Friday Stuff

Ana K. of TYT brings us the story of Scottsdale AZ cutting off the water supply to nearby Rio Verde due to a drought, though this ultimately goes back to freaking climate change, people (there are times when I think TYT gets a little strident against Dems, and I respect that that’s their opinion even though sometimes they’re wrong, but in this case Ana does a great job of connecting the dots between deregulation/developers getting politicians to rewrite the laws to favor them and screw over homeowners in places that are pretty much nothing but deserts at this point, even though agri-businesses NEVER have a problem with getting water, and neither do golf courses apparently)...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about a report in The Daily Mail on a crackdown within Saudi Arabia by Mohammed Bone Saw based on U.S. intel from the CIA after Jared Kushner got $2 billion...and yeah, I know we’re talking about the Daily Mail, but really, would this be surprising if it were true, as Kyle says? And note to Kyle, by the way...Burisma was a nothing burger; if someone finds out something contrary on that, I'll update this post for sure...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about Repug U.S. House Rep Rick Allen of Georgia (mentioned here also), who says we should raise the retirement age because people want to work longer (and good job to mention the Social Security privatization scheme under Dubya)...there are many responses to this a-hole, but one is to point out that, if you actually took the time to watch the Thom Hartmann video yesterday, you would know that that is an utter lie (and Allen is worth about $52 mil, as noted here)...



...and last week’s Second Thought video tells us why social democracies won’t work (and yes, I’m a week behind again) – “Like other capitalist countries, in order for the (profit) line to consistently go up, wealth needs to be extracted from poorer countries.”...and I’d forgotten about the stuff with Francois Mitterand, but yeah, that’s a cautionary lesson for sure (and I say that DEFINITELY as someone not in love with capitalism by any means)...and the stuff about Sweden is absolutely horrifying...he performs such a service with these videos IMO; I hope he’s able to stay afloat despite what I’m sure are efforts to demonetize him in response...



...and if you knew anything at all about Philadelphia-area music (or popular music over the last 50 years or so generally, actually) and you mentioned The Geator, that could only mean Jerry Blavat, and I honestly don’t know how you can sum him up in a single phrase...disk jockey, TV personality, archivist, ambassador of sorts for all kinds of genres of popular music...doo-wop, soul, R&B, pop – tributes are pouring in of course, as well they should be (here)...and I know there were allegations that he knew people in organized crime; you can say that about a few entertainers actually, and it me, it doesn’t diminish their work...

...and the news about The Geator comes on the heels of the news of the passing of David Crosby, which is another musical body blow of sorts...I guess, if the reports are to be believed, he could be difficult at times (you could say that about just about anybody I’m sure), but he was much beloved also of course, and as noted here, he was nobody’s fool...here are three tunes as a tribute.

Thursday Stuff

Mike Figueredo tells us about the antics from Manchinema at Davos recently...I thought the “high five” thing was metaphorical when I first heard about it, but I should have known that these two insufferable scumwads would literally do it, and leave it to Sinema to wear that weird wool stole thing (and OF COURSE Chris Coons was involved also...and gee, how freaking clueless is CBS “News” anyway...Edward R. Murrow must be spinning in his grave)...



...and of course, given that we have a Dem in the White House and the “party of Lincoln” in control of one of the chambers of Congress, there is all of this pearl-clutching going on and looking for the fainting couch over “THE DEBT THAT IS STEALING FROM OUR KIDS!” or some variation thereof...well, do you want to know WHAT ELSE adds to the debt? Corporations not paying their damn taxes, that’s what, and Kyle Kulinski tells us that 34% of profitable corporations paid $0 in the first year that the tax law from Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence went into effect in 2018...



...and Jayar Jackson tells us about a lady working for a company that laid her off who made a TikTok video about it...I’ve definitely been in her position and it sucks more than you can imagine, but when it happened to me, I got the word from this a-hole head of quality assurance at the main office in MA, and the local HR rep who helped me did the best she could, and I didn’t blame her for it...oh, and by the way, I was also expected to train the offshore person about how to do my job as a condition of getting my severance; at least I had a couple of months to look for something before I got kicked to the curb (and when it comes to layoffs, a related item is here...and that second clip looks like it’s right out of Glengarry Glen Ross, but it’s from some rally or something from some outfit called The Elliott Group, which I guess does all of this sales motivational BS...wonder how much a company paid these clowns to scare their employees like that?)...



...and sticking with (sticking it to?) corporations, Robert Reich tells us The Truth About Corporate Subsidies (and yeah, a lot of the subsidizing instead of regulating started under The Sainted Ronnie R, in case you were wondering – big surprise, huh?)...



...and Thom Hartmann discusses Why Inequality Makes Americans Miserable (Thom mentions the Buckley v. Valeo and FNB of Boston v. Bellotti SCOTUS rulings in 1976 and 1978 respectively, along with Citizens United of course in 2010 as the causes of what opened up the metaphorical floodgates in favor of corporations...and three guesses who fought to keep closing the “hedge fund loophole” out of the Inflation Reduction Act, as Thom says? Thom also mentions the Tillman Act against corporations and campaign contributions passed under TR...the intent was good, but Tillman was always difficult to enforce because of the tricks corporations would pay with hiding illegal campaign expenses)...



...and I have to admit that I didn’t know Pittsburgh had so much soul; have to get over to the other side of the state more often.

Wednesday Stuff

In our latest example of clueless U.S. House Republicans, we have Anna Paulina (“Taxation Is Theft”) Luna of Flori-DUUUH! basically saying that we should spend for defense and apparently not much else (which would eliminate her salary too, something she’s obviously too clueless to realize, as David Pakman tells us)...



Update 2/11/23: Just call her "Mrs. George Santos" I guess (here - more on him shortly).

Update 2/18/23: And apparently, at least one other U.S. House Repug is guilty of having an imaginary resume as noted here.

...and I know the whole Chuck Todd/RoJo thing is a couple of days old by now, but I thought I should bring up this clip from Jesse Dollemore anyway...one of the reasons why I avoided this subject is because RoJo is such an utterly contemptible POS who has managed to make a financial killing at taxpayer expense (here), to say nothing of the fact that (as pointed out already by fellow Wisconsin Repug Robert Spindell), Johnson WOULDN’T EVEN BE in the U.S. Senate any more if the ’22 midterm had actually be run fairly without massive voter disenfranchisement in Milwaukee (here)...I may end up saying this for 6 years, but I’ll say it again...Spindell claimed that 37K voters were suppressed, and Rojo won by 27K votes...as for Chuck Todd, yes, give him credit for trying to hold Johnson’s feet to the fire, but RoJo IMMEDIATELY turned into a whiny little bitch as soon as he was called on his BS talking points...if this is supposed to be some kind of a flaming controversy, I think this is actually pretty weak stuff (and wingnut media is, as always, particularly pathetic in giving RoJo his “fainting couch”)...



...and David Doel tells us about the over-focus by our corporate media on the alleged classified docs “scandal” (mildly NSFW/H)...I think this is a pretty good analysis of what the Gropenfuhrer did versus what Biden did, but with all due respect to Jamie Raskin, I don’t think mentioning the 1/6 insurrection was the right way to go here, though he was right to hammer home the fact that Biden and his team have complied and tried to clear this up versus what happened with Our Ochre Abomination at Mar-a-Lago...I honestly don’t know if Biden should run for another term or not; I think his record as president is good enough, and I also don’t believe that this “story” by itself should be a basis for that decision one way or the other...



...and as long as we’re dealing with the legislative branch of our government, I should bring you this clip of Farron Cousins telling us about congressional Democrats introducing the “SANTOS Act,” aimed right at you-know-who (good stuff - and the video is a little amusing, but this is genuinely disgusting)...



...and some caveman attorney general in Alabama named Steve Marshall wants to prosecute women who take abortion pills, even though such prosecution is illegal thus far, even in that state (John and Jayar tell us more – and yes, you can blame Republicans for being horrible bad actors on behalf of the uber-wealthy and nobody else, wanting to persecute anyone who can’t shower them with campaign cash, and you can blame the Dems for not screaming about this the way they should, but here is my question...WHERE THE HELL IS OUR BEYOND-USELESS CORPORATE MEDIA ON THIS STUFF??!! And yes, I know all they care about is the “horse race” and I know they think actual policy that affects real people is BOOOR-ING, but stories like this shouldn’t be covered only by brave local media that may be extinct one day, unfortunately)...



...and kudos to John Fogerty for this - well deserved at last.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us that the U.S. House Republican majority is bringing back smoking in that chamber of Congress (well, to their offices anyway)...to hasten their own extinction I guess (to say nothing of others ingesting second-hand smoke)...what a cunning plan!...



...and I should note that I added that counter on the home page to show how much time there is before we can vote out the ruling clown-car caucus in the U.S. House; I have to tell you that I can’t stomach the thought of the ’24 presidential election...despite that, I’m bringing up this clip of Farron Cousins (nothing against him) pointing out that Flori-DUUUH! Repug guv Ron #DeathSantis apparently is a scared little kitty kat around non-friendly media...wow, what a tough guy!...



...and as long as we're talking about the U.S. House, Mike Figueredo brings us this Repug idiot named Rick Allen in Georgia (of course) who wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security (and I think the clown shoes are a little "on the nose")...



Update 1: Yeah, this sure figures, doesn't it?

...and Rachel Maddow last night brought us the story of Trumper and election denying lunatic Solomon Pena, who is in custody in New Mexico, accused of having a hand in shooting up six homes/offices of Democrats in that state (don’t hold your breath waiting for 45 to decry what this guy allegedly did...how the hell did this guy end up as a Repug nominee for elected office? But then again, I know you can also ask that question about "George Santos")...



Update 2: More here.

Update 3: I have a feeling a lot more "rocks" will get turned over with this Pena guy before too much longer (here).

Update 1/18/23: And why is this not surprising?

...and speaking of bone-headed Republicans, John and Brett Erlich tell us about this Jack Nelsen guy in Idaho comparing women’s reproductive health to cows (here)...umm, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, jackass, though I have to admit that that was halfway decent apology for real...



...and Sam Seder gives us a bit of a Tragical History Tour about Baby Newton Leroy, Tom DeLay and their pals (and I have to admit that I’d forgotten about Bob Livingston too) based on Jake Tapper tossing out a sound bite to shoot down Dana Bash (which was completely true about Dennis Hastert, by the way)...



...and also with a nod to our country’s history over the last 30-40 years or so, Kyle Kulinski discusses a poll telling us that 9 percent fewer Repugs support MLK day as a holiday than when it was signed into law in 1983 (a new “mask off” period indeed...Kyle’s history on MLK Jr. is spot on, BTW...and yes, Dr. King got mad at Dems and liberals, but only because they didn't go far enough to the left, and King was correct to be that way IMO)...



...and with the first clip in mind, I absolutely couldn’t resist this selection (titles scroll by too fast at the end...oh well).

Monday Stuff

David Pakman tells us about Jason Schofield of Troy, NY, who, until recently, was a member of the Rensselaer County Board of Elections; the problem is that Schofield apparently applied for absentee ballots for himself on behalf of 12 already-registered voters, which happens to be real, honest-to-goodness voter fraud, people...and of course he’s a Republican (more here)...



...and here’s another case of it in Iowa, and from the same political party; John, Francesca and Maz Jobrani fill in the details (more here)...



...and Chris Hayes tells us about Robert Spindell Jr., a Repug (of course) member of the Wisconsin Election Commission, who recently bragged about suppressing about 37K fewer votes in Milwaukee, and given that Rojo The Clown won re-election to the U.S. Senate from that state by 27K votes, basically, without that, Mandela Barnes would be a U.S. Senator...



...but now, turning from illegality to mere stupidity, Jayar, Yasmin Khan and Wosny Lambre of TYT tell us about Missouri legislators who are apparently afraid of women exercising their right to “bare arms” (sorry – couldn’t resist...more here)...

...and for MLK day, I think it's appropriate to revisit this speech from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Barratt Middle School in Philadelphia on October 26. 1967, with the them of “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?"....



Update 1: An important note is here (here and here also).

...and this tune is apropos for the holiday also.



Update 2: And oh yeah, there's this...

Update 3: Well said.

Friday Stuff

Trae Crowder tells us about wingnuts losing what little exists of their actual minds over the FAA grounding flights recently and how that, as far as they're concerned, absolutely had to be the fault exclusively of Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and nobody else, and of course those screeching the loudest are using this as another projection festival...an update is here...



...and this TYT Investigates clip shows that the “party of Lincoln” hasn’t learned a damn thing about trying to cram anti-abortion bills down the metaphorical throat of this country...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us what this new U.S. House Committee chaired by Gym Jordan could be up to, basically giving the McCarthy treatment to anyone opposing the treasonous 1/6 insurrectionists, with Hartmann giving us some background on the “Hollywood 10” and potential parallels to now (and as Thom says, who knows what other “fishing expeditions” such a committee could launch, and against who, especially since we’re talking about a character like Jordan)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses the Glacier v. Teamsters case before the “shadow docket” SCOTUS (with a tweet thread by Elie Mystal...cement workers went on strike and the cement hardened in the process, and the company is going after the workers for the cost of the hardened cement...yeah, it’s definitely a “tell” unfortunately that “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh and their pals are involved, trying to take over from the NLRB)....



...and Jesse Dollemore discusses the U.S. House Repugs going after BLM and pride flags – “The Old Glory Only Act”...yeah, I’m surprised this Jeff Duncan character didn’t include a display of a cross burning in the press release from his office announcing this joke of a bill (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this is probably the most clear-eyed commentary I’ve heard yet on all of the debt ceiling BS gamesmanship from the unruly children in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives from Beau – challenging this nonsense in court based on the precedents Beau sites here is a great idea, and I think the "trillion dollar coin" is another alternative as noted here (and I haven’t said much on the “Biden secret documents” stuff because I don’t think there is a “there” there)...



...and here are two more tunes as a tribute to Jeff Beck.

Thursday Stuff

In this video from More Perfect Union, we learn about Moderna raising the price of the COVID vaccines by about 400 percent and how we, as a result, are getting utterly ripped off as taxpayers (full disclosure: I got the first 2 COVID shots and both of my first two boosters from Moderna and the bivalent from Pfizer...the first booster knocked me on my ass, but I know that, in some cases, that’s what the "jab" is supposed to do)...



...and Chris Hayes brings us the latest source of wingnut umbrage, namely, the utterly preposterous claim that the Biden Administration is coming for our gas stoves...as usual, the issue isn’t the veracity of the talking point, because there isn’t any, but the attempt by the “party of Lincoln” to drive their BS narrative (more on that here)...



...and Ana of TYT brings us more details on the Brett Favre scandal in Mississippi ($5 million for the volleyball arena which we knew about), taking $$$ from the TANF program, which makes it even worse of a slap in the face I know given that we’re talking about the most impoverished state in the country...total cost of the alleged abuse of the program is $70 million – people need to go to prison, and I don’t care if that means Favre too...



Update 2/9/23: In addition to being elitist and nepotistic, this move is also a really stoo-pid legal strategy because it opens the door for all kinds of stuff I’m sure Favre doesn’t want to bring out as part of discovery.

...and John and Yasmin Khan of The Damage Report discuss the protests going on in Brazil in response to the attempts by Jair Bolsonaro and his crowd (including Steve Bannon of course) to overturn a free and fair election...looks like another case of the rich and powerful in this country who are up to their elbows in criminal behavior who may end up skating for it...love to be wrong...



...and in the latest episode of Utterly Clueless Rich White Guys Displaying Their Entitlement, Sam Seder (not Sam) discusses Larry Summers and his analysis that unemployment basically has to go up (despite the fact that we’re at a 50-year low, or maybe because of it - ??) to bring down inflation (which is going down already) and rebuild our economy from COVID, or something (and of course Lars con-vee-niently fails to mention corporate price gouging, as the ocean waves gently lap and foam behind Summers in the background)...



...and I’m planning to include some selections as a tribute to guitar legend Jeff Beck, including this number.

Wednesday Stuff

Ana and Cenk of TYT talk about the Biden Administration notifying the archivist that they accidentally came across some classified docs from something called the Penn Biden Center that they apparently found out about last November...you could say there are YUUUUGGGE! differences between this and what the Gropenfuhrer did (Cenk kind of goes off the rails with the Pelosi/McConnell stuff IMO; not saying he doesn’t have a point, even though you should also consider the legislation and policy differences between them, but I think those remarks belong in another video)...



...and gosh, whaddaya know? “All hat, no cattle” Greg Abbott is now begging for $$ from Biden after the Texas guv’s immigration busing stunts (the number I heard on what Abbott did was $12 million, but I suppose it could have been $20, and I forgot about the cost of getting the National Guard forces from other states involved in this nonsense)...



...and Thom Hartmann speaks with Greg Palast about the “secret history” of the 1/6 insurrection, including a lot of discussion about this Ali Alexander character and his rants about violence coming dated from 1/5/21, when he was in Georgia for the runoffs...I think Brazil and Lula offers a lesson in contrasts at a minimum, given this story and the fact that our DOJ (still under Our Ochre Abomination, I realize on 1/6) basically let everybody go home and put Merrick Garland in the position of having to chase these culprits after the damage was done...



...and I know this item is probably about a week old or more, but I’m still pretty disgusted by it, to the point where I checked up on this Cory Mills character a bit, and I found this clip with Jayar and Rick Strom...yeah, I like the “Radical Left Protestors, Philadelphia” thing in his ad where, of course, you can’t verify who it is he’s referring to (and the “Hillary Clinton Protestors” thing is about what you’d expect I guess from a cave man like Mills)...we’re supposed to just take his word for it...uh huh...and as Jayar correctly notes of course, how con-vee-nient that 1/6 protestors aren’t included in that little clip of his with that rock music soundtrack...yep, this sounds like another case of #DeathSantis gerrymandering a Dem out of existence to make room for this troglodyte...something tells me that somebody is going to get the goods on this guy one day, and he’s going to be in a bad way when that happens...we’ll see...



...and the latest from Second Thought tells us Why Corporations Are Evil, or something (on the “B Corp” certification scam...and good job to go after Salesforce, which has been in the news lately as noted here, but not for good reasons...”Under a capitalist system, you cannot be unprofitable, and that will always take precedence over any concern for social and environmental justice.” and “You can always just ignore a protest when you’re in charge.”...yep)...



...and on this day 100 years ago, insulin was injected for the first time to treat diabetes (here)...makes me think of this tune (a bit of a tangent I realize :-).

Tuesday Stuff

I call this a terrific opening ad for Lucas Kunce, running against Josh Hawley in Missouri for the U.S. Senate...more here (and as far as I’m concerned, one of the MANY failures of Sean Patrick Maloney, head of the DCCC, in the last election cycle was to not funnel more resources to Kunce running against Trudy Busch Valentine...TBV won the Dem primary, ran against Repug Eric Schmitt and lost...Busch didn’t even know what the issue was with Citizens United)...



...and speaking of Dems running for the U.S. Senate, David Doel brings us some GREAT news about Katie Porter, running for that chamber from CA; wouldn’t it be awesome to see her doing her thing with the whiteboard right in the face of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao? And I’m genuinely sorry to hear about Di-Fi, but that’s all the more reason why she needs to retire...and with all due respect to Ro Khanna, I hope he stays out now also, and though I respect Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff too, I hope they remain on the sidelines as well...



...and Farron Cousins tells us more about Matt Gaetz almost getting his ass kicked last Friday night from Mike Rogers of Alabama before some Repug named Tim Burchett intervened on Gaetz’s behalf...yeah I know I’ve had the pic of this around for a day or so with a link to a story, but here is more on exactly what happened...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report discuss a school district in Flori-DUUUHH! using a #DeathSantis law to ban a book about gay penguins...smh (good point about how self-defeating this idiocy is by drawing attention to a book that would probably be largely ignored otherwise)...



...and the prior story is mildly amusing, albeit in a truly stoo-pid way, but this one is dangerous; Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Oklahoma (of course) trying to enact an anti-trans bill eliminating gender-affirming care for anyone under 26, in a state where bigotry is “as high as an elephant’s eye,” you might say (you can Google it :-)...



...and I neglected to mention the story of the 6-year-old in Newport News, VA who shot his school teacher (here)...yeah, just chalk this up as another example of a hand-wringing problem in this country that EVERY SINGLE DEVELOPED NATION ON EARTH has managed to solve except us...



Update 1/13/23: Beyond belief (here)...

...and with the proper amount of righteous outrage, I bring you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less), and we’re taking just a short trip today back to 1/8/21, in which Vaush (in a very NSFW/H clip) gives a commentary in response to the 1/6 insurrection in this country...I had this video in mind given what just took place in Brazil and what is likely to be the total cluster of a Republican-run U.S. House for the next two years...



...and this may be a bit of an incongruously upbeat tune given the prior videos, but I still thought it was pretty good.

Monday Stuff

(Something about “George Santos” displaying the white power symbol here makes me laugh unintentionally. Why do all of these life forms doing the “OK” gesture hold their hands low the way they do? Do they honestly think they WON’T be seen making that gesture if they do that?)

John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us that the NY-03 U.S. House Rep pictured isn’t exactly getting off to a good start as he begins his career of constituent service, allegedly...office not set up yet, nobody taking calls or responding to emails/texts, etc...and yeah, I get Erlich’s tongue-in-cheek response - more here...



...and David Doel tells us about supporters of election-loser Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil staging their own 1/6-style insurrection...my hope is that this gets linked back to Bannon and Miller and those two cretins end up getting the justice that has escaped them in this country (GREAT point about the Repugs screeching about criminals illegally emigrating to this country over our border...well, what the hell do you call Bolsonaro... mildly NSFW/H...more here)...



...and it looks like the “party of Lincoln” in the U.S. House REALLY has a problem now, not because they care about the 99 percent of this country, but because their donors are apparently mad over last week’s ridiculous attempt at governance from the new Repug majority – Farron Cousins tells us more...



...and Sam, Emma and author and filmmaker Astra Taylor talk about right-wing judges tying to kill Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan – sounds like there are 2 trial cases, one in Missouri and one in Texas (of course) that have bubbled their way through the appeals courts to sympathetic conservative judges who have allowed the cases to proceed even though, in at least one, the plaintiffs don’t appear to have standing...but why bother with trivial details like actual legality when you’re trying to screw Democrats? And Sam makes a great point about how our “shadow docket” SCOTUS is looking for ANY possible excuse to take away any possible benefit from non-rich people (and why does it not surprise me in the least that this nonsense is funded by reactionary corporate assholes like the Mercers and Bernie Marcus of Home Depot...and with that in mind, isn’t this interesting)...



...and here is a compilation of clips from Rebel HQ...first, David Shuster brings us some Republican women being somewhat informed on abortion and others not having any idea of what the hell it is they’re talking about; next, Max Burns focuses on “Christian” preacher Jonathan Shelley wishing for Biden to die and opposing ANY woman running for office, and then back to Shuster discussing the spat between 1/6 insurrection organizer Ali Alexander and Marjorie Traitor Greene (should just lock the two of them in a cage and let them do their worst to each other)...



...and happy belated 75th (!) birthday to Kenny Loggins.

Friday Stuff

David Doel tells us here that pervy Matt Gaetz nominated Our Ochre Abomination for U.S. House Speaker (yeah, THAT will happen – not!), with Kevin McCarthy’s fail contest standing at 11 votes...and I take Doel seriously but definitely not Charlie Kirk, and this whole discussion about #45 as some kind of a “dealmaker” to resolve this is typically preposterous BS, for the reasons Doel points out; what just happened in the elections to Trump-supported candidates, with the exception of J.D. Vance in Ohio? (mildly NSFW/H...and I'm sure it isn't surprising to learn that some in our corporate media think that U.S. House Democrats are supposed to bail out these nitwit Republicans somehow who can’t elect a speaker, as noted here...a typically stoo-pid "take")...



...and I like where Beau is going with trying to pit McCarthy against the sedition caucus, but his argument assumes that rationality is going to prevail in this conflict, and as much as I’d like to see that at some point, I can’t imagine it unfortunately (love to be wrong)...if the Dems were to go through with a plan like what Beau describes, it should mean that the “gang of 20” should not be allowed to have committee assignments, and there would be written terms such as not holding the debt ceiling hostage as well as not withholding funding for governmental agencies, and Hakeem Jeffries should hold a press conference on the Capitol steps with McCarthy announcing everything that has been agreed to, so if McCarthy goes back on anything, the Dems will have a ready excuse to shame him every way they can and support those opposing McCarthy instead...again, I don’t see that not because of the MAGA yahoos out there who actually think Marjorie Traitor Greene is acting in their interests, but because everything I just described flies in the face of what the Repugs’ corporate puppet masters really want, and let’s not forget that THEY are the ones in charge of that party (and too much of Team D also, actually...and in a related vein, this bears repeating)...



...and speaking of corporate puppet masters, with the unhinged BS going on in one of the chambers of the U.S. Congress, let’s not think that that means that Not Your Father’s Republican Party isn’t hard at work at what they REALLY want to accomplish, as Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us...

...and no, I didn't forget about today's anniversary...



...and turning away from all of the idiocy on Capitol Hill for a minute, Ali Velshi reminded us recently that there were 648 mass shootings in 2022, with Kris Brown of The Brady Campaign and anti-gun activist and author Ryan Busse (who used to work in that business, but saw the light fortunately)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us that a Texas phone number to report drag shows apparently ends up nabbing a lot of actual predators in churches instead...can’t think of a hell hot enough for some of these pieces of sh*t (and of course, this Sarah Gonzales person rants on Dumb Face Tucker about drag queens, as if THEY are the actual problem...NSFW/H also)...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us another history lesson on neoliberalism (and I say that with respect), going back to the days of The Sainted Ronnie R, and wonders aloud if we’re reaching the end of that era, particularly given some recent comments from Mayor Pete as Transportation Secretary (Buttigieg is good at throwing out sound bites like that and going head-to-head with various media types, but hopefully he really means what he’s saying here)...



...and given the mind-numbing stupidity on display in the U.S. House this week, I can only think of this song as a response (and let’s not forget stuff like this also).

Update 1/7/23: Somebody on the bird app said that they didn't want the vote to get to 18 or older, or else Matt Gaetz would lose interest (here...story on pic is here).

Thursday Stuff

Gee, I wonder what kind of new ways Kevin McCarthy will be embarrassed today after losing six votes thus far for election as the U.S. House Speaker (here); David Pakman tells us more...



Update 1: I guess seven wasn't the lucky number (here).

Update 2: So we'll have to wait to hear about Number 10 (and beyond?) I suppose (here).

...and I think Jesse Dollemore is a little kinder here to that ridiculous fraud George Santos than I would be, but that’s OK; Santos should have known what to expect with this gig when he was running for it (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that somebody made the decision to remove metal detectors put in place before entering the House chamber after the 1/6 insurrection, with that fool Boebert of course crowing about it...I guess that was more of a priority than, y’know, ACTUALLY ELECTING A SPEAKER! (NSFW/H also)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about a wingnut dustup in where else but Flori-DUUUH!, with somebody named Matt Tito (a pal of Roger Stone – first sign of trouble) accusing Rep Anna Paulina Luna of being a witch...yep, the MAGA crowd keeps plummeting to new depts all right, offering nothing but performative nonsense...



Update 3: Way too damn funny (here)...

...and Robert Reich tells us the dirty little secret on corporate profits, and that is how they’re just about NEVER factored into the equation when considering the root causes of inflation (and I knew Jim Cramer was a POS, but this clip proves it even more)...



...and President Nixon announced the space shuttle program 50 years ago today (here)...here is a tune for the occasion.

Wednesday Stuff

Well, I don’t think the events of the first day of Republican U.S. House “governance” should have been a surprise, with Kevin McCarthy not winning enough votes after three tries in his attempt to be elected Speaker, as Jesse Dollemore tells us (mildly NSFW/H - more here...and as I alluded to yesterday, leave it to Dan Crenshaw to continue flogging this UTTERLY RIDICULOUS BUT COMPLETELY TYPICAL LIE!!! about “87,000 IRS agents” – the reality perspective on this is here)...



Update: Will this clown show ever end? (here).

...and Farron Cousins tells us about a story from The Hill about Repugs freaking out over losing younger voters by about 65 percent (favoring Team D) to 35 percent (favoring Team R) - shouldn't be hard to figure out by anyone possessing a bare minimum of gray matter on this stuff...



...and Sam, Emma and the Majority Report crew tell us about Repug Utah Sen. Mike Lee complaining to Larry Kudlow about Republicans being “emasculated” in the omnibus spending bill that just passed...and notice the complete lack of specificity about “tax hikes,” as well as the stuff about the bill allegedly being “negotiated in secret,” a particularly stoo-pid claim from Lee since Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao said here the spending bill here was “a victory for the GOP” (bringing to mind this post once more)..maybe Lee ought to try talking to the head of his party before he goes whining to the media...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that Our Ochre Abomination blamed the anti-abortion nuts for the ’22 midterm losses...I think there’s a kernel of truth to that believe it or not, but of course Trump’s “mirror” reflects everyone but himself, particularly given the fact that he and #MoscowMitch got the 3 wingnut justices confirmed who made the difference on that issue (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John and Elise Joshi of The Damage Report discuss some life form in Mississippi who burned a cross in his front yard near the home of an African American couple...and yes, this is indeed 2023, not 1923...



...and I guess this is my first “relationship” video for 2023, even though the tune is from last year...oh well.

Tuesday Stuff

(By the way, I don’t have anything particularly important to add about the terrible injury to Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, except to hope and pray for his full recovery...and oh yeah, this too.)

John I., Cenk and Jordan Uhl tell us about Mango Mussolini’s taxes getting released AT LONG LAST (and I agree with a lot of this, but I take offense at Cenk calling people at the IRS “cowards”...I believe John is the one who made the point about how grossly understaffed the agency is; they simply don’t have the resources to go after Our Ochre Abomination and the rich the way they should, and whenever a staffing increase is proposed, every Republican and simpatico keyboard knucklehead in existence starts losing their shit about “OMIGOD 87,000 NEW IRS AGENTS!!”...not quite sure why they hacked off the end of this clip the way they did...more here)...



...and one of the Gropenfuhrer’s pals is this assclown Bernie Marcus who is a founder of Home Depot; Marcus tells us what he thinks is killing Americans’ motivation to work, allegedly, and it’s...wait for it!...”socialism” (NSFW/H)...good job by Kyle Kulinski to work in graphics and context to support his arguments (and I would really like to see Marcus get forced to follow around people working 2-3 jobs, including some as Uber, Door Dash and Grub Hub drivers, to get some kind of a goddamn clue, and I’m sure a few of them work at Home Depot also...and I know Ana K. touched on the skyrocketing CEO pay thing already)...



...and Farron Cousins gives us his take on trying to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, which (along with the equal time requirement) once ruled network newscasts before the cables and everything else took over; like Cousins, I haven’t thought about this issue in a long time, and I found myself reluctantly agreeing with him...also, a problem with trying to bring it back isn’t just a matter of trying to pass one-size-fits-all legislation (and good luck with that), but The Sainted Ronnie R and his FCC heads Mark Fowler and Dennis Patrick made sure the doctrine was abolished in court also, so there would be legal battles for sure over trying to revive it (more here and here, and I definitely agree with Cousins about Thom Hartmann)...



...and David Pakman tells us that “all hat, no cattle” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is facing ANOTHER power plant emergency, also under the completely useless watch of ERCOT...but don’t let that interfere with Abbott busing immigrants all over the place at a cost of at least $12 mil to Texas taxpayers...



...and I know I included a clip on New Year’s Eve of a productive congress and presidential administration under President Obama with total Democratic control, and here’s a clip from Rachel Maddow listing all of the accomplishments of yet another instance of the entire federal government run by the “D” team under Biden...really makes you wonder why in God’s name any voter with a brain would want to deviate from that, but sadly, we are where we are...



...and RIP drummer Fred White of Earth, Wind and Fire.

Monday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

I thought it would be a good idea to kick off the new year on an upbeat note with this Second Thought video on Why Corporate America Hates Unions and how the movement to unionize succeeded in ’22 despite all of the obstacles the “one percent” managed to throw at it (and this is an important related link also)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us about the staggering numbers on income inequality and CEO pay in the U.S...and yeah, if you want to blame the Fed, they’re culprits also, but you have to go back to the slide we’ve been on in this country for the last 40 years at least, dating to The Sainted Ronnie R...and yes, I know this is a broken record by now (more related content is here and here)...



...and workers getting abused is definitely a global phenomenon, as this DW report tells us about Japan and death from overwork (affecting teachers primarily, who apparently work on average 123 hours of OT a month, way over what is referred to as the “Karoshi line”...God Almighty!...with reporter Clifford Coonan and professor Hiroshi Ono)...



...and I don’t really have a lot to say about the passing of Barbara Walters; I thought she was a pretty straight news professional...the one issue I guess you could say that I had with her was when she pretty much ambushed Ringo Starr in an interview after John Lennon’s murder, but relative to other nonsense from our corporate media, that’s really not a big deal overall (and as noted in the clip, pop culture imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, though I found myself agreeing with this sentiment also)...



...and on the subject of milestones, I absolutely had to point out that “Senator Snowball” announced that he’s stepping down; I thought Kyle Kulinski had a particularly good commentary on Inhofe from way back in the day...



...and Don Winslow reminds us that, as people like Inhofe leave office, crazy Republicans keep getting elected to replace them and take over even more, and at this moment, I don’t know what to do about the life forms who keep voting for these traitors...



...and the latest to join this gaggle is this George Santos character (assuming that’s even his actual name), and I thought Beau had a particularly good commentary here on who is at fault for not getting the lowdown on this guy...



...and if this incoming Congress were to have a theme song (aimed at the U.S. House Republican “leadership”), I would like to propose the following tune.

Saturday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us that Flori-DUUUH! Repug Guv Ron #DeathSantis recently announced that a grand jury with subpoena power will look into the vaccines produced by Big Pharma since apparently #DeathSantis (along with his flunky of a surgeon general Joseph Ladapo) doesn’t trust them (the vaccines I mean), and as Hartmann notes, Ladapo (in addition to being a fraud for other reasons as noted here) is also a vaccine skeptic...what could go wrong, I wonder? - I led off with Greg Abbott in Texas yesterday; both Abbott and #DeathSantis were up for re-election this year, and both were returned to office by sizeable margins, so with all due respect to the hardworking Dems fighting lonely battles in Texas and “The Sunshine State,” voters in both of those locations can go “f” themselves...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about a book coming out in January by author Chris Whipple about a potential domestic terror threat in this country from inside the Secret Service, to the point where Biden didn’t trust his own S.S. detail (isn’t this the stuff that happens in banana republics, and I don’t mean the clothing retailer of course?)...



...and with the January 6th Committee winding down, Don Winslow tells us about everybody who did NOT get criminal referrals to the DOJ (I guess they’re leaving this all up to Special Prosecutor Jack Smith...we’ll see)...



...and I have to admit that I fell down a bit earlier this year by not acknowledging the passing of author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich; Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! Interview Alissa Quart as a remembrance...



...and I now give you the last installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” for the year; this clip originally aired prior to the 2010 midterm elections, but I put it up again on 12/31/10 as a reminder of what Democrats were able to accomplish when they were in charge of the entire federal government (and for less than 2 years at that) during President Obama’s first term (with historian Michael Beschloss...a comparable record under Biden and a Dem congress can be read about from here... I would ask that you keep this in mind while the “clown car caucus” takes over the U.S. House in a few days and wastes its time with doing virtually nothing that you could reasonably call “the people’s business,” unfortunately)...



...and with the conclusion of the 117th Congress, that means that we can bid farewell to Louie Gohmert (who, in the following clip with John I., Cenk and Michael Shure, basically complained that you can’t lie to the FBI...uh, yeah, you dimwit! - and they're referencing Trumper Peter Navarro, by the way; also, as a bit of a bonus, Ana presents a clip of Gohmert asking if you can change the rotation of the moon...yep, Louie's elevator doesn't run all the way to the top, if you get my drift)...

...and speaking of elevators, we’re FINALLY, MERCIFULLY DONE AT LAST! with “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey (more here and here)...



...and as I approach my 19th year of doing this mess, believe it or not, I want to take a minute (as is my custom) and thank everyone who has spent any time at this site over the last year...there were victories to celebrate and losses to mourn, but I honestly think we can build on our successes into the new year, so to me, that’s a reason for hope. Also, given what kind of a “seat of the pants” operation this site is, I don’t know for certain how long I’ll be able to keep it going in its present form, but I’ll do the best I can. As I’ve said before, I’d like to do longer content pieces with links, but the videos with some commentary is the best I can do to keep the issues that matter to me (and to you I’m sure) front and center. Also, I haven’t really figured out how to monetize this thing (or to devote the time to that more importantly), but if I do, I’ll have to be a lot more careful about content excerpts and the graphics that I attach to these posts, but we’ll just have to wait and see about that. I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

But for now, let’s sign off for 2022 with my usual anthem, with best wishes for all good things in the new year (timed for the belated 76th birthday of Patti Smith).