Tuesday Stuff

(The card reads "White Privilege" in case it's hard to see.)

Lawrence O’Donnell speaks with attorney Joyce Vance on the FBI thwarting a plot to plant pipe bombs at the Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, as noted here (with the alleged culprits leaving a “White Privilege” card linking themselves to Our Treasonous Russian Operative of a Former *president).

Oh, and by the way, I saw this in the writeup accompanying the clip (recalling this).

Do MUCH better next time, @MSNBC.

Assholes...

...and I can't believe it's already been a year since Michael Brooks left us; here is what I believe is his final clip once more about the Trump regime snatching up Portland protestors with no warning or advance notice, with Jamie Peck, who left the show a few months ago...NSFW/H...and I don’t have any information on a response from Biden AG Merrick Garland by the way...



...and kudos to K.O. for blasting MLB athletes, including a few on the @Phillies, for not getting their COVID shots (NSFW/H)...



...and sticking with MLB, David Doel brings us the clip of the 8-year-old girl who left the game between the Washington Nationals and the San Diego Padres that was recently interrupted by a shooting outside the stadium, and her matter-of-fact response, which should shame everyone in this country (of course, the wingnuts overall are incapable of shame, which has a lot to do with the problems we currently face)...



...and speaking of guns, John and Ana of TYT bring us this clip of toy guns apparently covered in Legos for the kids to play with; what could possibly go wrong I wonder (yeah, the “super soaker” stuff was funny, but I’m glad John and Ana returned to make a serious point at the end)...



...and yeah, I don’t suppose it would be summer if I didn’t include this video at some point.

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes speaks with Julian Castro, former HUD secretary under Obama as well as former mayor of San Antonio, TX, about Dem U.S. Senator Joe Manchin attending a fundraiser held for him by the Texas GOP; that nutty ruling against DACA by that judge appointed by Dubya is discussed also, and as previously noted here, the Biden Administration will quite rightly appeal the ruling...



...and I definitely have issues with Repug former PA U.S. House Rep Charlie Dent, but it looks like he managed to “find the nut” on CPAC, as Farron Cousins tells us – I’m old enough to remember when the GOP utterly worshipped Jack Kemp and Paul Ryan for supposedly having worthwhile policy ideas, though they were utterly wrong too, but at least there was the PRETENSE of policy, but yeah, even THAT is now gone also (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Beau of the Fifth Column takes on Tucker Carlson and “vaccine hesitancy”...and with all due respect to Beau, I’ve heard Rachel Maddow issue clarifications and/or retractions a few times, but I don’t think his comments are primarily aimed at anyone on the left (I believe "Dietrich" is a nurse who Beau refers to in the clip for sound advice on COVID)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about Sherrod Brown attacking Senate Repugs for opposing Biden’s child tax credit (Brown may be the most consistently correct Dem U.S. Senator on the issues)...



...and I don’t know who this guy is, but he consistently has been nailing it on these “Second Thought” videos; this one addresses the topic of whether or not capitalism is efficient (the stuff about Amazon destroying products is particularly galling, though the whole “waste” section of this clip is definitely disturbing)...



...and happy belated 80th birthday to Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas.

Saturday Stuff

For starters, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 7/17/13, in which former PA GOP Chair Rob Gleason admits that voter ID cut into President Obama’s vote lead against Willard Mitt Romney in ’12 vs. John McCain in ’08 (here), which to me is more of a reason – as if we NEEDED more of a reason – to stop screwing around and pass S1 (if voter ID by itself can make that big of a difference, imagine what the other garbage in these bills to cut early voting and other measures will do)...and yeah, we know Manchin and “Curtsy Kyrsten” are the two main roadblocks, but we have to keep beating that metaphorical drum...to contact your U.S. senator to bug this person to support it, click here...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen gives us Brianna Keilar of CNN calling out former Repug MN Guv “Pawlenty of Nothing” on this “both sides” BS between the Proud Boys and the “3 Percenters” appearing at CPAC...yeah, Pawlenty of course goes all humuna humuna humuna when Keilar asks him for an example of left-wingers advocating violence walking around a progressive or liberal conference ("OMIGOD, ANTIFA!! SCARY DARK-SKINNED PEOPLE!!!"), because HE DOESN’T HAVE ANY REAL WORLD EXAMPLES TO BACK UP HIS NONSENSE...



...and Thom Hartmann speaks with Judd Legum on the critical race theory craziness and the usual gaggle of right-wing think thanks behind it, notably the Thomas W. Smith Foundation...



...and it looks like the other side is going to try and make us all crazy about the threat of inflation and that’s why we have to slash government spending (which you only hear about when Dems are in power of course), and Robert Reich is here to explain why that’s BS...



...and photojournalist Timo Stammberger went undercover inside so-called factory farms to bring us this report (warning that this contains disturbing images)...



...and yeah, we all made it to another summer weekend, so let's rock out a bit, OK?

Friday Stuff

Ana K. and Daniel Bessner of TYT tell us that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History has some thoughts about our withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that we shouldn’t leave because the Taliban, being thoroughly amoral monsters, will hurt girls and women...so many possible responses to this, one of which is the fact that yet another Democratic president has been left with cleaning up a mess from his Republican predecessor, and another is the fact that we need to do nation-building in THIS COUNTRY as opposed to anywhere else on the globe (sorry, but we can’t save everybody, and we have to establish priorities, though we should bring into this country as many Afghans who helped us as possible), and you can also wonder HOW MUCH MORE OF A PRICE our military is supposed to pay for ruinous decisions on the part of civilian leadership...so much wrong with Number 45 (a certain sweaty orange sack of syphilitic trans fats who proceeded Biden), but one of them is that it erased from public memory a bit the fact that George W. Bush WAS A THOROUGHLY AWFUL PRESIDENT ALSO (“a profound contempt for the workings of democracy” indeed)...



Update: Oh, and we can thank Dubya for getting this idiot judge confirmed also.

Update 7/17/21: And good for the Biden Administration for this.

...and Rachel Maddow tells us that FLA Guv Ron #DeathSantis is out with his line of ’22 “merch” in anticipation of running for re-election (ignoring the explosion of COVID cases in his state of course)...



...and this great “Second Thought” video tells us that, in lieu of actual governance that, y’know, helps people, #DeathSantis is trying to indoctrinate educational institutions in his state (of course, the funniest part of this – and I know I’m reaching a bit to try and find humor here – is that the FLA guv thinks he’s going to supplant Mango Mussolini for the ’24 Repug presidential nod)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the U.S. congressional Dems are going to try and pass the infrastructure bill through reconciliation (and speaking of congressional Dems, let’s not forget this also)...



...and I thought this was a pretty damn clear-eyed take from Beau about the 1/6 insurrection and the fact that, yes, God forbid, it could happen again (and maybe even be successful, which we have to do all we can to prevent of course)...



...and David Doel tells us here about Burger King employees in Nebraska quitting en masse (I know about working in fast food, and trying to produce that stuff in a 90-degree environment is torture as far as I’m concerned – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I know I’m a little behind the curve on this item, but I didn’t want to miss it – Brian Williams tells us what Carl Sagan once said many years ago about the future (the “Star Wars” stuff is interesting, but the real “get” here for me is what Sagan wrote and how well he nailed the times in which we now live, unfortunately...Williams gets bonus points for the Ron Popeil snark)...



Update 7/28/21: C'est dommage.

...and speaking of those who have shed their mortal coil, you might say, today (believe it or not) is the 40th anniversary of the death of Harry Chapin...I often recall him, Jim Croce, SRV, and John and George also of course (the list grows longer every day, now including John Prine from COVID...if this dumb little blog accomplishes anything, I would like for it to be a means to keep their memory alive now and for all time).

Wednesday Stuff

Sam and Emma V. of The Majority Report speak with author Brian Concannon about the assassination of President Jovenel Moise of Haiti and the aftermath in that country, which appears to know only hardship for a variety of reasons, one of which is our failure to help support democracy without dollar signs attached...



...and sticking with the Caribbean, The Damage Report tells us about the strife going on in Cuba (and Francesca in particular is fire here about telling people that they can’t claim to support democratic reforms and also support that ridiculous embargo and sanctions at the same time...the people in favor of the embargo are those nutty anti-Castro Cubans who will NEVER VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS...Hillary Clinton did a smidge better than usual with this crowd in ’16, but that’s only because Combover Caligula went to such lengths to insult Marco Rubio in the primary...another example of sanctions not doing a damn thing except to screw over only people who need help is Iran)...



...and as long as we’re talking about world stuff, David Doel reports on how the 4-day work week is a big success in Iceland, as well as other countries (oh, but we can’t POSSIBLY have that in this country because of “American exceptionalism”...U-S-A! U-S-A!...and speaking of other countries)...



...and returning to "the great 48" (plus 2) if you will, Beau tells us about the spat between Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former *president and “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh, who apparently decided not to overturn the 2020 election for the Gropenfuhrer (with all due respect, 45 needs a lot more than a halfway decent HR director... as opposed to a mandatory retirement age, I’m definitely in favor of term limits for SCOTUS justices)...



...and I linked above to The Rude One and what Macron in France did to encourage citizens of that country to get the COVID vaccine, but of course now we can do a “compare and contrast” with the lunacy on our shores (and I’m certainly not referring to Dr. Fauci when I say that...I know the Don Winslow video already pointed out what a monster Lauren Boebert is, but I don't think that can be said enough times)...



...and I guess Tennessee decided to “go to 11,” if you will, with the utter insanity in their decision to fire former top vaccine official Dr. Michelle Fiscus; Chris Hayes interviews Fiscus here, and among other things, we learn that, in addition to no longer administering the COVID vaccine in that state, they will no longer be administering ANY vaccine...please try telling me again how Repugs “love the children” and I’ll laugh right in your damn face – more here)...


...oh, but never fear...the “pay no price, bear no burden” crowd will be just fine – the latest millionaire to make the news is Richard Branson, who recently traveled to the edges of space – I had no idea of what the “carmen line” was, but apparently that’s the latest source of “measurement” (as Ana politely refers to it) between Branson, Bezos, Elon Musk, and these other charter members of the “one percent” who continue to not have the slightest inclination to do anything positive about life on this planet, but only want to play with their most expensive new toys instead (and speaking of rich a-holes)...



...and this tune goes out to our supposedly august “captains of industry” noted in the prior clip.

Tuesday Stuff

This may be the snarkiest commentary I’ve ever heard from Rachel Maddow, but I think she’s utterly spot-on, mentioning how Dems are focused on real-world issues and solutions that matter, and the “party of Lincoln” is focused instead on more and more ridiculous craziness (including this guttural nematode in PA, running more or less for PA guv)...



...and speaking of Republican idiocy, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushing back on SC governor Henry McMaster complaining about the Biden Administration’s commendable effort to educate people on getting the COVID vaccine (God almighty, why is that still even a question at this point?)...



...and this great Don Winslow video gives Lauren Boebert the treatment she deserves too (really bringing the proverbial hammer down on the ranting anti-vaccine insanity of this creature from Colorado)...



...and I have lots of other issues with Repug U.S. House Rep Adam Kinzinger, but he’s absolutely right to say this stuff about COVID and calling out “garbage politicians” like MTG (as always, though, as far as I'm concerned, the politicians, bad as they are, are only part of the problem - the REAL issue is with the people who reward these life forms with their votes)...



...and most of these clips have to do with resistance to the COVID vaccine, and this does too; Farron Cousins tells us about this loony Newsmax person pretty much telling everyone not to get two shots in the arm (one for J&J) and let natural selection run its course I guess (more here – would it be impudent of me to suggest that this Newsmax guttersnipe is “full of Schmidt”?)...



...and I’m in the mood for an upbeat seasonal tune after all this "through the looking glass" nonsense, particularly since it isn’t raining at the moment.

Monday Stuff

Except for the president of Haiti getting assassinated and CPAC (both of which are awful for admittedly different reasons), it doesn’t look like a whole lot out of the ordinary happened while I was on my mini-break...looks like I’m pretty much picking up where I left off, and it also looks like the “party of Lincoln” gave away the game yet again, telling their sheep-life followers to thank Manchin and “Curtsy Kyrsten” for their ridiculous, continued obstruction (featuring Rick Santorum, Andy Biggs, and Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who made six figures as a “pro life” lobbyist before he parlayed that into a U.S. House seat, as noted here) as David Doel tells us (NSFW/H)...



Update: Every time I see this lunatic from Arizona pictured, it's with a Republican (probably because no self-respecting Democrat wants anything to do with her...and apparently, the pic is three years old).

Happy Birthday @SenatorSinema!!🎂🎉🎊. Kyrsten and I introduced the most bipartisan bills together. You are a true bipartisan leader K!! pic.twitter.com/y2UVlvM8hR

— Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick 🇺🇸 (@RepBrianFitz) July 12, 2021

...and speaking of thoroughly compromised U.S. House Repugs, it looks like that nitwit Mo Brooks of Alabama ended up sabotaging his defense of his activities during the 1/6 insurrection with his recent CPAC speech, as Farron Cousins tells us...



...and in a similar vein, Beau of the Fifth Column talks about U.S. House Rep Chip Roy of Texas and his attempts at obstructing anything whatsoever that President Biden wants to do on infrastructure (yep, “creating chaos for the next 18 months” sounds like their game plan all right, given that they’re so confident that they’ll retake Congress next year...we’ll see)...



...and this “Damage Report” clip features John, Cenk and Jeff Waldorf taking companies to task who pretend to support voting rights (and yeah, Comcast is for sure one of the biggest offenders out there when it comes to talking the talk but not walking the walk, you might say)...



...and it looks like you can add Toyota to the same list of corporate malefactors, as we learn from this Lincoln Project video...



...and I now give you today's regional forecast (just beat it home from the shore in time).

Wednesday Stuff

This is a very well-done IMO video investigation by the New York Times over what exactly transpired during the 1/6 insurrection...the only very minor quibble I have is that it doesn’t include Josh Hawley flashing his fist to the crowd of other treasonous bastards and pretty much blows off Mo Brooks and Ted Cruz (though it quite rightly holds Paul Gosar to account, who more than anyone else should be expelled from the House as far as I’m concerned), but otherwise this is truly commendable work (link is here, and the clip is about 40 minutes...definitely NSFW/H with disturbing scenes of violence...I don't understand why Officers Mike Fannone and Brian Sicknick aren't mentioned, but again, relatively minor complaints when compared to the clip overall)...



...and in case anybody thinks the “party of Lincoln” has learned its lesson – well, think again, as Rachel Maddow explains (and I’m definitely proud of my more-or-less hometown for standing up to those Trumpster crazies over the recent holiday)...



...oh, and it looks like Willard Mitt Romney has emerged as the voice of reason for the “R” team, which to me means that we can look forward to him doing something stoo-pid again soon to try and keep in line with his base of support...



...and it also looks like the High Court of “balls and strikes” John Roberts overturned a California law I believe concerning disclosure of $$ in politics (sooo, Cenk says that, with Citizens United, $$ was “speech,” but with this ruling...well, money is speech unless the donors don’t want the word to get out about how much and who they’re donating to, so then it isn’t speech?...God almighty)...



...and this video from More Perfect Union tells us about the “other NRA,” the National Restaurant Association, and how they’re fighting against the $15-an-hour federal minimum wage (and it should come as no surprise that “Curtsy Kyrsten” is in the middle of this)...



...and I now leave you for a few days with a summer tune - I'll look to rev this thing up again sometime next week.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Charles Coleman of The Damage Report tell us about the impact of climate change on the Florida Keys – yeah, I’d say the proverbial handwriting on the wall for “The Sunshine State” is about 20 damn feet high (higher than the sea level rise I guess, which in itself is pretty damn bad)...



...and Cenk and Brett Erlich of TYT have some fun with that loon “pastor” Greg Locke (though, of course, EVERYTHING Locke is saying and doing is calculated as part of his grift, as noted in the clip...can only imagine what the afterlife is going to be for this scurrilous con man)...



...and yeah, I know I should have included this for the holiday from Robert Reich, but better late than never I guess...



...and David Pakman does a good job here IMO in discussing our slow creep to authoritarianism (warned about by scholars)...



...and part of that was on display in Philly with these “Patriot Front” crazies, as K.O. discusses (more here)...



...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 7/4/17, with voices of sanity and (I would argue) stupidity who descended upon Gettysburg on the 154th anniversary of the battle – I suppose I’m presenting this to show more of the conflict going on in this country by some of these gun-humpers and ordinary citizens (especially the mom with younger kids) who think those dressed for battle are more than a little nuts...



...and to end on a bit more of an upbeat note, I give you this MSNBC clip of Alicia Menendez speaking with Desmond Meade on voting rights for felons who’ve served their time...



...and I’ve never heard of this guy until now, but damn, he’s got chops (and the young woman dancer is talented also – good luck to them).

Sunday Stuff

As this great Second Thought video tells us, what could be more all-American than oppressive capitalism...



...and Cenk, John and Charles F. Coleman weigh in on the Sha’Carri Ricahrdson story (I commend Coleman for going against the grain a bit with his highly informed comments because I think there IS an element of choice here, but there ABSOLUTELY should be some perspective here also – by that I mean there MUST be some kind of a compromise to sanction Richardson if whatever governing body feels like they need to do something, but to do it in a way that allows her to compete in the Olympics...and the fact that Richardson did this in a state where pot is legal is a BIG mitigating factor also, to say nothing of the personal loss she suffered)...



...and Ali Velshi talks with Dr. Ashish Jha about the rise of the Delta variant of the COVID virus and how well the vaccines are doing; once more, virtually no excuse to NOT get the “Fauci Ouchie” (though Dr. Jha does sound a note of caution, saying “You may suffer a breakthrough infection if you're around a lot of unvaccinated people.”)...



...and Thom Hartmann presents a video that apparently was generated by one of these right-wing-nutter groups about how to get started in politics – maybe one of the wonkiest videos I’ve ever put up here, but definitely important stuff (and I think Thom had an air conditioner running in the background to account for that noise)...



...which is made even more important given that the Proud Boys are apparently trying to get more of their members to run for office...swell (with our side needing to pick up the pace a bit on that score...a related item is here...and speaking of the holiday, let's not forget this too)...

...and it’s been a little while since I had a prog rock jam on this site, so I think the occasion of the holiday calls for this tune.

Friday Stuff

The Damage Report's John I. and Adrienne Lawrence tell us about ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy discussing pretty openly his company and its strategy for combatting efforts to fight climate change (as Daily Kos poster Walter Einenkel says, I think somebody may be negotiating a severance package as I type this...more here)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us more details on the indictment of Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg yesterday; someone I believe on Rachel Maddow provided somewhat informed speculation that the point of this narrow indictment is to pressure Weisselberg into giving up more details leading to future charges personally against Our Treasonous Russian Operative Of A Former Chief Executive and his family...we’ll see of course – more here...



...and Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC speaks with Neal Katyal about the wretched SCOTUS ruling yesterday related to Arizona and the Voting Rights Act, which is pretty much on metaphorical life support thanks to the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (yep, “Strip Search Sammy” Alito lets everybody know here that, in the final analysis, he indeed is a Trumpster...more here)...

via GIPHY

...and this video from More Perfect Union "brings the receipts," you might say, when it comes to "Curtsy Kyrsten"...



...and this CBS News report tells us about a couple and their newborn in Arkansas; they weren’t vaccinated and the mother almost died and the baby was born 10 weeks premature...I’m not including this video to look down my nose at these people – I’m glad the mom made it and I wish only good for them and their infant of course...just pointing out that we’re LONG PAST THE POINT where we should be talking about even getting the COVID vaccine unless you have a health condition which precludes that, which is rare actually...



...and Mehdi Hasan speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep Ruben Gallego on the formation of a commission to look into the treasonous insurrection of 1/6 (and I’m fine with including Liz Cheney BTW)...



...and Cenk and Ana give us their take on the same subject (God, the majority of the people in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district must be baked on meth or something...she’s raised $3 MILLION!...wonder how much of that is dark money, though – probably not as much as I hope)...



...and happy 70th birthday to bassist Joe Puerta of the band Ambrosia.

Thursday Stuff

It may be hard to believe that, as a congressman from Illinois, Donald Rumsfeld was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act and also fought for funding on behalf of the Office of Economic Opportunity in the Nixon Administration, but that actually is true; however, I’m sure that will be forever buried under a figurative avalanche of BS and propaganda – to say nothing of untold death and ruin – he was responsible for primarily as SecDef under Dubya, as Rachel Maddow tells us...



...and Jon Stewart gave Rummy the treatment he deserved here...



...and I thought this was a pretty sharp take on the other big story from yesterday (we’ll see what today brings of course – thinking about the SCOTUS rulings due today) from Rebel HQ’s Adrienne Lawrence; although I think Cosby is and remains human scum, I think this is a pretty well-thought-out analysis by Lawrence, a lawyer...



...and John and Charles F. Coleman of The Damage Report talk about the heat in the Pacific Northwest (and yeah, that map is pretty damn scary)...



...and speaking of scary, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s idiocy runs wild yet again, claiming that the Plan B contraceptive leads to abortion (a typical attitude from a political party that continually denies science)...



...and I hope you're in the mood for an easy listening kind of seasonal tune, because I sure as hell am.

Wednesday Stuff

Beau of the Fifth Column gives us his take on wingnut Repug South Dakota Guv Kristi Noem’s decision to, in essence, privatize the National Guard in her state and send those folks to the southwest border...so many levels of dunderheaded stupidity here – part of me wishes that we’d FINALLY get to a point where someone in her party would say, “OK, we’ve officially gone too far now,” but after 600K dead from COVID, I don’t expect that will ever happen, and I don’t want to imagine what kind of a hellscape this country would be if it did...



...and part of me doesn’t want to get totally preoccupied with Republican cruelty and stoo-pidity at this site, but more and more I feel like I need to address this stuff – Farron Cousins tells us that LA Sen. Bill Cassidy basically considers infrastructure to be a “woman’s problem”...just say “oops” and get out, senator...



...and Chuck Todd(ler) questions AOC about that ridiculous WaPo column from “Curtsy Kyrsten” in defense of the filibuster...David Doel tells us about it (NSFW/H)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen presents that toad Peter Doocy trying to deflect from the fact that the “party of Lincoln” actually supported – wait for it! – “defunding the police” by not supporting the AFP...this guy could only get a job at The Roger Ailes BS Factory, and he’s helped by “dear old dad” taking up space on the “crotch couch” for that AM mess (video ends at about 6:48 – link to donate to “Don’t Be A Mitch” campaign to support funding elections in swing states appears at about 7:41)...



...and as if we haven’t had enough dunderheaded nonsense from the “loyal opposition,” Repug U.S. House Rep Dan Crenshaw is all up in arms over the protest of athlete Gwen Berry during the national anthem...yep, more distraction BS from the other side (Cenk and Ana tell us more...didn’t know about that hidden racist verse in the national anthem...shocking)...



...and here is a summer reading suggestion; really well done and a page turner - makes me think of this somewhat dreamy tune.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Stelter of CNN raised the red flags here about Sean Inanity of Fix Noise, echoed a bit by Adam Serwer in the following clip...



...and I thought this was a particularly spot-on commentary from Beau of the Fifth Column on Gwen Berry and the flag, the latest “values” dustup of a distraction from the “party of Lincoln” (including this numbskull from Texas)...



...and Chris Hayes asks If Race Isn’t Central to US History, Why is CRT So Important To The GOP (and kudos to Merrick Garland and the DOJ for suing GA over their BS voting law, which, if it didn’t start all of the garbage anti-voting stuff out there, was one of the first states to get that ball rolling, you might say)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Chris Wallace talking with that lying asshole Repug U.S. House Rep Jim Banks on $$ in the Biden ARP for funding related to criminal justice (wow, I had no idea that Nancy Pelosi and of course Ilhan Omar had such magical mystical power to drive down police recruitment and hiring...removing my tongue from my cheek - and if Democrats had actually cared about supposedly trying to take guns away from law-abiding gun owners, which I don't agree with though I'm sorely tempted to do so, they would have found a way to do it by now)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 6/29/15, with a commentary from Bill Maher on the “loyal opposition” from back when Maher used to actually be funny (NSFW/H)...



...and The Lincoln Project brings us “Last Week In The Republican Party”...



...and today is the 65th anniversary of President Eisenhower signing the Federal Aid Highway Act, which was a key milestone in the development of our interstate highway system (from an era where Republicans weren’t politically brain dead...more here)...



...and happy upcoming 70th birthday to Philly jazz legend Stanley Clarke.

Monday Stuff

Brianna Keilar of CNN gives us a report on how The Roger Ailes BS Factory (in particular, Laura Ingraham and The Swanson TV Dinner Heir) do their best to gin up white rage on an almost-daily basis (yeah, typical for Ingraham to focus on what allegedly was property violence in the wake of the George Floyd protests, since I guess non-white people aren’t actually people as far as she’s concerned)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about Paterson, NJ cop Spencer Finch beating up a black man who didn’t appear to give cause for this type of a response (yep, unfortunately, I'm not sure what impact the Derek Chauvin verdict will ultimately have)...



...and Ari Berman of Mother Jones reminds us of the garbage anti-voting bills out there supported by the “GOP” (nothing "grand" about them as far as I'm concerned...and feel free to throw this in the face of any conservative who starts with "Gee, Democrats owned slaves when Lincoln was president")...



...and this report from Second Thought is another video on what is potentially our next housing crisis (and it should come as no surprise whatsoever that Chucky Koch is smack dab in the middle of this mess...and of course, our corporate media is doing its best to manufacture this BS that younger people entering this rigged economy of ours want to rent homes as opposed to buying and building up equity)...



...and for the cherry on the icing of this shit sundae, if you will, Farron Cousins reminds us of our corporate overlords (representing 55 companies in particular) who have the ill-gotten wealth to create the housing bubble just noted largely because they paid absolutely nothing in taxes for 2020 (and speaking of crappy companies, I give you this)...



...and given the utterly depressing news of the prior two videos, I need a bit of an uplifting summer tune.

Sunday Stuff

I thought this was a nice postscript by Ari Melber to the sentencing of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd...



...and this clip tells us about the OANN lunatic calling for the execution of those who actually think Joe Biden won the presidency fair and square last November (and Ana is right about “The Sainted Ronnie R” getting rid of The Fairness Doctrine leading to Flush Limbore and the rise of right-wing radio)...



...and remind me to never visit Ashburn, VA (school board meeting going nuts over trans rights and critical race theory, which – wait for it! – isn’t being taught in Loudoun County schools...our enemies must be watching this from abroad and laughing their asses off)...



...and I need a nice and easy summer tune, and I think this will suffice (nothing to do with BS furor over "critical race theory" here of course).

Friday Stuff

It appears David Keene and John Lott of the NRA ended up giving a commencement address to a whole bunch of empty chairs, each representing a student killed from gun violence who would never see graduation...still can’t get my head around the fact that important statements like this (the chairs I mean) will NEVER shame soulless right-wing cretins like these two into doing the right thing, though I of course applaud this by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin “Guac” was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 (more here)...



...and Ana of TYT and Emma V. of The Majority Report tell us about a recent collapse of a pedestrian bridge in DC, on the same day that this deal on infrastructure was announced by the Biden Administration, though nobody knows what will happen when the bill is introduced in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” for debate, but of course our elite corporate media will now crow about “bipartisanship” anyway and Manchin and Sinema (quite rightly called a psycho by Emma) will use this as an excuse to do EXACTLY NOTHING about the filibuster...what a damn joke....



...and as we all know, the biggest reason why legislation goes to die in “the upper chamber” is because of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, who gets the treatment he deserves from The Daily Show (NSFW/H)...



...and this Arizona nut case of course may be the second biggest reason (definitely not Katie Hobbs, but the one with the "F.U." ring) as this More Perfect Union video reminds us...



...and turning to our regularly scheduled plague (more precisely, the deadly Delta variant), Alyssa Bernardino tells us to ”roll up your sleeves, it’s time” indeed – actually, it’s long past time...



...and kudos to Brian Williams for sneaking in this bit of snark at the end of his clip showing assclown Matt Gaetz getting shown up by Gen. Mark Milley on the whole drummed-up phony issue of critical race theory (you would think the Repugs would want to keep Gaetz out of sight given his legal trouble...you would think)...



...and I thought this was a particularly well-done commentary from Beau of the Fifth Column about what Gen. Milley had to say...



...and with the weather warming up a bit in these parts, I think it's time for this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

Thom Hartmann informs us, among other things, that Finland is apparently fighting back against social networking trolls by teaching school kids media literacy – what a great idea (so they grow up being intelligent news consumers and not just automatically ingesting right-wing BS)...good points about this country utterly not caring about this (with notable exceptions I realize) as well as having devalued social studies long ago of course...



...and this is a long but important segment from Cenk and Ana of TYT which pretty much calls it as it is with the U.S. Senate Dems in particular, along with the nonsensical game played by our news media to curry favor with these characters (I don’t know what’s more damning, frankly; Sinema’s crappy ads where she pretended to be a progressive or Manchin’s leaked phone call begging his campaign funders to get U.S. Senate Republicans to throw him a metaphorical bone to at least give the illusion of bipartisanship...unintentionally hilarious to think Manchin would get anywhere on that...and speaking of social media, the whole Sam Seder/Steven Crowder thing really is hilarious - Crowder is such a damn baby...more here)...



...and John and Yasmin Khan tell us that Our Former Tiny Handed Treasonous Russian Operative of a *president sent the DOJ after SNL in March ’19...we can indeed laugh now, but whoever comes after Trump from that party will have learned this lesson and others, and it won’t be humorous in any way...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that it looks like Biden may be getting serious about “packing the courts,” the correct way of course...



...and PA State Rep Malcolm Kenyatta continues to impress me; this time, he’s correctly slamming the attempts of Republicans (of course) in our beloved commonwealth to mess around with our right to vote...



...and maybe this is a little early for Halloween, but then again, maybe not (file this under “Fangs For The Memories” I guess :-).

Tuesday Stuff

It looks like the Gosar family is commendably speaking out again against their idiot sibling and Repug U.S. House Rep from Arizona who has been trying to downplay the 1/6 insurrection, as we learn from this Now This video...



...and this “Meanwhile In” segment from The Damage Report has to do with the ongoing carnage in Yemen at the hands of the government of Saudi Arabia (harking back to this post; I can definitely relate to what Jayar says here about getting distracted, though I don't automatically use that as an excuse – one child dying every 5 minutes...)...



...and returning to this country, Chris Hayes talks with Dem U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown about the Biden Administration’s child tax credit (near-UBI for parents – a good idea for so many reasons)...



...and Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about airlines (mainly American here) blaming workers for cancelling flights, even though, as Ana notes, these airlines had no problem taking CARES/PPP $$$... yep, pay the workers the way you’re supposed to and they’ll show up all right...



...and Pap and Farron Cousins tell us about private pension funds buying up homes across the country, creating another housing bubble (just what we need, right?)...



...and happy belated 70th birthday to Nils Lofgren.

Monday Stuff

Apparently this is the ad for the John Lewis bill with Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry that is making wingnut heads explode all over the place, as noted here; this is good, but actually I think we need a lot more of stuff like this...



...and Pete Williams on MSNBC reports on the SCOTUS ruling in favor of Catholic Social Services in Philly that decided to not let a same-sex couple adopt a child (Williams says there is a “limiting principle” in this decision to not create broad new precedent, which apparently explains the 9-0 majority...Williams also says this is similar to the Colorado baker who wouldn’t make a gay wedding cake, or something...as far as I’m concerned, it says more than a little bit about CSS that they thought it was a better use of donation money to pay for lawyers to appeal something like this to the SCOTUS than to, y’know, actually do what their supposed to as an organization, which is to provide aid and comfort to the elderly, poor, sick, indigent, minority outreach, transport to medical facilities, etc...and that’s the main reason why they’d better not ever consider hitting me up for a donation again, because they’ll get exactly nothing)...



...and as long as we’re dealing with faith matters, I should also note that that allegedly august group, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is debating whether to withhold communion from President Biden (a Catholic) for supporting abortion and LGBTQ rights; as dear as my faith is to me, the people in charge of it keep doing their best to try and push me away from it (if they start denying Communion to every pro-choice Catholic – well, I’m not trying to be flip, but let me just say that they’re going to have a hell of a lot of extra wafers)...



Update: I report, you decide (here).

...and John and Jordan Uhl of “The Damage Report” tell us that that wackadoodle (which one, I know) Lauren Boebert in the U.S. House sent our a particularly stoo-pid tweet on COVID (interesting that, according to Uhl, she’s vulnerable on anti-union stuff despite her gun-humping bona fides)...



...and on the subject of our ongoing plague, this CBS News report tells us about trying to get people in the South to get the COVID vaccine, with the Delta variant in the picture (just can’t think of a word for the stupidity of people who either don’t get the second shot or fail to get either one – maybe these people need to see more footage of what happened in India, though I’m still not sure that would get the message through)...



...and I thought this was another good video from Robert Reich, telling us “the truth about immigration”...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 6/20/16, in which we learn about the killing of British MP Jo Cox, who opposed Brexit (presciently, as it turned out, as far as I’m concerned – more here and here)...



...and we recently observed the 50th anniversary of the release of “Blue” by Joni Mitchell; here is a memorable tune from that recording (more here).