Monday Stuff

I admit that I wasn’t planning to say anything about Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican senator and one-time Republican presidential candidate, who just died (here). I was going to hold off because I thought I didn’t have anything original to say (and I suppose you could argue that I still don’t, but I’m going to try anyway).

For starters, he is to be praised for his courageous WWII sacrifice that resulted in the effective loss of his right hand; as a result of that, he created the Dole Foundation in 1983 to help provide for and support programs for those with disabilities, and the foundation played a large role in securing passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (both noted here). So Dole is to be commended for all of that. And it also took guts for Dole to become the pitch man for Viagra; I don’t care how much money he made off that – those ads helped reduce the stigma of a condition that can be pretty debilitating.

However, I don’t want to sit idly by while more accounts pour out of our corporate media about Dole that only tell one side of the story (after the nothing-but-fawning tributes to The Sainted Ronnie R in 2004, I swore I would do all I could not to let that happen again).

As noted here, Dole also ran interference for The Koch Brothers (with Koch Industries based in Kansas) as they took control of the Republican Party, with Chuck and Davey The Late giving Dole nearly a quarter mil from 1979 to 1994. And for that dough, Dole helped to derail a 1990 investigation into $31 million of oil from Native Americans that the Koch Brothers basically stole (here). This had a lot to do with Dole earning a 19 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters (here). Oh, and for the record, Dole declared himself to be a Trumper as recently as last July, and encouraged President Manchin not to abolish the filibuster (noted in the USA Today story linked above).

(Also – and unfortunately I can’t track down the video – I distinctly recall that once, when Dole was campaigning as the Republican candidate for president in 1996 with VP candiate Jack Kemp...heralded as supposedly some great policy wonk on the right, when in reality he was just another heartless GOP shill (referring to Kemp)...a band played “Hail to the Chief” during Dole's introduction, which is typically disgusting hubris for Not Your Father’s Republican Party.)

So yes, pay tribute to Dole for the good things he did. But tell his story straight, warts and all (also from here). And there were a few of them too.

Update 12/8/21: And when it comes to those who have departed (and telling the whole truth), I guess we should mention the subject of this post also.

Update 12/10/21: Indeed.

Now to the other stuff...Rachel Maddow tells us about Ruby Freeman and her daughter who ended up suing and moving because of terroristic threats emanating from the Gropenfuhrer and his minions (see, she and her daughter were Fulton County, Georgia poll workers, and #45 wanted those 11 thousand or so votes, so we know what happened next...more here)...



Update 12/11/21: This takes this story to a whole other new, disgusting and insulting level.

...and in the latest Second Thought video, we learn more about the illusion of upward mobility in the U.S. (and yes, he’s right about neoliberalism, and how the entire “Third Way” version of the Democratic Party championed by Bill Clinton among others helped to create a divide that the party is still trying to overcome to this day, but I want to say something in defense of our 42nd president...yes, in hindsight, it was wrong to suck up to campaign donors the way he did, but our party had been out of the White House for 12 years, which was a LOOONG freaking time and definitely long enough for Not-Your-Father’s-Republican-Party to cement its utterly ruinous marriage with Koch Brothers libertarianism, as alluded to above in the Robert Dole note...by regaining the White House in ’92 and in successive years, Clinton and Al Gore managed to do a lot of good, and I don’t want to imagine what this country would be like after 20 straight years of Republican presidents)...



...and Jayar, Cenk and Rayy Vana of TYT discuss huckster preacher Joel Osteen’s story about a sudden windfall of sorts (stuffing the cash and checks in the wall like this reminds me of Ray Liotta in “Goodfellas,” only it’s $$$ in the wall instead of drugs...maybe it was Osteen’s “rainy day fund”? And “allegedly” of course)...



...and David Doel speaks with Alex Kotch about this typical idiocy around Bari Weiss and the “University of Austin,” which sounds like another glibertarian front of an alleged institute of higher learning to manufacture consent for the benefit of the ”one percent”...and I DEFINITELY want to learn more about the "opt out" app...



...and here are more seasonal selections.

Saturday Stuff (updates)

via GIPHY

Rachel Maddow tells us about people rubbing dirt on themselves and their kids to try and guard themselves against COVID (with some of the dirt tainted with lead and arsenic...I know I should feel a molecule of sympathy for these people despite their idiocy, but somehow I don’t)...



...and the prior clip tells us about people who choose to be contaminated, and this one tells us about people trying hard to prevent that; I think Jackson, MS Mayor Chokwe Lumumba may have to petition the U.N. for help in the same manner as a third-world nation for clean water and living conditions conducive to basic human dignity, since he’s not likely to get the help he and his residents need and deserve from that state’s irresponsible “governing” Republican politicians (and believe me when I tell you that I’d like to be proven wrong...not sure who the host is sitting in for Mehdi Hasan)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about Russell Peterson from our beloved commonwealth of PA who was sentenced to 30 days in prison for participating in the 1/6 treasonous insurrection (and of course, being a total idiot about it on social media...”f*ck your feelings” indeed...more here)...



...and speaking of violent wingnuts and their kids, David Doel tells us that the parents of (alleged) Oxford, MI school shooter (and murderer of 4 kids, allegedly) Ethan Crumbley are now charged with manslaughter and are apparently on the run at the moment (not totally comfortable with charging the kid as an adult, but maybe it will send a message, though typically that doesn’t I know...more here)...



Update 1: The parents have been found (here).

Update 2: Good point (here).

Update 3: Clueless, insulting Republican tweet #1,324,682 (and that's probably a "low ball" estimate - here).

Update 4: Remember all of the corporate media pearl-clutching and “fainting couch” episodes after Hillary Clinton referred to them as “deplorables”? If anything, she was being too polite (here).

Update 12/5/21: And the parents get a high-profile lawyer for themselves and leave the kid with a public defender (here)

...and I’m going to shift gears here a bit and present more holiday stuff – I don’t mean to act like a Pollyanna in the face of all of this relentlessly bad news, but I need a sanity check and I’m guessing you do too...all 4 of these clips are new, including the first Robot Chicken spoof, with Phyllis Diller at the end (hey, if you don’t like it, complain to Seth Green :-).

Friday Stuff

Joy Reid tells us about the effort to basically ban books by the usual conservative suspects, particularly when it comes to anything to do with race or LGBTQ issues (yep, buying them and giving them as gifts works for me)...



Update: Yet another reason not to have a damn thing to do with the wretched state of Texas (here).

Update 12/5/21: More here.

...and this Now This clip tells us how the “party of Lincoln” is using abortion and “CRT” as wedge issues, as they did in this year’s gubernatorial election in Virginia (and I predict that voters in that commonwealth are going to have a big-time case of buyer’s remorse concerning Glenn Trumpkin before they know it)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about the report that Generalissimo Trump knowingly exposed people to COVID, including Biden of course (Gee, I wonder what ELSE we’re going to find out about this lunatic months and/or years later from a book written by one of his underlings? As opposed to, y’know, DOING THE DECENT THING WHEN THEY FIRST KNEW ABOUT THE DANGER AND TELL EVERYBODY AS THEY DAMN WELL SHOULD HAVE!!!).

And as you ponder John’s quite justifiable level of outrage, know that this utterly diseased human who allegedly served as our 45th president is STILL very much the de facto leader of the “Republic” Party...



..and when it comes to lying Republicans, it looks like the Treasonous Party of No Shame is yelling about the Democrats allegedly giving a tax cut to the rich in the form of an increased tax deduction, which, as any pea brain can tell you, IS NOT THE SAME THING AS A TAX CUT!!...Farron Cousins tells us about the latest right-wing idiocy...



Update 12/4/21: Jonah Goldberg recently made some noise about opposing Trump, and some lefties (but not me) gave him credit.

Jonah Goldberg doesn't deserve credit for a goddamn thing (here...when someone initiates a stock buy back from this increased tax deduction, please let me know).

...and here are more seasonal selections (definitely in need of a palate cleanser of sorts).

Thursday Stuff

Mehdi Hasan tells us more about Dr. Oz running for the U.S. Senate to represent our beloved commonwealth of PA...yep...leave it to Repugs to come up with some high-profile grifter, and Trumpster of course, to run for public office when they apparently can’t be bothered to field a serious candidate (or, given that Sean Parnell had to bail because he beat his wife and kids, allegedly of course)...and here is more on Oz’s “2 to 3 percent school kid mortality” remark...an “appetizing opportunity”???...



...and Rachel Maddow discusses the true wingnut agenda over nearly the last 50 years...and by the way, with respect, Maddow is wrong to think that the wingnuts intend to stop at abortion, though, to be fair, I think she's only implying that and not saying it in so many words (more on oral arguments yesterday is here)...why SHOULDN’T they also have Griswold and Obergefell in their sights?...



Update 1 12/5/21: More here.

Update 2 12/5/21: Yeah, I would say that we're WAAAY past the point of treating our current SCOTUS with kid gloves while they roll roughshod over our lives (here).

...and maybe I’m more tolerant than I should be to say that, when you criticize someone in the media, Lara Logan is a special case because of the attack she suffered in Egypt years ago, but comparing Dr. Fauci to Josef Mengele is going WAAAY too far; Sam, Emma and Nomiki Konst explain (more here and here...and based on this, I think Logan needs an intervention, and I don't say that lightly)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that some at Arizona State University aren’t happy that Kyle Rittenhouse wants to attend...can’t imagine why not (joke...tough call, and as much as I want to see Rittenhouse crawl like the guttersnipe he is, I very reluctantly have to side with Ana who makes a good point...namely, that even though Rittenhouse had help from the wingnutosphere, that goofball Wisconsin judge and some questionable legal tactics by the prosecution, he was still cleared of the charge of murdering two people and wounding a third)...



...and here are two more seasonal selections...





...and it wouldn't truly be a tribute to Stephen Sondheim without an encore, would it?

Wednesday Stuff

Chris Hayes talks with Dem U.S. Senator Chris Murphy about the latest mass shooting in this country (here); I guess one sign of trying to return to something approximating normalcy in this country is how long it takes for us to start randomly killing each other again (and the “forced birth” party in the U.S. Senate was pontificating/crowing about this)...



Update: Uh, yep.

...and John and Nina Turner of The Damage Report tell us that white people are being “lynched,” as in Kyle Rittenhouse, according to this idiot named Matt Walsh...and I know we already touched on that assclown Dennis Prager saying the unvaccinated are bigger pariahs than those afflicted with AIDS...I hope John’s predictions at the end are wrong, but unless the U.S. Senate Dems manage to kill the filibuster and pass the voting rights bill, he’s probably correct...



...and David Doel discusses U.S. House Repug Nancy Mace of South Carolina going on CNN and pushing COVID vaccines (particularly in light of the Omicron variant) and then going on Fix Noise and pushing natural immunity...and YES, THOSE POSITIONS ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE!...



...and don’t blink or you’ll miss this More Perfect Union video about the real reason for rising prices...some of these allegedly august captains of industry should be called before Congress for this, preferably to face Katie Porter and her white board...



...and I’m going to wrap up my little tribute to Stephen Sondheim with two excerpts from the musical that, IMO, reigns supreme over any other production over the last 60 years or so, and that would be West Side Story; the second is probably my favorite Tom Waits cover from his enormous body of work...





...and here are two more seasonal selections (a challenge to try and remain festive given the first clip and that awful SCOTUS hearing today, but I'm doing my best).

Tuesday Stuff

I know I'm about two months late with this "Defend the (Senate) Majority" clip...sorry...but better late than never I guess; never let it be said that I don't do my part for Team "D" (more here, and to help the DCCC, click here...maybe some good ideas for "giving Tuesday"???...more info is here)...



...and Ana and John of TYT tell us that climate scientists say 9 major cities could be under water by 2030...and yes, some are in this country, so we can’t just shrug it off and blame it all on Iraq and The Netherlands...



...and this Now This clip tells us Why Billionaires Aren’t “Self Made,” with one reason being that the Federal Reserve (mentioned in yesterday’s clip from Robert Reich) bought a lot of corporate debt during the ongoing COVID pandemic...



...and speaking of our ongoing plague, Dr. Anthony Fauci gives “Cancun” Cruz the treatment he deserves, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the passing of George Harrison...



...and here is another tune from Stephen Sondheim as a tribute...



...and here are two more seasonal selections.

Monday Stuff

Caroline Johnson of Rebel HQ tells us that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is making more noise about denying communion to President Biden, despite Pope Francis telling #46 to keep receiving it – instead of reaching out to potentially a new generation of Catholics, our “faith leaders” are telling them to go somewhere else...besides, if the Church is really going to "go there," then shouldn't they also ban people who support capital punishment from receiving Communion also? Would there be anyone left to receive it if they did?...



...and in the category of idiotic behavior by males who claim to be cultural role models, David Doel tells us that British MP Nick Fletcher recently blamed (check notes) women in movies for men engaging in criminal activity...just say “oops” and get out...



...and returning to this country, Joy Reid tells us about activist Joe Madison currently engaged in a hunger strike for voting rights...not sure #Manchinema will care about this brave and patriotic gesture...and with those two cretins in mind, I give you this from Will Bunch...



...and Robert Reich tells us about the 3 unaccountable institutions shaping our lives: the Supreme Court, the Federal Reserve, and Big Tech...not sure if there’s an equivalency here between the three, but there’s plenty of evidence provided by Reich as per usual – interesting, and should serve as motivation for all of us to advocate for change inasmuch as we can...



...and Jim Acosta of CNN “brings the receipts” once more, calling out the “freak show caucus” (and again, barring the Senate passing the voting rights bill, these nut cases will be in change this time a year from now because of the ridiculous gerrymandering going on in GOP-run statehouses, as Joy Reid pointed out)...



...and I can’t think of a more appropriate transition to this Stephen Sondheim tune from “A Little Night Music”...



...and here are more seasonal selections; this might be the earliest I can ever recall us observing the “festival of lights” for all who choose to do so – hope it’s enjoyable.

Saturday Stuff

Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about women who miscarry being sentenced to prison, and not only in red states, it should be pointed out (didn’t know this went all the way back to 1973...part of the creeping trend of authoritarianism spreading like a cancer through this country...of course, poor women are going to be victimized, even despite this)...



Update 12/4/21: Concerning this week's SCOTUS deliberations on the cruel and disgusting forced birth bill in Mississippi, I give you this.

...and one of the ways that poorer people overall (and not just women) are victimized is by the discriminatory drug policy in this country, which extends all the way to our military involvement, particularly in Latin America (as in, our government ensures profitability of U.S. drugs at the expense of those in other countries), as we learn about in yet another great Second Thought video (and yes, I realize there is A LOT more to be said about this issue)...



...and here’s another seasonal selection...

...but please allow me to change gears a bit and pay tribute to a true giant of the theater who has left us, and I’m referring of course to Stephen Sondheim...not sure it’s possible to do justice to his enormous body of work and his impact, but I’ll try to with this selection, and I’ll plan to present some others over the coming days.

Friday Stuff

I thought this was a pretty good video from Don Winslow asking some important questions about the 1/6 insurrection...



...also, John and Jayar of The Damage Report bring us still newer footage on the 1/6 attacks; the Capitol cops should have pretended those getting in through what looks like a garage door were Antifa and used rubber bullets and tear gas on them (they discuss the “burner phone” story from Rolling Stone as noted here – like the “greased octopus” metaphor too)...



...and Thom Hartmann pretty much cuts to the proverbial chase and says that the GOP now stands for trolls, vigilantes and death...



...and Sam and TMR tell us about that allegedly “sensible” Republican, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, with the latter’s ridiculous remark about Ilhan Omar and alleged ant-Semitism, with crickets from questioner Chuck Todd in response...of course, Cramer wouldn’t even BE in the Senate if it weren’t for that ridiculous law, which lost a court challenge after the damage was done, claiming that you could only vote if you had a street address instead of a P.O. box, which automatically invalidated a lot of Native American votes for Dem incumbent Heidi Heitkamp three years ago...



...and I actually can’t believe what I’m watching here...the DCCC actually made a video to be distributed on social media about Biden signing the infrastructure bill (not BBB of course, assuming that ever passes...pinch me – I must be dreaming!)...



...and David Doel tells us that Repug voters like Biden’s plan for insulin, which, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t surprising; once people find out what’s actually in the infrastructure and BBB bills, they generally like what they hear (and I’m shocked that Sen. Chuck Schumer showed a backbone on this – that being said, I’d like to extend my sympathies upon hearing about this)...



...and speaking of “pocketbook” financial matters, this More Perfect Union clip tells us about the REAL reasons for inflation...and as you hear about Kellogg, know that they’re also engaged in some rather Dickensian anti-union tactics also as noted here...and yeah, try not to buy anything from Mondelez if you can, and if that means I’ve eaten my very last Oreo, so be it...still remember what those bastards did to the Nabisco plant and its workers on Roosevelt Blvd. in NE Philly...



...and dear God, it really is that time of year again, isn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving 2021

I got a kick out of this pic, I have to admit (courtesy of Pixdaus and Daily Kos)...

...and here's another holiday fave, with an intro by Seth MacFarlane as Stewie Griffin (and again, the captions make this hilarious as far as I'm concerned)...



...and here's more holiday fun...



...and I kind of liked this also (hat tip for this to Daily Kos)...



...and here's a Thanksgiving message for those wonderful folks at the TSA.




Update 1: And here is another late addition.



Update 2: Might as well add this too (and yeah, "Man Tan" Boehner is long gone I know, but those who've followed him have done their best to make things worse).



Update 3: Imagine all the people that can be fed for $35 grand (here, getting serious for a minute).

Update 4: And since I add to this list every year, I might as well include this too (hasta la vista, baby!).



Update 5: And I suppose this is an apropos item too.

…and thank goodness the “culture warriors” of Fix Noise are trying to protect the holiday (more here)…



…and I guess this is an appropriate tune for the day...




...along with this.



Update: Yes, as I and others have pointed out, we know what The Lincoln Project is, but this is a wonderful ad (this is well done also).



Update 11/25/21: Well said.

Update 11/27/21: And here is a video about another holiday tradition (more here).

Wednesday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the news on worldwide protests around COVID guidelines, with COVID cases spiking (I REALLY have a suspicion that this is being carefully orchestrated, and I’d definitely like to know who is responsible for that and how much $$ is changing hands to make this all happen)...



...and I thought this was a typically good take from Beau on the verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery case (here - and I agree with Beau's point about nothing happening until the video came out – the same thing happened with George Floyd; the official report at the hospital stated that Floyd died while he was in the process of being apprehended, or something like that...of course, the video came out and it quite correctly captured the attention of the world)...



...and somewhat with the Arbery case in mind, this Rebel HQ video tells us about racist bullying going on in the Prior Lake-Savage, MN school district, with David Shuster...this may be a bit of an unpopular “take,” but though the behavior on the part of (apparently) both students and teachers is awful, I don’t think outbursts at school board meetings are the best way to address this either (and no, I don’t know anything first-hand about conditions in that district - more here)...



...and Freddie Mercury died 30 years ago today.

Tuesday Stuff

So it seems that we’re going to have to deal with the lunatic Trumpster GOP base while Democrats, for the most part, engage in responsible governance and our corporate media plays its ridiculous game of “well, BOTH SIDES, but no matter what it is, it’s somehow good news for Republicans”...oh, and did you hear that the U.S. is “backsliding” as a global democracy (recounting the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and the state-sponsored execution of an Antifa activist in Oregon by comparison...Chris Hayes tells us more)...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us about some lunatic making a “shotgun revolver” and a guy from Indiana bringing it on 1/6 of course (love her cheeky comments here...and I know something about the Trumper nuts in Doylestown, PA, FWIW...and except for Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, silence from the “party of Lincoln” in response, with Nancy Pelosi trying to govern in the middle of repeated death threats – not her biggest fan at times, but props to her for courage, as opposed to that utterly spineless mess Schumer in the Senate)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Fix Noise and Tuckums becoming too nuts even for Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes...and I definitely get Ana’s frustration...and by the way, don’t think I feel sorry for ANY conservative who is suddenly all mea culpa all over the place...hey, you all were fat, dumb and happy under your boy Dubya as well as Generalissimo Trump for awhile and chose to say and do NOTHING...



...and when it comes to the “right” and violence (on a lesser scale I’ll admit), Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about that clown Pete Hegseth getting all pissy with someone from Mediaite who had the temerity as far as Hegseth is concerned to call out Fox’s vaccine mandate (daily testing), which is stricter than the one Biden is calling for (weekly testing)...”oh, we’re Fox, and our ratings are so much better than you and your puny network” – what a jagoff (and Hegseth took a page out of Steve King and Louie Gohmert’s “book” here)...



..and Ari Melber takes on this GOP U.S. House turd named Gary Palmer obstructing the Biden infrastructure bill in the House but taking credit for it in his own district (in Alabama of course...the takeaway from this for me is that the Dems are indeed going to have to sell the infrastructure bill like crazy over the next year as projects roll out, including the BBB bill, assuming that ever passes...and Palmer was on this list too)...



...and speaking of the (dis)loyal opposition...oh, look, it’s Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao writing in the WaPo that the Dems shouldn’t do anything with the Supreme Court, which to me is an open invitation for them to do exactly what that death eater McConnell DOESN’T want (Farron Cousins tells us more)...



...and David Doel tells us about a pipeline protest on indigenous lands in British Columbia - three journalists and over a dozen land defenders have been detained – the Committee to Protect Journalists has come to the defense of Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano (the $$ behind this is discussed at about 4:50...Canadian investment firms involved with these private equity companies have been bankrolling this insanity...I have a feeling that that kind of funding is going on in this country too concerning this dying energy industry, but I can’t prove it – sure would like to find out, though)...



...and I'm trying to get my newer tunes out of the way, since I don't think there will be many of them in the weeks ahead (for reasons you can no doubt figure out...sorry about the domestic issues, though).

Monday Stuff

John Fugelsang brings us what I think is a pretty apropos idea about how to deal with Manchinema (paying them out in terms they understand, being the utterly bought-and-paid-for frauds that they are...funny stuff, but sorry - I still think the dude needs a haircut)...



...and I believe this is Trymaine Lee on “The Reid Out” with Malcolm Nance and Dean Obeidallah discussing the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and its aftermath (Update 11/27/21: Actually, I guees this is Jason Johnson)...



...and to me, you don’t have to draw much of a line from Rittenhouse to Republican looney tunes particularly in Congress; by default, Marjorie Taylor Greene is at the top of that utterly sorry list, but Lauren Boebert is a very close second...to his great credit, local Denver journalist Kyle Clark took Boebert to task here (Rachel Maddow also had a feature on this last week)...



...and speaking of nutty Republicans, we learn in this clip that a third of them think Mango Mussolini is going to be reinstated (prior to ’24 I mean, and God willing not at that time either) – a sizeable portion of this country is certifiably nuts IMO...Ben Carollo of Rebel HQ tells us about it...



...oh, and did you hear the news? The economy under Biden is doing better overall than our corporate media is telling us...of course, that won’t stop our allegedly august members of the fourth estate from writing screeds with headlines like “Oh, there are some positive signs, BUT DEMOCRATS CAN STILL BE BLAMED IF EVERYTHING ISN’T AS PERFECT AS REPUBLICANS SAY,” with quotes from Repug operatives in paragraphs 1 through 6 or 7, but waaay down in paragraph 20, we learn that voters are going to blame Dems or Repugs based on their party preference as we suspected to begin with, and things aren’t that bad anyway...everything, regardless of what it is, is good news for Republicans as far as our media is concerned (Chris Hayes tells us more)...



Update 1 11/23/21: Uh, yep (and this too)...and I thought this was a pretty interesting related thread.

Update 2 11/23/21: More here and here.

...and when it comes to the economy, the system of apportioning credit in the US has a lot to do with consolidating existing wealth and shutting out a larger and larger percentage of this country from prosperity, as yet another great Second Thought clip tells us (and the narrator does a GREAT JOB here of establishing the link between a potentially bad credit score and high medical costs...and as he says, what the #@$! does that have to do with “personal responsibility”?)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 11/22/17, in which our 35th president offers us more sage, timeless words, to commemorate in remembrance of this anniversary...



...and the first clip in this post was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and I guess this is also.

Saturday Stuff

David Doel brings us the news of Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all charges related to the death of two protestors and wounding a third in the BLM protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin (with the correct IMO amount of disgust over this all-but-guaranteed outcome...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John, Cenk and Morgan Harper do a deeper dive into the trial and the result (and I thought this was a great Twitter thread on all of this from Kurt Eichenwald)...



...so now of course, one of Rittenhouse’s biggest fanboys, that particularly disgusting cretin Repug U.S. House Rep Matt Gaetz of Florida, has offered Rittenhouse a job...yeah, I don’t understand how Gaetz is still walking around enjoying freedom either at this point (Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ brings us more)...



...and keeping with the theme of the rising tide of wingnut violence, Farron Cousins tells us that the FBI is going to be tracking the lunatic nonsense at these school board meetings, which of course is the latest outrage for the “GQP”...



...and returning to somewhat more restrained political nonsense, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem U.S. House Rep (and Ohio Senate candidate) Tim Ryan going off on Repug Jason Smith of Missouri for the latter’s complaint about the Dems’ child tax credit, which, as Ryan says, is at least one year’s worth better than what Republicans did for kids, which was NOTHING (also mildly NSFW/H)...



...and like many of you I’m sure, I’ve been watching this country’s slow descent into anarchy and right-wing corporate authoritarianism for at least 40 years, and at certain times, my outrage is utterly spent, and I’m grateful that TYT and David Doel in the prior clips did a pretty good job of summing up how I feel about the Rittenhouse verdict, which is just the latest horrific milestone...when that goofball judge threw out the lesser charges related to Rittenhouse carrying his AR-15 across state lines from Illinois to Wisconsin, I definitely knew for sure that the fix was in...the right wants everything for themselves, and wants to see us all horded up like cattle, living slightly better than livestock, but just well enough so we can keep operating the machines, as it were, as George Carlin so presciently told us so many years ago, while they enjoy everything else and give us table scraps by comparison with threats to kill us if we don’t comply, with the Rittenhouse clones who will surely follow in light of this predictable but still awful verdict – and if you know all of this to be true but keep your mouths shut and don’t protest in some form anyway, then you’re part of the problem also...can’t think of many tunes that sum up how I feel at the moment, but this will do for now.

Friday Stuff

Rachel Maddow speaks here with Ari Berman on the typically ridiculous gerrymandering bill affecting Democratic representation in the area of Galveston, TX and how that’s representative of all of the other GOP-sponsored anti-voting bills across the country (which makes it even more critical to pass the John Lewis Voting Act in the Senate, or whatever it’s called, by nuking the stinking filibuster once and for all...Angus King of Maine gave an interview somewhere a couple of weeks ago I think where he talked about what could be done to the stinking filibuster short of getting rid of it, and of course, I’ve seen no action at all on that front from Dem Senate Majority “Leader” Chuck Schumer)...



...and it looks like BBB passed in the House early this morning after Kevin McCarthy tried to pull his impression of Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and the bill passed with no Republican votes at all of course and one Dem turncoat, Jared Golden, who should be immediately primaried...until this morning, the most recent idiocy in the House was Lauren Boebert’s typically racist and utterly stoo-pid rant against who else but Dem Rep Ilhan Omar...David Doel tells us about it along with Omar’s great response...



...and speaking of Republican idiocy, Chris Hayes talks with Dem U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren about Repug U.S. Senator John “Louie Gohmert Impersonator” Kennedy and his typically insulting line of questioning towards Saule Omarova, Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency (more here)...



...and staying with “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Sam and Emma talk about Repug John Barrasso trying to squirm away from George Stephanopoulos’s question about the ”hang Mike Pence” stuff...so many lies from this POS from Wyoming, including Biden begging Putin for oil, and the evergreen zombie BS about an allegedly fraudulent election in PA...of course, it would be nice if S. would actually call out Barrasso on this, wouldn’t it, instead of SUCKING SO HARD AT HIS JOB!...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us more context on the GOP’s new racist strategy in terms of choking off any historical context at all which could make suburban white people feel uncomfortable in any way whatsoever (didn’t know that stat about Dems losing the white vote in presidential elections since LBJ, but it doesn’t surprise me)...



...and I thought Ana of TYT did a first-class job here of taking “the old gray lady” to task on this political piece they concocted about how AOC is supposedly so “divisive” (and I know I had the TYT clip earlier about Larry Summers’s words getting twisted on inflation, including from that death eater Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao...and for whatever my take is worth, I think our beloved "fourth estate" gravitates between mere incompetence and utter evil in mininforming their readers/viewers)...



...and former Medicare and Medicaid Administrator under Obama Don Berwick talks about 3 ways that Biden can lower drug prices (important and interesting stuff)...



...and this tune was #1 on the Billboard charts 50 years ago on November 20th (coincidentally, TCM presented a feature on photojournalist and filmmaker Gordon Parks on 11/16 and also coming up on 11/23 – more info is here).

Wednesday Stuff

Thom Hartmann brings us more denialism in this country of our own racist and genocidal dirty laundry, to say nothing of assorted other ills (and Judd Legum has been all over describing how critical race theory is a totally manufactured issue – it only applies to some college studies, truth be told, as Hartmann explains...however, it is the tip of the metaphorical spear, if you will, meaning that, if teaching CRT is ultimately made illegal, then that creates the precedent to pass a law stating that teaching ANYTHING that puts this country in a negative light on race – or other hot-button topics – can be made illegal too)...



...and I would argue that what contributes to our collective amnesia on our history, allowing particular groups to prattle on like spoiled little kids over issues they don’t like, is when our allegedly august media gatekeepers totally fall down when trying to do their jobs, which I think is the real takeaway in this Farron Cousins clip about Iowa Repug Guv Kim Reynolds using $450K of COVID funds to pay her staff (glad to hear Cousins bust the AP for not mentioning Reynolds’s political party – of course, there are other outlets who would probably point that out, but utterly “bury the lede,” you might say)...



...and continuing with the theme of media malpractice, leave it to Fix Noise and other outlets to utterly twist the words of senior Biden econ advisor Larry Summers on inflation, which is happening EVERYWHERE ACROSS THE GLOBE in large part because of supply chain and worker shortage issues related to COVID (so sez Prof. Krugman here and here – more info is here, and you can read more about quantitative easing here)...



...and related to the “I” word, Robert Reich points out that BBB (with its spending over 10 years as of now, let’s not forget) won’t contribute to inflation, despite what Manchinema sez, along with Reich’s completely correct observation that that alleged captain of industry Elon Musk is acting like a five-year-old brat...



...and John goes solo in this clip pointing out still more disgusting Trumpster revelations, this time about how Mark Meadows supposedly sent Mike Pence to plan the coup on 1/6...



...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ tells us more on that lunatic Repug U.S. House Rep Paul Gosar (and of course, his Anime snuff video aimed at AOC and Biden) and silence in response from caucus leader Kevin McCarthy and just about everyone else from that party, including some life form named Bill Posey who of course chanted "Let's Go Brandon" (with Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney commendably joining the Dems to censure Gosar, along with somebody else from that party voting Present)...



...and this Now This video tells us about service industry activists traveling across the U.S. to raise awareness for restaurant workers affected by the pandemic...



...and happy 75th birthday to Martin Barre of Jethro Tull.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us of Bernie Sanders getting noise from gazillionaire Elon Musk, the latter being a total dick of course (and I don't care how many times he hosts SNL), with the latest reason being that Musk sent a tweet wishing questioning whether or not Bernie was dead (and speaking of Vermont senators, kudos to Dem Patrick Leahy for all of his good work upon the news that he won’t seek another term, as noted here...and by the way, to show how utterly clueless the national Democratic Party is, this issue was teed up for them, but it looks like a Republican is going to steal their thunder on it)...



...and this Rebel HQ video with Alyssa Bernadino and David Shuster tells us more about how the rich, including Musk, are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, in particular as a result of COVID (and I know she has a good point, but I still think Krystal Ball is a twit).

And I’m sorry, but I have to go “meta” again over this.

Am I mad as hell at Manchinema for doing EXACTLY what Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao wants them to do and that is to tie Biden’s hands any way they possibly can? You’re damn right I am. And am I mad at Biden over not delivering what he promised (thus far anyway). Uh, yeah I am.

But can we step back and look at what he HAS delivered? Like COVID relief and the corporate infrastructure bill, OK (which is “half a loaf” I know)? Are we supposed to pretend that that’s NOTHING? Do you HONESTLY think Republicans would have delivered anything close to that, as opposed to STILL MORE tax cuts for the rich, anti-abortion laws, gutting renewable energy development and other utterly performative BS? And oh yeah, they were OVERWHELMINGLY the political party that benefitted from that little incident on January 6th (which was a lot more thought out than originally believed, people – we were closer to losing our democracy than we knew at the time).

And do you SERIOUSLY think they WON’T try to finish the job and install Our Treasonous Orange Pustule or someone else from that foul, hateful circle as Dear Leader once and for all, completely gutting our democratic institutions in the process?

I’m more than a little disgusted with the conventional wisdom that 2022 is going to be an electoral bloodbath for the Dems. Yes, there’s a lot that could look a whole lot better and there are worrisome signs to be sure (particularly the wave of Republican-sponsored bills in statehouses across this country to approve more ridiculous gerrymandering, which would be undone by the For The People Act, which Manchinema continue to block), BUT FOR GOD’S SAKE, CAN WE PLEASE TRY TO REMEMBER WHICH POLITICAL PARTY IS OVERWHELMINGLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS THOROUGHLY PUTRID STATE OF AFFAIRS???!!!

Are you mad at Democrats? Good! Then for the love of God, make sure you remain angry at the bad ones only (as opposed to the many, many good ones) and DON’T VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS! Elect MORE Democrats to negate the bad ones blocking what matters!...



...and speaking of Republicans and performative BS, Farron Cousins tells us about RoJo getting his YouTube account suspended for spreading more COVID-related lies about the vaccine...



...and David Pakman tells us about the latest grift from Bari Weiss and some other bad actors, something called the University of Austin, which apparently isn’t accredited and doesn’t offer degrees – in addition to Weiss, yeah, David Mamet, Larry Summers, and Tyler Cowen are involved, among others – and sorry David, but I definitely disagree with you on Cowen – yeah, my “griftometer” is going nuts too...



...and Chris Hayes tells us about Alex Jones losing all of his lawsuits against the Sandy Hook families – couldn’t happen to a more deserving guttersnipe (and can you imagine how rancid the docs are that he was required to turn over, but instead decided not to and accept the default judgment against him?)...



...and I thought this tune had a cool groove with a pretty minimal sound – nicely done.

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes speaks with former Obama senior advisor David Plouffe about the latest Fix Noise idiocy involving President Biden, and that is the “Negro” reference to baseball great Satchel Paige and “the mystery of the disappearing hand”...this is really weak stuff even for The Roger Ailes BS Factory, and as usual, they’re trying to invent a “scandal” out of whole cloth...at what point do we FINALLY say, “You know what? We can’t trust this idiot network to tell us the truth without fabrication (After all, given how they get caught, can you imagine what they actually get away with? Media Matters can’t catch ALL of it.), so we no longer are going to take what they say or do seriously"...yeah I know, I can dream, right?...



...and I know I’m a little late with the most recent Second Thought video from last Friday, aptly titled “Environmental Justice: How Capitalism Threatens Humanity”...the corporate class HATES the environmental movement more than anything else because they know how powerful a force it is in galvanizing public support (didn’t know 227 people died in pursuit of environmental justice last year, mostly indigenous people in affected communities – and yeah, the saga of the Dulles Brothers and United Fruit is, at a minimum, an entire video by itself)...



...and John and Charles F. Coleman Jr. respond to “Calgary” Cruz saying roads are racist by recounting related history in highway construction (Robert Moses in NYC could probably be the subject of a lengthy blog post on this by himself - I've always looked upon construction of the U.S. interstate highway system as a 20th century marvel, but I guess I should have realized that it had a seamy back story about dislocating poor populations)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us how pregnant women in Poland can’t get an abortion...in particular, one woman couldn’t get the procedure because of laws in that country and had to wait until the fetus she was carrying died, then the doctors tried to perform a “C” section to remove the fetus but she died of a heart attack on the way to the operating room, and Thom recounts another story of a woman in a similar circumstance in Ireland who died of sepsis, causing that country to loosen its anti-abortion laws...we’re headed for the same damn thing in this country, people, if the Trumpsters/fundie zealots have their way, including Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett on the SCOTUS...



...and Sam and Emma discuss billionaire Howard Schultz of Starbucks using a Holocaust analogy to discourage a pro-union vote...just say “oops” and get out (yeah, and go share your own damn blanket, you clueless asshat...usually I follow stories like this with that Mike Doughty song, but I won’t this time...I love Sam's pithy comment, juvenile or not)...



...but maybe this will suffice as an apt musical selection given the most recent clip.