Friday Stuff

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



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



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

via GIPHY

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



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



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



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



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

Thursday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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

Wednesday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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

Tuesday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Monday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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

Sunday Stuff

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



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



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



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

Friday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Wednesday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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

Tuesday Stuff

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



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



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



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



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



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

Monday Stuff

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



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



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



Update: I report, you decide (here).

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



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



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



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



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

Saturday Stuff

I thought this was another good commentary from Beau of the Fifth Column about Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday, relating it a bit to July 4th (and the comment about that guttersnipe Charlie Kirk was spot on also)...



...and this tells us about the 14 U.S. House Repug cretins who voted against the holiday (and speak of the devil, isn’t this just too precious?)...



...and I thought this video from Second Thought was pretty good about how the richest 1% pay a pittance, if anything at all, in taxes (and while I don’t completely buy into the “Dems are the same as Repugs” framing, I have to admit unfortunately that there’s a lot of overlap when it comes to doing the bidding of their donors)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the most recent idiocy from Repug U.S. Senator Roy Blunt calling the attempt by Joe Manchin to strike some voting bill compromise “the “Stacey Abrams bill” (with Abrams expertly “Blunt-ing” the attack, you might say – heh)...



...and David Pakman tells us that U.S. House Dems have proposed full decriminalization of pot, which I support (but not legalization for recreational use nationwide...timed for the 50th anniversary of Tricky Dick and his “war on drugs”...part of me smells more “Oh, Look At Those Dems! They Want To Legalize All Drugs, Siding With The Criminals Again!!!” garbage attack ads coming mainly next year over this, and the Dems had better be prepared instead of cowering in fear like most of them did over the “defund the police” stuff in ‘20)....



...and happy upcoming Father's Day to all dads out there.

Friday Stuff

(Posting might get a little flaky in the coming days...we'll see.)

Once more, I think Chris Hayes is spot-on to warn us that those who are responsible for the treasonous 1/6 insurrectionists will try again, with Hayes reminding us in a manner somewhat like Kevin McCarthy (the actor) in the original version of “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”...



...and with the prior clip in mind, Farron Cousins points out that some Repugs & their sympathizers are trying to make 1/6 an “inside job”...as ridiculous as it is to see what their latest lies are on this, they’ll just keep repeating this nonsense until it becomes the dreaded “CW” on the part of waaaayyyy too many people...



...and I thought this was a particularly good take from Beau of the Fifth Column about what that callow Repug U.S. House a-hole Madison Cawthorn said about those responsible for the treason on 1/6, pretty much comparing them to the VC (here)...



...and Ana and Cenk report on the ongoing misery in Texas over their broken-down power grid, dealing with freezing cold in the winter and now boiling heat in the summer (and paying attention to trans athletes instead – duuuuuhhh!!!)...and by the way, I know there’s a lot of stuff going on with that execrable slug Jimmy Dore and Ana/TYT, and I really don’t have time to say much about it except to point out that Dore may be the lowest of white trash, and if somehow he gets slapped down in a court of law, all the better...



...and speaking of human garbage, The Swanson TV Dinner Heir recently allowed Charles Murray to opine on his racist theories, all with that dopey fake-concern expression on Carlson’s face...and on the eve of Juneteenth no less (John and Viviana Vigil tell us more)...



...and on the topic of vulture predatory capitalism, this video from More Perfect Union tells us about Elon Musk firing Tesla employee Richard Ortiz for trying to organize a union at the CA plant; stuff like this is why I didn’t give a damn about Musk hosting SNL – tired of our media trying to mythologize these rapacious thieves (more here)...



...and Caroline Johnson of Rebel HQ tells us about the disgusting life form in Decatur, GA who allegedly killed a worker at the Big Bear market (more here)...the worker told the person to mask up, then the person left, came back, and allegedly killed the worker...the video also mentions the increased number of incidents of bad behavior over masks on airplanes...U-S-A! U-S-A!...



...and I need a selection to mellow out a bit - this should do it; hope it works for you too.

Wednesday Stuff

Joy Reid speaks with Dem U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about trying to combat the billionaires trying to pretty much destroy the planet as well as ruining our lives every way possible (not just Charles Koch, though I’m quite sure he’s the worst)...



...and one of the ways has to do with the loss of economic opportunity through mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the wake of COVID-related job losses...



...and Cenk and Ana tell us another way our corporate overlords are trying to shorten all of our life spans, namely through domination of red states, run by completely bought-and-paid-for politicians (once more, love and kisses to the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR for this) prematurely cutting off unemployment insurance, starting with Alaska, Iowa, Missouri and Mississippi (likely to impact 3 million Americans...and 7.9 million fewer jobs after COVID, huh? Figures...and I wish I could disagree with that line about the only thing Biden may accomplish will be the rescue plan, but the way thing are looking...)...



...and this Now This clip tells us about Dem vet Lucas Kunce running against Mark “Mansion Man” McCloskey for the U.S. Senate from Missouri (more here)...



...and Mehdi Hasan reminds us that we’re not done yet with COVID and/or its variants, with Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Nahid Bhadelia (discussing the Delta Variant – 28% COVID vaccination rate in Mississippi...dear God)...



...and I started this by noting predatory gazillionaire Charles Koch and the influence of his brethren, and I would include Mark Zuckerberg in that group – kudos to Roger Waters for this (I know the issue has to do with “Another Brick In The Wall,” but when I think of “one percenters” like Zuck, this tune definitely comes to mind).

Tuesday Stuff

I would agree that the issue with U.S. Senate “Democrat” Joe Manchin is rooted in race and raw numbers, as Don Winslow points out in another well-done video...



...and John and Ana tell us about cops in Baton Rouge, LA who petitioned to have an associate professor named Thomas Frampton jailed for sharing bodycam footage (which was already public) of police strip searching a minor to the point where his genitals were exposed...yeah, watch us lecture other countries about bad behavior while we pull this garbage (more here)...



...and Chris Hayes makes a pretty good case here when it comes to holding those responsible for corruption and insurrection to account (featuring this story)...I have a feeling in the back of my mind that that won’t happen and we’ll continue down this perilous slide to fascism for real, but believe me when I tell you that I want to be wrong on that...



...and speaking of holding powerful people to account, last Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the New York Times publishing The Pentagon Papers (and FWIW, Neil Sheehan passed last January...may need to crank the volume a bit)...



...and Rick Strom of TYT Sports reminds us of ongoing political BS in “the land of the yellow rose”...



...and it looks like another sunny day in the venue of Le Manse Doomsy, so how's about a nice, upbeat seasonal tune?

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep Eric Swalwell about alleged spying that took place from the DOJ of Former Generalissimo Trump on Swalwell and Adam Schiff (with that ridiculous comment from here about “classified leaks” from Repug U.S. Sen Charles Grasshole – yeah, just go visit the Windsor Heights Dairy Queen again, why dontcha)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that almost-completely-useless Dem U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin took some of that sweet dark $$ before he said he’d oppose the “For The People” Act (I’m sure the COC considers that to be some nice ROI, earning the WVA senator an FU)...



...and David Doel tells us about Democratic defections on the watered-down Biden infrastructure bill...God, I’ve seen this goddamn movie so many freaking times! The Repugs are like Lucy holding the proverbial football, a Dem president goes to kick it a la Charlie Brown, and then it gets yanked...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem PA State Rep Brian Sims getting his mic cut for bringing a “truth bomb” to the PA “lege”...name for me one thing Sims said that was factually incorrect...



...and RIP acclaimed character actor Ned Beatty, here portraying executive Arthur Jensen from the film “Network,” a flick with enough smarts for about five other movies also...



...and I offer this tune for the holiday, which will always be important for me personally (not much else to say about that).

Friday Stuff

I know some of this stuff gets more than a little repetitive at times, but I think it needs to be pointed out again and again; Thom Hartmann wonder If The Greedy Rich Will Ever Pay Their Fair Share (when it comes to taxes in particular...another important history lesson having to do with The Sainted Ronnie R)...



...and speaking of money matters, Ana of TYT tells us about the Senate blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act (and apparently Kirsten Gillibrand was a no-show – what’s that Dem Senate majority for again? And try not to gag while listening to Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao – typical lies once more...the U.S. Senate remains an utterly broken institution, Part The Infinity as Charlie Pierce might say)...



...and Emma V. tells us the latest concerning Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar, who once more spoke the truth but because she’s a brown Muslim woman the usual cretins started caterwauling in response...truly pitiable to share the same political allegiance with Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz who do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to defend a member of their caucus, and actually pile on in response (more of what Omar was talking about can be read about from here)...



...and this Now This clip tells us that the SCOTUS ruled this week that some TPS holders (stands for Temporary Protected Status) can’t apply for a green card; I need to learn more about this and it’s a little disturbing that the vote was unanimous – I believe it’s because they thought there should be a legislative remedy instead, but it’s still a depressing development (I think the phrase, “The bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate” should be etched in granite and put in front of the entrance to that chamber, once again, so lawmakers have to face their failure on this bill and so many others every damn day)...



...and speaking of people who are really up against it, you might say, David Doel tells us that the “poor people’s march” with the Rev. William Barber is coming to West Virginia to pay a call on Dem U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (kudos to them...mildly NSFW/H)...



Update: And apparently, the act of "Curtsy Kyrsten" is wearing thin in AZ too (here).

...and as a bit of comic relief, Kyle K. tells us that that big-headed white fool Matt Gaetz can’t even get hired by Newsmax and OANN... I wish I could disagree with Kyle's “there are no real rules” comment, but I can’t...very NSFW/H...



...and there’s no commentary to this Rebel HQ clip...just a lot of really STOO-PID life forms in this country who allegedly are human beings deciding to burn masks all over the place – so many reactions to this idiocy, such as wondering how much these masks would actually help people in the third world who need anything they can get in the way of PPE to try and prevent COVID transmission, to say nothing of vaccines...also, I know it’s WAAAY too much to expect these numbskulls to think logically and in any kind of a constructive manner, but those masks would also help in THIS COUNTRY if we have another COVID variant wave now or later this year...and yeah, that could affect “Senator Aqua Buddha” too – it would almost serve him right if it did...



Update 6/12/21: Uh, yep.

...and I hope you’re in the mood for some totally dumb musical summer escapism (I definitely am), because here it comes.

Thursday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about “Goober” Gohmert trying to get the earth to stop revolving around the sun, or something, when it comes to the issue of global climate (hard to get my head around the stoo-pid with this guy, as usual - mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Repug U.S. House Rep Mo Brooks was finally served in a lawsuit by Dem Rep Eric Swalwell over the 1/6 insurrection (womp womp)...



...and this is an important question posed by The Lincoln Project (featuring that traitor Michael Flynn), but we should keep fighting and assume the answer is No (and yeah, I realize that they’re trying to get people to sign up, and I’m personally not encouraging you to give them your $$$, but that’s up to you if you do so)...



...and John and Jayar present Art Laffer (he of the “Laffer Curve” fantasy) “kicking the poors” again on Fix Noise (and yeah, Simone Biles is definitely an amazing athlete – good for her for whatever she gets)...



...and I know the first clip featured a ridiculous take on the climate crisis from The Stupidest Man In The Universe (though I'll admit that Tommy Tuberville is giving Gohmert a run for his money), but this is actually a good story in a similar vein; Rachel Maddow speaks with climate activist Bill McKibben on the death of the Keystone XL pipeline (or "near death"? And more on "Line 3" is here)...



...and Ray Charles left us 17 years ago today.

Wednesday Stuff

This CNN clip tells us about CA federal judge Roger Benitez, who overturned that state’s assault weapons ban, equating an AR-15 with a Swiss army knife; yes, I know I’m a little behind on this, but this one is too awful to ignore...and yeah, it’s a real shock that this guy is a gun-humper nominated and confirmed under Dubya, isn’t it (oh, but we like #43 now because he ate Michelle Obama’s jelly beans at John McCain’s funeral, or something – more here and here)...



...and speaking of legal bidness, Rachel Maddow tells us all the ways that Merrick Garland ISN’T cutting it as AG under President Biden...of all the appalling stuff, I think upholding the typical garbage from Bill Barr in the Jean Carroll suit is the worst, but there’s a lot to go around...



Update 6/11/21: OK, so this is progress.

...and as sort of a companion clip to the prior one, Robert Reich reminds us of the GOP’s threat to democracy (25 percent, huh? Actually, it’s always the effing 30 or so percent)...



...and Ana K. of TYT tells us about AOC going after Manchin, with a discussion of Manchin’s garbage alternative of a “voting bill”...and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is actually right about the SCOTUS gutting the preclearance provision of the VRA, but he subsequently lies and deliberately reaches the wrong conclusion in his remarks after that of course...



...and John and Francesca of TYT tell us that Jeff Bezos wants to go into space, but unfortunately, he also wants to come back...this reminds me of the antics of that guy Steve Fossett who just wanted to attract attention with his aviation exploits until he died while in a light aircraft...and no, I definitely don’t wish that on Bezos...



...and here's a bit of a light, upbeat seasonal selection to hopefully get us over the hump day on our way to the weekend.

Tuesday Stuff

Rachel Maddow tells us that Joe Manchin is the only U.S. Senate Dem opposing the For The People Act – typical...might be time to go pay for billboards in West Virginia listing all of Manchin’s donors since he so obviously is acting against the will of his constituents (failing that, I guess it will be up to The Lincoln Project to run ads attacking Manchin and "Curtsy Kyrsten" since the Dems seem to be so bad when it comes to playing this game...more completely unsurprising information is here)...



...and Mehdi Hasan adds more fuel to the fire on Manchin and Sinema; the lives of these two should be made absolutely miserable by their awful actions...



...and John and Dr. Richey pile it on with AZ’s U.S. Senate mistake...



...and this More Perfect union video features Jason Kander discussing the importance of the For The People Act (and yes, this leads back to Chucky Koch once more)...



...and David Doel tells us about Jamaal Bowman being interviewed by CNN’s Erin Burnett, with Bowman piling on with Manchin once again over the infrastructure bill (sorry all of this stuff is repetitive, but we need to keep beating this drum until we can’t beat it any more – or hopefully won’t have to...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and somehow I missed the 80th birthday of Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones last week; hope it was a good one.

Monday Stuff

This Lincoln Project video tells us about “the real Antifa,” with yesterday’s commemoration of D-Day in mind...



...and as long as we’re mentioning our military, I should point out that Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter had his mic cut recently when he committed the apparently unpardonable sin at a Memorial Day ceremony of acknowledging freed black slaves honoring deceased soldiers shortly after the end of the Civil War (an update is here)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that 100 scholars recently warned us that the GQP is actively trying to destroy democracy (and how screwed up is it that just the For The People Act isn’t enough, and that’s assuming even THAT passes, which is doubtful as of now because of two people, including this bought-and-paid-for cretin)...



...and this Don Winslow video tells us about the other one...



...and I would call this a lesson in karma indeed; Ana, Francesca and Dr. Rashad Richey tell us about wingnuts harassing an LGBTQ pride boat, and then the harassers’ boat blows up, and the harassers get rescued by the LGBTQ folks (apropos for Pride Month I would say)...



...and I was looking for a new video that was kind of summery with a bit of a ‘70s feel, and I stumbled across this one (kind of an overload of primary colors, but yeah, I’m good with that).