This clip from Brave New Films brings us the financial costs of ICE’s utter destruction of this country, to say nothing of the human cost...if we don’t have something approximating a permanent truth and reconciliation House subcommittee with subpoena power when this horror show someday comes to an end, we’ll have it all over again, but worse (and I know I'm repeating myself on that, and I will continue to do so)...
...and this clip from Daily Kos informs us that Dem U.S. congresswoman Robin Kelly has introduce three articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem (more here)...
...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that Our Sweaty Bronzer Boy of a *preznit had a bit of a meltdown at a Ford plant recently in response to a worker who called out that #47 was a “pedo protector,” with our “leader” mouthing “F-you” and flipping the bird to the person who called it out, just like a head of state is supposed to (in hell, maybe)...and we’re provided here with Example 2,647 of how THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO IS PISS OFF A CONSERVATIVE (at least as far as business and corporate media is concerned); beyond ridiculous that the guy who yelled that at Don The Con got suspended, but getting about $220K (at least) on his Go Fund Me page is sweet justice of a sort...I’m going to break an informal rule I have at this site, which is to not say anything affecting someone else’s commerce, but Ford’s vehicles absolutely STINK; I don’t say that lightly since I’m sure thousands of workers diligently try to make the best product they can, but I had a Ford product years ago that was a relentless money pit and I SWORE I would never make a mistaken purchase of their products ever again...I’m violating my rule because, as Kyle points out in the clip, those pinheaded Ford managers lobbied the Tangerine Toddler to basically get environmental rules relaxed, which was highly detrimental to Ford’s earnings and likely led to huge job losses...basically, Ford shot themselves in the ass on this one better than I ever could by denigrating their products (NSFW/H)...
...and turning to more governmental malfeasance from our ruling gaggle of sycophants and bottom feeders, Brittany Page (definitely not her) tells about two whistleblowers at HUD (definitely not them), Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan (who Page interviews), putting their careers on the line by telling us what’s going on in yet another rogue government agency, testifying before Congress (actually, Heenan was fired and Osadebe is on thin ice also, as Page notes)...with all of the horrendous bad actors in our disgusting federal regime, I hadn’t spent much time on Scott Turner at HUD, but he’s appropriately awful also, including refusing to enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which he’s legally required to do (almost quaint to think our despotic federal overlords would do anything in accordance with the law)...I honestly didn’t know about the HUD enforcement put into place under The Sainted Ronnie R – credit where it’s due I suppose (the language restrictions Osadebe mentions, as in the fact that any HUD communication needs to be English only, definitely tracks for our “fine people on both sides” bunch of lickspittles)...absolutely GREAT idea to keep calling our elected representatives (about this issue as well as abolishing ICE of course) at 202-224-3121...
...and every once in a while I feel the need to present this clip of Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy from “The Newsroom,” a particularly smart HBO series from awhile back...can’t imagine how this clip would be updated now with Bari Weiss running CBS News, who is as qualified for that job as I am (I should emphasize that I don't agree with every word of this, but definitely what Daniels says at the end...NSFW/H also)...
...and I thought this was a particularly good newer tune (and for full disclosure purposes, I should note that I’m not immune to “doom scrolling” myself, though I’m trying to be better about that).
Ali Velshi speaks with Steve Benen and Angelo Carusone about the false savings (totaling about $215 billion, a proverbial drop in the bucket when talking about the federal budget) and damage from DOGE, which is nothing compared to what Apartheid Clyde CLAIMED it would save, and a New York Times analysis sez what was saved was actually a fraction of even THAT amount...oh, and by the way, DOGE’s US AID destruction has led to the deaths of nearly three quarters of a million people worldwide, mostly kids...and yep, all of this stuff was indeed in Project 2025; a pox on the utterly useless election losers of the DNC for not putting that front and center during the ’24 election (and I would also blame Repugs, and I do, but we know how spineless and gutless they truly are, and me trying to shame them won’t do much good)...and oh yeah, on top of all of that, DOGE actually cost the government $135 billion, as we learn (Carusone makes the great point that DOGE was fueling the wingnut BS narrative about the “deep state” and traumatizing government workers who had job expertise at the same time)...
...and Hunter Avallone of Occupy Democrats tells us about Philly’s response to the ICE Gestapo...I have issues with “Uncle Larry” Krasner to be honest, but good work here to come at Our Treasonous Orange Pustule and his goons, including Mush Mouth Tom Homan...I think someone in the MS NOW clip yesterday made the really good point that, if Renee Good was supposed to be such a threat, then why did this Jonathan Ross have a gun in one hand and apparently a phone filming the interaction in the another? What kind of freaking law enforcement is THAT?? (mildly NSFW/H)...
...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report brings us the latest on Life In These United States...I wish I could say that I’m exaggerating when I call ICE the Gestapo, but I’m really not, as affirmed by Couch Boy in that Fix Noise clip with Jesse Watters...and by the way (and I can’t believe I have to say this in 2026), but IT’S FREAKING ILLEGAL TO INVADE SOMEONE’S PROPERTY WITHOUT A GODDAMN JUDICIAL WARRANT!!!...ICE continues to kill and injure people, including the Marine veteran interviewed in the clip (with our rogue agency ideologically committed to Pee Wee German’s vision of a white ethno-state indeed)...foreign travelers would have to be out of their minds to come to this country for the FIFA Cup or whatever in soccer this year as well as the ’28 Olympics...I have to read up on NSPM 7; I don’t recall reading about that in our utterly useless corporate media...I’ve watched a lot of important but utterly disheartening clips lately, and this one is right up there (NSFW/H)...
...and Farron Cousins informs us that Don The Con sez taxpayers will comp oil companies who lost money in Venezuela (here it comes again – can you say ’08 Financial Crisis Redux, boys and girls?)...as Cousins correctly notes, #47’s attack on Venezuela allowed him to blow past a deadline to explain all of the redactions in the Epstein files (which he still should be legally required to do, I wish to emphasize)...oh, and in more “behind closed doors” stuff, it looks like the heads of our oil companies and Trump Energy Secretary Chris Wright are trying to figure out how to divvy up our South American neighbor to extract that “black gold” (and whether or not that involves “boots on the ground” is anybody guess, but as in all things, I don’t trust our regime to tell us the truth about that)...important info from Cousins on the steps involved in extracting and refining petroleum before it EVER makes its way to the pump (echoing the recent CBC clip I had on that)...
...and Jimmy Kimmel discusses a story in the news from St. Louis ...“Hey hey, we’re the Monkees” (hmmm...)...nice transition to the “Detroit orangutan”...and of course #47 gives the finger to a Ford worker and issues more threats against Minnesota; sounds like another day with a “y” in it (great job by that woman in the clip making fun of that wingnut “reporter”)...and OF COURSE the Tangerine Toddler is STILL making verbal flatulence about trying to annex Greenland (which – and let’s not forget this – is EXACTLY what Vlad The Butcher wants)...and should we really be surprised that “Gomer” Comer in the House is trying to persecute the Clintons over the Epstein mess instead of Comer’s boss? Also, “I’ll Drink To That” Hegseth used what looked like a civilian plane to bomb the Venezuelan boats, and yeah, that sure is a war crime all right (I don’t think we should be blamed for forgetting about bombing those boats given the torrent of BS unleashed by our ruling criminal cabal)...and I know a few people who would bite on the “MAGA sack,” though they’re so oblivious that they don’t need it...
...and speaking of The Monkees (were we?), on this day in 1966, David Bowie changed his name to not conflict with the lead singer of the TV musical group (at that time)...I know I just had a Bowie tune a few days ago, but I think the time is right for another one.
John and Jayar of The Damage Report bring us the latest putrid details on this country’s financial downfall...we’ve been in 25th Amendment territory almost from the moment Don The Con was sworn in, but God almighty, are we ever in it now (billions of dollars from factories coming back? I think he needs another dementia test)...kudos to John for presenting that godawful chart on manufacturing pointing out more lies from the Tangerine Toddler...oh, but the 500 richest people gained 2.2 trillion last year, so it’s all good, right?...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen echoes this by discussing Our Orange Man-Baby's disastrous jobs report...’25 was the worst year of job creation since ’03, including 15K jobs since “liberation day” in April, and oh yeah, unemployment is skyrocketing too (oh, but “Human Capital Stock” Kevin Hassett thinks the unemployment number is a rounding error or something – WHAAAA??)...oh, and that line about making the BLS numbers more reliable or something no doubt means that more reliable statisticians in that department will get fired in favor of incompetent Trumpist lackeys...I knew the ACA costs were going to explode since Repugs refused to extend those credits, but that slide with those percentage increases was pretty damning (and I know there was that discharge petition that got out of the House that would extend the credits, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s all theater unless the Senate chooses to act, and even if they did and it got to the desk of Our Treasonous Orange Pustule, he’d likely veto it and that would have to be overridden somehow)...NSFW/H...
...and this CBC report from Andrew Yang gives a lot of important info IMO on the Gropenfuhrer’s quest for Venezuelan crude; can Pumpkin Pol Pot get it flowing again? (I wouldn’t take that bet)...report goes back to Venezuela’s emergence as an oil economy (and pretty much nothing else) beginning in the 1920s and that country joining OPEC in the ‘60s...I’m definitely not an expert on the history, but it’s not surprising to me that our relationship with that country (if you can call it that) started coming unglued a bit during the ‘70s energy crisis...I’ll buy the argument that Venezuela acted like deadbeats by not paying the dough to Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips that was owed, though it’s honestly hard for me to feel sorry for a dirty energy company, and DEFINITELY NOT to the point where military action takes place...basically, it sounds like Venezuela is a basket case when it comes to rebuilding the infrastructure from the ground up (and I don’t trust a syllable coming out of the mouths of Mango Mussolini or his Trumpette spokes-liar on anything, especially this)...
...and Rachel Maddow lists all of the push back against the whims of Pumpkin Pol Pot, including a federal court blocking Cheetoh Hitler from cutting energy funding for blue states after another federal court stopped #47 from shutting down a wind farm project in Rhode Island and Connecticut and another federal court stopped him from blocking funding for the American Academy of Pediatrics (not to be confused with this bunch of frauds, it should be noted) and another federal court blocked Combover Caligula from cutting off election funds and another federal court blocked him from freezing child care funds...and shockingly, some in the Repug party in Congress are actually showing a spine in standing up to Cantaloupe Capone on Venezuela, restoring the ACA credits, fighting science funding cuts (and MAGA Mike Johnson in the House apparently can afford only one defection from his party now when voting on legislation)...another weird MS NOW video edit at the end...
...and Stephen Colbert commendably leads off his “Late Show” bit with his commentary on ICE’s execution of Renee Good...also, it looks like the Tangerine Toddler is on another marble fix for his stinking ballroom as well as the Kennedy Center (something else asked for by approximately no one), and of all the states where an AI can now prescribe medication, I have to admit that I never thought it would come to Utah first...and a $5K toilet, huh? Insert your snark here...
This MS NOW clip brings us more on the nationwide protests in response to the Renee Nicole Good murder (w/Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Robinson and former FBI agent Christoper O’Leary)...the responses from our ruling regime of liars are typically despicable and of course utterly wrong (oh, so we now live in a country where someone not affiliated with law enforcement can shoot you multiple times in the head OVER AN ALLEGED FREAKING PARKING OFFENSE???!!)...I’m not familiar with the Stanford prison guard reference, but I’ll check it out...good for Robinson to recall Couch Boy’s quote about creating stories out of thin air to get the media’s attention, which, as far as I’m concerned, should ultimately disqualify anyone from taking Vance seriously about anything...great point by O’Leary about how problematic it is to block out the state and local investigators looking into this horrible crime (and apparently this Jonathna Ross is a firearms instructor, has defended white supremacists online and had multiple deployments to Iraq, and family/friends describe him as a hardcore “Christian” MAGA supporter...yep, checks all the boxes all right...more here).
Oh, and by the way, it looks like “team D” is late to the freaking party once more on another important issue (as typified by this response...last I checked, Tina Smith isn’t seeking re-election, so she has no reason to hold back at all as far as I can tell).
Well, since the “leadership” on our side seems totally befuddled when it comes to joining or expressing some kind of sympathy for the anti-ICE protests in the wake of the Good murder, let me give the party some ideas about what they should be saying and/or doing in response to the latest Trumpist carnage (even though I’m pretty damn far from some kind of politics maven or prognosticator I’ll admit).
Right off, every Democratic politician and simpatico pundit should be calling for the abolition of ICE and reallocation of their budget for ACA credits and other social spending (such as rebuilding the Social Security Administration, the EPA, the FAA, etc.). This is as big of a no-brainer as you can imagine. Instead, the organization should be reconstituted as Immigration and Customs Border Protection (ICBP, merged with the existing CBP department), and it should be completely authorized and funded by Congress (the White House should have no involvement). They would not be allowed to carry out raids in search of presumed illegal immigrants, but instead would make all referrals to state and local law enforcement, and THEY (and ONLY THEY) would go to homes, workplaces, etc. to search for people (and only do so with judicial warrants). ICBP’s main job would be for processing those seeking legal entry into this country and gathering intelligence on anyone they suspect of being here illegally (and again, that intelligence would be forwarded to state and local officials who would seek out those here illegally and bring charges if that is warranted).
With that out of the way, here is the MS NOW clip...
Update: A lot more like this (and followed up by actual policy/legislation too).
...and Mike Figueredo of the Humanist Report informs us that the wingnut “rules” don’t apply to Renee Good, apparently...we know what Jesse Watters is, and Nancy Mace is genuinely deranged...oh, so Good deserved death because she’s a lesbian woman with pronouns in her bio (according to the “fascist hivemind”)? Well then, I suppose it’s just a matter of time before these ICE Neanderthals come for everybody...I haven’t heard anyone discuss the fact that this Jonathan Ross was involved in a prior incident where he tried to arrest a guy in a vehicle and ended up getting dragged, to the point where he had to recover from injuries (though it's referenced in the MS NOW clip); I don’t think this guy is qualified for his job because he’s an utter caveman (Ross I mean), but I also think he had some PTSD going on which led him to shoot Good, but that’s just my theory of course...and yeah, that typical nonsense from Combover Caligula about an ICE agent supposedly in the hospital over this is about as demented as we can expect from the “cankles king”...and yeah, the double standard over the fact that we’re supposed to genuflect at the mention of Charlie Kirk’s name while it’s OK for Nicole Good to get dragged in the dirt is pathetic almost to the point of being comical (very definitely NSFW/H)...
...and continuing with this story, Chris Hayes reports on ICE tackling kids at a Minneapolis school and launching more violence because of course, forcing schools to close and making parents and caregivers arrange at the last minute for coverage for their kids; in addition to what this does to parents’ schedules between home and their jobs, there is also the added expense (either for day care or in lost work hours), which is significant...Hayes speaks with Dem Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who has been investigating the use of force by ICE troglodytes since last August (with respect to Sen. Blumenthal, Repugs will NEVER “grow a backbone”)...I heard in passing about more ICE shootings in Portland; I guess I should link to this for the benefit of every elderly Repug boomer in a Bucks County bedroom community who thinks this stuff could never happen to them...
...and in another story having to do with wingnut intolerance egged on by our ruling regime of criminals, it seems that some alleged human beings are targeting an LGBTQ program at the Abington Library in Montgomery County as noted here...what the program represents and how it helps kids is described in the clip...
...and Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show lets us know about Benny Johnson, another Trumpist lickspittle who would be pretty damn repugnant even if he DIDN’T relentlessly tow the line for Cantaloupe Capone...and I forgot that Johnson was bankrolled by Vlad The Butcher, but yeah, that tracks too...and oh yeah, “Batman Benny” makes some AI slop video of himself beating up immigrants; I don’t wish violence on anybody, but I’m sorely tempted to wonder what would happen if Johnson showed up at a Home Depot parking lot and laid his “I HATE MIGRANTS” rap on those in attendance; he’d have to haul his ass out of there like the scared little bitch he truly is...
Lawrence O’Donnell correctly states “first, they lie” when it comes to police and deadly force, going back to an article O’Donnell wrote for the NYT in ’79...if our ruling cabal of criminals were looking for something to push the Epstein files out of the media – well, they sure found it...important background information from O’Donnell on what the SCOTUS has ruled that law enforcement can and cannot do, specifically in a case in the ‘80s saying that the cops don’t have carte blanche to shoot at vehicles whenever they feel like it...and the FBI has said that they won’t cooperate with Minnesota state law enforcement on the investigation into Renee Nicole Good’s murder; can you say whitewash, boys and girls?...and there were numerous prayer vigils for Good last night, including one in Hartford, CT that brought us another disgusting episode of our government run amok (here)...
Update 1: This makes it even clearer that Good was not posing a threat to those ICE Neanderthals (for Bluesky folks).
Update 2: This is a pic of Nicole Good moments before she was murdered with a bullet wound (at least one) in her head by Jonathan Ross of the ICE Gestapo. ZOMG, can’t you see how scary and threatening she was to these alleged manly men who she likely would have overpowered with superhuman strength by her act of deadly force? What, would she have launched an attack with her kids’ stuffed animals in her vehicle? (OK, snark mode off).
Update 3: As Chris Hayes on Bluesky says, please read this.
Update 4: This is one way to respond (from Minneapolis)...
Thousands of people gathered in Minneapolis after ICE Nazi Jonathan David Ross's MURDER of mother of three, Renee Nicole Good. 🙌🙏💪👏✊️👇 pic.twitter.com/HhWtnD650x
...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ reminds us about the Tangerine Toddler blowing up manufacturing, which shrank to the lowest level since about a year ago...and when corporate media flunkies on CNBC can’t even spin this as good news for Repugs, then you KNOW we have a problem...and once more, I don’t have faith that our bought-and-paid-for SCOTUS will hold Combover Caligula to account on this tariff madness...and under Biden “confidence, not bravado, did the heavy lifting” indeed...and if you’re dumb enough to take “Human Capital Stock” Kevin Hassett and Couch Boy seriously, then you might as well give up (and we also just found out about another paltry jobs report)...
...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report cites a Princeton study on billionaires spending in elections post-Citizens United...Judd Legum does great reporting generally, and he nails it again on rich scumbag Paul Singer acquiring CITGO in November (a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company) as a reason for our invasion of that country...report lists all of the ways that Singer is fluffing Dear Orange Leader, including going after U.S. House Repug Thomas Massie of Kentucky for his work on the Epstein discharge petition... billionaires’ collective wealth rose by $21 billion last year; naah, we don’t have a scheming kleptocracy on our hands...not much we don’t...44 of the 902 U.S. billionaires hold public office, which should be illegal as far as yours truly is concerned, but good luck keeping our wretched SCOTUS from preventing that...as much as I detest billionaires generally, I’m not comfortable with pre-emptively prosecuting them for that, to be honest...(NSFW/H)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that Don The Con just cut off welfare funds to blue states, based on that utterly ridiculous video filmed by this right wing guttersnipe claiming (with no evidence) that there was fraud in Minnesota at a Somali-run day care center...actually, the decision to deprive funding to five states (here, including four that had nothing to do with this, and that would be California of course, Colorado, New York, and Illinois) came from HHS and Bobby Brainworms...Pumpkin Pol Pot continues to inflict relentless hardship on this country...
...and Dem U.S. House Rep Stephen Lynch goes after the Gropenfuhrer in the matter of “stolen valor” on renaming the Kennedy Center...I was wondering how long it was going to take for a Democrat to actually say something about that, but kudos to Lynch for doing the right thing...
...and yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the near-fatal shooting of Dem congresswoman Gabby Giffords and the murders of federal judge John Roll and 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green (niece of one-time Phillies general manager Dallas Green), among others (here) – so damn much that still needs to be done to combat gun violence in this country, among the MANY issues neglected chiefly by elderly boomer conservatives (and I regularly interact with these people, so I think I have the right to say that)...
...and Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show gives us his take on the Minneapolis tragedy...Dog Killer Noem tries to be as disgusting and baldfaced of a liar as her boss, but she plainly can’t pull that off...and gee, for this Jonathan Ross guy to have apparently been almost run over, he sure was “quick on the draw” to SHOOT AN UNARMED WOMAN POSING NO GODDAMN THREAT RIGHT IN HER HEAD!!!...and why am I not one bit goddamn surprised that ICE did some cross-marketing BS with online gamers to try and get them hired to bust people’s heads in blue states? (and GREAT anti-ICE ad at the end)...
...and we lost The Thin White Duke 10 years ago tomorrow (I absolutely wore out “Station To Station” on 8-track...you can Google it...while driving around in my beat-up Dodge Dart back in the day...Update: Finally fixed the typo...sorry about that).
Well, they finally did it; those ICE neanderthals ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEBODY, and that would be a Minneapolis woman shot in the head, and Dem mayor Jacob Frey, in response, tells those monsters to “get the f*ck out”...ICE is indeed causing “chaos and mistrust” with their ongoing Gestapo-like behavior (Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara speaks also...more here)...so Pee Wee German, Mush Mouth Tom Homan and Dog Killer Noem are officially murderers now for instigating this (NSFW/H for a good reason)...
...and Chris Hayes offers his commentary, including the video of the killing, which generated a still-greater torrent of despicable lies from our outlaw regime about the ICE execution of “terrorist” Renee Nicole Good...I guess the “weapons” she employed were BLOOD-STAINED STUFFED FREAKING ANIMALS FOR HER CHILD!!! And I think recalling the George Floyd protests is an apt response (slightly NSFW/H also)...
Update: We have a name; Jonathan Ross...
...so what is the person ultimately responsible for this sickening tragedy up to? Why, he’s telling supremely spineless House Repugs that “I’m smarter than you” and in the next breath, “I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on” (a rare moment of honesty...oh, riiight; he meant “with the public”)...more testimony to the craven, supine acquiescence from our elected officials for the benefit of Dear Orange Leader (and I can completely believe that #47 went after Maduro because the latter imitated the dance of the former)...and God Almighty, the freaking accordion hands again!!! And he’s actually right about having “the most unbelievable four years,” but not remotely in the way he imagines...and I’m glad Jesse Dollemore laid some of this at the feet of the utterly worthless Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, since blame needs to be doled out to them also for almost completely failing to meet the moment...NSFW/H also...
...and this report from the CBC tells us that it’s now mandatory for all incoming and outgoing travelers to and from this country, including Canadians, to participate in a facial biometrics program...something tells me this is a bad idea, though I admit that I don’t have any evidence on that (though I definitely DO NOT trust our regime to NOT misuse this information)...if nothing else, this will make travel to this country more cumbersome than it is already...however, requiring tourists to submit five years of social media history before entering this country is genuinely ridiculous...
...and Kyle Kulinksi brings us MS NOW host Ayman Mohyeldin calling out MAGA harpie Anna Paulina Luna over her lies about our war with Venezuela...I know we’re going to hear over and over again about fentanyl coming from Venezuela, which ISN’T A GODDAMN THING!!! Oh, and Maduro allegedly put out a “hit” on Little Marco? OK, if you have a case to make, then seek Maduro’s extradition...but YOU CAN’T because YOU HAVE NO GODDAMN CASE, DO YOU???!!! (another NSFW/H video)...
...and happy upcoming 70th birthday to Shawn Colvin.
Brian Tyler Cohen gives us Little Marco Rubio dishing up a whole bunch of word salad in response to the question from George Stephanopoulos about what the legal authority is for the U.S. seizing another sovereign nation THAT DID NOT FREAKING ATTACK US, despite the BS claims about “drug boats” (Obama NatSec advisor Ben Rhodes provides commentary also)...”going back to the early 1900s” indeed...Cohen “brings the receipts” on Rubio’s cowardice big time at the end (NSFW/H)...
...and Mrs. Scar and some of her crew discuss a joint statement from NATO countries in response to Cheetoh Hitler’s statements about seizing Greenland; trying to do that would be catastrophic and firmly place this country on a list of rogue nations (with David French – I’ve had issues with French in the past on other matters, but he’s 100 percent spot-on here, particularly in his comment about nationalism devolving into militarism)...Douglas Brinkley makes a good point about Rubio’s animus towards Cuba playing into our Venezuelan misadventure...
...and the following clip from David Pakman about the Gropenfuhrer claiming to end 8 wars is a particularly bad joke at this moment (not blaming Pakman, I wish to emphasize)...by that measure, it looks like Obama actually ended about 15 (ketchup-tossing explosion incoming in 5, 4, 3, 2...)...Pakman’s list is pretty comprehensive, and no, I don’t call that “ending wars” either, but let’s give President Hopey Changey credit if those are the ground rules, OK?...
...and lost a bit in the news cycle (by design, I’m sure) was Jack Smith’s recent testimony about all of the interactions between #47 and his minions over trying to steal the ’20 election, particularly in the Senate, along with Meth Head Bannon...as Brando says, all the facts and the details are all still there; all it takes now is the political will to prosecute the guilty individuals, up to and including Cantaloupe Capone (mildly NSFW/H)...
...and with all of the madness ongoing in Venezuela and elsewhere in the world, let’s not forget about the story Mr. Newberger reminds us of here (I mean, the Tangerine Toddler WANTS us to forget about it, as we know)...
...and yesterday marked what would have been the 80th birthday of Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd (going back to the hippy, dippy '60s for this one).
Belle of the Ranch gives us her take on Bronzer Beelzebub’s attack on Venezuela...yep, she pretty much sums it up by saying “you were played” into thinking this could somehow be about drug interdiction (spoiler alert: fentanyl comes into this country over land from Mexico)...bringing back the term “banana wars” is sadly spot-on also, as is the possibility of conflict with Iran, which would be a nightmare largely because of the caliber of the military opposition and the difficulty of the country’s landscape (and more is here for Bluesky folks)...
...and Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ tells us about #47 pissing off his supporters, who most definitely (along with the rest of us) don’t want to see “boots on the ground” in another far off location, this time in Venezuela – I definitely have issues with Seth Moulton, but at least he served our country and he’s right to be speaking out now against this latest madness...also, I don’t know what the hell is up with Marjorie Taylor Greene, but I’m actually a little spooked by how much sense she’s making (though she’ll completely turn on a dime back to MAGA when the moment suits her)...also, don’t expect a sliver of sympathy from yours truly on MAGA disillusionment; how many of us warned last year that WE HAVE A MANIFESTLY DERANGED INDIVIDUAL RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN, and we were told to pipe down because Biden looked bad in a debate...NSFW/H...
...and MS NOW’s Ana Cabrera reports on the Venezuelan attack with reporter David Noriega and AF Col. Jack Jacobs (Ret)...have to admit that I didn’t know what the electoral picture was in Colombia, but unfortunately we have to pay attention to that now because of Combover Caligula...didn’t realize how the saber-rattling about Greenland from our foul, fetid ruling regime would impact NATO, but that is indeed horrifying (once more, the “winner” of all of this resides in Moscow as far as yours truly is concerned)...and oh yeah, as Jacobs says, this may be sending a message to Japan (among others) that they’re on their own now (ugh)...
...and David Doel lets us know about MAGA getting caught spreading fake videos in the wake of our seizure of Venezuela, particularly the head of Nazi Xitter (corrected by his own AI, Grok)...good for Doel to capture “Tokyo Rose” Gabbard spreading more bullpucky on behalf of our ruling regime of grifters and frauds, as well as “bringing the receipts” on all of the times Cantaloupe Capone promised NO MOOORR WAAARRS...also, kudos to the Philly folk protesting this rogue action from Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (NSFW/H)...
...also, this took place five years ago today – just a reminder (and here is another related item for Bluesky folks)...
...and I don’t know much about this band except that they’re from New Zealand, but I like the melody and harmonies in this newer number to offset the winter doldrums a bit.
Antonia Hylton of MS NOW speaks with John Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association and a soybean farmer, about the $12 billion Cantaloupe Capone allegedly steered towards those who grow our food to offset #47’s disastrous tariffs...God almighty, Mr. Boyd went from about $16 a bushel to $8 during Mango Mussolini’s prior wretched reign, and now he can’t even harvest what he has since China isn’t buying and Boyd’s grain elevators are full...and Mr. Boyd couldn’t attend a White House meeting because of “DEI”? I should be surprised, but I’m not...I think Don The Con might have been more honest if he pledged “40 acres and a mule” to Mr. Boyd instead...
...and this clip from CBS This Morning brings us the story of 9 Montana state Repug lawmakers kicked out of their party for voting with Dems (on lower taxes and investing infrastructure...and try telling me again about “the intolerant left”)...looks like Medicaid reauthorization was the sticking point for the Montana white Nazi party GOP...
...and Jesse Dollemore lets us know that bankruptcies have soared to a 15-year high, chiefly because of those stinking tariffs from Pumpkin Pol Pot, with 717 companies filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 11...one of Jesse’s good points is that businesses stocked up on their inventories to avoid paying higher prices for goods as mandated by those ridiculous tariffs, but now those inventories are running out and they’ll now have to pay higher prices as mandated by the tariffs, which will be yet another drag on this economy...hitting any sector of our economy is bad, but our clueless orange meat sack is doing a number on construction, which will be particularly detrimental, and it sounds like these bankruptcies are hitting small and large business alike – oh, peachy...and once more, we learn that whatever growth we’re getting in this wretched economy is from AI and high net worth people spending their dough...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with Marc Elias on more Stupid Voting Tricks from the Gropenfuhrer...apparently the USPS is now going to try and make sure any correspondence isn’t postmarked on the day it’s received, all in an effort to try and de-legitimize mail-in voting...Elias digresses a bit here to go after “60 Minutes,” but he’s right...good for Cohen to call this what it is, and that’s straight-up voter suppression, and good for Elias also to call out our wretched SCOTUS for whittling away at the right to vote, which should be sacrosanct...Elias points out that late mail-in ballots skew on the “D” side, which is exactly why Cheetoh Hitler and his minions are pulling this nonsense...
...and Jen Psaki of MS NOW interviews former prosecutor Barbara McQuade on our incursion into Venezuela – of course, we have to have President Nicolas Maduro get “perp walked” in Brooklyn, creating yet another awful precedent that may end up getting used against us one day (just like another country deciding to arbitrarily seize someone else in a similar manner)...one of McQuade’s great points is that stuff like this is SUPPOSED to be handled through an extradition request, in the manner in which we got the guy form Honduras...glad they mention Manuel Noreiga; I had issues with Poppy Bush to be sure, but I thought he pretty much knew what he was doing when it came to foreign matters (and no, I haven’t forgotten about the “Iraqi soldiers leaving babies out of incubators” propaganda use to justify Iraq War I as noted here)...
...and yesterday would have been the 80th birthday of soul singer Arthur Conley; this was his biggest hit.
I’m definitely on the same page with Dem congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont over our war with Venezuela (here), interviewed by Jonathan Capehart (not sure who the other individual is)...great point to lead off with mentioning Taiwan, since YOU KNOW Beijing will likely now say, “Hey, there’s now a precedent for regime change without prior approval from anybody” or words to that effect, and Lord knows what will happen next...and oh yeah, there’s also the potential for a bloodbath in Iran (oh, peachy)...great question about the fact that we went after Maduro, but #47 pardoned the guy in Honduras who was convicted of narco-terrorism for real...I’m old enough to recall Nixon’s “madman” thesis and how that was used to try and scare other countries; the problem is that we have someone in the White House now who is genuinely nuts...looks like the effort to distract from the Epstein files and skyrocketing ACA premiums is in full force...
...and David Pakman tells us that it looks like we have Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in custody, and yes, I know the legal stuff needs to proceed as necessary, but our ruling regime has a pretty poor track record when it comes to prosecuting those they consider to be criminals...and I think it’s telling that Pam “Blondi” decides to thank Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (For doing what exactly? And yes, I know it’s to inflate his ego once more) before our military, who actually put themselves in harm’s way in this escapade...and I’ll be honest; I don’t know anything about the intricacies of Venezuelan politics to know if it strategically makes sense for us to have Maduro out – maybe it does?? – but YOU DON’T DECIDE TO VIOLATE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF ANOTHER COUNTRY THAT HASN’T ATTACKED US WITHOUT GOING TO CONGRESS FIRST AT A MINIMUM FOR AUTHORIZATION!!!...and I forgot about that FIFA “peace prize” nonsense, which continues to leave a bad taste in the mouths of sane people everywhere...
..and Jesse Dollemore lets us know that it looks like Bari Weiss has made her first hire as the alleged head of CBS News, and that would be Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor for the chair that used to be helmed by Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, etc...the fact that this Dokoupil guy just casually refers to “Russia-gate” and Hunter Biden’s laptop as if they’re actual stories gives away the game as far as yours truly is concerned...for this Dokoupil guy to act like news coverage at what was once was called the “tiffany network” now miraculously WON’T be beholden to politicians and advertisers is beyond a joke (I was born at night, but not LAST night)...I’m glad Jesse recalls Dr. King and the March on Washington because he’s right; most of this country didn’t approve, but sometimes you have to “go against the grain” IMO, which I guess won’t be allowed now if some noisy special interest group doesn’t think that’s OK (and I’m glad Jesse works climate change into this, since I can’t think of a more important issue – more here)...
...and I’ll be honest; I’m not really big on cover tunes for the most part (except during the holidays of course), but I like this newer number, the first one of ’26.
To begin the new year, I give you the news that Apartheid Clyde was just awarded about a $1 trillion compensation package by the Tesla board, which is yet another reason not to buy their garbage vehicles (and get rid of them of you have one of them)...this tells us that he recently stood up in front of a group of his sycophants and said that the answer to crime is to basically have a RoboCop follow you around to keep you in line (and I guess this machine will say, “Come quietly or there will be...trouble”...as Sam and his crew from The Majority Report point out, that’s not going to do anything about white collar crime, which is likely the point)...
...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that “Don Snoreleone” is spending $100 million to recruit “dipsh*ts” (gun nuts, apparently) for ICE, based on WaPo reporting...and how much do you want to bet that the “geo targeting” will be primarily towards red states? And with our economy doing the “big swirl in the hopper,” I’m sure this campaign will draw in many low IQ bipeds looking to bust heads, unfortunately...I didn’t know that dozens of people have died in ICE custody, but considering what goes on I’m not surprised...when this madness is all mercifully over, we’re going to have to have a permanent reconciliation committee (or something like that) in the U.S. House with subpoena power that will recommend charges to the Justice Department (slightly NSFW/H)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about #47 filing a lawsuit against Fed chair Jerome Powell, who the Gropenfuhrer says is “grossly incompetent” (as usual, every accusation is a confession)...oh, and spoiler alert; three guesses who appointed Powell and got him confirmed to head the Fed, and the first two don’t count...sooo, it looks like Pumpkin Pol Pot is suing Powell because of allegedly inflated costs for new Federal Reserve buildings (huh???)...the fact that Cheetoh Hitler keeps yapping about Powell and the Fed despite what that does to the full faith and credit of our financial institutions just emphasizes to yours truly that we indeed have a Manchurian Candidate in An Oval Office doing the bidding of Vlad The Butcher...I honestly was hoodwinked on the 4.3% GDP number in the past, to be honest – I should have realized that that was BS...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen discusses Cantaloupe Capone vetoing a bill for a pipeline project to bring clean drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado...shocked to give Lauren Boebert credit for actually doing her job for once, and yes, the bill truly received bipartisan support (though Boebert undoes her good work with that typically gonzo social media clip)...I think Cohen is spot-on to say that this is revenge against Boebert for signing onto the Epstein discharge petition, and also, Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is big mad at that state for quite rightly imprisoning Tina Peters for her attempts to rig the vote of the 2020 election...and of course, that Truth Septic message was “so presidential,” wasn’t it, especially the “may they rot in hell” part...and yes, we have another cautionary reminder of what loyalty truly means to Don The Con...NSFW/H...
...and David Shuster points out once more that Everything Trump Touches Dies, and that now also includes the Kennedy Center (and that’s what I’ll continue to call it), with a 35 percent drop in ratings for televised programming, to say nothing of artists bailing out on performing...oh, and Ric Grenell is going to sue musician Chuck Redd apparently? Yeah, that definitely won’t be thrown out of court I’m sure (here)...”Wherever the Trump name lands, seriousness flees and dignity evaporates” indeed... I know I just said that I try to emphasize clips from content creators having to do with policy and legislation affecting people’s lives and not focus so much on Trumpian BS, and maybe I’m doing that more than I should at the moment, but I believe attention must be paid, for better or worse...
...and apparently, MTV is no longer going to show music videos (here)...I checked out long ago on that network, but I still think that’s noteworthy...this was their first clip and apparently also their last, so please allow me to include it here to start the new year.
Farron Cousins lets us know here that Dementia J. Trump recently screeched that criticizing him is a national security threat...I don’t have a clue as to what triggered that last, lonely, flickering synapse in Cantaloupe Capone’s pudding brain that would make him attack the New York Times, but as Cousins says, it doesn’t take much for those red hat life forms to resort to violence in response, in particular against the media (and I’d forgotten about Obama standing up to Billo The Clown, who was every bit as rude and obnoxious in that interview as you would expect; this interminable year has made me forget what it’s like to have a functioning adult in the White House)...
...and Erielle Reshef of MS NOW speaks with Cameron Hume, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, about the fact that Our Demented Orange Meat Sack recently ordered 30 U.S. diplomats home for some reason... Hume notes that the huge number of diplomats affected is unusual, as well as the fact that there was no turnover on 1/20, when there should have been turnover (I mean, yeah, the ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the prez, if you will, but given that we’re talking about #47, how much do you want to bet that these people were canned just because Our Tangerine Toddler heard they were part of the Biden admin and that was it?)...
...and in case anybody thought that this madness was somehow not noticed...well, you don’t have to worry about that, because it definitely IS getting noticed...Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us that PO’ed Americans are demanding revenge on #47 for his crimes...yeah, I think a lot of these memes are performative, but I agree with Figueredo that they indicate that something (whatever it is) is indeed going on...I honestly didn’t know that the anger had spread to grandmoms giving it back to performative wingnut(ette) Kaitlin Bennett, but there you are...and I WISH TO GOD that Democrats, as a party, truly understood the rage out there and the need to address it, but I’m not hopeful of that...”you can’t have a country where elites can violate the law with impunity” indeed (NSFW/H)...
...and we recently lost a true progressive champion, and that would be Howie Klein, who made his mark in the music biz and then turned to politics, creating a legacy of tireless work on behalf of candidates who truly sought to do the people’s business...way back in the “golden days of blogging,” I would leave comments at Klein’s great site Down With Tyranny and he responded in kind here, which definitely was appreciated...this post at Crooks and Liars in response to the Trump/Biden debate last year was typically spot-on (“Thinking Alfred is too old to care for the batcave is no reason to hire the Joker to replace him” indeed)...RIP...
...and just as I did on Monday, I’d like to pay tribute to three more figures in music who left us during the prior year; first is John Lodge of The Moody Blues...
...and last is Mick Ralphs of Mott The Hoople and Bad Company...
...and as is my custom, I want to take a minute or two and thank everyone who has spent any time at this site over the prior year. I said this time a year ago that this year was going to be bad with our clueless ruling regime of grifters, lowlifes and bottom-feeders (probably didn’t take much brain power to come up with that given the evidence), but one thing I didn’t note (because I couldn’t have known) is the extent of the push-back to the ruinous excesses of Don The Con and his playmates. We definitely can take solace from our courts telling Cheetoh Hitler that they’re not going to go along with our descent into something approximating a corporate dictatorship, and that also goes for the “No Kings” rallies, everyday people fighting back against the ICE goons, voices of protest emerging forcefully and effectively against Trumpism in general, et cetera.
I’d like to step back and go “meta” a bit here. I’m in the middle of my 21st year of doing this mess, believe it or not, and as I’ve said before, this is definitely a day-to-day, seat-of-the-pants operation. In case it isn’t apparent already, I’d like to give you a bit of insight into how the “sausage gets made,” you might say. When I started this, seemingly forever ago, I would often get pretty verbose and include as many links as possible within posts (I don’t know if the abbreviation TL,DR sprung up as a result of my stuff or not, but I’m sure I contributed to it). For reasons that are too involved and boring to explain, this morphed from acting as a PR forum for Democrats in general, to something confronting wingnut BS primarily, to something else where I tried to include discussions of how politics in general and particular legislation affected people’s lives, reinforced by videos from creators I respect, along with news reports that I thought should be promoted somehow. And oh yeah, that also includes paying attention to right-wing idiocy to a certain degree. I definitely try to balance all of this in a way that I think is interesting and worthy of people’s time. I mean, if you’re looking for the very latest on the apparent infighting between Ben Shapiro/Tim Pool/The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, you probably need to go somewhere else (I mean, I MIGHT touch on that, but probably not). Likewise, I try to balance the madness from Our Treasonous Orange Pustule and his minions and not obsess over every single revolting development. Basically, if I have a choice between including a video of #47 going nuts on Truth Septic with 150 posts versus another fine clip from More Perfect Union about how the insane tariffs from our *preznit are destroying a rural farming community, I’m definitely going to include the latter (as far as I’m concerned, if the majority of our corporate media did reports with the quality of the More Perfect Union segments, there might not be a need for this blog to even exist at all).
Additionally, I’d like to say something about a particularly important story and why you likely aren’t going to find much about that here, and that has to do with the utterly awful case of Jeffrey Epstein. Like many of you I’m sure, I’m thoroughly appalled by the destruction this has wrought on the lives of so many women (including, tragically, Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life...her case is still under investigation, it should be noted). The reason I haven’t said much about this is because a lot of the coverage (as far as I’m concerned) is this ridiculous corporate media “fan dance” concerning whether or not Mango Mussolini will ever release unredacted files indicating that he’s truly guilty as sin (which will NEVER happen, people), and I absolutely DO NOT want to feed into that. Yes, I know that the Tangerine Toddler said that he would release the files when he was running last year...but he said A LOT OF THINGS when he was running last year that haven’t come to pass, and likely never will. If anyone out there truly thought that you-know-who would come clean on this in particular, then I think you’re as dumb as a bag of rocks. There are a lot of stories out there where #47 is deliberately “flooding the zone” with BS in the media to force out coverage he doesn’t like, and this is just another example. Another is our runup to a military conflict somewhere, likely in Venezuela, which is a whole other horror show. As far as I’m concerned, he’ll ramp this up more and more as the economic news gets worse (the AI bubble shows signs of bursting, high net worth people stop spending, another pandemic looms, etc.), and please believe me when I tell you that I want to be wrong.
Our salvation in all of this lies in depending on each other, folks. As I alluded to earlier, we have the courts, particularly heroic individuals in the media, and our ongoing protests and acts of resistance. And oh yeah, the midterm elections are coming, so we can get back at the “party of Lincoln” with our ballots also (and I honestly don’t know if the Dems, as a national party, understand the scope of what’s at stake, but they damn well better – if we need to get after them also, we should do so with all speed).
So in consideration of all of this, I’d like to present once more my Patti Smith clip that I almost always include at year end; let it serve as an inspiration for continued resistance in our ongoing struggle (and best wishes to one and all for a much better 2026).
John of The Damage Report tells us that the Repugs are in trouble as voters shift over the utterly failed policies of Don The Con (once more, Harry Enten of CNN leads off with some data painting a justifiably gloomy picture...a 27-point spread in the wrong direction, huh? Wonder if Dementia J. Trump is going to go on TV again and yell over that?)...John does a pretty good job IMO of listing all of the stuff from the ”party of Lincoln” that isn’t going to amount to squat when it comes to turning around our economy...and boy, do I share John’s exasperation at the end...
...and Chris Hayes speaks with Jason Johnson, a prof at Morgan State university, and Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez about the fact that DOGE was an utter failure (in terms of realizing any kind of savings, though it likely was a success as far as Project 2025 is concerned)...great point by Johnson that we really don’t know how King Elmo rigged the SSA and what data he harvested for God know whatever purpose...glad Hayes reminds us of the US AID shutdown, and just because there’s not much reporting on it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t catastrophic in destitute areas of the world that need that assistance...and boy, is Johnson in particular ever right about the Dems needing to have a plan to run on in the year that is coming up; if you just say “orange man bad” and then think things will be status quo, those people who you thought were going to be in your “blue wave” are just going to stay home on election day...
...and Tennessee Brando believes that MAGA truly thinks you’re this stupid (and I agree, about MAGA being stoo-pid that is), with “Human Capital Sock” Kevin Hassett, who definitely cherry picks data where he feels it’s con-vee-nient...he’s actually correct about 4.3% GDP growth as near as I can tell, but that “Biden increased mortgages by 14K” or whatever that mess was is definitely debatable, perhaps due to rising interest rates and home prices (which on balance is good)...Biden also signed a first-time home buyers credit of about $15K as noted here, which of course Hassett doesn’t want to mention (more context on how Cantaloupe Capons has screwed the metaphorical economic pooch is here and here)...the “golden age of the grift” indeed...mildly NSFW/H...
...and RIP Brigitte Bardot...not sure I should even try to do justice to her pictures with my feeble words (and kudos to her for supporting animal rights...she took the worldwide fame she garnered with her beauty and did something constructive with it...towards the end of her life, though, her politics took a lamentable rightward turn, though you can compare that a bit to people in this country also, including Frank Sinatra and Charlton Heston, along with The Sainted Ronnie R of course)...
...and since we’re in year-end mode a bit, I think it’s called for to remember some folks we lost over the year, and way up on that list for yours truly is Bill Moyers (who also departed at 91 along with Bardot)...this “Democracy Now” clip presents Moyers talking about a connection between corporate media and corporate power, and not in a good way, and infiltrating government also (“consensual seduction” is probably about right)...I’d actually forgotten about LBJ’s connection to public TV, and I’m glad Moyers reminds us of that here (re: the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967)...Moyers is right about funding PBS and NPR independently of the federal government (perhaps through a trust fund as he mentions), but good luck with that particularly in this day and age...
...and in the time we have left this year, I’d also like to recall some notable departures in music, starting with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys...
