I could do without Jack Black’s homage to Sting at the very end, but otherwise, I think this is a good ad about the Iran nuke deal (seeing as how the deal is being universally panned in our corporate media, of course, they being the "pay no price, bear no burden" bunch that they are)...
...and Chris Hayes had a really good report with a reporter from Vice News about this horrific story today, but of course the video is unavailable from that "liberal" network MSNBC - give me a break...
...but speaking of the "All In" host, I’ve been avoiding this story because I’m been so utterly repulsed by it - looks like this self-entitled idiot may stand trial in Zimbabwe for it, though, as noted here - good...
...and once more, Jimmy Dore makes this "Young Turks" clip with the theme of "your parents had it better than you" NSFW, but he does make good points (but watch it on the nurses comment)...
...and oh yeah, about those "secret" meetings between Obama and Jon Stewart here (once more, give me a break - loved the "Seventh Seal" stuff)...
Happy 50th birthday to Medicare (here) - Thom Hartmann wants it to include the public option, which to me is a great idea; he also had an interesting commentary on former Repug U.S. House Rep Billy Tauzin, whose history, to me, personifies the phrase “dance with the devil”...
…and as long as I’m on the subject of milestones, I should note that, while we were away, many of us observed the 30th anniversary of the death of actor Rock Hudson, which brought an identifiable face to the AIDS crisis…
...and in one of her reports dwindling in number that has nothing to do with those idiots running for the Republican nomination for President, Rachel Maddow tells us how VP Joe Biden put the whole marriage equality issue front and center, up to the point of trying to amend the Civil Rights Act to include LGBT folk (I think she ended up talking to Dem U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley - here)…
...and I think this is kind of a nice summer tune.
It looks like the “Empire State” may lead the way on the “fight for $15,” as Ed Schultz and Michael Eric Dyson tell us…
(And by the way, speaking of MSNBC, Rachel Maddow had a really good clip and commentary last night for about the first 10 minutes on Bernie Sanders. The problem is that, as part of the same report, she followed it with a thoroughly ridiculous segment on The Donald for the next 10 minutes. I know she is too smart to NOT know that this is Toxic TV, and I also think it’s a testimony to how much MSNBC, in their utter cowardice, is trying to turn into something like CNN and hasten their eventual extinction. Either way, I’m not going to dignify it by linking to the video.)
…and we recently observed the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act under Poppy Bush, something to keep in mind when you read this (and this)…
...in addition, Rev. Al tells us that American kids are eating fewer calories these days (gee, I wonder if Michelle Obama will actually get any credit from our corporate media on this? Next question...)...
...and here's a nice little tune that graced the airwaves while we were on vacation last week.
OK, I'm going to try and fire this up again – and of course, we have to lead with teh stoo-pid I guess, with one road taking us directly to Repug U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (who also gave us this recent vile moment, alluded to by Chris Hayes in the clip)...
...and I know the “Old Gray Lady” has tripped all over itself lately with this Hillary Clinton Email nonsense, but they absolutely got it right on debunking the latest garbage against Planned Parenthood...
...and I think it's appropriate to transition from this stuff to an item about a cartoon – happy 75th birthday to Bugs Bunny (Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow I guess - heh)...
Note: I know there was yet another awful shooting in Chattanooga, TN, recently where four Marines (Update: And one U.S. Navy petty officer) were killed and three others were injured due to some lunatic who was killed also in the standoff - will it be different this time because the guy may have been a "terrist"? I'm not holding my breath. Aside from extending my sympathies yet again over this stuff, I pretty much don't know what else to say anymore beyond this and this.
(And there's another badly-edited attack video by some conservative front group to try and smear Planned Parenthood again - give me a break. I refuse to give any oxygen to that garbage...but if you want to view Cecile Richards's response, click here.)
Back to the regular stuff...Chris Hayes interviews Sen. Al Franken about LGBT discrimination of kids and pending U.S. Senate legislation – good luck with that because he’ll need it (and with that in mind, I should say that I really don’t care one way or the other about Caitlyn Jenner)…
…and I give you get another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from about two years ago, in which former MSNBC commentator Martin Bashir (remember him? And why he was forced out of a job? I’ll give you a hint – it didn’t have anything to do with Iraqi helicopters) interviews Dem U.S. House Rep Mark Pocan about the importance of restoring the Voting Rights Act (and in a related item, as they say, I give you this)…
…and silly Cenk – don’t you know that this whole Jade Helm stuff is just an Obama conspiracy to use his secret army of ACORN volunteers living in their FEMA prison camps to register illegal aliens to vote for Democrats? And yes, I’m removing my tongue from my cheek now…
…and happy upcoming 70th birthday to John Lodge of The Moody Blues.
And with that, I take my leave of you for a little while - heading up to our blue-state paradise for some much-needed R&R. I hope to fire this thing back up again in about a week.
Thom Hartmann brings us the latest domestic political and economic news, including an attempt by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and "Straight Talk" McCain (!) to bring back Glass-Steagall, as well as the latest on Hosni Mubarak Walker...
...and the Rev. Al Sharpton tells us what we should do about poverty among black children in particular (yeah I know, more li-bu-ruul crazy talk - probably tying back to Hartmann a bit)...
…and not that I encourage violence of course, but kudos to the Greeks (and their sympathizers) for standing up to austerity – like to see more protest about that in this country…
...and kudos also to Tom Petty for this - made me recall this tune.
John Oliver is back with a GREAT report here on some of the truly absurd deals some sports franchises manage to wrangle for their stadiums (NSFW)…
...and it looks like “The Donald” has to take care of some things at home (heh)...
…and ready or not, it’s time once more for “This Day In Doomsy History,” with this TYT clip from July 10, 2009, showing the Teahadists in all their infamy (and, to my knowledge, they never apologized for so much as one of these unbelievably awful signs – kind of explains the appeal in particular of “The Donald” and “Calgary” Cruz as far as I’m concerned)…
…and it’s harder all the time for yours truly to find what I consider to be good new music – this definitely qualifies.
Yeah. how dare that Alan Grayson act as crazy as The Donald, according to Steve Kornacki (what a soulless shill - here...Kornacki I mean)...
...and I thought this was a good clip with Katrina Vanden Heuvel on Bernie Sanders and our corporate media in general, interviewed by CNN's Brian Stelter (and kudos to Stelter for not trying to talk over her and letting her speak, which, unfortunately, doesn't happen as often as it should with lefties)...
...and as if we needed it, here is more proof of Exxon's environmental criminality...
...and today marks the 30th anniversary of Live-Aid, which was a big deal across the pond and in these parts too, featuring a ton of great performances, including this one.
RIP Omar Sharif – kind of funny that, as he recounted in an interview with somebody at some point, he really didn’t consider himself as a candidate for the lead role in “Dr. Zhivago,” but was thinking more along the lines of the scoundrel Komarovsky, the role that went to Rod Steiger in the movie, but director Sir David Lean wanted Sharif in the lead all along…liked the depiction of what it’s like to be a writer in the movie…Sharif also once recounted what a tough time he had getting his hair straightened for the role – thought he was great as Sherif Ali in “Lawrence of Arabia” too…
…and hey, pick up your damn trash, my fellow Pennsylvanians (here), or else you might get a visit from this guy (heh)…
…and leave it to our corporate media to immediately rush to the aid of the “party of Lincoln” in the wake of the massive federal employee data breach (Jason Chaffetz is a damn idiot) – yeah, maybe the resignation of OPM’s Katherine Archuleta is a good idea, but do you want to hear another good idea? HOW ABOUT GETTING RID OF THE DAMN SEQUESTER ALREADY AND FUNDING OUR GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE FUNDED (and I call this a good first step)…
...and while everyone is now beating up the FBI for supposedly being responsible for allowing the maniac Dylann Roof to purchase the handgun he used to (allegedly, let's not forget) murder nine people in Charlestown, SC (here), how about if we ask why South Carolina has not yet required a "permit to purchase" from law enforcement before anyone buys a weapon of death (here) - doing so might have disallowed Roof from orchestrating his evil (once again, allegedly)...
...and on this subject, get a load of the following quote from some asswipe named Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association (from HuffPo here)...
..."People need to assume personal responsibility for their own welfare, including personal safety, rather than expecting society or others to provide that for them."
Cenk at TYT responds...
…and whether you’re ready for it or not, here comes another installment of "This Day In Doomsy History" from about two years ago (kind of a bit of foreshadowing for the arrival of Pope Frank, to be honest...surprised this great clip from John Fugelsang is still available, actually)…
…and this song has a bit of a religious reference; haven’t put it up for a while – the wild T-storms last night cleared everything out for some nice weather including today – hope it’s a good weekend for you also.
Don't look now, but there's more NSA spying going on - I think our corporate media overlords don't want us to know this and focus on the Republican presidential primary clown show instead...
...and I thought this was an interesting interview that Rachel Maddow conducted with Kelly Evans of CNBC in which we learn, among other things, how ultimately inconsequential the NYSE is for most of the time it is trading, except for the pricing that occurs at the end of every session (and I'm sorry, but I don't consider the stock exchange to be vital infrastructure)...
...and so Dubya's brother wants us to supposedly work longer hours (here)? What a POS (NSFW)...
...and I can't believe this great tune had only 1 view when I found it.
It looks like Subway's Jared Fogle has more problems (and yes, I know the charges he faces here aren't amusing in any way, and all “alleged” of course)...
…and hey, here’s an idea; maybe there should be a “stress test” of sorts for governors who decide that they want to run for president…you know, your state has to meet certain benchmarks, such as not having 8 credit downgrades (here), having economic growth among, say, the top 10 states (uh, no), and maybe that governor has to have an approval rating higher than 50 percent (once again – uh, no) – yeah, I know, that’s just liburuul “crazy talk”…
I give you yet another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” brought to us by Dem U.S. House Rep Joe Crowley of New York from about July 6th, 2011 (and I suspect things have not changed much since this clip)...
..and now I can rest easy, knowing that there's an official voice in our media for all of the poor, oppressed billionaires out there (here)...
...and today marks a grim 10-year anniversary in the annals of terrorism for our friends across the pond, as noted here (the video explains more about the “Mike's Place” bombing)...
...and speaking of the U.K., happy 75th birthday to Mr. Starkey.
Yeah, how dare those breast-feeding moms nourish their babies the way nature intended (here: yeah, I'm overdoing it with the snark lately - sorry)...
…and if the prior clip was an intentional parody, then what follows is definitely an unintentional one (from here).
And in case anyone who reads this blog doesn't know this by now, then let me point out that I am an honest-to-goodness Roman Catholic. And it’s hard for me to communicate how truly offensive this video is to me.
Oh, please spare me how much Teh Gay Iz Destroying My Marriage (and it actually scares me a bit to realize that, say, about five years ago or so, I wasn’t that far removed from these people – not saying that to pat myself on the back, but only to point out how truly clueless I was on this subject).
This is a typical wingnut maneuver, of course. Basically use cowardly code language (“some of my best friends are gay”), then fake crocodile tears telling the world how oppressed you are because Teh Gay Iz Ruining Your Sexytime.
It’s a human rights issue. Gays and LGBT individuals want the same legal protections through marriage that straights have. They want to love without someone wagging their finger at them telling them that they’re going to hell and they’re going to take the straights with them. And they want to adopt kids. And hold down jobs and homes and basically live what was once euphemistically called The American Dream.
The end…
(P.S. – I can’t wait for the official parody.)
...and I LOVE this guy's response to "The Donald" on how horrible illegal (undocumented - whatever) immigrants supposedly are in about a minute and never stops working (here)...
…and happy belated 65th birthday to Michael Monarch of Steppenwolf (this goes out to the people behind the second video in this post).
As I've said, there's no place for the "stars n' bars" in a public display or on a government building, and I certainly don't think people should make money off it (and I don't think its meaning should be sanitized either), but there is a place for it, sadly, and I think the folks from Gettysburg Park (a place we've visited) have the right idea...
Oh drat, it looks like that Kenyan Muslim socialist in the White House is trying to put money in our pockets again – is there no end to his perfidy (here - snark...and for the insane point of view on this subject, click here)…
…and it looks like all the points he won over that great Charlton Heston parody went up in smoke, as it were, over this (sorry, but I'm not as forgiving towards Carrey as John and Ana)…
….and I give you another installment of “This Day in Doomsy History” – this video was filmed on or about now seven years ago, and I definitely think it is still timely…
...and I know I started this week with a tribute video to Chris Squire as a solo performer, but I thought it would be good to finish it with a clip of a performance with that band of his too.
I don’t know if this will be one of the last videos from the series about fixing our economy from Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, but it might be one of the best (here)…
…and I’m sorry, I really could care less about any party’s political candidates running for president except Bernie Sanders; I’d rather focus on stuff like this from Rev. Al (on second thought, I’m not sorry after all)…
…and yes, we know about how the wingnuts managed to tie themselves into knots over the rulings from The Supremes last week, but you would have thought at least that they would have been happy about this judicial mistake noted in the video here – sorry, there I go viewing issues through that pesky prism of reality again, a place where fewer and fewer Republicans actually live…
I give you another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” - six years ago, Al Franken officially won his U.S. Senate seat, with the news brought to us by Brian Williams, the guy who took that Iraqi chopper ride that I'm sure he regrets now...
...and it looks like those “family values” Republicans have struck again (low-hanging fruit here, I'll admit – NSFW at the very end, and I very definitely agree with Cenk here)...
...and speaking of that bunch, even for Fix Noise, this is disgusting – check out the hip-hoppish muzak in the background while Bill Orally's insufferable toad producer goes out and “interviews” the homeless in Penn Station...gee, ya' think they edited the video to make it sound like the only option for these homeless folks is that baad federal gumint of that Kenyan Muslim socialist? Of course, as C&L tells us here, what NYC mayor Bill de Blasio is doing is ACTUALLY WORKING TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF HOMELESS...
...and under de Blasio, according to Billo, all the homeless do is hang out at Penn Station and grab people at random – what a cretinous liar he is (and yes, Watters actually used the word “plush” to describe a homeless shelter, a place that I suspect he has never visited – embarrassing to watch these people gin up fear among their overwhelmingly white well-to-do audience)...
...and I suspect absolution is a concept totally alien to just about anyone at Fix Noise.
Yeah, after watching this, I can’t wait for the return of Stephen Colbert either (re: gay marriage)…
…and the two following clips are definitely NSFW – first, John Oliver tells us how hard it is to get back at anyone involved in online harassment (here - man, I forgot all about getting "rick-rolled")…
…and Bill Maher suggests to us, among other things, a new slogan for Not Your Father’s Republican Party (here)…
…and RIP Chris Squire…yep, there was some art rock pretense going on here which lent itself to parody in “This Is Spinal Tap,” but there was also first-class musicianship to go with it - probably need to crank the volume a bit.
