Will Save America (NSFW/H – she swears like a truck driver, but I believe it’s warranted and I hope YouTube doesn’t ding her for it...the segment starts out by talking about the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike dealing with potential impact of AI and residuals, particularly for streaming productions...the history of the labor movement is discussed going back to the 1800s – I didn’t know it took 10 freaking years for staffing levels to return to normal at airports after The Sainted Ronnie R broke up PATCO, but yeah, that sure figures...and when the wingnuts scream about union membership, they always talk about public sector unions, which traditionally have lower paying jobs than those in the private sector, but often better benefits to offset that...however, the number of private sector unions, as a result of Reagan giving the signal to his fellow plutocrats that unions were fair game, is now microscopic – GREAT point about the protection of union membership to try and hang onto jobs despite losses due to the pandemic – “without unions, the $$ doesn’t ‘trickle down’ – it coagulates at the very top” indeed...more on the PRO Act is here...I realize I'm probably a month early with this video, but there's always a good time for it IMO)...
...and I would tend to agree that “the heart is the hero” indeed...some on the other side of the political spectrum mistake compassion for weakness, which is their folly as far as I’m concerned...if doing this exercise of mine can somehow benefit a single person versus any damn corporation in existence, then I feel like I’ve accomplished something, and maybe I can build on it to help us all see better times someday.
Robert Reich tells us about the five made-up “crises” by the “party of Lincoln” in an attempt to deflect from the REAL issues (the climate, worsening wealth inequality, attacks on women’s health care, failure to substantively address gun violence, etc. – I would only add that we need a vigorous response from Team “D” in light of all of these issues and more)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tells us that the DOJ of “Dark Brandon” is going after “All Hat No Cattle” Texas guv Greg Abbott on putting the barbed wire in the Rio Grande by filing a lawsuit (and Emma has a point about Biden and Title 42, unfortunately, as noted here, though Abbott is primarily at fault here of course - more here)...
Update: Monstrous and awful, but not surprising unfortunately (here).
...and this clip from More Perfect Union tells us the back story on EV jobs, focusing on Lordstown, Ohio, which was a GM plant for six decades, but it shut down in 2019 – apparently, the Biden Administration is trying to bring the plant back to life through this company called Ultium, which is paying its workers poverty wages to do incredibly dangerous work, and is still fighting its work force over a collective bargaining agreement...
...and David Pakman tells us about Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who will be overseeing the trial from the 3rd Trump indictment, this one with 4 counts all carrying prison time – apparently, to her credit (as Pakman tells us), Judge Chutkan has been tough on sentencing defendants found guilty on charges related to the 1/6 insurrection...sadly, I think Pakman is right; the MAGA life forms will do anything they can to go after her, unrepentant vermin that they are...
...and as a “compare and contrast” exercise, I give you Jeff Waldorf discussing Laura “What Need Have We Of Proof?” Ingraham when it comes to the Bidens vs. the Trumps of course (with Ingraham and her fellow bottom-feeders yelling louder and louder about OMIGOD HUNTER BIDEN'S NUDE PICS AND HIS LAPTOP! as more garbage seeps out about Our Treasonous Orange Crapsack...more here)...
...and I find myself in need of a musical palate cleanser of sorts; I think this seasonal tune will do.
Ana of TYT tells us about the 3rd indictment handed down against Mango Mussolini (here), this one with 4 counts related to the January 6th insurrection, and each count carries prison time, with the minimum of the 4 stipulating 5 years in the slam; I’m inclined to believe Ana, though, when she says that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence probably won’t end up behind bars and will spend the rest of his life appealing guilty verdicts...
...and Max Burns of Rebel HQ brings us the clip of Dem U.S. House Rep Dan Goldman telling us what we likely already knew, and that is that all of this Devon Archer testimony (“OMIGOD THE SMOKING GUN SHOWING JOE BIDEN INTERCEDED IN BUSINESS ON BEHALF OF HUNTER!”) turned out to be a complete and total flop, with Gym Jordan and Andy Biggs bravely running away from the cameras when questioned about it (God only knows how much taxpayer $$ was spend on this idiocy)...
...and Burns alluded to Biden’s economic record in the prior clip, and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us more about that, with Maria Bartiromo of The Roger Ailes BS Factory rooting for a recession, while of course the good news from “Bidenomics” belies that - awwwww...once more, GREAT work by Cohen contrasting Dems vs. Repugs when it comes to money matters...
...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about the insane right-wing propaganda taught in schools in Flori-DUUH! (from PragerU, of course)...and dontcha know Charlie Kirk and TP USA are somehow involved in this mess now also...depressing to hear about Gen Z boys, but that’s kind of borne out by my own admittedly limited knowledge on this subject – one of the many ways that girls are ahead of the curve, relatively speaking (nonsense like this is all the “party of Lincoln” has to offer in lieu of actual governance that actually helps people, as evidenced in the Cohen clip)...
...and speaking of wingnut idiocy, some “right side broadcasting network” scumbag named Matthew Alvarez basically encourages violence in his comments with some Trumpist life form in Erie, PA who wants to “kill them all”...oh, but later, Alvarez tried to claim he wasn’t serious when he said that...GMAFB! – David Shuster tells us about it...
...and if it's early August (and it is now), then that means it's time for this summer tune.
