Monday Stuff

Brittany Page, sitting in for Jesse Dollemore, brings us a clip of CNN’s Pam Brown interviewing Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters, who wants to have Trump bibles in schools and also wants to get rid of the Department of Education...for the record, I will never oppose anyone saying a prayer as a private citizen, but I will ALWAYS oppose someone saying it in an official capacity as an elected official on behalf of individuals of all faiths, as well as individuals who practice no official faith whatsoever...and one reason why I don’t want to hear these idiots on the right yelling about “the left” opposing religion is because they just did everything in their power (along with “centrist dipsh*ts” and others) to get rid of a president who, in addition to doing the best job among leaders of industrialized nations of successfully bringing an economy out of COVID, was also a practicing Roman Catholic who regularly attended Sunday services, something else Biden got zero credit for (I mean, I don’t think ANY politician should receive a vote because of their religious affiliation, but idiots like Walters opened the metaphorical door on this, not me)...and why the $#@! would you include our country’s foundational documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence IN THE FREAKING TRUMP GODDAMN BIBLE???!!! Oh, riiight – it’s because you’re part of the cult...my bad for not picking up on that...



...and John Iadarola informs us that Texas is willing to build a camp for those the incoming Trump gang will round up and deport, because nothing says “I’m a good Christian” like detaining and kicking out those less fortunate whose only “crime” was to imagine that they could emigrate here in search of a better life for themselves and their families...and knowing this incoming gang of thugs, I'm sure people who've already lived here will be included also unfortunately (Sharon Reed also comments)...



...and with “the land of the yellow rose” in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 11/25/12, in which former governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry opens his pie hole about his state seceding, which was tried once before and didn’t go so well as I recall; it should also be noted that Texas received about $105 billion in federal aid as noted here, so they could kiss that goodbye also (and by the way, the current guv has run his mouth about leaving the union also as noted here...talk is cheap, cowboy)...



Update: On second thought, just leave.

...and Daivd Pakman lets us know about the “mandate” for Cantaloupe Capone (based on the election) which continues to shrink – winning margin is 1.6% points and 2½ million votes as of now...as I’ve said already, I think the story of the ’24 election will be all the ways the Harris vote was suppressed (and how ANYBODY could have stayed home in an election as important as this one is something I cannot fathom and a reality that those guilty of that offense IMO will have to live with for the rest of their lives...and Pakman is right to focus on the 1-in-5-functional-illiterate thing, something the alleged geniuses at the @DNC should have focused on also when doing whatever voter outreach they did, or more likely, DIDN’T do)...



...and in this unearthed clip, RFK Jr. calls Trump supporters “Nazis” and “idiots”...and yeah, Matt Taibbi has really “jumped the shark” also (Sam and Emma of The Majority Report bring us the details)...interesting background from Sam on how RFK Jr. used to be pretty coherent policy wise (to say nothing of actually being correct, especially on the climate and the DAPL protests as Emma mentions), but how Jr. has pretty much lost him damn mind since then...and yeah, Emma is sure right about lefties who go over to “the dark side” for the almighty buck...



...and RIP Peter Sinfeld of King Crimson.

Friday Stuff

(I previously posted about the JFK Assassination here from a year ago, in case you want to revisit that topic.)

To begin, Thom Hartmann tells us about a Texas (of course) Repug state legislator who introduced a bill that would force ISPs in that God-forsaken state to block any websites dealing with abortion or abortion medication, basically saying anybody can sue (kind of mirroring the bill where people in “the land of the yellow rose” can rat out others who are involved in transporting a pregnant person for an abortion and get $10K for doing so)...and this lunacy actually extends to Iowa, Idaho and Tennessee, and Alabama too of course (trying to prosecute abortion providers under the RICO Act, which is used to go after organized crime of course, and when Repugs take over the federal government in January, I think we can rest assured that they’ll try to pass something like this on the national level...heckuva job, all you idiots who voted for this madness - and boy, is Thom right about these characters and "1984")...



...and when it comes to our slow-motion stroll directly into fascism, Rachel Maddow informs us of the bill Trump would use to shut down any organization he doesn’t like (H.R. 9495, which I commented on last week I know)...and OF COURSE, despite the fact that this garbage bill to help Combover Caligula be even more of a dictator was shot down at first, leave it to the “party of Lincoln” to try and breathe life back into this monstrosity (and as noted here, this horror was indeed reintroduced in the House and passed, and Bri-Fi, being the utter coward that he is, voted Yes once more...this garbage will be stalled in the Senate...for now...also, it looks like Comcast is “spinning off” NBC and MSNBC, so the future of the latter in particular may be in jeopardy, but hopefully not – wish that cable behemoth would do that for The Flyers)...



...and Anthony Vincent Gallo of Occupy Democrats brings us the tale of wingnut Repug U.S. House Rep Nancy Mace introducing a bill mandating that members use bathrooms associated with biological sex from birth (here), which is aimed right at the first transgender person in that body, Sarah McBride (who was just elected from Delaware)...and great point by AOC to mention Mace fundraising off this...and yeah, inspecting women and girls’ to check their genitals before they go into bathroom? What freaking country am I living in again?...



...and Jesse Dollemore gives us a rather gut-churning update on the police report from Trump Defense Secretary candidate Pete Hegseth, who has allegedly abused women in a truly gross and likely illegal manner (just like Jesus would do – snark mode off)...even with the redactions, it looks like Hegseth can be credibly accused of r*pe...I’ll keep an eye out in case this video gets age-restricted by YouTube...apparently, acting like a caveman this way is required to serve in Trump’s cabinet...

...and Mike Figueredo discusses Chris Van Hollen (interviewed by Mehdi Hasan) quite rightly calling out Biden for allowing our “ally” Bibi to walk all over him...eventually, the story of why Harris/Walz lost will be told, and I believe it will have NOTHING to do with embracing Mango Mussolini, but instead will be based on Netanyahu’s latest incursion into Gaza, the RELENTLESS drumbeat against Biden on the economy from the wingnuts and “centrist dipsh*ts” as Atrios quite rightly calls them, and also, Dems’ complete and utter failure to compete with Repugs on messaging...heckuva job, DNC! (as either Barron’s or The Economist noted, Biden had a lot to do with giving the U.S. the best-performing post-COVID economy in the world)...about Van Hollen – I believe he’s basically right, but he’s from a deep blue state of Maryland (a terrific place), and while politics shouldn’t take precedence over human lives, I think Biden has had much more of a difficult political task here (representing the whole nation) than Van Hollen has (probably more to say about that, but I’ll leave it there for now...and yes, I know human suffering here is the primary issue and not “keeping score” between the parties)...it does appear that there is no good end to this tragedy...I wouldn’t go as far as Figueredo does here in calling Biden a war criminal (especially since Figueredo makes no mention of what started all of this on October 7th), but I understand his point (NSFW/H at the very end)...



...and I guess I’m overdue for a newer tune and video dealing with what appears to be twenty-something angst...hope this will suffice.

Wednesday Stuff

(And before you cry out, "Oh, how dare you, you dastardly dumb lib! That's blasphemous!," you should recall that 45 once said the Holy Eucharist was "my little cracker," OK?)

To begin, Farron Cousins informs us that a 29-year-old MAGA church leader was recently charged with sexually assaulting children...can’t think of a hell hot enough for life forms who do this stuff (yeah, maybe all the wingnuts screaming about the trannies and drag queens should realize that kids feel a hell of a lot safer around them than they do with leaders of established religions, tragically, but those culprits brought this on themselves)...



...and as you watch this NSFW/H clip, please allow me to emphasize that I don't feel morally superior to anyone (I got into this awhile back here), though this man makes some terrific points IMO...

Worth the 6 minutes.
Just listen.

This man spoke perfectly for every single person who voted against MAGA.

He spoke for everyone who voted against Trump. pic.twitter.com/VmcodSnMZx

— Travis Matthew (@Matthewtravis08) November 17, 2024

...and Brittany Page, sitting in for Jesse Dollemore, lets us know that Kristen Welker of NBC played a clip of Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin calling out Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz, the guy with the truly weird looking eyebrow liner, while Welker interviewed Mullin...still pretty tame stuff from Welker, but she did the right thing here...and oh yeah, it looks like the alleged underage sex trafficker (Gaetz of course) may end up heading the DOJ (hope you 78 million numbskulls who voted for 45 are ready for an out-of-control ride on the most dangerous rollercoaster you can ever imagine, because it’s coming thanks to you, you knot-heads!)...



Update 11/22/24: OK, it looks like Gaetz is out - can't imagine how horrific that House committee report is.

...and this clip from Leeja Miller brings us the story of How Right Wing Media Took Over America...and I didn’t know that The Daily Signal was owned by the Heritage Foundation either, but it makes sense, sadly...as Miller says, this does indeed go back to the ‘50s with some fragmented attempts from ex-New Dealers who were mad at FDR to get their own channel of sorts going, as well as John Birch Society goofballs and a burgeoning conservative movement led by William F. Buckley, among others (all of which is discussed in this great book), but yeah, Nixon indeed helped whip all of this into overdrive...familiar but important history on the demise of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of wingnut AM radio, led by Flush Limbore; I actually met Sandra Fluke while phone banking for Hillary Clinton in 2016 (she was utterly trashed by Limbore for trying to get the ACA to cover contraception, with Limbore predictably calling her a slut), and she was almost embarrassed when I told her how much I respected her courage for putting up with all of the predictable wingnut attacks that ensued...and oh yeah, this story includes the rise of Fix Noise starting in 1996...Miller also mentions the wingnut nematodes like Tim Pool who were busted for taking compensation from Russia for pushing pro-Putin BS; I think anyone doing that should be charged and, if convicted, should do serious time for it, but that’s just me I guess...good to call out The Epoch Times for doing their best to infect the media bloodstream also...and oh yeah, Sinclair Broadcasting has pretty much taken over local news unfortunately...also mentioned is Philip Anschutz of the Washington Examiner, and the Wilks brothers’ affiliation with PragerU, as well as Dick Uihlein and the Donors Trust Fund (and yes, the Powell Memo does indeed figure infamously in all of this)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that Mr. and Mrs. Scar recently went to Mar-a-Lago to “bend the knee” before Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, and in response, Sam “brings the receipts”...Scar made his bones as probably the most rabid hater of the Clintons anybody has ever seen, and when he “served” in the U.S. House he was one of the most doctrinaire Repugs in existence, so this doesn’t surprise me actually...and let’s not forget that Scar once represented Michael Griffin, accused and later convicted in the murder of abortionist Dr. David Gunn (and no, I don’t give a damn that Griffin’s father was a friend of Scarborough’s in-laws)...I wish I could disagree with the stuff that Emma V. says at about 9:00 or so (about Biden and the toxic plague of DC “centrism” from our political/media/industrial complex), but I really can’t (lots of snark in this clip, which is appropriate IMO)...



...and today is the 41st anniversary of the tragic death of Tom Evans of Badfinger, who took his own life (one of the most star-crossed bands of all time).

Monday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us about a voter in Scranton, Pa (allegedly some middle-of-the-road guy) who voted for #45 even though he thinks he’s like Hitler...yeah, I don’t know what to do with this kind of lunacy either...this is the product of at least 30 years of right-wing media BS and failure in teaching civics and social studies, but IMO, it’s also the failure of Dems to try to engage with folks like this guy...it shouldn’t be up to people like Michael Shure going to rallies to try and explain reality to these nematodes (no disrespect to Shure of course)...NSFW/H...



And by the way, I thought this was a tweet with good advice from the daughter of MLK and Coretta Scott King...

I am definitely all for this movement pic.twitter.com/Q2hBW0UCHs

— Scott Smith, MSW #BLM 🇺🇲🦅🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🌈🟦🟧 (@Canaansdad1987) November 16, 2024

...and speaking of cultish behavior, it looks like “Rocky” has taken one too many blows to the head, introducing 45 at the “America First” policy institute and comparing him to Jesus and George Washington...Jesse Dollemore gives us the story...



...and Francis Maxwell of the Meidas Touch Network informs us that world leaders are positioning themselves in response to what will likely be a catastrophic trade war with Mango Mussolini and his beyond-ridiculous tariffs, especially Emmanuel Macron of France (these people aren’t stupid...the world leaders I mean of course), and that information on MSNBC presented by Steven Rattner I believe spells out the economic ruin that is likely to ensue (also, credit to women leaders around the globe for standing tall)...heckuva job, all you U.S. imbeciles who voted to give the convicted felon another shot at tanking our country...



...and Thom Hartmann talks about Vlad The Butcher dumping nudes of Melania on Russian TV, along with the unveiled threat from Moscow to Trump himself...can’t imagine what kind of kompromat Putin has on 45, but it must be awful...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias give us a bit of an election post mortem...if Elias says that the ’24 election was free and fair, then I believe him; I still say what will emerge over time is information on all of the ways that the Harris vote was suppressed, but again, not by anything illegal to my knowledge (though the bomb threats from Moscow were a factor also)...I’m not going to go off on Dems and messaging all over again; as much as I SINCERELY HATE TO SAY THIS, the Trump party did a better job of driving turnout than the Harris campaign did (and the DNC, DSCC and other affiliated orgs proved themselves to be utterly clueless once again)...GREAT question by Cohen about why down-ballot progressive measures won even though Dems on that ballot lost, and it’s utterly depressing to point out that Trump won the popular vote, albeit not by much (so fine folks like Thom Hartmann won’t be able to keep pointing out how Repugs lost on that score); FWIW, I think the result proves that the economy absolutely held sway over every other issue including abortion, and writ large, it also goes to the overall declining quality of life in this country, a matter in which Dems have some proposed solutions that are OK but don’t address systemic issues, and the Repugs have no solutions at all (a lesson this country will relearn in short order...and speaking of Elias)...



...and happy 74th birthday to Graham Parker.

Friday Stuff

Yesterday I led off with a Hispanic group hoping Trump doesn’t deport him or anyone he knows, and today I’d like to start with Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network bringing us the leader of Michigan’s “uncommitted” movement pleading to President Biden for help after this Michigan guy decided not to support Harris/Walz...and I know I was a little sympathetic to Muslims in Dearborn for not supporting Harris, but upon further consideration, yeah, they’re a bunch of damn morons given that 45 has said he would bulldoze Gaza...just keep stepping on that rake, dude (and yeah, those clips of Huckabee are pretty damn disgusting, but we knew what he’s all about, or should have anyway by now)...



...and Miss Beau tells us that it looks like John Thune will be the new Senate Majority Leader – about as much of a pro-business establishment Repug as you can get..pretty bad, but not as bad as Lex Luthor Scott, and yeah, I know we’re talking about degrees of awful...have to admit that I’m surprised that Thune is saying he won’t shoot down the filibuster, but we’ll see...



...and this CBS News report lets us know that Alex Jones’s Infowars has been bought by The Onion, which is thoroughly appropriate IMO, and I’m glad that the deal (which apparently was managed by the Sandy Hook families) includes a tie-in to ads for Everytown for Gun Safety...there are some folks who I think should be forced to live in some kind of a display for people to walk past and make a mockery of (if that makes sense), and Jones is pretty high on that list as far as yours truly is concerned...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report lets us know about a young woman upset that she apparently isn’t being supported by her family for her Trump vote...well, when you support a delusional authoritarian strongman for president, what else can you expect? And oh yeah, the Trump supporting Mexican woman thinks immigrants should enter our country the “right” way; as Figueredo says, our immigration system is broken, though it works for businesses who want to pay poverty wages to their workforce...a pretty depressing summation at about 21:00, but he’s probably right about trying to reach the MAGA chuds; not much chance if their own families can’t do that, so it’s a fool’s errand to expect that Dems can pull that off with some of these characters, to say nothing of “moderate” Republicans...NSFW/H...



...and John Oliver gives us his take on Trump’s re-election...yeah, anybody who says the Dems need to move to the center or should come out against trans rights is definitely working from the wingnut playbook and doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously (and that includes Tom Suozzi)...video goes over the looniness of Trump’s proposed cabinet nominees, including King Elon I of Xitter wanting to cut $2 trillion from the budget (truly bleak when I find myself agreeing with Larry Summers)...didn’t know about the PRESS Act, and yeah, that should have been passed already, but good luck with trying to get that done now (love to be wrong)...great news about Emma Curtis in ruby-red Kentucky elected as Lexington’s first transgender public official, as well as the pro-choice measures passing in seven states (also NSFW/H)...



...and I need a bit of a mellow newer tune to listen to as we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, and I think this will suffice.

Thursday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the leader of Latinos for Trump who thinks “family oriented” Latinos won’t be deported...yes, you can chalk this up to cosmic stoo-pidity, but again, when there’s no competing message for this garbage, people are going to believe these fairy tales (I definitely don’t wish ill on anybody, but what else can you expect?)...



...and John Iadarola and Sharon Reed of The Damage Report inform us that the House voted down a bill to allow Trump to accuse a non-profit of supporting terrorism and giving them 90 days to respond or lose their 501c(3) status, referring to the applicable section in the tax code (and given that the appeal would go to Trump, they would likely lose anyway and go out of business in the scenarios John mentions) - would have been used to go after DEI and the BDS movement for sure...and as far as I’m concerned, a big reason we lost the way we did a week ago is because of the mentality behind 52 GODDAMN ALLEGED DEMOCRATS!! who voted for this garbage!...and I have to admit that I’m shocked that Thomas Massie did the right thing here, but he did...of course, Bri-Fi, being the good little lapdog that he is, went along with it...and sorry if this sounds mean, but Sharon Reed still adds just about nothing to these discussions...



Update 11/21/24: The bill was reintroduced and passed the House (as noted here) and will be stalled in the Senate...for now (and Bri-Fi, being the utter coward that he is, voted Yes again).

...and Alec Opperman of More Perfect Union tells us about the games CVS is playing with staffing and endangering people’s lives in the process...and why am I not surprised to hear that likely the biggest root cause of the problem is insurance companies not reimbursing independent pharmacies to the same extent as the chains...PBM stands for Pharmacy Benefit Manager, by the way, and yes, they have a lot to do with deciding drug reimbursements...and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that CVS has the largest PBM in the business, and that would be Caremark...shocked that the state of Ohio did the right thing here, but credit where it’s due (and more on the Pharmacies Fight Back Act is here)...



...and yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Karen Silkwood in a road accident; she was on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter to discuss the goings-on at the Kerr-McGee plutonium manufacturing facility in Oklahoma...Silkwood is mentioned in this tune by Gil Scott-Heron about the dangers of nuclear power.

Wednesday Stuff

David Doel takes a fairly deep dive into what happened about eight days ago... interesting that every governing party in the world lost vote share when running for election this year, which is the first time this has ever happened apparently...great point about Biden being hurt by programs ending that he initiated, which he really didn’t have much control over (thank Manchinema among others for refusing to kill the filibuster and allowing the plans on this list to expire; I’m sure that will help those two cash in now for cushy gigs at some wingnut foundation or some such group of rich miscreants)...the two issues that did in Harris according to this were immigration and the economy – I know I’ve already gone off on the Dems and messaging, but I can count on one hand and have fingers left over the times that Harris/Walz mentioned that Trump killed the Lankford bill in the Senate, which would have addressed a lot of the immigration issues; the economy would have required more imagination I know, and even that might not have worked, but the effort definitely could have been better of course...and I don’t care what anybody says; Putin told Jill Stein to stick her face in Rashida Tlaib’s district in order to get the Muslim vote over Israel/Gaza and take it from Harris; yes, I saw some lefties online screaming about allegedly dumb voters in Tlaib’s district, but what the hell do you expect from them when their population is getting slaughtered in Gaza and the Dem prez ticket offers essentially nothing? At least the progressive measures that passed in Missouri and Alaska are encouraging; let’s see how long it takes for the Repugs to roll them back...and yeah, it’s unbelievable that the Harris people brought on Tony West, with all of the likely negative consequences – I think Doel is spot-on there – but that is indeed what happened...I think Doel is a little too hard on Biden here about the programs ending as already noted, but if he wants to argue that Biden could have fought harder for them, then maybe I’ll go along with that...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about would-be Trump staffers fighting, and he’s only been president-elect for a week...yeah, I know the Dems and the Harris campaign lost the narrative (and they might have lost on the economy even if they’d bothered to get the messaging right), but heckuva job, all you Trump voters, for inflicting this on us...



...and Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report brings us a clip from a French leftist that offers a bit of encouragement, telling us “you will make it”...I hope to God she’s right...



...and RIP jazz alto sax legend Lou Donaldson.

Monday Stuff

(By the way, I may be cutting back on posting generally for a lot of reasons. I pretty much beat my brains out during the election, and that is something I just can’t keep doing anymore. If there are any developments in particular to affect that, I’ll let you know. I also plan to cut back on the Trump/Vance snark, mainly becuase I think it's boring and repetitive at this point.)

And by the way, I don't know who this gentleman is, but I definitely want to include his perspective on last week's carnage (NSFW/H)...

He summed it up like few could. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/76B4fPudCd

— ✭ 🅑🅤🅑🅑🅐 ✭ (@BubbatheOG) November 8, 2024

...and I thought this was a pretty interesting commentary from Miss Beau...of course, Trump is going to claim credit for some recent stock market rallies, which means you also have to give Biden credit for the stock market increases prior to the election (which won’t happen of course – when has Biden gotten credit for anything?)...and yeah, good point about bond yields going up, meaning that the loan is riskier, and the future economy is in question, as she says...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report give us some insight into the seamy characters taking their victory lap over last Tuesday’s atrocity...yeah, Nick Fuentes of course, somebody named Evan Kilgore, and on and on...



...and Bernie Sanders (anybody remember him?) speaks with Dana Bash on CNN about continuing the fight...I don’t think the @DNC can find its own metaphorical butt with multiple sets of hands, but if they could, they would pay more attention to what Sanders has to say and act accordingly...



...and I’m going to let Tennessee Brando have the last word for now, including a clip of the response from Eric Swalwell (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and happy birthday to Marshall Crenshaw.

Friday Stuff (updates)

(My take on last Tuesday's disaster for what it's worth is here.)

I think Jonathan Pie was a bit harsh in his assessment of the Kamala Harris campaign (not saying he doesn't make good points, though), but I also think his core argument that there could have been more separation on the issues by Harris from Biden is well taken; as far as I’m concerned, our “fourth estate” also had an outsized role in what happened on Tuesday with continually dumping on Biden and giving him ZERO CREDIT for bringing this country back from the ruinous Trump 1.0 years of COVID and job losses in the millions, leading to Biden's unpopularity and depressing turnout (there were many other factors too, most of which I tried to outline in the linked post above...I think Pie’s “across the pond” perspective on this and other matters is always interesting and often funny, though not humorous now I’ll admit...NSFW/H)...



Update 1: By the way, I don't totally absolve myself for blame here, in case you were wondering about that. I was probably a little "Trump-and-Vance-obsessed" in the last couple of weeks especially also, but first and foremost, I was trying to communicate what a threat he was and not so much commenting on the perverse spectacle of what he said and did. And I would have included instead information on what the Harris/Walz campaign was proposing along with Democrats generally...but I couldn’t find the damn information! I will always favor subject matter about actual policy versus "the horserace" if I can manage to track it down.

...and Jesse Dollemore brings us the tale of this Trumpist nut Mike Davis (who may be Attorney General) wanting to drag bodies of Democrats through the streets, apparently...and we’re supposed to find a way to make common cause with these lunatics...oh, but he means “political” bodies, so it’s not really violence, huh? Suuuure...also NSFW/H)...



Update 2: And get ready for plenty more of this.

Update 3: I have a feeling that I will have MANY updates to this post, so I might as well include this also.

...and Thom Hartmann lets us know about Trump’s coming attack on America’s economic backbone (e.g., the “administrative state”)...and Thom’s right about every Republican president having an economic downturn, something else that I suppose the @DNC decided not to remind voters about during the campaign because I guess they thought it was impolite or something (and I know it’s hard to translate for low-attention-span voters just how bad it was for the SCOTUS to nuke the Chevron ruling as Thom points out, but that was a critical development also)...one of Thom’s great points is that recessions are great buying opportunities for billionaires, and I can’t imagine that we won’t see that again sadly (I also didn’t know about the origins of our civil service as a result of the assassination of President Garfield and the connection to Schedule F employees...interesting stuff, but potentially tragic of course unfortunately)...



...and with fingers crossed I’ll admit, I want to give a bit of a qualified endorsement to what Jon Stewart says here...



Update 11/9/24: It also just occurred to me that, in my lifetime, there have only been two occasions where a presidential candidate for the party of the incumbent president has won election in his own right. The first was LBJ in 1964, and the fact that JFK was assassinated the year before was a big factor (as I’ve read – I was quite young at the time). The second was in 1988, when Poppy Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in a presidential campaign run by Lee Atwater that was so lowdown (i.e., Willie Horton) that it created a template that was followed by other Repug politicians ever since (still, though, it worked). I’m only pointing this out to emphasize how important it was for Kamala Harris to separate herself from President Biden; in many ways she couldn’t, though, to be fair...I don’t know if a little more imagination from Harris in that regard would have mattered, but it’s just a thought, you might say.

Update 11/10/24: I don’t know about the attribution of the diagram from this link, but that’s an absolutely staggering number of eligible voters who didn’t participate, considering that Biden got about 80 million four years ago – just proves my point that Mango Mussolini benefitted from depressed turnout and really didn’t build on the base that made up his popular vote total in 2016 (Update 11/11/24: Actually, the number of Harris voters I'm seeing now is 76 million, which tells me that all of the garbage that led to suppressing her vote worked infamously well).

...and before everything hit the fan last Tuesday, I was getting ready for a tribute to Quincy Jones, so please allow me to present that now...



...and here is a tune from one of Jones’s many terrific recording sessions.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and election lawyer extraordinaire Marc Elias bring us the story of Not Your Father’s Republican Party trying to get the SCOTUS to make sure PA voters don’t get the chance to cast provisional ballots in person on Election Day if those voters had accidentally cast “naked” mail-in ballots previously without the privacy envelope, which wouldn't count...the SCOTUS decision on this is pending at the moment, but I think we all know which direction this is likely to go unfortunately (especially since it looks like “Strip Search Sammy” Alito will get this)...and oh yeah, PA Repugs are trying to work in this “Independent State Legislature” BS theory again (here)...and Cohen and Elias are right about PA’s antiquated voting laws that “Pennsyltucky” refuses to change; anytime Dems try to modernize voting laws in our beloved commonwealth, the “R” party starts bellowing “OH YEAH? THEN PASS VOTER ID!,” which continues to be a “solution” in search of an actual problem...and boy oh boy, is Elias ever right about voting blue up and down the ballot!...



...and David Pakman tells us that the “R” team is panicking over the racism displayed by conservative “comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe during that recent MSG rally...oh yeah, Brian Kilmeade of Fix and Fiends sez, “Well, Hinchcliffe said this stuff two hours before Trump came on stage,” as if somehow that absolves Our Big Sweaty Orange Cheetoh of any responsibility for vetting these characters appearing at his own damn rally...and oh yeah, that line about the Harris supporter masquerading as a NY Times reporter or something like that was just precious, wasn’t it?...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us of “black” Trump supporters outed as white...first, some assclown named Dean Browning, and now some “black insurrectionist” named Jason Palmer...amazes me that these numbskulls think they can pull off this stuff and somehow NOT get caught eventually (NSFW/H)...

...and Ali Velshi introduces this segment with Rachel Maddow discussing the loss of abortion rights, bringing us the gut-wrenching stories of women becoming critically ill and dying in many cases because they were unable to benefit from a “D and C” procedure, which was standard under Roe, but is no longer in Repug-run states all over this country, but in particular in “the land of the yellow rose,” where Kate Cox had to flee the state to get the court-allowed abortion she needed (here)...one of Maddow’s many great points is how abortion bans also effect post-partum care after women give birth...also, we’re reminded about Deborah Dorbert, forced to carry a non-viable fetus for months in Flori-DUUUH! because of that state’s anti-abortion law...and oh yeah, South Carolina JAILED a woman for a miscarriage – what the f*ck country am I living in again??!!...and Maddow is exactly right that the Catholic Church didn’t care about this until the late 1800s...and I have to admit that I didn’t have “Tricky Dick supporting abortion for mixed race kids” on my Bingo card...



...and Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report lets us know that Baby Newton Leroy Gingrich and Sean Inanity recently had a toddler fit about women voting, referring to an ad from Julia Roberts that I have to admit that I didn’t see (even for the disgraced former speaker, the hypocrisy here is stunning for the reasons noted here)...



...and Farron Cousins lets us know that the Las Vegas Sun newspaper pretty much tore apart the Gropenfuhrer...and yeah, I think “cognitively crippled” says it pretty well (and based on this, I would say that even "the faithful" have had enough at long last)...



...and there's still more we can do if you're able, believe it or not (drive folks to the polls, remind friends and family to cast ballots, make phone calls)...I would ask that you keep that in mind while we watch the final clip during this election cycle from The Lincoln Project, featuring actors from the TV show "The West Wing"...

...and this is the tune that I probably include more than any other on Election Day in order to get us revved up to get to the polls, though I don’t think I need to do that too much this time around; in addition to doing the right thing for our country and ourselves, we need to negate the votes of the life forms such as the asshat driving the vehicle with this disgusting decal that I first spotted almost a year ago...let’s finish this off the right way, folks!

Monday Stuff

Mike Figueredo lets us know here that MAGA influencers are apparently freaking out over women exceeding men in early voting...and leave it to that nematode Jesse Watters to say that his wife voting for Harris is the same thing as if she had an affair; part of me wishes she would do both to fix his self-entitled ass...and please spare me the indignation of “Maniac Megyn” Kelly of all goddamn people; gee, maybe actually NOT TREATING WOMEN LIKE SH*T WHEN IT COMES TO ACTUAL GODDAMN POLICY is more important than the admittedly ridiculous and insulting posturing of a bunch of Trump bros who were too dumb to NOT utterly give away the game in front of thousands of people...a “celebration of Trump,” huh? I guess Kelly means a “celebration” of deceit, thievery, stupidity, malignant narcissism, treason and misogyny (NSFW/H)...

...and Chris Hayes provides new details of what would happen if, God forbid, Cantaloupe Capone manages to pull it off on Tuesday, including letting King Elon I cut spending for the peasants and RFK Jr. in charge of public health spending and administration...and yeah, I think the comparison to “a malevolent child romping around a nuclear plant” is pretty damn spot-on, unfortunately...



...and as we know, Combover Caligula has a pretty damn strange definition of “success,” as The Lincoln Project reminds us of the ruinous four years of the leader of Cult 45, when compared to the positive, democracy-respecting alternative who wants to continue building this country and supporting people, families and communities...



...and David Doel presents a couple of ads aimed at keeping Republicans out of your bedroom...and yeah, these freaked out Philistines in robes, including Almost Silent Clarence Thomas, really do want to come after Griswold, people, and probably more than just that...

...but not Loving...hmmm, wonder why?...



...and YouTuber @Xanderhal tells us that Our Ochre Abomination is suing my beloved Bucks County, saying they’re turning away voters...and yeah, it sounds to me like Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Orange Dumpster Fire thinks the “L” is coming, so he’s trying to gin up his lizard-brained followers into thinking that the fix is in...here’s a news flash for probably only Sweaty Bronzer Boy and absolutely no one else: 1) Long lines of voters is a GOOD thing because that means turnout is off the charts, which, again, traditionally has helped Dems, and 2) If voters are, in essence, deciding not to stand in line or unable to access on-demand mail ballots, HOW THE HELL DOES COMBOVER CALIGULA KNOW WHICH PARTY THOSE VOTERS BELONG TO?...and actually, I think the Trumpers won a case when they filed their beyond ridiculous legal challenges in ’20, and it had to do with discarding mail-in ballots with writing on the yellow privacy envelopes, but they indeed lost every other damn legal challenge...and yeah, I’d heard about the Amish voter fraud for real thing in Lancaster County also (NSFW/H)...



...and I should point out that, since voting districts were redrawn in our commonwealth of PA with 50 Percent Less Gerrymandering (or something like that), PA-08 became PA-01, but otherwise, this ad against Bri-Fi is pretty spot on (and to help Fitzpatrick’s Dem opponent Ashley Ehasz, click here)...



...and we also need to re-elect PA’s Dem U.S. Senator Bob Casey against carpetbagger Dave McCormick (here), as we’re reminded of in this clip...



...and let’s keep doing all we can to make sure that the title of this tune becomes an epitaph for the utterly abominable campaign of Dementia J. Trump and Couch Boy.

Thursday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell gives us more great work discussing the media double standard of blowing off the “garbage man” Gropenfuhrer’s ridiculous and utterly childish behavior but coming down with a case of the vapors if President Biden says anything that could be remotely twisted into meaning something similar...and yeah, it looks like J.P. Mandel (I guess that’s what Couch Boy used to be called...more on him later) was the only candidate running for higher office to refer to the leader of Cult 45 as Hitler...surprised?...also not shocked unfortunately by the obscenity of another woman dying in Texas for the “crime” of needing abortion for a miscarriage...



Update 1: How apropos that Dementia J. Trump is unable to open a garbage truck door on the first try..but Biden was the only candidate with a motor skill deficit and cognitive issues...sure he was (here).

...and this clip from The Lincoln Project does another good job of demonstrating the difference of the vision for this country represented by Our Ochre Abomination versus that of Kamala Harris...I’m not 100 percent sure why the DNC doesn’t follow suit with similar messaging (if they are, I have to admit that I can’t find any example of it), but even though the Lincoln Project is composed of yesterday and probably tomorrow’s “Never Trump” Republicans, they continue to do great work in this campaign...



...and Robert Reich informs us that Mango Mussolini will try to exploit something called the “red mirage” when election returns start coming in next Tuesday; we have to be on guard not to fall for more of his typical BS...



...and on the subject of election nonsense, Farron Cousins lets us know that PA Repug committee person Valerie Biancanello in Delaware County was taken out in handcuffs for allegedly harassing people waiting in line to vote (more here)...



...and Leeja Miller tells us about a Mother Jones article linking “Couch Boy” J.D. Vance to these “TheoBros” in this country, led by some character named Doug Wilson, who want to “purify” the U.S. in accordance with their typically twisted vision, claiming that, if you oppose racism and want to be respectful of our country’s mistreatment of marginalized groups and work towards a more just and inclusive society, then you actually hate America...and of course, they want to utterly grind women under their heel...sick bastards, the lot of them...



Update 2: Gee guys, to me, it sounds like the message is simple...don’t be assh*les (here).

...and we know this is the season for political monsters, witches and goblins, if you will, but all the same, I hope you manage to have a Happy Halloween.

Wednesday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us that our allegedly dutiful corporate media mostly ignored the proposal from Kamala Harris that would expand Medicare to cover in-home health care for 15 million seniors...yep, par for the course all right – there are times when I definitely disagree with Kyle, but he’s spot-on here when it comes to our beyond-awful “fourth estate” refusing to cover policy, as opposed to their nonstop infatuation with the “horserace”...and I’ll have to add the term “narrative humpers” to my lexicon, I see (NSFW/H)...



Update: And what a fine, upstanding "Christian" man "MAGA Mike" Johnson is...in a pig's eye (here).

...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us this item about MAGA assclowns in Missouri getting busted for stealing Harris-Walz signs...and indeed, it is a felony to steal election campaign signs if the theft exceeds a dollar value, which in this case appears to be $200...I know that there are places in Bucks County, PA, for example, where there WERE Harris/Walz, Bob Casey and Ashley Ehasz signs that were taken and in some cases replaced (here), but unfortunately I don’t have enough information to try and bring charges against anybody...Shuster also discusses the revelations from John Kelly about A Certain Treasonous Orange Pestilence liking Hitler (a charge which, by the way, I have not heard a denial of from Cantaloupe Capone)...and I knew this Scott Jennings fool on CNN was bad, but man oh man, did he screw the metaphorical pooch with his response to Kelly...



...and I know this clip from the Lincoln Project is a rehash of stuff we already knew about when it comes to Bronzer Beelzebub, but we can’t become numb to this garbage...powerful people and institutions are apparently loathe to hold Our Ochre Abomination to account, so it is indeed up to us to do that six days from now...



...and RIP Teri Garr...she shone in so many memorable roles, displaying a deft comedic touch...definitely enjoyable to watch her do the talk show thing with Letterman and Carson back in the day...as TV legend has it, Gene Roddenberry was trying to launch a spinoff from “Stark Trek” which I believe was to be titled “Assignment: Earth,” with Garr and Robert Lansing...the pilot for the show was never made; would have been interesting to see how that would have turned out...



...and happy 85th birthday to the one and only Grace Slick...



...and here is another seasonal selection.

Tuesday Stuff

Leeja Miller’s latest video reminds us that, yes for certain, Combover Caligula is a fascist...clip does a compare and contrast exercise in the matter of Former President Drumpf and a certain maniacal Austrian failed art student (wonder what would have happened if his old man had just let him paint postcards or something?)...important history on the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and yes, it isn’t hyperbole to say there are comparisons to what we’re facing at the moment, especially when Miller goes down her four-point checklist at the end...wonder if any of this stuff occurs to the life forms sticking up their beyond-obnoxious Trump/Vance signs everywhere? Probably not (and I’m glad to see that she worked in the Kochs, including Davey, who may be doing somersaults in hell at this moment...and kudos to Miller also for working in Project 2025), and as far as I'm concerned, that recent MSG hatefest was a nod to this...



...and in keeping with Miller’s video, Lawrence O’Donnell opines that reporters must ask Bronzer Beelzebub what good things Hitler did (more important history here on WWII, and I was also glad to hear about the Taft family endorsement of Sherrrod Brown for U.S. Senate; Brown is a great Dem and deserves all the support we can provide, along with PA’s Bob Casey)...



...and David Pakman informs us about MAGA a**holes booing a reporter’s question about #45’s running mate Couch Boy accepting the ’24 election results...and again, these minions (along with the “tech bros” VP pic) keep pushing the insane lie that the ’20 election was fraudulent, no matter how many f*cking times you try to explain logically to these nematodes that BIDEN WON FAIR AND SQUARE AND OUR OCHRE ABOMINATION LOST!!! And yeah, leave it to this Ohio assclown to encourage an alternate slate of electors, which is ELECTION FRAUD FOR REAL!!!...



...and I guess I’m a little late with this, so apologies...David Doel discusses Tim Walz calling Elon Musk a dipshit, which is spot-on IMO...GREAT point about how ridiculous it is to, in essence, argue that we’re a “center-right” country politically when progressive policies poll so well...I honestly think Doel is overdoing it a bit with his criticism of the Harris campaign for allegedly moving to the center ideologically at the behest of some Biden folks working for her, but he does offer spirited support of economic policies from Harris/Walz, particularly regarding school lunches and raising our Dickensian federal minimum wage...



...and John Russell of More Perfect Union tells the story of fracking waste stored in an Ohio town by a company called Austin Master Services, and yeah, this goes back to fracking in “Frackalachia” (hadn’t heard that term before, but maybe I should have I’ll admit), and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wasn’t much help here, until the folks at Martin’s Ferry dragged them kicking and screaming to make Austin Master Services clean up their mess, which should have happened before the parent company declared bankruptcy...you can chalk this up to corporate exploitation of the fact that people in this region and elsewhere need good paying jobs to survive in our end stage extraction economy, where every damn thing in the world is monetized, and you can also chalk it up to brave activism by the folks in Martin’s Ferry...



...and I think it's about time to get into some selections for "All Hallows Eve" with this number.

Monday Stuff

Thom Hartmann asks what will happen to the Repug Party if Combover Caligula loses (rest assured, however; this will be a fight to the end, and we have to keep giving it all we’ve got...I’ve been all over southeast PA, and if this campaign in PA were based solely on the sign proliferation, it would be close as hell...I saw a headline that Repugs in Montco got rid of “hundreds” of Harris/Walz signs, which is typically lowdown for that bunch)...Thom gives another important history lesson, this time on former SCOTUS Justice Lewis Powell and the beyond wretched Bellotti decision in 1978, which indeed pushed open the door for money to corrupt our politics, with that door being nearly blown off its metaphorical hinges by Citizens United...Thom also mentions the Anderson case, which has to do with Colorado’s attempt to exclude you-know-who from the presidential ballot because of his incitement to insurrection, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR made up more legal nonsense out of whole cloth again to argue that that state doesn't have the right to do that in the case of Bronzer Beelzebub...yeah, right...



...and Miss Beau informs us of the recent rally at MSG for Our Ochre Abomination where some conservative “comedian” named Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage (here)...yeah, that stuff will REALLY play with independent voters, especially in PA, as Miss Beau says...keep it up; you’re doing great...



...and Capitol Police Officer Daniel Hodges gives us some of the reality perspective on what happened on 1/6/21, as a cautionary reminder for anybody out there contemplating a vote for Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, who cheered on the near catastrophe of that day (though it was plenty bad enough as it was...clip is more good work from The Lincoln Project)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less), and this time we’re taking a quick trip around the corner pretty much back to 10/26/23, in which Robert Reich informs us of the utter con behind “No Labels,” which Bri-Fi has championed with typical deceit, as noted here (and to do something about our wet noodle PA-01 U.S. House rep, please click here)...



...and “tomorrow is too late” indeed; this clip from Eleven Films pretty much puts the stakes of the election into utterly clear focus (for the White House for sure, but Congress also really), as if somehow we needed to be reminded at this point...



...and RIP Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead.