Saturday Stuff

You may have heard by now about a certain video that is going absolutely nuts online about Dem CA Sen. Dianne Feinstein meeting with a bunch of school kids about supporting the “Green New Deal” as put forward in the Senate by Feinstein’s fellow Dem Ed Markey of Massachusetts (one link is here.)

Also, it should be noted that there is, apparently, an edited, abbreviated version out there which puts Feinstein in a bad light. Well, if you can get to it, I definitely recommend that you watch all 6 videos in the sequence from here (starting with her greeting to the kids and ending with some words from the teacher…and I’ll have something to say about the teacher shortly).

There are a few different spins I’ve seen and read about concerning Feinstein’s encounter with these kids in a variety of stories. The New York Times said Feinstein “lectured” the kids (here). Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos tweeted that Feinstein didn’t apologize (also posting, “There’s a reason we supported Kevin DeLeon, sigh,” with DeLeon being a 2018 primary challenger to Feinstein), though diarist dfh1 at his site posted an excellent entry here.

And I know I mentioned the school teacher who also met with Feinstein along with the kids. The only time I actually started to feel angry while watching all 6 videos was at the very end of the last one, when the teacher said that Feinstein was “condescending.”

How was Feinstein “condescending,” exactly? By offering an internship to one of the students? By telling them that she agreed with them, partly for the sake of her 7 grandchildren? By presenting her own legislation on climate change, which, as diarist dfh1 pointed out, is in line with the IPCC recommendations? Oh, and by telling the kids that, since the Democrats aren’t in charge of the Senate, she needs Republican votes to pass legislation to fight climate change, which neither Feinstein nor any other Democrat WILL EVER GET FOR AS LONG AS THEY LIVE?

Oh, I suddenly remember now – she actually told the kids that it might take 10 years to get climate change legislation passed. She also asked one of the students who said she voted for Feinstein her age, and when she told Feinstein, the senator correctly pointed out that she was too young to vote for her. And I guess Feinstein was supposed to shower each individual child with gratitude when the kids presented their petition.

You mean Feinstein didn't provide immediate gratification? Gosh, how "condescending" indeed!

I know the kids are right. Believe me. And somehow I’m sure Feinstein knows that too. And Think Progress pointed out that Feinstein swore off campaign contributions from oil companies and she went back on that, so yes, hold her to account.

And 10 years, which Feinstein said in the clip is how long it could take to pass a bill to fight this, is waaay too long – it needs to happen yesterday I know.

BUT SHE ISN’T THE DAMN ENEMY!!!

Do you want to know who IS the enemy? I’ll give you a hint. The head of their party in the White House just appointed this utterly empty vessel (and married to a coal company executive - of course) as our U.N. ambassador, who said she believes “both sides” when it comes to climate science.

And just to show how ridiculous this is, Ben Shapiro and Erick Erickson, of all people, have jumped to Feinstein’s defense (I’m not going to link to their nonsense and give them any traffic – you can find it). Great job to play into the hands of the wingnuts, “Sunrise Foundation”! I can guarantee you that these two nitwits WILL NEVER CARE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE EITHER! However, they care VERY MUCH about sewing division in the Democratic ranks, which they plainly see a chance to do here.

Maybe this “Sunrise Foundation” ought to focus its efforts on the people who really want to hasten our extinction by superheating this planet, and that would be everyone standing in the way of the Green New Deal – basically, every Republican politician and members of that political constituency.

Maybe this “Sunrise Foundation” (ostensibly run by adults I believe) ought to realize that, while the Dems happily won the House last year, the Repugs actually gained in the Senate (which is still unbelievable to me, but it tells me just how much of an uphill battle we have to fight on this stuff). And that admittedly makes the fight for common sense climate change legislation only harder.

This is part of the admittedly tiresome game of realpolitik, people. And I realize the kids aren’t going to know that (and God bless them for trying regardless).

But I honestly expected that Markos Moulitsas and the goddamn New York Times would know better!

…and on a wholly other matter (re, our relationship with the Saudis, which is definitely too cozy for my liking), I give you this – NSFW (and Kyle may be correct about the Mueller report, by the way...and he sure as hell is right about the urgency on the Saudi stuff)…



…and this tune goes out to Shapiro and Erickson on the Feinstein thing (could probably apply to a few others too).

Thursday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us about the 11-year-old in Lakeland, FL arrested because he didn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance (I'm OK with Kyle on this, though I think it’s possible for 11-year-olds to have political opinions…and yeah, the substitute teacher screwed the proverbial pooch here IMHO – NSFW…by the way, the pic shows how the Pledge used to be recited in this country prior to WWII featuring what was once referred to as the "Bellamy Salute,” though it was abandoned for obvious reasons)…



…and that to me is the perfect segue to this clip on the short documentary subject “A Night At The Garden,” which took place 80 years ago yesterday (filmmaker Marshall Curry is interviewed…and I think this, sadly, is what I would call a similar cautionary lesson)…



Update 2/22/19: And as long as we're harking back to those goose-stepping bygone days, I should probably present this also about yet another Trumpian goofball.

Update 3/2/19: And you just KNOW she had to join the party too, right? (here)

…and on the subject of kids objecting to repressive authority, Francis Maxwell of “The Breakdown” tells us about 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, the first person to challenge Montgomery, AL’s bus boycott, before Rosa Parks (apropos to recall anytime, but especially during Black History Month)…



…and Sam Seder of “The Majority Report” talks with Eric Blanc of Jacobin…not sure what that is (re, the Denver teacher strike, and potentially other teacher strikes also, fighting against privatization and “corporate education reform”…yes, on paper, merit pay sounds good, but not when it’s tied to some BS metric like standardized test performance…interesting to look at this as a push-back against the Janus decision, but yeah, that seems to fit, with Oakland, CA apparently next on the list)…



...and happy 70th birthday to Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads...



...and RIP Peter Tork of The Monkees.

Tuesday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that it is apparently DNI Dan Coats’s time in the barrel, as it were, for acting like an adult in the matter of North Korea’s nukes…



…and Seth Meyers gives us another humorous take, this time on Generalissimo Trump’s “national emergency”…



…and there are so many reasons why I utterly despise movement conservative Republicans (and the Gropenfuhrer is one without a doubt, though, as a Russian stooge, he’s too dumb and compromised to realize it), but maybe the biggest reason of all is their utterly ruinous policies concerning our environment – the following clip is just the latest example (and no, I’m not saying Democrats are completely innocent either on this score…more here)…



…and as Hasan Piker points out (in particular, in the case of rapper 21 Savage), ICE is not only cruel and malicious, but incompetent also…



…and I wouldn’t be shopping at Bloomingdale’s anyway, but I DEFINITELY won’t be after this – all the same, interesting take by Kyle I must say; still thinking about it (NSFW)…



…and here’s a great new Tedeschi Trucks Band tune.

Thursday Stuff

I think it genuinely requires talent to weave comedy gold from the utter idiocy inflicted on us by the Gropenfuhrer, as Seth Meyers manages to do once more in this clip…



Update: Uh, yep.

…and it’s been a year since the gun carnage at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School (more here, here, and here...and I'm sorry, but despite what Kyle says in the clip, there's no place for an AR-15 in civilian use as far as I'm concerned)…



Update 1: Truth (Part One).

Update 2: Truth (Part Two).

…and Brooke Thomas, Mark Thompson and Ben Mankiewicz talk about the latest Repug idiot attacking the LGBTQ community, Eric Porterfield of West Virginia by name (now watch him get re-elected, the next time he runs…love to be wrong)…



Update 2/17/19: OMFG!

…and I thought this was a good commentary from WaPo reporter Eugene Scott about the dustup over the entirely true remarks from Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, with, predictably, politicians from both parties tripping over themselves to placate our aggrieved “ally” (here, and this, when it comes to The Big Orange Cheetoh, is merely to laugh…and when it comes to McCarthy, let’s not forget this – and kudos to Omar for this also…the next few clips are tied a bit to the issue of censorship)…



…and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 2/11/14, with Rod Serling talking with Mike Wallace many moons ago about censorship concerning, among other things, the portrayal of Lassie giving birth on TV…never a shortage when it comes to “values voter” outrage in this country (I originally noted that this clip came from Anthony Cumia on Youtube, and at the time I neglected to realize that he was one half of the radio-comedy team “Opie and Anthony,” who were once fired because they broadcast a comedian describing a couple having simulated sex in a vestibule of St. Patrick’s Cathedral while Mass was going on…yes, maybe a case of “’values’ for me but not for thee,” but as a Roman Catholic, I definitely think that went way too far)…



…and speaking of faith, on this day in history (well, yesterday actually), the astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei faced charges of heresy from the Catholic Church for advocating Copernican theory, namely, that the earth revolves around the sun as opposed to the other way around; he was put under arrest by Pope Urban VIII in 1633 and was sentenced to live out the rest of his life in his villa near Florence where he died in 1642 (the Church made an official “oops, our bad” announcement about it in 1992…and I’ll bet you didn’t think there was a song for all of this…well…)…



…and given the significance of this day on the calendar, I thought I’d present this (I’m pretty sure the Utopia tune was “Love In Action”)…



…and for the opposing point of view, I give you this :-).

Monday Stuff

I thought this was a particularly good “New Rule” from Bill Maher about “both sides” in response to Howard Schultz and his vanity campaign for prez (hey, Starbucks guy, you want to help for real? Try supporting a rock-solid Dem national and local party infrastructure with donations. But of course, that won’t get you any headlines, you self-aggrandizing tool…and speaking of self-aggrandizing tools, why the hell does Maher continue to let wingnut nematode Jack Kingston onto his show??!!)…



…and Farron Cousins tells us that conservative lawmakers in AZ think porn is the biggest threat we face and want to declare it a public health crisis – maybe some of these numbskulls need to come out of the sun once in awhile…



…and gosh almighty, THEY FORGOT TO MENTION MEEEE!!! (sniff - just for fun)…



…and I don’t know if these guys will be touring to our area soon, but I’ll be checking for sure.

Friday Stuff

I thought this was a great commentary from Lawrence O’Donnell in response to a certain lying orange treasonous lunatic and his remark about “socialism” at the State of the Union the other night (kudos for remembering Frances Perkins, and I think the tie-in to the NFL is absolutely brilliant…and yes, I’d say the same thing if Lawrence had mentioned the Eagles)…



…and Francis Maxwell tells us of still more mass shootings in this country (oh, but let the wingnuts scream over a shaving cream ad instead...I think I said something once before about Gillette's message, which to me is spot-on)…



…and returning to the Super Bowl, Kyle tells us about a rejected medical marijuana ad (legalization for recreational use is still a slippery slope as far as I’m concerned, but medical pot and decriminalization should be the law of the land, and the Dems would run on that if they had any brains, one of the few issues to me where Bill Maher is 100 percent correct IMHO…NSFW)…



…and Michelle Lujan Grisham, Dem guv of New Mexico, is my new hero for this, telling the Gropenfuhrer what he can do with his wall…Cenk, Ana and Emma Vigeland explain…



…and I’m sure this clip shows why AOC scares the hell out of the wingnuts, and probably a few Dems too – good! (and we can thank this for the scenarios she described to the panel)…



…and I know I just had a Beatles tune here recently, but here’s another one, which I believe was their first Number 1 hit in this country, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of their landing in NYC to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was yesterday – I crave your sympathy and understanding for another Boomer indulgence here.

Tuesday Stuff

Ali Velshi, sitting in for Rachel Maddow, tells us here about prosecutors in the SDNY deciding to subpoena the records of the Gropenfuhrer’s inauguration – about damn time…



…and yeah, I don’t see how Ralph Northam ends up lasting as VA governor (at least, not as a Dem), for whatever my opinion is worth on this…the thing that gets me about this is that Breitbart actually got a “get” here – the proverbial stopped clock that is right no more than twice a day – and apparently this whole thing was wingnut payback against Northam for the governor’s entirely accurate IMHO comments about third-trimester abortions (here...sorry to provide click bait to a wingnut site, but I can't link to the WaPo any more)…that doesn’t happen unless something has gone terribly, horribly wrong with the pregnancy, which of course makes conservatives lose what’s left of their minds to contemplate real-world impact on their beliefs…



…and Cenk and Ana tell us about that nitwit Tomi Lahren saying that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez apparently hasn’t accomplished much, or something…



…and yeah, there goes that AOC not accomplishing much again according to Lahren – just standing up to Big Pharma, that’s all, with Ro Khanna…



…and Amadou Diallo was shot to death 20 years ago yesterday (the cops used to love Bruce, but not so much after this; c’est dommage, even though the song really isn’t anti-police – and by the way, there were a few mass shootings last week that barely registered on the radar of our corporate media as noted here)……



...and I just felt like hearing something a little upbeat and positive, so here it is.

Thursday Stuff

I long for the day to return when our head of state actually knows how to spell, as Trevor Noah tells us…



…and this New York Times video tells us that the regime of the Gropenfuhrer is making it more dangerous for migrants from Mexico trying to get into this country legally or maybe otherwise (stepping up the process of “metering”)…



…and Francis Maxwell tells us about the attack on the actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago (and yeah, these animals were yapping about “MAGA country” or something as noted here - OK, so Generalissimo Trump finally said something about it here...have to play it straight even though he doesn't of course)…



Update 2/21/19: Ugh - what in God's name motivates people to do this stuff (here)?

…and Farron Cousins tells us that Chucky and Davey Koch now apparently haz a sad because people are mad at them…GMAFB!...



…and yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the rooftop Apple Studios concert by The Beatles…



…and RIP James Ingram.

Wednesday Stuff

Seth Meyers gives us a wrapup on Roger Stone’s indictment (a little behind the news curve I’ll admit, but funny stuff)…



…and Kyle tells us about Howard Schultz supposedly entering the 2020 race for president, and no, I can’t believe we’re even talking about that either (very NSFW…definitely don’t share Kyle’s enthusiasm for Tulsi Gabbard of course, nor for even mentioning Jill Stein or Gary Johnson…”donut Twitter??” And I have to admit that I’ve never heard of “rank choice voting”)…



…and yesterday marked the 55th anniversary of the release of “Dr. Strangelove” (and man oh man, was the DoD mad at Stanley Kubrick for his meticulous depiction of a nuclear air strike, which God willing will exist only in movies from now until the end of time)…



…and I have to admit that I had this tune in mind after watching Kyle’s segment.

Monday Stuff

Maybe I should be jumping up and down and saying, “Woo Hoo! Wow, Nancy Pelosi sure is Queen Of The Beltway Now, Huh??(!!)”

Well, yeah – it’s great that the shutdown is over, though it sickens me that it’s only for three weeks and we could end up playing this whole stoo-pid game again before long (love to be wrong on that). What matters to me (and I’m sure a bunch of others too) is that hard-working Americans are back on the job providing important services for us that we need and supporting themselves and/or their families again (and hopefully nobody died, was severely hurt, got terribly ill or was evicted from where they live while the shutdown lasted). And I give Nancy Pelosi enough credit to recognize that.

If anybody “won,” it’s the government workers. Everything else to me is Beltway/corporate media/”Drudgico” kabuki and nothing more (and who gives a damn about Ann Coulter? What, did this year suddenly morph into 1994 all of a sudden? I guess I missed that memo).

Though, to be fair, I think we should summarize the nonsense that just took place:

U.S. Senate Republicans vote Yes on a bill with no wall funding – goes to U.S. House still under Repug control, and that disgusting bastard Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv doesn’t even schedule a vote (because he knew it would have passed, but he wanted a cudgel to beat the Dems with as opposed to actually solving a problem).

U.S. Senate Republicans vote again on the same bill and say No – goes to the U.S. House now under Dem control, and they try to get the Dems and Pelosi to support a bill with wall funding to get the Dems to own that goddamn wall, and the House Dems stand tall (and let’s not underestimate how important that was, by the way – good luck if the Senate under Schumer had been put in a position like that).

Now realizing they’ve hopelessly lost the battle for public opinion on this, U.S. Senate Republicans vote AGAIN on the SAME BILL without wall funding and vote YES, and House Dems follow suit and Generalissimo Trump signs off.

With that admitting boring preface out of the way, I thought this was good commentary from the TYT folks…



…and I have to admit that I haven’t given a lot of thought to Dem U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, but boy, did he stand up tall against “Tail Gunner Ted” here (more like this – LOTS more!)…



…and it’s pretty damn hilarious to hear the Gropenfuhrer supposedly caring about the “radical left” of the Democratic Party, as Kyle K. tells us (mildly NSFW)…



…and RIP Michel Legrand.

Thursday Stuff

On the shutdown…as far as I’m concerned, Joy Ann Reid can go to the head of the proverbial class for this (punish EVERY REPUBLICAN for this, people!!! And here is more Privileged Republican Entitlement on display – here also)…



…and even with my limited posting, don’t think I’ve given up on “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less)– this latest installment is from 1/23/13, in which Dem U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott talked about how ridiculous it was to be debating the debt ceiling (and no, I don’t like debt either, but sometimes you need a reasonable amount of it, and I’ll defer to people like Dean Baker, Brad DeLong and Prof. Krugman on the details), but as far as I’m concerned, this commentary might as well apply to the shutdown also – of course, if you want to cut spending for real, we could talk about sane tax policy and defense budgeting…



…which I’m sure Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for one, is more than willing to do, even though, according to Aaron Sorkin, she and others of the freshman Dem class in the U.S. House need to stop acting like kids, or something (Cenk and Ana of TYT explain…GREAT MLK context!)…



…and with the prior clip in mind, “The Majority Report” tells us that The Rev. Dr. William Barber recently spoke in front of Tennessee politicians and let fly (I thought the line about preachers telling their congregation to tithe but not protesting with them for a living wage was particularly good – and yeah, watching that putz Bill Lee just sit there spoke volumes all by itself)…



…and I realize the shutdown has pushed the Russia/Trump stuff off the front pages for now, which I’m sure was completely by design; Seth Meyers reminds us here with the latest on former “fixer” for the Gropenfuhrer Michael Cohen, along with the latest verbal gymnastics from Rudy 91u1iani…



…and every times I press the Publish button on one of these posts, I quietly utter to myself the title of this song.

Monday Stuff

Joy Reid speaks with Indian tribal elder and Marine Corps Vet Nathan Phillips (who served in Vietnam) about the recent confrontation in D.C. with high school kids who, allegedly, came from a “Catholic” school in Covington, KY (to say this video has gone viral is an understatement)…I’m curious now to find out about this “Black Hebrew Israelites” business; according to Phillips, it actually sounds like he and his group of Native Americans were trying to intercede against this band of stupid little pukes (and I don’t mean the 4 Black Hebrew Israelites…more here)…



…and Kyle K. tells us about government workers turning to GoFundMe pages to get money so they and their families can survive (NSFW...not sure how I can add to Kyle's quite justifiable outrage and disgust) – more here…



…and Thom Hartmann tells us about the book “The Inner Level,” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett which basically argues that more just societies enable people to live longer, better lives (and I always thought Boris Johnson was a bit of a buffoon, though he certainly was smart enough to worm his way into positions of power in the UK – still, I’d like to send him a box of cornflakes with a message on it to go f*ck himself)…

…and here’s a tune we all know in remembrance of the man whose accomplishments we recognize and celebrate on this day (more here).

Thursday Stuff

(The pic has to do with this vote, by the way.)

Farron Cousins tells us that Repug U.S. Senator Rand Paul (the “ophthalmologist” who was "certified and approved" by a board he oversaw himself) needs a hernia operation, so of course he’s going to go get it at that allegedly evil den of socialized medicine in Canada instead of “buying American,” if you will (more here)…



…and Seth Meyers gives us the latest on Generalissimo Trump and the shut down (more here)…



…and Cenk and Ana of TYT give us the latest example of wingnut outrage, this time over a Gillette TV ad (and of course, leave it to “culture warrior” Ben Shapiro to leap into action right away…pretty much shits and giggles here, people)…



…and last Monday would have been the 81st birthday of legendary NOLA singer/songwriter Allen Toussaint.

Tuesday Stuff

Kyle tells us that food inspections have been suspended because of the shutdown; NSFW - sick of the winning yet, you MAGA clowns?

And yes – I guess, at this point, I should know better than to ask that question...



…and the only reason why Steven Arnold King was called out for his white supremacy BS (here) is because the Repugs lost the House and King almost lost himself last year; if not for those two developments, the Repugs would be quiet as proverbial church mice over him…



…and Pap and Farron Cousins opine on the MSNBC commentator who quit because of the network’s alleged “pro war” slant, which, unfortunately, I largely agree with, until about 8 PM EST anyway (though calling that network “the worst of the worst” is a bit extreme as far as I’m concerned – Fox is, now, and has always been the media wing of the Repug Party…I think there’s a bit of a point to be made here, though it’s kind of funny to hear this from two guys who have appeared on The Putin Network)…



…and with the prior criticism of MSNBC in mind, I present this clip as a bit of a counter-point…Rachel Maddow speaks with David Laufman, former DOJ Counterintel Chief (didn’t see the rest of the Laufman interview)…



…and last Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of the guy who you could call the patron saint of this dumb blog (here)…I would call these words to live by…



…and what do you say to something a little more upbeat than usual when it comes to the musical selections – no messages today, people!

Friday Stuff

Leave it to The Putin Network to tell us about a gadget that could help the cops identify the caliber of a weapon or the ammunition used in a mass shooting (snark...or better yet, why don’t we just keep pushing for SANE GUN LAWS TO TRY AND PREVENT THE DAMN SHOOTINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE??!!)…



…and speaking of “the wall” that Our Orange Maniac Child President has been caterwauling about, I have to admit that this clip blew my mind – heard about it on Twitter yesterday (here)…



…and ZOMG! It looks like those SCARY MUSLIMS are actually cleaning up our national parks during the government shut down – wait, what? And anyone who litters the reflection pool at the mall in D.C. should get his or her ass kicked; I DO have to agree with the Dems, though, and say that, for safety reasons if nothing else, the parks should be closed during the shut down – yeah, I know that pisses off people who’ve planned vacations, and I feel bad about that, but there’s a simple lesson here, people – STOP VOTING FOR F*CKING REPUBLICANS WHO SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT!!!...



…and I went through my mental Rolodex of “wall” songs to see what I could come up with, and I settled on this.

Wednesday Stuff

As some have pointed out, I guess we dodged a bit of a bullet last night, you might say, when Generalissimo Trump didn’t declare a national emergency over his stinking wall, though we still have far to go to fix this mess unfortunately – I thought this recent commentary from Chris Cuomo of CNN gave us some really good context…



…and David Pakman tells us what we probably knew already, which is that the Gropenfuhrer doesn’t know what a shutdown truly does…and also, while we’re quite rightly blaming Repugs, don’t let that gutter snipe Mick Mulvaney off the hook, Trump’s COS (POS is more like it), since this is what the “Freedom Caucus” really wants…



…and the following from “Now This” tells us about the threat of industry concentration (you can add the telcos to this list too, by the way – basically the choices are Verizon and Comcast, which is like having to choose between bubonic plague and leprosy…the cynic in me says, “Yeah, well, Josh Hawley and Mike Lee don’t have to worry about campaign contributions from tech companies in Utah and Missouri I’m sure,” but for now they’re doing the right thing – as the hero of their party once said in another context, “trust, but verify”…but when it comes to Hawley, it looks like he won’t be playing “hallway roulette,” whatever that means, as noted here…too self-entitled to answer questions affecting his constituents, apparently – didn’t take long for Hawley, did it?)…



…and yesterday would have been the 72nd birthday of David Bowie, and tomorrow marks the 3rd anniversary of his passing.

Tuesday Stuff

I’m sure there are drinking games that some folks will come up with given that Our Lying Orange Lunatic Wannabe Dictator is going to address the nation tonight on our alleged border crisis, but I would suggest that you NOT take a shot every time the word “wall” is uttered (or “slats” or “fence”), or else you might end up in the emergency room – given that, Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Huckleberry Graham’s propagandizing on this subject (and as Cenk says, there’s NO WAY Huck will take $5 bil from our ridiculous defense budget for this PR boondoggle because that hurts Graham’s donors)…



…and Farron Cousins gives us some more background on our alleged “national emergency” and what the Gropenfuhrer can do as a result (terrific)…



..and I thought this was a pretty good NSFW discussion by Kyle K. on what a marginal tax rate truly is given what AOC is proposing (around 60-70 percent), which is actually pretty mainstream stuff (and GREAT point at the very end to compare this with what is pretty much the actual tax rate for our corporate overlords)…



…and I FINALLY finished Elvis’s great book over the holidays – kind of a stream-of-consciousness memoir, but I thought it was a fascinating insight into a truly full life in music.

Thursday Stuff

I now give you my first modified-schedule post for 2019…first, kudos to the Lobster Club for this number during this year’s Mummers Parade, held in Philly on New Years’ Day for the uninitiated, as noted here (and to me, the REALLY funny part is that this was broadcast on WPHL-17 in Philadelphia, which is a Sinclair station)…



…and Francis Maxwell tell us about how one of America’s Great National Pastimes had a banner year last year, and I’m referring to – wait for it – racism of course…

…and I honestly wasn’t trying to link the prior clip to this item – of all of the lefty, liberal, Democratic issues out there where I personally may have a sticking point with someone over something, I can think of no issue bigger than what I consider to be the clear-cut, unmitigated guilt of this guy (in this post, I’m going to reference the Wikipedia article here – normally I would be leery about relying so much on Wikipedia, but this article has excellent sourcing…I’ll note why I’m bringing this up a little later).

From “Commonwelath v. (Mumia) Abu-Jamal” (what follows is a summary of the prosecution’s case):

Murder of Ofc. Daniel Faulkner

At 3:55 am on December 9, 1981, in Philadelphia, close to the intersection at 13th and Locust streets, Philadelphia Police Department officer Daniel Faulkner conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle belonging to and driven by William Cook, Abu-Jamal's younger brother. Faulkner and Cook became engaged in a physical confrontation.[28] Driving his cab in the vicinity, Abu-Jamal observed the altercation, parked, and ran across the street toward Cook's car.[4] Faulkner was shot from behind and in the face. He shot Abu-Jamal in the stomach. Faulkner died at the scene from the gunshot to his head.

Arrest and trial

Police arrived and arrested Abu-Jamal, who was found to be wearing a shoulder holster. His revolver, which had five spent cartridges, was beside him. He was taken directly from the scene of the shooting to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he received treatment for his wound.[29] He was next taken to Police Headquarters, where he was charged and held for trial in the first-degree murder of Officer Faulkner.[30]

Prosecution case at trial

The prosecution presented four witnesses to the court about the shootings. Robert Chobert, a cab driver who testified he was parked behind Faulkner, identified Abu-Jamal as the shooter. Cynthia White, a prostitute, testified that Abu-Jamal emerged from a nearby parking lot and shot Faulkner. Michael Scanlan, a motorist, testified that from two car lengths away, he saw a man, matching Abu-Jamal's description, run across the street from a parking lot and shoot Faulkner. Albert Magilton, a pedestrian who did not see the shooting, testified to seeing Faulkner pull over Cook's car. As Abu-Jamal started to cross the street toward them, Magilton turned away and did not see what happened next.

The prosecution presented two witnesses from the hospital where Abu-Jamal was treated. Hospital security guard Priscilla Durham and police officer Garry Bell testified that Abu-Jamal said in the hospital, "I shot the (mf'er), and I hope the (mf'er) dies."[31]

A .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver, belonging to Abu-Jamal, with five spent cartridges, was retrieved beside him at the scene. He was wearing a shoulder holster. Anthony Paul, the Supervisor of the Philadelphia Police Department's firearms identification unit, testified at trial that the cartridge cases and rifling characteristics of the weapon were consistent with bullet fragments taken from Faulkner's body. Tests to confirm that Abu-Jamal had handled and fired the weapon were not performed. Contact with arresting police and other surfaces at the scene could have compromised the forensic value of such tests.[32]

I would highlight what you could call the case for the defense in the trial, but as far as I’m concerned, there wasn’t one, or at least not one to be taken seriously. All kinds of attempts at what I would call deflection were thrown into play, such as the “running man” theory (it really wasn’t Abu-Jamal, but someone running from the scene who could not be identified by anyone). And neither Abu-Jamal or his brother, William Cook, testified in their own defense (yes, I realize that can be a strategic move in a court case, but to me, it can add up to a collective picture of guilt, which I think happened here, and apparently, the jury agreed – for the record, Abu-Jamal’s birth name was Wesley Cook).

One of the attempts at deflection came in the form of Arnold Beverly, someone who the Abu-Jamal legal team fought over to use as a defense witness. Beverly’s story was that he was supposed to carry out a contract hit on Faulkner because of the officer’s crime busts – I think that, in the end, Beverly just turned out to be another one of the kooks and bottom-feeders who seemed to latch themselves onto this case for publicity reasons. Besides, anybody dumb enough to try and carry out a hit on a Philadelphia cop knows that his or her life, quite rightly, wouldn’t be worth a wooden nickel afterwards.

The one area of this case where Abu-Jamal’s legal team actually won out was over what was ruled to be prejudicial sentencing instructions to the jury during the penalty phase (the CUNY professor in the Democracy Now! clip, Johanna Fernandez, played that to the hilt…yes, Ron Castille’s actions were politicized, which is never a good thing when you’re talking about a legal procedure – and Fernandez now says that there could have been a FOURTH person at the crime scene? GMAFB!).

Do I think Abu-Jamal deserves a molecule of sympathy? No. But if it turned out that there was impropriety at the penalty phase, then he should be granted a remedy allowed by the law.

Many people I respect and admire have latched onto the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal as if he’s an actual political prisoner. As far as I’m concerned, that is because he is a world-class con man and smooth talker who’s a pro at playing gullible saps for his own ends. He’s as much of a “political prisoner” as I am. And I’m sorry, but on this matter, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Katrina Vanden Heuvel and the late Roger Ebert and Paul Newman ARE ALL WRONG.

I’m definitely not a “legal eagle” by any means, but I grew up in Philadelphia when Ofc. Faulkner was killed and while this case was playing out. Yes, I will grant that there was prejudicial activity that occurred surrounding the trial which was wrong, but as far as I’m concerned, it didn’t do a damn thing to change the facts in evidence. And Judge Albert Sabo dent over backwards to accommodate Abu-Jamal and his legal team.

As far as I’m concerned, Mumia Abu-Jamal executed Ofc. Daniel Faulkner in a horrible, brutal manner. And I could care less if Abu-Jamal’s life was endangered in prison because he contracted Hep C (I will grudgingly grant Abu-Jamal’s point about PA having more life inmates than any other state – here).

I guess admitting this means that I’ll now have to turn in my lefty, Trotsky-ite calling card as an unabashed liberal propagandist. But there you are.

With this admittedly boring preamble out of the way, I now give you the clip from Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Interviewing Prof. Fernandez of Baruch College - CUNY about the fact that Abu-Jamal will be granted a hearing to try and make a case for his innocence yet again, as noted here (I was clutching my keyboard throughout the interview, and it was all I could do to not pick it up and smash it against the monitor when Fernandez compared Abu-Jamal to Nelson Mandela at about 11:26 – as far as I’m concerned, Fernandez is just another one of the bottom-feeders I alluded to earlier)…



…and because I think we need to get whatever laughs we can when we can do it (especially with the Dow heading south again), I give you this number to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the discovery of the remains of King Tut, as noted here (well, excuuuse me!).

Monday Stuff

I’ll lead off with Ari Melber yet again, talking with Dem U.S. House Rep Steve Cohen about Generalissimo Trump’s typically delusional notion that the shutdown will hinder investigations into his administration, which is probably why Number 45 has no desire to try and resolve it (and good job to invoke Warren Zevon)…



…and Farron Cousins tells us how the congressional Repug lemmings may end up taking the proverbial plunge off the cliff along with the Gropenfuhrer, and they’re predictably losing what’s left of their minds (and speaking of Repugs losing their minds, in response to this, please read “The exit” from here)…



…and kudos to Jayar Jackson of TYT for dragging Orrin Hatch as this colossal fraud slithers out of the spotlight of the U.S. Senate…



…and speaking of exits (well, sort of), I usually “go meta” at the end of the year like this and extend my appreciation to anyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this site during the year, and I do so again now.

This time, though, it’s a little different. I want to emphasize that, while I’m not giving this up entirely, I plan to step WAY BACK from posting as I have. I have at least one other pet project that I want to devote time to instead. As of now, it looks like that will consume a lot of my time for 2019. I don’t know how it will go, but the only way I’ll find out is to give it my best shot. To the extent that I have a plan, it is this – to work on other stuff and return to posting more frequently later in 2019 when (God help us) the 2020 election cycle starts to heat up (as Farron Cousins noted above). And at that time, I’ll try to mix it up a little more between written content and videos – sites like TYT, Ring of Fire, Secular Talk and others will do just fine without me putting up their stuff as often as I have.

Besides, I need a break. I’ve been doing this to one degree or another since 2005, and I think I’ve earned it. I originally started doing this because Dubya gave a speech in April 2005 created by Michael Gerson that, in typically obsequious and cowardly language, tried to elevate what was once called the “Global War On Terror” at the expense of the 60th anniversary of VE Day. Don’t ask me to track down any links about what exactly was said – I don’t intend to debate that all over again. All I know is that, whether he knew he was doing it or cared, Former Commander Codpiece was impugning the sacrifice of my father, to say nothing of the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of other men and women who served in that theater, and I have to admit that something inside me snapped a bit.

Of course, I (along with probably every other liberal blogger who has ever done this) ended up cataloguing what turned out to be a volume of conservative right-wing lies, propaganda and nonsense that was stunning even to an admittedly jaded individual like yours truly after I started this thing up. I also ended up putting videos here just about every day except for most weekends to try and hang onto whatever views I managed to get and keep everyone coming back as much as I could. I particularly tried to do that for the 2018 election cycle because I felt it would be particularly important to keep as many people engaged as I could (“Z” list blogger that I am, I know there was only so much I could do about that). But I think I had some measure of success, and fortunately, we were able to achieve the electoral result we needed (yes, losing ground in the Senate hurts, but we HAD to win the House, and that happened thank God).

So I’m going to offer this video and then take a bit of a break. Usually I put up “People Have The Power” by Patti Smith, but instead, I’ll note that somehow I forgot to observe the passing of longtime Elvis drummer D.J. Fontana earlier this year (with this year also being the 50th anniversary of Presley’s comeback 1968 TV special), and offer this instead.

Let’s all do what we can to keep up the fight. Also, best wishes for all good things in 2019.

And rest assured that you’re not rid of me yet :-).

Saturday Stuff

In this video, Ari Melber debunks the Trumpian claim that “nothing matters” – it took awhile for me to track this down, but I’m damn glad I did…terrific stuff and oh so true…



…and yeah, Trumpian DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen really is that horrible of a monster; I wasn’t aware that a third child had died, tragically, (and speaking of monsters…NSFW)…



…and even when The Gropenfuhrer actually does something right, which is so infrequently I know, he actually ends up putting his foot in it big time (and speaking once more of Generalissimo Trump putting his foot in it)…



...and the title of this tune must be the motto for the Trumpian gang.