Friday Stuff

John and Wosny Lambre of The Damage Report tell us about Almost Silent Clarence Thomas and the vacations/gratuities he’s accepted from this megadonor named Harlan Crow, starting with June ’19, when Thomas and his Qanon wife went on a 9-day junket on a yacht to Indonesia...the two of them need to be the subject of Watergate-style hearings largely, but not totally, because of this; I mean, even SCOTUS justices are supposed to disclose this stuff (amazing work by ProPublica to dig up this story)...



Update: According to ProPublica and the New York Times, the vacations go back nearly two decades...and I don't buy this nonsense of "well, Crow is a friend, so I didn't think it had to be reported" for a minute (here).

Update 4/8/23: As I read this, I had the tune “Der Fuehrer’s Face” by Spike Jones running around in my head.

HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THE INTEGRITY OF JUSTICE THOMAS AND HIS DONOR FRIEND WITH THE NAME OF A KLAN VILLAIN, YOU FILTHY LIB!! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!

...and Ana of TYT tells us about red states rolling back child labor protections – in Iowa for example, a bill has passed through committees even though a full vote apparently is pending, and of course Repug guv Kim Reynolds will sign it if it reaches her desk (and Sarah Huckabilly Sanders has done the same on something similar in Arkansas)...



Update: I give you another "miracle" of Repug-run state governance here.

...oh, and apparently there were more insults aimed at Marjorie Trailer Park Greene that Lesley Stahl neglected to mention in her recent interview, but fortunately, Desi Lydic of The Daily Show is ON IT, PEOPLE!!...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that there are actually signs of a pulse from the Democratic Party in Flori-DUUH!, with state party leader Nikki Fried and Lauren Book (minority senate leader) getting arrested for protesting the passage of a six-week abortion ban, which I believe passed the same day that guv Ron #DeathSantis signed his almost-as-disgusting permitless carry law (and boy, is Cousins ever right about the Dems in that state needing a fighter for a leader)...



...additionally, Trae Crowder tells us how the latest Trumpian garbage is distracting us from the recent mass shooting in Tennessee...and just as a reminder, only Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from the Tennessee state house as noted here, which is bad enough...yeah, the racism pretty much smacks you in the face (and the Bud Light reference has to do with this)...



...and Lawrence O’Donnell recently pointed out that Huckleberry Graham expressed a lot of angst over Our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Former Chief Executive and his legal issues, but absolutely not one bit of grief or sympathy over the recent Nashville slaughter (as well as any other gun-related violence, really)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/4/11...Rachel Maddow tells us that CEO pay had gone up 27 percent from 2010 and companies climbed their way back also, with sizeable taxpayer assistance, from The Great Recession, while worker pay was essentially flat...and yes, that was indeed a “transfer of wealth” as she tells us...”the deficit would be cut in half if we allowed the Bush tax cuts to expire”...wonder how much better that would be if we did the same thing to #45’s tax cuts also? And as noted here, CEO pay also went up over the prior year in ‘22 (21 percent...the wealth transfer continues), average worker pay increased by about 3 percent from last year (here), which is barely better from what happened in 2011, and as noted here, the unemployment rate is about 4.5 percent, which is definitely better now than where we were in the 2011 clip...the most recent job numbers from today are here (again, not great, but OK given inflation which is also letting up...more here)...



...and here’s a newer tune to help us slide into the weekend; taking a break from my recent “moldy oldies.”

Thursday Stuff

David Doel informs us that Marjorie Traitor Greene got the “big apple” treatment she should have gotten from Lesley Stahl when Greene went to NYC for the arraignment of our 45th *president (and Jamaal Bowman stood tall once again...and for that disgusting harpie Greene to compare Trump to Jesus during Holy Week is offensive into the stratosphere as far as I’m concerned)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dumb Jr., Eric and that trashy loon from Georgia basically trying to dox the daughter of the judge hearing the case against Combover Caligula (sentencing will come one day I believe, and when it does, I’ll celebrate)...



...next, Farron Cousins tells us how getting indicted has been a cash cow for Our Treasonous Orange Pustule...never a shortage of goofballs apparently who just can’t help but fork over money to this third-rate con man...



...and John and Jayar tell us about Van Jones breaking out the world’s smallest violin for our Indicted Executive Criminal Suspect (yeah, Jones has sure fallen down the metaphorical rabbit hole all right)...



...turning to more substantive political matters, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses the three Tennessee state lawmakers who are facing expulsion from that body for advocating for gun control, and they would be Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson (more here)...yes, these three were in the right to stand up with the students who were protesting for their safety, but I have to ask whose idea it was to bring a bullhorn into that chamber (a bit tangential I know, but I believe that’s what gave those pig-headed Repugs the opening to expel these three reps)...



Update: As Will Bunch sez, it's pretty much "Racism 101" from "the volunteer state" (here).

...and speaking of butt-hurt Repugs, Jeff Wiggins of Rebel HQ brings us the remarks from man-baby Dan Kelly of Wisconsin in the wake of his loss to Janet Protasiewicz for a seat on that state’s supreme court (and kudos to Brandon Johnson also for his win in the Chicago mayoral race)...



...also, Joy Reid speaks with the exonerated Central Park 5 member (Yusef Salaam) who ran a full-page ad imitating the look (but not the angry, factually wrong claims) of an ad Our Ochre Abomination ran against him and the other 4 defendants in 1989; good luck in his run for city council from Harlem (and I don’t give a damn about anything prosecutor Linda Fairstein might have to say in this case...more here)...



...and on this day in 1968, Pink Floyd announced that lead singer Syd Barrett was leaving the group due to his deteriorating mental health from drug abuse...makes me recall this tune.

Tuesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that (and hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen!) voters are already tired of these alleged investigations by U.S. House Republicans, especially with the debt ceiling nonsense going on that the “party of Lincoln” ALWAYS stages when that party runs Congress and a Dem is in the White House (oh, and yeah, Gym Jordan kind of slid his supposed report from his “weaponizing government” committee under the door last Friday, apparently hoping no one would notice).

(Oh, and speaking of U.S. House Repugs, I tried twice to watch that abortion of an interview Lesley Stahl of the ”third eye” network conducted with Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, and I just couldn’t do it...nothing whatsoever against David Doel who did the analysis, but this is from the network where Edward R. Murrow once stood up to Joe McCarthy and his “See It Now” program was just about run off the air for it. I just can’t take a second of listening to that lying lunatic, no matter how much Stahl tried to normalize her.)...



...and John and Jayar bring us another lesson in white fragility in Flori-DUUUH!; apparently this goofball parent named Emily Conklin is trying to get the film “Ruby Bridges” banned because she doesn’t think it’s appropriate for second-grade students...the “sunshine state” is really pushing Texas hard to be “the land that time forgot” among all of the “great 48,” and on this day of all days (more here)...



...and Beau tells us that things are looking bad for the Foxies in that lawsuit with Dominion; the trial may start on 4/17, though there are likely to be delays as Beau points out...”there needs to be some baseline of reality” indeed (and speaking of legal matters, I know a certain 45th president will be arraigned probably this afternoon, but I’m going to try to stay away from the hoopla since I know the Gropenfuhrer is all about the spectacle and pretty much nothing else unless it lines his pockets somehow...great call on Beau's T-shirt BTW)...



...and I don’t know how many people have noticed that our former ol’ pal “Bibi” is trying to turn Israel into a dictatorship (of course, it appears to be that already to the Palestinians), but the people of that country have noticed for sure, as this Guardian clip shows (more here)...



...and in addition to the very important judicial contest in Wisconsin today (click here to help Judge Janet), there is also a mayoral election in Chicago, and this More Perfect Union clip gives us more on Paul Vallas, who might as well be a Republican...to help Brandon Johnson, click here...



...and my “this day of all days” remark in the Flori-DUUUH! clip had to do with this – hard to believe that it’s been 55 years.

Monday Stuff

Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about all of the wingnut “copium” out there over Mango Mussolini’s indictment from the Stormy Daniels hush money stuff, featuring Dumb Jr., Watters, Cancun Cruz and a host of others (and yeah, I know I got into this yesterday also, but why not give it another shot?)...



...and Chris Hayes offers a commentary on the legal stuff behind the indictment of the Gropenfuhrer vis-a-vis how criminal justice works in this country for some high-ranking public officials versus with the rest of us...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen discusses the recent confrontation in the U.S. House between Dem rep (and former teacher) Jamaal Bowman and Thomas Massie (huge props to Bowman for this, BTW)...I know Massie put out some tweet later saying “in schools with open carry where teachers are armed, there is no gun violence” or words to that effect...yeah, brainiac; teachers often have to pay out of their own pockets for class materials because of the miserly budgets for teaching our kids, so now they’re ALSO supposed to pay for gun instruction and arming themselves too? And if someone comes into a room and the teacher mistakes them for an active shooter and accidentally takes somebody out, are you going to pay their legal fees and defend them in court? OF COURSE NOT! (as Thom Hartmann says, call 202-224-3121, ask for your representative and/or senator, and give them an earful...clip is NSFW/H)...



Update: As the song goes, the kids are alright (here - this too behind the Inky's damn paywall).

...next up is Jesse Dollemore giving us the pearl-clutching from wingnut lickspittle Matt Walsh, with his carrying-on that will get trans people killed (and that goes for Walsh’s fellow hatemongers “Tuckums,” Michael Knowles, etc. – and how sad do you have to be in your life to play second fiddle basically to Baby Ben Shapiro...great job by Dollemore to present Walsh’s take on Nashville vs. Uvalde...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us here how Flori-DUUUH! guv Ron #DeathSantis got schooled by The Mouse on this business of trying to take over Disney (I think Cousins means “before DeSantis’s people took over the district” not Trump’s people)...



...and RIP Procal Harum lyricist Keith Reid.

Sunday Stuff

Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence over the indictment of Our Treasonous Orange Pustule by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg; along with the threats of violence of course from this pack of cowards (and again, I know what The Lincoln Project is, but if anybody deserves to take a victory lap over this, they do..a little NSFW/H)...



...fortunately, Desi Lydic of The Daily Show is here to help, sort of (more here – also NSFW/H...)...



...and one of the biggest apologists for Our Ochre Abomination is Cancun Cruz, and in this Rebel HQ clip from Richard Ojeda, we find out that Cruz apparently asked for unanimous consent for a Senate gun bill that, to put it charitably, wasn’t fully formed, and he was rightly called out for it by Dem Chris Murphy of Connecticut...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Missouri Repug state rep Chris Sander (a gay man) trying to get a marriage equality bill passed...and as a result, he has faced 2 censure votes (NSFW/H also...yeah, at a certain point, I really think Sander should “get the memo” here)...



...and I know a state supreme court election may not sound like a big deal, but it definitely is that this Tuesday in Wisconsin...if wingnut Dan Kelly wins, then he could potentially sway the court to not seat electors in next year’s presidential contest, assuming Biden (or another Dem) were to win...to oppose Kelly and help Judge Janet Protasiewicz instead, please click here...



...and kudos to Dionne Warwick for this.

Friday Stuff

FINALLY! (more here – in this NBC News report, anchor Lester Holt speaks with network legal analyst Danny Cevallos...and while it would be satisfying to see Combover Caligula detained immediately in a cell, which is completely what he deserves, I realize that won’t happen, though it should be obvious that he’s a flight risk so he should have to surrender his passport...by the way, on an unrelated note, posting could be iffy next week)...



...and in case somehow you need to be reminded how Our Ochre Abomination rose to his level of prominence (aside from that stoo-pid "Apprentice" TV show), David Pakman gives us this clip of Fix Noise CEO Suzanne Scott berating her people via Email to STOP TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP! OUR ELDERLY, RETIRED BOOMER AUDIENCE IS GETTING BIG MAD!!!...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Marjorie Traitor Greene’s comments about the Nashville mass shooting (oh, “a good guy with a gun” showed up all right, AFTER SIX PEOPLE WERE ALREADY KILLED INCLUDING 3 KIDS! And saying that in front of Jared Moskowitz, the Dem rep from the district where the Parkland massacre took place, was a particularly tone deaf move, as per usual with her)...



...and David Doel tells us that “Bo-Bo Boebert” was apparently looking for some kind of a “gotcha” moment in a recent hearing with a member of D.C. government on the alleged issue of “public urination,” but was proven completely wrong again...assuming she knows how to hire competent people (which is probably a stretch), she needs staffers to prepare her for these hearings who actually know what they’re doing, since she plainly doesn’t know that herself...funny that she didn’t ask about some kind of a statute about a spouse exposing himself at a bowling alley...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us about paid off politicians and judges/justices and how that “trickles down,” if you will, towards making our lives more dangerous, particularly when it comes to guns (looking at Citizens United to legalize corporate bribery, of course, which had a hand in this)...Thom goes back to the ruinous Reagan years yet again (more grim, grisly gun death stats...I know Lawrence O’Donnell recently laid the blame for the assault weapons ban expiring at the feet of Dubya and the ’04 Republican congress, but I think that bears repeating...and yeah, call 202-224-3121; damn right)...



...and Cenk and Ana of TYT give us their take on another recent train derailment spewing dangerous chemicals, this time in Minnesota...I get tired of these two beating up on the Dems, but unfortunately, they have a point about “Mayor Pete” on this; sadly, I’m distinctly unimpressed with the response of the Biden administration to the East Palestine, OH disaster and its aftermath (and yeah, they’re right about this “parliamentarian” business too...hell, during Bush/Cheney, they FIRED the damn parliamentarian in the Senate when that person didn’t do what they wanted...and I think the Biden response on this and some other recent matters has more than a little bit to do with this...one more thing; I question David Sirota’s punditry, but never his reporting)...



...and RIP Mark Russell, topical song parodist on news/political stuff...I watched him from back in the day because I thought he was clever plenty of times, though he probably was a little too chummy with some of the folks he lampooned...he came from an era where we still had the luxury of laughing at conservatives before they managed to take over our politics, media etc. and spend every waking moment trying to utterly ruin our lives...here, he performs “The Line of Death Bar and Grille” from about ’86, based on this...I’m sure You Tube will find a way to yank this clip shortly, FWIW...



...and here's a cool new tune for the kids to help us usher in the weekend.

Thursday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us about a Tallahassee charter school principal who was forced to resign after a parent said that Michelangelo’s David was “pornographic” (yep, it’s in Flori-DUUH! – more here)...



...and Chris Hayes tells us about the U.S. Senate chaplain giving an invocation to FREAKING DO SOMETHING! about guns in this country, along with the viral comment from that assclown Tim Burchett saying “my daddy served in the Pacific in WWII, and he said if somebody wants to kill you, they will”...well, MY father served in Europe during WWII, and were he still with me, I can just about tell you right now that he would say you’re full of crap (and as actor John Leguizamo said recently, how bad a message is it that you’re comparing a classroom to a war zone?)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Mississippi rural hospitals closing because they won’t accept Medicaid funding, which is basically free money from the federal government (well, 90 percent anyway)...this policy is hurting rural hospitals in other states too...nice to see the fire from the two of them aimed where it belongs instead of at each other, particularly true in Ana’s case...but of course Mississippi, with its utterly rotten quality of life, has no problem finding the dough for Brett Favre’s daughter’s volleyball court as noted here...and based on this, that state's halfwit Repug guv Tate Reeves might as well have a Koch Industries logo stamped on his forehead)...



Update 4/5/23: Sounds like Reeves needs help trying to read a calendar (here).

...and in response to this story about Idaho, I present this from Meidas Touch, which I suppose was meant to depict some dystopian future which, tragically, has already arrived...



...and to be honest, I really didn’t have a “dog in the fight” when it comes to the Chicago mayoral election, but after seeing this, I’m officially supporting Brandon Johnson (link to web site is here...and yeah, one of Paul Vallas’s stops was Philly where he ran the school district from ’02 to ‘07...I think he made some cosmetic reforms without making structural ones, as noted here...not sure what else was possible, but I think that needs to be pointed out)...

...and RIP Bobbi Ercoline, who, as the Times notes here, gave one of the most iconic hugs of all time.

Wednesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore discusses some of the “great unwashed” supporters for Our Ochre Abomination comparing #45 to Our Lord – yes, I’ll give the Email writer points for politeness, but that’s more than completely negated by her dunderheaded stupidity about Biden’s predecessor and the charges that likely will be brought by Alvin Bragg (any day now, any day now, as the song goes...I know this portrait is completely blasphemous, and I can't tell you how offensive it is to me as a Roman Catholic, but these crazies need to be held to account for this stuff)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about more censorship of a social studies book in Flori-DUUH! where just about ANY information to identify Rossa Parks is removed from the text...basically, if you’re going to try and tell her story like that, why even mention Parks AT ALL...”some lady with a skin color rode a bus and did something that we remember the end” (and apparently, based on this, “Meatball Ron” doesn’t remember anything about 9/11; a terrific response to the oppression in that state is here)...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that, under Utah’s beyond-ridiculous book banning law, someone is trying to get the Bible off of shelves in that state – more info is here...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tells us that, apparently, “Bibi” went too far in trying to get rid of Israel’s Supreme Court and ended up getting rid of his defense minister who stood up to him (but unfortunately, as Cenk says, it definitely looks like this isn’t over, despite the protests going on against Netanyahu).

(And by the way, speaking of TYT, I know about “the argument”...from what I saw, Cenk did indeed make a generalization when he said that “Republicans love criminals” or words to that effect, and Ana was right to initially criticize him over it. To me, Cenk apologized for that, but Ana kept harping...rather pointlessly, actually. Cenk was saying that Republicans don’t like us and many of us don’t like them...which to me is merely acknowledging reality...but can we at least come together on economic issues since the “one percent” uses their influence, including corporate media, to keep us divided over culture wars BS while they continue to steal us blind, WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FREAKING RIGHT!!!, but Ana kept yelling anyway, which I couldn’t figure out. No, I didn’t see the entire 13 or 25-minute argument or whatever it was, since I have neither the time nor desire to wade through that stuff, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it...if you want to watch a video where Kyle Kulinski discusses this some more, click here) – the Israel clip follows...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less)...with still more gun-related carnage in the news, I think it’s apropos to bring back this clip of Jim Carrey’s “Cold Dead Hand”...TYT commented on the video on 3/29/13, even though the “Funny or Die” clip dropped on about 3/14 (probably NSFW/H)...



...and the prior clip made an anti-gun point with some comedy in a tune, but this is completely serious from Tom Paxton; when all else fails, I guess we need some aging hippie dudes to lead the way :-).

Tuesday Stuff

John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us the latest on the most recent gun carnage in this country in Nashville, Tennessee...oh, and let’s hear about all the wingnut clutching of pearls in response to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who “goes there” on this issue (here), as well she should (and let's not forget that Republican governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed "permitless carry" legislation, over the objections of law enforcement as noted here)...



...and I didn’t want to let the latest Trumpian criminal insanity fall through the metaphorical cracks; I know it’s a little redundant to say “oh, he had another crazy rally of his,” but to do so in Waco, TX on the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian raid is truly a special kind of evil, as well as showing footage of 1/6 during the national anthem, as Jesse Dollemore explains (and here is a link to Kathleen Belew’s book; I’ll plan to follow up on that...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and in case anybody thinks that somehow the “party of Lincoln” has freed itself from the grip of Mango Mussolini, Farron Cousins tells us that U.S. House Republicans are trying to get a totally unconstitutional law passed preventing the states from investigating Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former Chief Executive...and OF COURSE Gym Jordan is involved (yep, fighting big government overreach yet again...removing my tongue from my cheek as I say that)...



...and this from More Perfect Union tells us that, apparently, King Elon I got everything he wanted for this new factory of his in Texas, including the right to dump 140K gallons of wastewater PER DAY into the Colorado River as noted here, along with abusing the hell out of his workers (a great argument for unionizing the shop IMO)...



...and Joy Reid bring us an NBC News report on the death of Irvo Otieno in a psychiatric hospital in Virginia (more here – definitely not a rush to judgment from yours truly...I try to be careful about criminal justice stuff overall, with guns as an exception as noted above, because of the presumption of innocence, all facts not being in, etc., but I’m including this clip because somebody needs to figure out just what the hell happened here)...



...and happy 75th birthday to keyboardist John Evan of Jethro Tull.

Monday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us about the latest nonsense from “Curtsy Kyrsten” and the reason why she decided to skip these Democratic U.S. Senate lunches, or whatever they are...Sinema is truly nuts – also, here’s the thing...if she hopes to come back to Capitol Hill as a lobbyist (which is her end game I suppose), how effective is she going to be at currying favor after she’s gotten so many of her colleagues so PO’ed at her? And I’m sure that has occurred to the funders who would consider bringing her on board, as they have with "No Corporate Tax" Pat Toomey...



...and this “Now This” clip features AOC speaking out against this “parental bill of rights” nonsense that recently passed the U.S. House, with Bri-Fi’s willing collaboration as noted here (oh, but he wanted some kind of cost-benefit analysis for this insanity...what cowardly BS; as AOC says, this is an attempt to nationalize all of the local-level garbage going on with attacking trans youth and censoring books)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tells us that an Idaho hospital says it will stop labor and delivery care for babies because of the state’s abortion ban...all kinds of aspects to this story, and they’re all terrible, but here’s another one; the next time I hear “Tuckums” or one of his pals yelling about birth rates in this country declining, try reminding them of this story, as well as the cost of paying off student debt, buying a car/home, etc. (and yeah, I know it won’t register anyway with those cretins, but we have to try at a minimum...and Cenk is right about the evangelicals on this issue – another reason why I detest those people – it should be noted, though, that the Catholic Church started railing against Roe from almost the moment it was handed down)...



...and Jayar and Jackson White of Rebel HQ bring us this clip of Dem U.S. House Reps Jamie Raskin and Cori Bush pointing out that 9 of the top 10 states with the highest gun deaths where there are weak gun laws are run by Republicans...



...and in keeping with that subject, Lawrence O’Donnell brings us a report from the Texas Tribune saying the cops were afraid of the AR-15, which confirms what we already suspected I know...this Bogdanski guy should be criminally prosecuted IMO for his cowardice, along with the rest of them (to say nothing of Dubya and the Republican congressional lickspittles who allowed the assault weapons ban to lapse in 2004 – O’Donnell’s quiet outrage is completely called for IMO and utterly commendable, and comparing this weapon of death to a machine gun is completely apt)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith – maybe too easy of a choice here given the prior two videos, but here it is anyway.

Update 1: It looks like it's time not to politicize gun violence again (here).

Update 2: Yep. Ogles should be shamed at a minimum - of course, he REALLY should be voted out of office next year (here).

Friday Stuff

This is probably the longest Second Thought video I’ve seen yet, but it tells the story of the East Palestine, OH Norfolk Southern disaster better than anything I’ve seen to date...really getting into the back story as usual, this time about safety concerns barely getting addressed under Obama, wiped out under Mango Mussolini, and getting essentially ignored once again under Biden/Buttigieg...“when profit is the only thing that matters, safety is an unnecessary luxury” indeed, and he’s absolutely right about nationalizing the railroads...something I always wondered about was why, in 2010 when the “Tea Party” insanity took over Congress, one of the first things they did was to go after environmental regulations (targeting the EPA specifically), and as it turns out, that was right smack dab in the middle of the ’08-’14 period when train derailments started to increase by leaps and bounds...of course, that was also pretty big on the Koch Brothers wish list at that time...



...and Thom Hartmann talks about standing up to fascist bullies, and I think you can safely consider Norfolk Southern to be one of that bunch...I’m a little surprised to hear Thom imply that Dubya WASN’T a “bully,” especially since I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten the story of Don Siegelman (here), though to be fair, I guess Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales were more to blame for that, to say nothing of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame...



...and to take the whole “bully” thing a little further, I guess you can say that about this Lorna Roxanne Green lunatic who was arrested in Casper, Wyoming for (allegedly) attempting to set fire to the only abortion clinic in the state (John and Jessica Burbank provide commentary)...



...and as Thom says, the NRA is pretty high on the list of bullies, and kudos to Dem U.S. House Rep Max Frost for taking them on (Frost being one of the ever-shrinking number of federal government Democrats from Flori-DUUH!)...Max Burns of Rebel HQ tells us about it (more here and here)...



...and to try and lighten things up a bit, I thought I’d present this, which I thought was a clever bit of comedy from The Daily Show, though “Tuckums” can be unintentionally hilarious all by himself I know...



...and somehow I neglected to mention the passing of unheralded R&B singer Chuck Jackson last month, so please allow me to make amends for that now (Elvis, among others, covered this tune).

Thursday Stuff

Gee, maybe somebody ought to do something about this climate change thing, huh (John and Yasmin Khan give us the latest gory details...more here and here)...



...and Francesca, Maz Jobrani and Farron Cousins tell us that, in a recent survey, more Americans polled by Gallup support the Palestinians than Israel...and yeah, if Andrew Cuomo leads off with something, you can be sure that he’s on the wrong side...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about Van Jones taking a bit of a veiled swipe at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, given the tick-tock of waiting for the latest legal machinations pertaining to Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a former *president...really? Yep, I would agree that Jones has become a little too damn comfortable with the D.C. “club” of politicians, operatives and media sycophants...



...and turning to our ongoing plague, David Doel tells us about Bernie Sanders questioning Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on fleecing the people of this country over the COVID vaccine (gee, they ONLY made over a billion dollars last quarter?)...and NAIL. HAMMER. FREAKING HEAD!!! by Doel on questioning EVERY DAMN THING about Operation Warp Speed! Do you have any idea how much that cost U.S. taxpayers? I sure as hell don’t (God forbid we ever see any actual reporting on this), and I have seen NO ACCOUNTABILITY WHATSOEVER for doling out our tax money to the drug companies for this...”oh, but Trump was responsible for O.W.S.”...so, I’m supposed to give him credit for that even though that was completely opaque to me, again, as a taxpayer?...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that Nebraska State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh is getting some help from her fellow Dems in standing up for the rights of trans people---shocking I have to admit, but good news for a change...and yeah, this is indeed how Dems are supposed to respond to conservative garbage, in this case from these characters Mike Moser and Steve Erdman...as Figueredo points out, young kids aren’t getting “bottom surgery,” but are getting puberty blockers to help with transition under medical supervision; the blockers are reversible in case they want to stick with their biological sex, but the surgery option isn’t available unless they’re essentially grown and have agency, despite what contemptible bottom feeders like Matt Walsh are spouting off about (and my guess is that Erdman listens to Walsh, which explains why he’s clueless...NSFW/H)...



...and I guess, given the first item, I’m feeling a little more aware of my own mortality than usual, just in time for this newer tune.

Wednesday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about some alleged “preacher” named Daniel Kuhtsar of the Sure Foundation Baptist Church who haz a sad over getting death threats since he called for the same thing against LGBTQ individuals – yeah, another entry for the “’f’ around and find out” file as far as I’m concerned...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss Idaho’s Lewis-Clark college censoring a pro-choice art show because it allegedly violates some state law; sound like that location is run by the most enlightened minds of the 13th century (and I thought this was a good discussion about wingnut hypocrisy when it comes to “free speech for me, but not for thee”...and I believe the lefty censorship Cenk notes is dis-inviting conservative speakers to public events – inviting them at first, then realizing how crazy they were and then cancelling the invitation – which I always thought was dumb; get them on the record and refute their nonsense WITH ACTUAL FACTS...and sorry if I’m being unkind, but I’ve never really bought the whole “canceling for campus security” argument as noted here...I’ve been to Middlebury a few times, and I definitely wouldn’t call it a place where cars are likely to be set alight and storefront windows get smashed up, not that I want that in any circumstance)...



...and David Shuster brings us the story of Ohio police in Walton Hills sued by a woman driver named Amanda Mills who tried to record them, and it sounds like they messed up her arm and caused other injuries as a result (named in the suit is some life form named C.J. Schmidt, who apparently is one of the roughhousing officers in question – he and his pals deserve what they get from this)...



...and in this clip, Thom Hartmann does a pretty good job IMO of drawing a line of Republican Party corruption from Richard Nixon to the Gropenfuhrer; Thom reminds us about this story from over the weekend about the effort from The Sainted Ronnie R and his minions – which was successful, as it turned out – to scuttle the Iran hostage negotiations under President Carter to help ensure Reagan’s election, leading to Iran/Contra and Dubya and the ’00 election along with the second Iraq war, up to the two Trump impeachments and 1/6 of course)...



Update 3/23/23: More from Greg Palast is here.

...and I would call this a pretty good summing up by Rachel Maddow of the varying levels of corruption and illegality of Mango Mussolini and his associates (again, mindful that at least one legal metaphorical shoe will drop soon concerning the leader of Cult 45)...



...and this tune was #1 on the Billboard chart for the week ending March 23, 1968...Otis Redding spent most of his career making those great, upbeat soulful tunes with his fellow Stax musicians, Carla Thomas and others, but apparently was motivated by the Beatles and the success of Sgt. Pepper earlier that year to change things up a bit and perform this selection, against the wishes of the estimable Steve Cropper and “Duck” Dunn...Redding died soon after he made this, and it was the first number one posthumous tune in Billboard history...amazing that he crammed all of his great work into only 26 years.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and lawyer Glenn Kirschner give us their take on the latest legal machinations involving Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former *President (and I thought this was more than a bit of a “tell” also, as in, preparing for a revolt of “the great unwashed”)...



...and Francesca, Maz Jobrani and Farron Cousins of TYT tell us about 2 more recent train derailments that could impact neighboring communities, though it doesn’t appear initially that the Arizona incident will cause anywhere near the calamity of what happened in East Palestine, OH, though the Puget Sound oil spill in Washington state will impact tribal lands unfortunately...as I and others smarter than myself have said before, most people hate government until they need it to do something, and in this case, the rail lines will apparently have to be compelled to upgrade their trains or face criminal sanctions – it will take federal action of some type because they sure as hell won’t do that on their own...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about “right to work” laws getting overturned in Michigan (incredible that 40K jobs were lost in MI because of RTW...and Emma is talking about this, by the way...also, kudos to the Temple University grad students as noted here)...



...and Beau discusses the 21 percent of those polled who said they trusted Fix Noise less after the revelations about what Tuckums, Ingraham and Sean Inanity really thought about the ’20 election despite what they said on the air (which of course came from the Dominion lawsuit...this is combined with the 11 percent who didn’t believe the network anyway, and it sounds like about 1/3rd of their audience is wavering a bit – not an overwhelming number, but definitely a dent in the metaphorical wall)...



...and I’ll tell you at the outset that this item is difficult, but I believe it needs to be mentioned – last Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of the murder of Rachel Corrie, who ended up giving her life in protest of Israel bulldozing Palestinian homes that were alleged to shelter terrorists...the following is an interview with Corrie discussing her reason for protesting recorded two days before her death...this post contains more information on Corrie’s killing from a bulldozer, but some of the images could be triggering, I have to tell you...still, though, the tragedy of her death needs to be remembered in its utterly unvarnished horror (I also have to be careful about putting up content that Blogger finds to be “sensitive” because I’ve gotten dinged for that already)...



...and in searching for a tune to commemorate the latest legal difficulty for Our Ochre Abomination, I now present the following.

Monday Stuff (updates)

A much-young-looking Cenk Uygur tells us that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History lied about 935 times in the runup to the Iraq War, which began 20 years ago today approximately (the second war that is...more here, here, and here)...



Update 1: And let's not forget about this too.

Update 2: More food for thought is here (from the "what's past is prologue" department).

Update 1 3/21/23: And for anyone who doubts this, I have a name for you - Ashleigh Banfield.

Update 2 3/21/23: Yeah, I think this about says it.

Update 3 3/21/23: Maybe the best take on this yet (here)...

...and God forbid Former Commander Codpiece would show a speck of the contrition former British Prime Minister Tony Blair feels in this CBC report, though that doesn’t bring back anyone from the dead or help anybody whose lives were destroyed...



...and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! speaks with author Neta Crawford on the many costs of the war, which will only grow over time (our military, Iraqi civilians, regional disruption, and on and on...more on Operation Inherent Resolve is here)...



...and it appears that Dem U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Repug U.S. Senator Todd Young have managed to put together a coalition to repeal the resolutions on both Iraq wars, which truly is the least “The world’s greatest deliberative body” can do (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: What an utter, unbelievable, pathetic f*cking joke! (here).

Votes like this tell you who our government really represents...the war machine and the investor class. Everyday people (the 99 percent, basically), not so damn much.

Update 3/29/23: OK, this is a little better.

Update 4/2/23: More here.

...and I know I’ve brought this clip back a few times, and I’m doing it again today because I think it truly captures the utterly insufferable arrogance of the foul, fetid Bush gang, on Iraq and a few other matters also, including Saddam Hussein’s alleged relationship with al Qaeda (mildly NSFW/H)...



...also, here is Keith Olbermann speaking with Jon Soltz of Vote Vets about "the surge" in October 2007 and what it did/didn't manage to accomplish (I can STILL remember the screaming at Dubya to get us the hell out of there during this timeframe in particular and his characteristically stubborn refusal to do so)...



...and I’m going to give the last non-musical comment on this to The Eternal Michael Brooks, who cut through all of the BS on this and called the war what it truly was five years ago...



Update 3/25/23: More here...and by the way, I know Bedbug Bret wrote some piffle at “the old gray lady” saying the war was a good thing – I think the best response to that nonsense is here...I would bother to reply if it was full of the typical triumphalist BS that came spewing forth from any of the war’s initial supporters, but since it doesn’t, I’ll keep my powder dry, as it were...Stephens is merely ridiculous with his tone of “well, this went wrong and that went wrong...but the war was still the right thing to do,” but at least he’s showing a molecule of self-reflection...that’s about all, though.

...and I can think of no more appropriate tune for this day than this one (and this too).

Friday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the latest idiocy from CO-03’s U.S. House mistake, Bo-Bo Boebert; here, she confronts Biden’s director of the OPM for something that (allegedly) happened under Our Ochre Abomination (just say “oops” and get out; in response, I give you this)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a pretty powerful Vote Vets ad making the case to stop showing Fix Noise on our military bases (NSFW/H)...



...and John and Cenk of TYT tell us that new Repug guv Sarah Huckabilly Sanders of Arkansas has started rolling back child labor protections in her state...yeah, pretty much straight out of the playbook for these cretinous plutocrats like her (more here)...



...and Beau tells us that Russia apparently messed with/collided with a U.S. drone in international airspace (of course, Russia says it was in an airspace designated for their “special military operation” near Ukraine...yeah, as Beau says, it sounds like this will be something for the diplomats to scream about and that will likely be it)...



...and staying with the brutal Ukraine incursion waged by Vlad The Butcher in Russia, this DW report tells us about the battle over Bakhmut, and it looks like a counter-offensive will be staged with newly-acquired Western weapons (with correspondent Ralph Martin and analyst Frank Ledwidge)...



...and speaking of people laboring under deadly oppression, that unfortunately is an appropriate segue to this clip from More Perfect Union about what the residents of East Palestine, OH are dealing with from the Norfolk Southern catastrophe (NSFW/H – God bless these people, truly...and this could have happened anywhere – either Biden or the U.S. Senate, or maybe both, should try to put together some type of an independent commission to look into this, starting with who was responsible for overruling the Obama-era upgraded brake requirement for the trains, even though we know who was guilty on that one...forget about those wackadoodles running U.S. House doing any kind of oversight on this, unless it involves denying women abortions, trying to cancel drag queen story hour or anything to do with Hunter Biden’s laptop)...



...and Chris Hayes tells us that the “party of Lincoln” has decided that their propaganda on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is that the fall of that institution has to do with “wokeness”...Hayes quite rightly IMO draws a line from regulatory rollback crippling SVB to causing Norfolk Southern’s assault on East Palestine (more related idiocy from The Roger Ailes BS Factory is here)...



...and I hope everybody is having a nice St. Patrick’s Day and managing to stay out of trouble :-).

Thursday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us how the “party of Lincoln” has weaponized all kinds of antagonism against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, etc., along with the news that people of conscience out there are saying they don’t want any part of that and are leaving the “Republic” Party in response (kudos)...interesting take on fear turning into hate...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us about some wingnut author named Bethany Mandel who apparently wrote a book about How “Woke” Radicals Are Indoctrinating Your Children, even though she can’t explain what “woke” means...figures (NSFW/H)...



...and Ana and Rm Brown of TYT discuss some Republican clown in Oklahoma named Jim Olsen who thinks it’s OK to wail on special needs kids because the Old Testament says it’s fine...monstrous (and GREAT point by Ana on wondering where the hell the parents are when bills like this to actually protect their kids are introduced, instead of yelling about kids reading history that makes the parents uncomfortable...the anti-spanking bill apparently didn’t get enough votes for approval, though it will likely be reintroduced, as noted here)...



...and Alonzo Bodden of Rebel HQ brings us the story of Minnesota state senate Republican idiot Steve Drazkowski, who apparently has never encountered anyone suffering form hunger, particularly kids, which led him to oppose a bill providing relief to his constituents...so many damn examples of Repuli-can’ts opposing various measures to help others because they can’t conceive of the actual problems themselves – hard to find a word for the selfishness on display (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: This guy is in a hole, and he really should stop digging (here).

...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 3/15/11, in which Sam Seder (in a segment that used to be called “That’s Bullsh*t”) discusses former Wisconsin Repug Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public sector unions (more here)...I think this is a timely reminder because the cretins behind Walker’s garbage versus working folks are now back to try and get wingnut Dan Kelly elected to the state supreme court, which could potentially be disastrous for the ’24 elections and other reasons (to support judge Janet Protasiewicz instead, click here...more here)...



Update 3/26/23: And this sure figures about Kelly, doesn't it?

...and I have to admit that this is kind of a tough musical selection given that Jim Gordon, legendary sessions drummer for The Wrecking Crew, was convicted of murdering his mother and was sentenced to life in prison, but before he came to pieces, he gave some truly memorable performances, including this one.