Tuesday Stuff

John Oliver gave us this segment on immigration a couple of nights ago (nice job to refer to that life form called Stephen Miller as “incel Caillou,” though Biden and the Dems do have work to do for sure – and somehow I don’t think introducing a facial recognition app is going to solve this...we need a “whole of government” solution, and good luck with that and the kicking and screaming of the “party of Lincoln”...I wish we could exclude private companies like CoreCivic and Geo Group, but unfortunately I don’t know how to freeze them out of this...if nothing else, Biden and company need to put up more of a fight against right wing BS on this...this has been an issue for decades, and it’s only getting worse with governmental instability and climate change plaguing the whole world, not just affected countries from which refugees are trying to escape...and there's more idiocy from the "loyal opposition" on that in a later clip – of course, with the writers’ strike now going forward as noted here, this might be his last show for a little while...NSFW/H)...



...and in keeping with the theme of our ridiculous immigration situation in this country, Beau tells us about supposed tough guy and Texas guv Greg Abbott and his “bounty,” or whatever that nonsense was, to get the alleged murderer of 5 people in Abbott’s state – and oh yeah, categorizing them as “illegals” first (which apparently isn't true) as opposed to, y’know, people, is a typically lowball move from “all hat no cattle” Abbott... Beau’s right that this whole damn mess from Abbott is yet another PR stunt (more here)...



Update: Well, this is a relief.

...so what is “the lone star state” focused on instead? Why, treating women in an utterly barbaric way of course... Texas resident Amanda Zurawski gave testimony to the U.S. Senate about her utterly horrible experience because abortion wasn’t available to her as a medical care option, with her senators Cruz and Cornyn absent during her testimony of course (NSFW/H)...



Update 5/4/23: More barbarous cruelty from a so-called "developed" nation is here.

...and speaking of anti-abortion nonsense, Rayy Vana of Rebel HQ tells us about Dr. Nisha Verma dealing with Sen. John Neely Cornpone of Louisiana and his ridiculous hypothetical about abortion, which is typical for someone who will never be “in the stirrups,” and no, that definitely is not a cowboy reference...



...and in another example of U.S. congressional Repugs acting like total fools, Ben Gleib and Cenk Uygur discuss Marjorie Traitor Greene rambling on like the nutcase she is over climate change...and oh yeah, RoJo contributed more nonsense in the Senate (you know him, the guy who “won” by 27K votes last year in his election even though the votes of 37K Dems in Wisconsin were suppressed as noted here – hey Cenk, try bitching about THAT instead of going right to your default of “Dems suck,” OK?)...

...and this happened 20 years ago, which definitely brings to mind this tune.

Monday Stuff (updates)

Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us about the amendment offered by Dem U.S. House Rep Pramila Jayapal saying that the 14th Amendment applies only to actual, flesh-and-blood people (In response to Citizens United of course)...actually, the concept of “corporate personhood” goes back to lawyer Roscoe Conkling of the late 1800s and his ridiculous misinterpretation of that amendment (written for freed slaves, let’s not forget), all of which is detailed pretty well in this great book... and no, I don’t think Jayapal’s amendment has a chance of passage either in the U.S. House under its current wretched “leadership,” unfortunately (Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, among others of the “party of Lincoln,” would spend his last breath if need be fighting such an amendment from Jayapal...and that doesn’t mean I wish harm to the Senate minority “leader,” despite what he wishes for us, so let’s be clear on that, OK?)...



...and staying with the SCOTUS, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about AOC speaking out about Hangin’ Judge JR blowing off a request to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee (and by the way, the Lochner era was the most -pro-business SCOTUS this country had seen – from around the time of the Depression – until this current bunch, that is...NSFW/H)...

...and for more High Court hijinks, I give you this...

Update: Almost Silent Clarence just keeps digging that hole, doesn't he? (here).

Update 5/4/23: The deeper we dig, the worse the stench (here and here).

Update 5/6/23: And Thomas even threw his own sister under the bus, as noted here.

...and returning to our current insanity, Sam and Emma of The Majority Report give us an update on Montana state rep Zooey Zephyr; apparently she can vote and do other functions in the MT “lege” but can’t talk because a trans woman is apparently so threatening to all of these allegedly manly men...we also hear the story of the son of Governor Greg Gianforte asking his old man to lay off with the anti-trans stuff, and finally leading into the woman (Kerri Seekins-Crowe) who would rather her daughter die than be trans (and I know what the Daily Mail is, but apparently they’re pretty accurate with this story of some of the monstrous cruelty of Steven Crowder towards his wife, as noted here)...



...and turning to this nation’s gun carnage, David Pakman gives us evidence that gun violence is worse in red states (and apparently the alleged perp of this recent atrocity in Texas is still at large, though authorities know who he is – more here)...



...well, we can fight back, and John I., Francesca and Samantha Schacher talk about what I guess would have to be a Dem-only attempt to implement and/or expand a nationwide gun buyback program, beginning in Denver, CO (more on Schacher’s group #Here4TheKids is here)...



...and to put a little “pep in your step” to start the week, allow me to offer this.

Friday Stuff

David Doel tells us about more info seeping out as to the potential reasons why “Tuckums” was given the boot over at Fix Noise, all of which are interesting I have to admit...my guess is that it was “accumulated offenses,” which is a phrase I first heard in high school when the teacher wanted to give you demerits but he/she couldn’t come up with a reason why, and the Dominion lawsuit (which isn’t the end of the legal problems for that network, let’s not forget) is a big “offense” for all concerned (more here...also, I thought this was a really good video from Chris Hayes about right-wing media, including Carlson's former network of course, contributing to fear and panaoia, but YouTube won't let me embed it here, which is typically stoo-pid)...



...and it seems like we can’t get through a week any more without some occurrence of ridiculous hateful behavior from either Marjorie Trailer Park Greene or Bo-Bo Boebert, and in this case, the former berates AFT teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten over her personal life as a stepmother and trying to keep our kids from dying during the pandemic...yeah, as Mike Figueredo says, I guess Greene thinks kids were sitting at home bored and just said, “Oh, I think I’ll transition”...what a numbskull Greene is (NSFW/H at the very end - Lesley Stahl should feel like an utter fool for legitimizing this guttural harpie)...



...and Thom Hartmann had what I thought was an interesting idea here given all of the SCOTUS garbage with Almost Silent Clarence Thomas and now Gorsuch, and that was to require that any rulings involving questions of constitutionality be unanimous, like what happens in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, which would knock the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR off its damn pedestal, though it might also tie the hands of a liberal SCOTUS majority if we ever see that again – personally, I’d be happy with expanding the court to 13 justices and imposing term limits, to say nothing of attaching criminal penalties for the types of non-disclosure Thomas is guilty of with his best bud Harlan Crow...



Update: And it looks like Hangin' Judge JR has some 'splaining to do also, you might say (here).

...and this clip from More Perfect Union tells us that the residents of El Paso, Texas are trying to fight polluters with a “climate charter” (more here – also NSFW/H at the end, but a lot of important stuff before that)...



...and keeping with the theme of how garbage Republican policies affect everyday people, Desi Lydic of The Daily Show tells how folks in Kentucky really feel about anti-trans, anti-abortion and anti-gun control laws (also mildly NSFW/H)...



....and if I’m going to include this tune, I’d better hurry up, so here it is.

Thursday Stuff

Jayar Jackson and Dan Evans of Rebel HQ bring us the story of quack surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo of Flori-DUH!, who was caught changing a study to make COVID vaccines look more dangerous than they are (here)...Ladapo should lose his license at a minimum, and as far as I’m concerned, he should also be prosecuted, but since we’re talking about Ron #DeathSantis-stan, he’ll likely get a medal and a raise instead...



...and speaking of “The Sunshine State,” it looks like “the mouse” has had enough and is hauling #DeathSantis into court; yeah, the FLA guv ended up giving Disney a lot of legal ammunition by yelling about how the company is “woke” in his book (John and Farron Cousins tell us about it...and yeah, big surprise that Disney is using the corporate speech angle to go after #DeathSantis, huh? And great point by Cousins about the timing of going after #DeathSantis when he’s weakest...couldn’t happen to a more deserving scumbag)...



...and Mike Figueredo beings us the tale of this monster named Jake Shields calling for the public execution of anyone helping kids to transition (and yeah, “Apartheid Clyde” and his Twitter butchery of the whole ”blue check” process are definitely a factor here...NSFW/H)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us how Dem U.S. House Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently stood up and called out the “party of Lincoln” over their debt histrionics, which (as noted previously) only happens when the “R” party runs at least one chamber of Congress and a Dem is in the White House...



...and given this week’s news of certain cable TV personalities getting ushered out, Rachel Maddow gives us what I thought was an interesting history lesson on Father Charles Coughlin from the 1930s and his influence on public opinion during the years of FDR and the Great Depression...this leads into a discussion of the decline of right-wing mouthpieces including Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly and Carlson and how none of them, big as they were, match Coughlin’s influence in his day...



...and happy belated 70th birthday to Gary Wright.

Wednesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen discusses some Texas state senator named Phil King (a Repug of course) who sponsored a bill to have the Ten Commandments displayed in public schools, and of course it passed (as well as charter schools making kids pray and study the Bible) – as noted here, this was tried in Alabama, but a law passed in that state ended up discouraging this practice, fortunately (important history lesson from Cohen on this, and more on the Lemon Test is here)...



...and Desi Lydic of The Daily Show has some fun with some recent news stories, including the fall of “Tuckums” of course, and this “Real Women of Politics” nuttiness, as well as the demise of Bed, Bath and Beyond with Roy Wood, Jr (mildly NSFW/H)...



Update 4/27/23: More on The Swanson TV Dinner Heir is here.

...and the last clip was amusing IMO when it comes to making fun of Republicans, but this is serious stuff, and that is the campaign against Montana state rep Zooey Zephyr, as Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us (more here)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that 15-vote U.S. House Speaker Repug Kevin McCarthy wants to impose a work requirement for the poors of course related to food assistance, which would screw over, among others, our veterans who the “party of Lincoln” claim to love (more here)...



...and I should note that I generally try not to pay a lot of attention to Dennis Prager since I consider him to be some of the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, but as Jesse Dollemore tells us here, it looks like Prager (in an admittedly sleepy way) seems to be saying “OH YEAH, YOU FILTHY LIB? OUR SLAVERY WAS WAY BETTER THAN MUSLIM SLAVERY! U-S-A! U-S-A!”...



...and Adrienne Lawrence of Rebel HQ informs us that Almost Silent Clarence Thomas now has a partner when it comes to financial irregularities let’s say, and that would be Neil Gorsuch, who just got flagged for doing some kind of a deal with Lawrence’s former law firm (the SCOTUS justice reported the sale of a property on his disclosure forms, but he didn’t report that the buyer was Brian Duffy of Greenberg Traurig, which frequently argues before the High Court it seems)...gee, what a shame that there’s no precedence for a SCOTUS justice being forced to resign for unethical financial behavior – oh wait, there is! Actually, this pales in comparison to the Thomas stuff, but Lawrence is right...Gorsuch should have cited that Duffy of G-T was the buyer in the transaction, and there should be SCOTUS rules about this sort of thing (particularly since Hangin’ Judge JR is going to blow off the Senate Judiciary Committee again as noted here..all of which lends credence to this IMO, and yes, I know the prospects are bleak on that one)...



...and Kyle Kulinski gives us the results of some poll telling us that a fraction of the Repug base wants to fight “woke” ideology more than protect Social Security and Medicare cuts, which, to me, means that these people are too damn stoo-pid for their own bleeping good (I thought this was a pretty good analysis from Kyle, particularly on Guv #DeathSantis – yeah, compared to Our Ochre Abomination, the head of Flori-DUUUH! is pretty much hitting the metaphorical wall from an electoral point of view, but Kulinski loses me a bit by mentioning Briahna Joy Gray...and speaking of #DeathSantis, it looks the “the Mouse” has finally had enough as noted here)...



...and RIP Harry Belafonte, legendary actor and singer (I guess "all-around performer" would cover it) and, IMO, one of the greatest Democrats who ever lived (more here and here).

Tuesday Stuff

Well, well, it looks like “Tuckums” is OUTTA HERE, as former Phils announcer Harry Kalas likely would have put it...David Shuster offers a bit of a remembrance; we’ll just have to see which biped life form The Roger Ailes BS Factory decides to put in his place; I’m sure there are no shortage of humanoids clawing and scratching their way all over each other to try and land that “crowning jewel” of a prime time slot...here is my thought about this (which I’ll likely never be able to verify of course); Rupert The Pirate told Carlson he had to apologize on air for the Dominion stuff and he said he wouldn’t do it, so he went buh-bye (more here and some interesting stuff about Carlson's departure is here)...



...and this prior clip form Joy Reid tells us about Carlson and all the “race lady” stuff...if The Swanson TV Dinner Heir had had any guts, he would have just said the “N” word instead since that’s surely what he really wanted to do (and it’s not like it would have hurt him with his elderly boomer white bread audience – they probably would have given him better ratings for it)...



...and I think the prior two clips are pretty good set-ups for this from Second Thought, in which we learn that You’re Not Immune to Propaganda...good job to mention Edward Bernays and how his methods of persuasion in advertising were used by non-benign political actors tied to neoliberalism, and I honestly didn’t know about Bernays’s link to United Fruit – “neoliberal propaganda communicates the most shallow and meaningless definitions of freedom and democracy” indeed...I have to admit that I also didn’t know about the Macron quote where he said “just cross the street and you’ll find work” to the unemployed French dude..sacre bleu!...



...and as David Doel tells us here, another “head rolled,” you might say, in the corporate media biz, and that was Don Lemon of CNN...how telling is it that Lemon confronted a conservative on air and was given the boot for it, and that was indeed a particularly ridiculous lie from Vivek Ramaswamy about the NRA and the second amendment allegedly aiding the civil rights struggle (more here), and to say that to an African American like Lemon was in singularly bad taste IMO...as I’ve said repeatedly for what it’s worth, the worst thing you can do in media is piss off a conservative, and I get the whole “access” thing, but that’s still no excuse...lying and embellishment (see Brian Williams and an alleged Iraqi helicopter ride), not so much in terms of being allowed to keep your job – “if you want sunshine and rainbows, watch Teletubbies”...nicely done...



...and turning to the latest developments regarding Our Treasonous Orange Pustule who continues to walk amongst us as a free man (and this was a particularly revolting recent story IMO), Farron Cousins tells us that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is allowing Gym Jordan to send a subpoena to former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, meaning that Pomerantz will testify in front of Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee; Bragg may have done this because he understands that this is only going to end badly for Jordan since a lot of stuff the Gropenfuhrer wasn’t charged on under former Manhattan prosecutor Cy Vance and Pomerantz may end up getting read into the Congressional record – womp womp...



...and sometimes I need a tune to mellow out a bit after a morning of driving on the PA Turnpike and the “blue route” in these parts (long story), so I now offer the following.

Monday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that this Texas Repug state senator named Drew Springer wants to make it illegal to file three or more environmental complaints about energy companies (or ANY company, it sounds like) in that state that don’t result in an enforcement action (and yeah, good luck with that...how this ISN’T a violation of the First Amendment is something I cannot imagine...and in case anyone thinks I’m deliberately ignoring blue-state Repug idiocy, allow me to present this)...



...and this More Perfect Union video tells us that Arizona is “ground zero” in the war on public schools (not sure why they used that green caption text, but that’s a minor criticism, along with that “Turning Point Academy” typo...report has to do with $$ taken from funding for public schools to go to these private charter schools instead, with a typical unholy alliance between the Walton family in Arkansas and the DeVos family in Michigan, as we learn from the clip...I didn’t know about the ways that people like the DeVos and Walton families can “make bank” at the expense of educating our kids, to say nothing of that nematode Charlie Kirk, but as nauseating as it is, I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised)...



...and speaking of The Grand Canyon State, it looks like “Curtsy Kyrsten” is livin’ large all right, to the tune of 100K (at least) on that sweet, sweet donor cash (and to think, there were individuals out there getting big mad over people who once chased her into a bathroom stall – there’s a word in the English language called P-E-R-S-P-E-C-T-I-V-E! Maybe the people defending Sinema – maybe one or two – should bother to look it up...John and Brett Erlich tell us more)...



...and here’s a shocker...it’s “Banana Republican” Bri-Fi poking his head out of his hidey hole long enough to misuse the term “Democrat” (which is a noun, not a f*king adjective, you assclown) and yammer about the debt ceiling...of course, like everyone else in the “Trump party,” he voted for the Gropenfuhrer’s utterly ruinous tax cut in December 2017 and had not a word to say about “THE DEBT! THE DEBT!” when he did that, but of course now that we have a Democrat-IC president, he pretends to be fiscally prudent (to do something about that, click here...and don’t get me started on Josh Gottheimer)...



Update 4/26/23: Hey, whaddaya know? It looks like Harlan (I Bought Clarence Thomas’s House For Six Figures) Crow gave donations to Bri-Fi’s beloved “No Labels,” as noted here.

Care to comment, Bri? I didn’t think so.

..and Jesse Dollemore informs us that Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin has sent a letter to SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts about Almost Silent Clarence Thomas’s antics and Roberts appearing before Durbin’s committee (and it seems like, based on this, Hangin’ Judge JR is going to blow off Durbin once again)...



...and heading back below that Mason-Dixon line, as long as this state is going to pull nonsense like this, I’m going to keep including this tune.

Friday Stuff

I know I haven’t checked in with John Oliver in quite awhile, but he recently gave us this segment on the plight of farmworkers that I found to be particularly well done (NSFW/H). – so, two people die from falling into a manure vat and all they rate is $5 grand apiece? And yeah, wasn’t that reaction great from the farm owner (I guess that’s what he was) when Dolores Huerta was mentioned? And the other family of the guy who yelled at a bunch of workers using the “N” word was a trip also; can only imagine what happens when the cameras aren’t rolling (the segment makes me recall when we used to air programs like this)...



...and when it comes to bottom feeders trying to subvert our democracy, Brian Tyler Cohen gives us this recent recording of Cleta Mitchell talking to other traitors about how to disenfranchise primarily younger voters...Mitchell, in addition to playing political footsie with the Gropenfuhrer, is also buds with Ginni Thomas, wife of our thoroughly compromised SCOTUS justice (one of them anyway) as noted here...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss corporations going back to bribing attorneys general (this RAGA group it seems, who no doubt made common cause with Mitchell and her pals), despite the fact that many at these corps said earlier that they wouldn’t do that if any of the AGs were found to have anything to do with "the big lie" and the 1/6 insurrection...more great work from ProPublica – and yeah, Comcast is acting typically sleazy here again...once more, these two find a way to blame Democrats, and yes, I realize the “D” party is also pretty slimy in taking corporate dough, but when it comes to the attack on our government on 1/6, that’s a different discussion and Ana and Cenk should treat it as such...



...and when it comes to undermining our government, Jesse Dollemore (not him) tells us about barely sentient life form Lauren (“Democrat Party”) Boebert, who keeps screeching that we’re a “Constitutional republic” and not a democracy...here is my take on what’s going on with that; that phrasing is deliberate, because the end game for the wingnuts is to hold their utterly awful Article V “Constitutional convention” and tear our most important founding document to shreds, rewriting it for the benefit of Charles Koch, Peter Thiel, the Sacklers, and all of the other plutocrats in this country (many of whom chose to donate to “big lie” proponents and insurrectionists that Ana and Cenk noted earlier)...if that catastrophic development ever happened, then yeah, we would be a “Constitutional republic” and NOTHING like a true democracy...of course, Boebert is way too dumb to realize how she’s giving away the game here with her inane phrasing (Jesse makes something like that point at around 7:00 – her idiocy is typical for someone associated with stuff like this)...



...turning to more people-powered stuff, Robert Reich tells us about the impact of junk fees (kind of a boomer “tell” to refer to a Dolly Parton “record,” which is pretty “analog” of him, but his points are spot-on otherwise)...



...and this New York Times video essay tells us how non-compete agreements are abused by employers in all manner of industries which often have absolutely nothing to do with retaining intellectual property and more to do with controlling workers trying to seek gainful employment (info on the FTC proposal to ban non-competes is here)...



...and when it comes to individual action on a “grass roots” (or asphalt?) level, John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about “the Governator” saying hasta la vista, baby to a pothole near his residence (road repair is indeed an issue that crosses political lines...plenty of work to do in that regard near Le Manse Doomsy)...



...and given that tomorrow is Earth Day, I should note that I usually include the video for “If A Tree Falls” by Bruce Cockburn, but I’d like to change it up this year with the following selection...I’m kind of hot and cold on Dave Matthews to be honest, but it seems that, when it comes to politics and important causes, he’s a pretty good dude.

Thursday Stuff

Beau of the Fifth Column tells us about Dominion settling its lawsuit with The Roger Ailes BS Factory...typically great point about how this settlement could lead to a flood of additional litigation from people involved with the 1/6 insurrection, as well as anyone else who could have been impacted by that network’s attacks on Dominion, and as Beau notes, the Smartmatic lawsuit is a whole other mess that that propaganda network will have to deal with...also, this should give more of an impetus to trying to get that network banned from military bases...



...and Stephen Colbert tells us more here, along with an “apology” from Fix Noise, and also including more NFTs from Combover Caligula, Iowa’s child labor bill passed at 4:52 AM and King Chuckie’s coronation plans...



...and continuing with still more antics from Mango Mussolini (one of these days, he’s actually going to be behind bars...), the watchdog group CREW sez Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence made $160 mil from foreign governments as prez (doesn’t consider how much $$ he made domestically), as Jesse Dollemore tells us...



...and color me shocked (well, not really), but U.S. Senate Repugs are hoping Our Ochre Abomination stays the hell out of ’24 races (that’s why EVERY Dem for Congress, including the U.S. House, should make their GOP opponent disavow the Gropenfuhrer, if they’ll do that of course)...



...and I know I’ve taken plenty of well-deserved IMO shots at Flori-DUUH! recently, but Sam of The Majority Report tells us about a navy commander in Martin County, FL who had some commendable words about fanaticism, religious or otherwise, within our borders...props to him for standing up, this time as a civilian (he references Adm. Hyman Rickover, who said we should be exposed to different ideas, something he has apparently communicated to his son...spot on)...



...and going in exactly the opposite direction, Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that wingnuts are launching a “woke” phone app to let conservative snowflakes know what products to avoid if they hurt their precious fee fees – I thought Ana stumbled onto a good point that too many people in this country think the only power they have is through consumerism, which is definitely not the case...



...and taking the “anti woke” stuff to a thoroughly ridiculous extreme, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us of some guy in Topeka, Kansas arrested for destroying cases of Bud Light and exposing himself, apparently (NSFW/H, especially towards the end), leading to another idiot melting down at a LEGO store, as well as this other assclown at “Build a Bear” (and somehow I don’t think that idiot at the end with the Biden 2024 shirt is actually a Biden voter...and yeah, I think “clout chasing” describes it, sadly - more here)...



...and I thought this was a neat newer tune; I haven’t had anything from Seth Meyers in awhile I know, not because I dislike him I hasten to add, but mainly because I just haven’t paid much attention to his clips lately...they’re either too long or cover redundant topics; I’ll see if I can work him back into these posts...also, maybe I should have something pot-related given the date, but I got nuthin' on that for now.

Wednesday Stuff

This More Perfect Union “Classroom” clip with F.D. Signifier tells us the tale of “Neutron Jack” Welch, who (according to the clip) invented mass layoffs in the ‘80s, though I think “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap at Sunbeam and Unisys disaster architect Michael Blumenthal deserve dishonorable mentions also...the clip focuses on how Welch basically destroyed the family-and-union-friendly atmosphere of General Electric in pursuit of the proverbial “bottom line,” buying up assets that led to massive shareholder wealth including insurance companies...the clip also focuses on executive largess from stock buybacks, which used to be illegal until they were allowed by The Sainted Ronnie R...Welch’s practices played a big role in mergers and acquisitions, and when it comes to the “business roundtable,” I think the supervillain analogy is perfectly apt (NSFW/H)...



...and continuing with the theme of misbehaving CEO’s, David Doel brings us Andi Owen of MillerKnoll, who recently got mad in a Zoom meeting or whatever about employees wanting a bonus after she gave herself one for at least two years running of over a million dollars each year – video also points out how unions raise wages for members and non-members...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen discusses Repug congresswoman Nancy Mace actually making some sense when talking about abortion and women’s health care (atypically for her party), though I think Cohen is spot-on to say that Mace is only saying this stuff out of concern for her electoral prospects, and you can tell that Mace is on the right track because this Fix Noise hairdo is trying to get her to shut up (Cohen, as usual, commendably "brings the receipts" to show where the "party of Lincoln" really stands on this stuff)...



...and I have to admit that I thought Justin Pearson was already back at the Tennessee state house along with Justin Jones, though apparently not, and it also seems that Pearson and his constituents are getting threats from the governmental body where Pearson serves that is getting a lot more attention from voters and the media than it could ever want, as noted here (John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us more..."we've got to stand for something or fall for everything" indeed)...



Update 1 4/20/23: And it looks like a member of GOP "leadership" who voted to expel the "Tennessee Three" is now accused of sexually harassing interns - heckuva job! (here).

Update 2 4/20/23: Womp womp...

...and the threats in Tennessee seem to be more political in nature, but Rachel Maddow discussed a recording that was a lot more overt when it comes to bodily harm...it seems that a newspaper publisher in McCurtain County, Oklahoma left a voice-activated recorder at some kind of local government meeting because he thought stuff was going on away from public scrutiny, and boy, did he ever turn out to be right about that...racist conversations, “killing and burying reporters,” and on and on, with laughs and jokes aplenty over it...I see a trail of criminal and possibly civil litigation resulting from this that could last for years...



...and Thom Hartmann asks if civil rights are getting cancelled for African Americans, which unfortunately is a pertinent question... and yeah, he’s right about how this tracks with the rise of the Gropenfuhrer (scary stuff about how African American history is getting erased from textbooks and school curricula, but yeah, that’s typical for Trumpism, which is just the latest flavor of GOP intolerance...and given the role that Oklahoma Repug Governor Kevin Stitt is playing here, his indignation over the McCurtain County stuff in the prior clip is merely a bad joke as far as I’m concerned)...



...and Farron Cousins, sitting in for David Pakman, tells us that millennial and Gen Z voters have pretty much had it with the GOP for all of the reasons Cousins points out (can’t blame them one bit...guns, climate change, abortion, being saddled with ridiculous debt before entering the workforce, to say nothing of the racial intolerance on display in the prior videos)...



Update: More here.

...and today marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of choreographer Cholly Atkins, who taught dance moves to a whole bunch of Motown acts “back in the day,” including The Temptations as shown in the following clip.

Tuesday Stuff

Once more, I know what The Lincoln Project is, but I thought this was an apropos little clip about 15-vote House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his antics with manufacturing a debt ceiling crisis – once more, this NEVER happens when a Repug is in the White House, but only when there’s a Dem and the “loyal opposition” is in charge of the U.S. House...



...and I know this related clip from Ali Velshi is about three months old, but I don’t think a lot has substantively changed on this issue since then of course; Velshi gets into the “nitty gritty” of how bad a default by this country would be, and he draws a parallel to this and what happened under President Obama about 12 years ago...



...next, David Doel discusses Dem U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s health issues (I don’t think Ro Khanna should be on Fix Noise – and leave it to this hairdo to try and attack Fetterman in the process even though he isn’t part of this discussion; I wish Khanna had found a way to mention that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao has been away also, as Kirsten Gillibrand did – but Khanna is right when it comes to Feinstein...I think we all know people who’ve dealt with friends or family members in declining mental health, and I don’t say this to “pile on,” but Feinstein needs to step down and get the help and support she needs...and I still have an axe to grind with Gillibrand over Al Franken, so no, I definitely don’t take her seriously...in that Klobuchar clip, what was more telling to me, aside from the spat with Feinstein, were the empty seats on the Repug side of the conference table; anyone missing from that hearing should have a damn good explanation for it...and of course, leave it to #MoscowMitch to try and exploit a situation against Democrats any way he can as noted here and here)...



...and John, Cenk and Jordan Uhl of TYT bring us the story of some wingnut in Nebraska, State Sen. Steve Edrman, who basically echoes the “great replacement theory” from Tuckums on abortion, pretty much saying that those who were aborted could have been working in jobs, or something (as opposed to those nasty foreigners who got the jobs instead...what a train wreck of an alleged human being this guy Erdman is...he wants a six-week abortion ban like Flori-DUUUH! of course...makes me recall “human capital stock” Kevin Hassett...”strip the state for parts” indeed...I guess the emerging new line from the GQP is that abortion is bad because it deprives workers for the corporate machine, which is a variation of what the equally-useless Tim Scott also said recently – and no, I don’t believe that that will be a winning strategy either)...



...heading south, David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about a cop in Pensacola, Flori-DUUH! who pulled over an African American counselor for the apparently criminal offense of TRYING TO DO HIS DAMN JOB! And yes, I know that the statute on that state of allegedly “fleeing” police is ridiculously strict, but that doesn’t in any way justify the actions of this cop, and good for this counselor to sue the police, all of which happened in 2020...



...and continuing with cataloging Republican stupidity (and I acknowledge that I end up doing an awful lot of that around here), South Dakota Repug guv Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem recently bragged about giving her two-year-old daughter a hunting rifle...oh, but the NRA isn’t a cult...just keep telling yourself that (more here)...



...and I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m doing it again now; this Now This clip discusses the case of Daniel Perry, for whom Texas Governor Greg (“All Hat No Cattle”) Abbott has pledged a pardon when Perry is sentenced for killing a Black Lives Matter protestor (more here and here, including a defense of Perry from “Killer Kyle”...sorry if it's hard to read the text in this video; might be better off watching the clip from YouTube)...



...and RIP Ahmad Jamal.

Monday Stuff

I apologize for including so much idiocy from South Carolina Repug senatorial mistake Tim Scott (who somehow is operating under the delusion that he could actually be president), but it is instructive in a way to see his utterly nonsensical answers to the question of supporting a nationwide abortion ban (Janet Yellen? Really??)...Chris Hayes is exactly right in that the “R” party wants the courts to inflict a nationwide ban so political bottom-feeders like Scott can try to escape from this issue, even though it shouldn’t be hard for a Dem to tie extremist judges to Scott and the “party of Lincoln”...one can hope so anyway (and yeah. #DeathSantis couldn't wait to free his fingers from pudding long enough to sign that horrible 6-week ban into law as noted here)...



...and frequent Fix Noise contributor and former detective Ted Williams goes off script while talking to Neil Cavuto after the Louisville shooting and points out that IT’S THE DAMN GUNS!!!, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (NSFW/H...as does this guy, amazingly enough)...



Update 4/21/23: Yeah, I think this says it.

...and Ana of Cenk of TYT discuss some Trumpist loon named Seth Weathers launching “woke free beer” aimed at Bud Light of course...and $20 for a six-pack? Too damn funny (more here, and from the “’f’ around and find out” department, I give you this)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses nutball state senator Mike Moon in Missouri, who says it’s OK for 12-year-olds to get married...I linked to this a few days ago I know but I think it needs to be mentioned again (Moon is confronted by Dem Peter Meredith in the clip...and yeah, I love that “California values” remark from this assclown, or whatever that was, as if his lunacy is somehow the fault of an accursed blue state...NSFW/H also)...



...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us up to date on the latest illegality with SCOTUS justice Almost Silent Clarence Thomas and retro-Klan-member-named-guy Harlan Crow...Michael Beschloss reminds us here that liberal Abe Fortas was driven off the court way back when for a hell of a lot less than this (paging Merrick Garland? Can anybody find a pulse?)...I thought this was a good related column from Jamelle Bouie in “the old gray lady”...and believe it or not, there’s more, as noted here...



Update 4/18/23: And this sure was a predictable response from the “party of Lincoln,” wasn’t it? “That Democrat Party is trying to smear a great American again! Corruption in six-figure amounts happens all the time in Washington! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP YOU FILTHY LIB!”

...and like last year I believe, the tax filing day was moved to tomorrow 4/18; hope you all end up OK – we did all right, fortunately.

Friday Stuff

Beau of the Fifth Column discusses the Repugs and their “Principal Skinner” moment when it comes to losing younger voters; this epiphany of sorts is brought to us courtesy of Kellyanne Conjob – “they’re demonstrating that they want to rule, not represent” – uh huh...



...and Ana of TYT tells us that big stupid head Matt Gaetz wants Biden to indiscriminately cut funding of programs relied on by poorer Americans, all for the sake of raising the damn debt limit (JUST MINT THE FREAKING COIN ALREADY, DARK BRANDON!)...



...oh, and speaking of Gaetz, Bobo, Marjorie Traitor Greene and all of their pals, it looks like they want to defund the FDA over the abortion pill, as Farron Cousins discusses in this clip (the party of limited government strikes again)...



...and in the prior clip, we learn about the consequences of nutty Trump judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling to ban the abortion pill; staying in “the land of the yellow rose,” John and Jayar of The Damage Report introduce us to married-with-a-child state rep Bryan Slaton, who warns everybody about “groomers,” but whaddaya know...it looks like he’s a little too chummy with one of his under-21 interns (just say “oops” and get out)...



...and going even further down the rabbit hole when it comes to Repugs, their media acolytes and “doing the nasty,” Kyle Kulinski (in a pretty much NSFW/H clip) brings us Blaze TV host Steve Deace, who basically says that men, according to him, are getting so much sex that they’re bored, which, among other things, is more than a bit of a “tell” about how he approaches the subject...not my business I know, but I wonder how his wife feels about that statement...I did a little checking on this guy, and apparently he’s a wingnut “fave” because of disgusting nonsense such as this, this and this...



...well, to return the content to something more hopeful and upbeat, David Doel tells us about thousands of Rutgers faculty on strike...for graduate students to have to fight for a $30K-or-so wage that is basically poverty given what they have to spend on their education is highway robbery at a minimum, particularly for a university that made $816 mil last year as the video tells us (more great reporting on this from The Lever is here)...



...and with Justin Jones and Justin Pearson returned to the Tennessee state house where they belong, Lawrence O’Donnell tells us that the two recently appeared with fellow Dem Gloria Johnson to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in front of the Lorraine Motel, where King was gunned down (the site is now a museum, as O’Donnell tells us)...



...and here’s a newer tune for the kids to help us into what hopefully will be a good weekend for everybody; I had a chance to put this up a week ago, but I don’t think Good Friday would have been the correct time for it...everybody has to draw the line somewhere I guess.

Thursday Stuff

Francis Maxwell with Meidas Touch brings us the remarks of San Antonio Spurs basketball coach Gregg Popovich regarding the most recent mass shooting in Nashville (not counting Louisville also of course) and some of the related commentary from Big Hair Blackburn in the U.S. Senate; to me, the wonder isn’t that Popovich continues to speak his mind on this, which is commendable, but that more public figures don’t follow suit...



...and with our most recent gun carnage in mind, including Louisville (and is it me, but is it telling that there’s been virtual silence as far as I can determine from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao and Rand “Fake Ophthalmologist” Paul on that mass casualty event?), the TMR crew tells us that Charlie Kirk sez that mass slaughter is the “price of doing business” to protect our sacred Second Amendment (or at least, Kirk’s ridiculous misinterpretation of it, comparing gun violence to peanut allergies or some such nonsense...and let’s not forget that the NRA is closely aligned with Kirk’s Turning Point USA as noted here)...



...and kudos to Dem Washington state governor Jay Inslee for standing up to that troglodyte Repug governor Brad Little in Idaho who wants to criminalize abortion everywhere (once more, heckuva job with Dobbs, High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR!) – Rachel Maddow explains...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us how Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg gave it back to Gym Jordan over the latter’s typically ridiculous upcoming hearing in The Big Apple (and I think this is exactly what Jordan deserves in response)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us the news that, apparently, some idiot named Lance Wallnau says people are going to get killed next month for not supporting Combover Caligula...looks like we’ve got another candidate for the rubber room (and I don’t mean Jesse of course...gee, I wonder if Jordan – allegedly so concerned about victims of violent crime – is going to look into this? Don’t hold your breath)...



...and John and Conscious Lee of The Damage Report tells us about Webster Barnaby, some Repug state rep in Flori-DUUUH!, who thinks trans people are like X-men mutants walking among us, or something...of course, his analogy likely falls apart in his mind when you recall that those comic book characters were the “good guys”...I know there are a lot of good, hard working Dems in that state fighting the good fight, and props to them, but at times like this, part of me thinks that that state can’t break off from our continent and sink into the ocean fast enough...



...and this More Perfect Union clip brings us the story of workers at the Kroger supermarket chain who have dealt with wage theft, something to keep in mind as that giant retailer tries to merge with Albertson’s, which probably would be good for shareholders but lousy for everyone else...



...and I neglected to post yesterday because I got hung up with cataloging my Nazi memorabilia (joke - more here), but I did manage to come across this item where Missouri is apparently not going to fund public libraries any more...yeah, just keep everyone smart enough to work the machines but too dumb to do much of anything else, as The Eternal George Carlin once put it...considering that, I had this “book” tune in mind (and I also give you this insanity from Rep. Mike Moon of the "show me" state).

Tuesday Stuff

Yeah, if it’s a day with a “y” in it, then that means that it’s not time to politicize gun violence again; according to MSNBC, the cops are treating this as a workplace-violence-related issue...obviously it’s a “gun” issue also (5 are dead including the shooter and 6 are being treated at University of Louisville Hospital...one is critical...there were 9 injured total but 3 were treated and released...and this lunatic had an AR-15 as noted here)...



...and on the subject of imaginary “violence” (as opposed to the all-too-real kind), Farron Cousins tells us that some Fix Noise bimbo is mad about Biden inviting Tennessee state reps Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson to the White House in response to the expulsion of Jones and Pearson (Jones was just reinstated of course), though, as Cousins notes, this harpie has not one damn thing to say about other ACTUAL violence in this country, against women, LGBTQ individuals, or anyone on the wrong end of a gun...



...and sticking with the subject of real violence, Kyle Kulinski tells us that All-Hat-No-Cattle Greg Abbott of Texas is looking to pardon some assassin named Daniel Perry who got it into his head to have a showdown with a BLM protestor and killed one of them exercising his right of free speech (the protestor of course)...Abbott was spurred into action by the caterwauling of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir as we find out (more here)...



Update 4/13/23: Gee, this sure figures about this nut, huh?

...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about the disgusting party switch form Team “D” to Team “R” by Tricia Cotham in North Carolina, giving Repugs a veto-proof majority in their state legislature...I get it that people switch sides in politics all the time, but in Sinema-esque fashion, Cotham did it in such as way as to totally flip off all of the people who worked for her campaign...



Update 5/5/23: "Rot in hell" indeed (here).

...and to give you a bit of actual good news, David Pakman tells us that Dem Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer just signed into law a repeal of that state’s 1931 abortion ban...



...and given the first clip, if you guessed that I think it’s time for another damn anti-gun song, you guessed correctly.

Monday Stuff

In the latest Second Thought video, we learn Why Work Is Getting Worse – “We’re not going to find a solution in some mythologized past. It’s only going to be when people have actual collective autonomy to make economic decisions and aren’t forced to generate profits for a small group of wealthy businessmen that work can actually, and durably, improve.”...yeah, I would say so (have to remember this for Labor Day)...



...and I touched on this a bit on Friday with the Trae Crowder clip, but here is Max Burns of Rebel HQ telling us more about MAGA nitwits like Kid Rock attacking Bud Light (privileged white dudes with guns and some hurt fee-fees...more here)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report speak with Mehdi Hasan about Netanyahu and Israel (and get in a plug for Hasan’s book, which I know nothing about, but considering that it’s from a straight shooter like Hasan, it’s probably good)...



...and returning to this country, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report talks about Bari Weiss running with a story from this Emily Yoffe person about a child taking puberty blockers as part of gender-affirming care, with the mother claiming that her child is being abused by the hospital performing these procedures despite the child’s responses to the contrary (NSFW/H)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report discuss the expulsion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee state house (GREAT idea from John to make this into a campaign issue; I’d like to see an actual peaceful protest on the steps of the state capitol over getting the two reinstated, but I’ll take what I can get at this point)...



Update: A terrific development is here...and isn't this interesting?

Update 4/12/23: And then there were two (here).

...also, Joy Reid interviews MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin about the horrible abortion pill decision by Texas judge (and Trump appointee) Matthew Kacsmaryk (Biden has already appealed the ruling, as well he should...and I thought this was a good column by Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times about the utterly awful Comstock ruling underpinning the Kacsmaryk decision; Comstock should be cast into the legal dustbin at this point – Goldberg is kind of a mixed bag as a columnist I know, but I think she was spot-on here)...



Update: More here.

...and as the over-arching theme, if you will, of “governance” by Not Your Father’s Republican Party is revenge-based violence, as Thom Hartmann tells us, adding that isn’t the last move as part of their fascist descent – it’s the first...



...and happy belated 60th birthday to Julian Lennon (very mildly NSFW/H).

Happy Easter 2023

I hope you all you all have a happy and blessed Easter. If you don't observe anything, may you have a happy and blessed long weekend (and that goes for Passover and Ramadan too).