Friday Stuff

I realize I’m playing catch up on a lot of this stuff because the week got away from me a bit, but here it is anyway...Kyle Kulinski tells us about John Oliver’s recent bit on paying Clarence “I Want To Be Rich” Thomas $1 million a year along with throwing in a $2.4 mil RV if he’d get his mangy ass off the Supreme Court (as is so often a case anymore, we need a comedian to lead the way into informed discourse)...



...and staying with the High Court of Hangin' Judge JR, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about “Strip Search Sammy” Alito acting like he wants to overturn Obergefell, which Thomas has already signaled he wants to do also, with Alito’s alleged reasoning being that extending basic human rights and protections to same-sex couples somehow offends the delicate sensibilities of alleged “Christians” like Alito...and these Philistines actually wonder why church attendance is down in this country (no controlling these freaks except to try and pack the court, which Biden won’t do of course)...



....and going from intolerance in court to intolerance in state government, MSNBC’s Katy Tur interviews an Alabama couple directly impacted by their state’s recent ruling on frozen embryos that may necessitate shutting down that state's IVF clinic (more here...and on this, I give you another example of Political Opportunism 101 here...more on the nutzoid behind this barbarity is here)...



...and Beau tells us that the “party of Lincoln” assclowns in the U.S. House apparently got ahold of some intel about Russia SOMETHING SOMETHING SATELLITE SOMETHING SOMETHING NUCLEAR and proceeded to lose their damn minds, though they decided to take their two-week vacation anyway...more to come on this I’m sure, but considering the source, I’m definitely not convinced of anything (not a knock on Beau, I wish to emphasize)...



...and if we’re talking about the alleged loyal opposition, we have to devote some time to the story of their alleged source on the alleged world-shattering Biden corruption, Alexander Smirnov, who turned out to be a Russian agent, and now these bottom feeders are scrambling to get rid of any mention of Smirnov, as well as acting like “oh, him? Why, we didn’t know anything about him. Who is he again?”...utterly wretched...and isn’t it just too precious to see that disgusting harpie and alleged “news” person Harris Faulkner casually ask if Christopher Wray should go to prison, which would be repulsive even if the Smirnov stuff did NOT turn out to be utter BS...and oh yeah, let’s not forget “Cancun” Ted (“PODCAST!”) Cruz also (Jesse Dollemore tells us about it...more here)...NSFW/H...



...and this newer tune has a bit of a dark twist to it, but it’s still a pretty cool rocker to help us get ready for the weekend...hope it’s a good one for one and all.

Wednesday Stuff

OK, I hope everyone who lost their damn minds last week over Jon Stewart have managed to calm down enough to appreciate him once again for taking The Swanson TV Dinner Heir to task over his recent fawning treatment of Russia and Vlad The Butcher...and yeah, the stuff about Tuckums and the grocery carts allegedly being stolen by homeless people and his total lack of push back against Putin claiming that Poland was responsible for Hitler’s invasion truly were lowlights for sure...and nicely done by Stewart to work in the intrigue surrounding the death of Alexei Navalny also...



...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us that the merger of the Kroger and Albertsons food chains have exposed the former company’s ties to human trafficking – “proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free” - snark...



...and Miranda Scholl of Rebel HQ brings us the tales of the latest Trumpist grifter named C.J. Pearson, who seems to be trying to pass himself off as some kind of faux religious cause celebre...it looks like Pearson is running for the Georgia state house...anti-LGBTQ, anti-DEI, anti-“critical race theory,” 2020 election denier, “Democrat” Party...yeah, Pearson checks all the boxes all right...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses Big Hair Blackburn’s Internet censorship bill, something called KOSA (with Richard Blumenthal as a co-signer apparently, and OF COURSE Schumer supports it too, and Chris Murphy should know better IMO...ugh...I get it that this was driven by the recent Senate hearing about how kids are allegedly being groomed online...I’m sure there’s all kinds of disgusting stuff out there, but politicians generally like to take the exception and turn it into the rule, especially the “party of Lincoln”...definitely don’t like where this bill is going...NSFW/H)...



...and Emma of TMR tells us that Mara Liasson of NPR recently proclaimed that the 16-week abortion ban supported by Bronzer Beelzebub is somehow “centrist”...while our oh-so-august-in-their-imaginations members of the media/political/industrial complex like Liasson issue their proclamations that so-and-so is “playing the game” successfully by caving to the wingnuts and having it appear as a well-reasoned and calculated policy decision (see any post from Atrios about “centrist dipshits”), the lives of real people are going to be ruined in the meantime (I guess those are the folks underneath the “fly by” for Liasson and her buddies who are basically invisible to elitist “smart” media, which of course also includes Fix Noise, despite their protestations to the contrary...NSFW/H)...



...and happy 75th birthday to Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads.

Tuesday Stuff

John I. and Trae Crowder of The Damage Report discuss racist Emails from the border patrol that have recently surfaced...but since they were caught they promise to clean up their act – I’ll believe that when I see it (and a “tonk,” huh? From the sound of a migrant getting clubbed, apparently? Wonder what it sounds like for one of these cretins to get the same treatment they readily inflict on others?)...



...and speaking of the border, Farron Cousins tells us that impeaching DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas may bite Repugs in the ass, mainly because...gee, I dunno... THEY DIDN’T LIST ANY FREAKING CHARGES AGAINST THE GUY!! And their idiocy is going to be on display FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” as Cousins says (with Marjorie Train Wreck Greene, who has zero legal training as Cousins notes, trying to argue the case...pass the popcorn)...



...and Beau tells us that President Biden is taking another shot at student debt relief, which he has already provided on a pretty big scale already as Beau says (about 3.5 million folks), though the screws were put to #46’s plan by Repug-appointed SCOTUS justices as noted here...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss the case of Dinesh D’Felon, who was recently forced to testify in front of a Georgia judge that – big surprise! – he has no stinking proof of voter fraud in the 2020 election (looks like “True The Vote” is shown up for lying frauds once again...more here)...



...and here’s a recurring public service announcement emphasizing the fact that we continue to live in a country with a grave issue to our health and well being that we possess barely any political will at all to try and resolve (here)...



...and I recently read that Carl Palmer has put together an AI tour of sorts for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which is necessary because of the passing of his two former bandmates (here); I’ll reserve judgment until I learn more about it, but in the meantime, here is probably the band’s biggest hit.



Update 2/21/24: I think there’s something going on with Google Chrome and the way it’s playing these videos. I haven’t found this to be an issue with other browsers/operating systems. I may ping Blogger on this to find out if there’s anything I can do to get this fixed.

Friday Stuff

David Doel informs us that a pro-Palestinian protest in Toronto was attacked because it allegedly targeted a hospital, which it didn’t (as Doel informs us, the hospital was on the protest route, and that’s all)...this unleashed a torrent of BS narratives all over the place (I realize this is a pretty Canada-specific story, but the bit about wingnuts losing what’s left of their minds in blind IMO support of Israel is definitely a feature and not a bug of “reporting” in this country too...NSFW/H)...



...and Sam Seder of The Majority Report discusses MSNBC reporter Matt Bradley (in Tel Aviv) using the framing of “and this history Is still debated” concerning the Palestinians and the Nakba (yes, it was a mealy mouthed way to put it, but I agree with the take that Bradley is probably getting heat to keep as pro-Israel a stance as he can)...



...and returning to this country, Jesse Dollemore brings us the story of Our Ochre Abomination blaming Repug Mazi Pilip who lost her U.S. House race in New York to Tom Suozzi...see, according to #45, if Pilip had just groveled harder, she would have won...uh huh...keep on believing that...



...and Chris Hayes gives us a bit of a rehash of Tangerine Palpatine’s remarks about not honoring Article V of the NATO treaty on behalf of his sugar daddy Vlad The Butcher (I can’t imagine what kind of kompromat Putin has on the Gropenfuhrer, but it must be truly awful...I know this has been discussed before and likely will be again, but I think it’s important to keep beating the metaphorical drum about this matter)..



...and John of The Damage Report informs us that the FBI recently uncovered a massive ’22 plot to potentially start a civil war at our southwest border, allegedly involving these right-wing militiamen Bryan Perry and Jonathan O’Dell (not just against migrants but apparently the cops also...ugh – more here)...



...and this report from More Perfect Union and Eric Gardner discusses Why Child Care Costs More Than College...among other things, the video makes a great argument for paid family leave, as well as governmental intervention (and nice work by that town in Minnesota to come up with what appears to be a way out of the mess that they faced related to this story)...



...and we recently observed the sixth anniversary of the Parkland school gun massacre, and with that in mind, Thom Hartmann tells us that the family of slain student Joaquin Oliver used AI to recreate his voice for a message to cowardly politicians to DO SOMETHING AT LONG FREAKING LAST ABOUT THIS...Thom always has interesting insights, this time concerning Scalia, Thomas Jefferson and “slave patrols” and the Second Amendment...and great job by the Hawaii Supreme Court to tell the SCOTUS that Heller and their other BS gun rulings were crap (and oh yeah, what could be more “American” than a Super Bowl win celebration followed by a mass shooting?)...



...and I’ve been looking for a newer tune to include here, and I was pleasantly surprised to find this from Billy Joel – he’s been out of the loop with this for a while, but it’s nice to see him back again.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us here that it looks like still another witness has told U.S. House idiots James Comer and Jim Jordan that they can’t link President Biden and Hunter to some alleged Burisma bribe/influence peddling/OH FREAKING GOD ARE WE ACTUALLY DOING THIS AGAIN??!!...and yeah, the fact that these ridiculous hearings are all happening behind closed doors is more than a bit of a “tell” (and their star witness already said to the Senate that this was a nothing burger as Cousins informs us)...



...and speaking of U.S. House Republican idiocy, Jesse Dollemore lets us know here that the “party of Lincoln” has (on the second try) impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for...what? Trying to resolve the border issue with no help? You know, the matter that the “R” party wants to leave alone so Bronzer Beelzebub can actually have something to crow about when he tries to seize the White House once more later this year? I mean, when he isn’t throwing ketchup against a wall at McDonald’s and leaving intelligence docs lying near his gold commode at Mar-a-Lago (and of course, Marjorie Train Wreck Greene is right in the middle of this...and yeah, congrats to Dem Tom Suozzi for winning the U.S. House NY seat that was previously occupied by “George Santos”).

And one of the people responsible is this guy, who voted to impeach Mayorkas twice. And to do something about Bri-Fi, click here...



...and with regard to the presidential contest, I know it’s taken me a couple of days to get around to this, but I tried watching other videos with commentary about Jon Stewart’s return to The Daily Show, but I finally said, the hell with it, Doomsy...watch the damn video of Stewart yourself (I try not to refer to myself in the third person, by the way).

And I kept waiting to be outraged by what Stewart had to say. And I kept waiting.

And I kept waiting...

Oh, we’re not supposed to criticize Biden when he makes occasional slipups? Really? And we’re supposed to just bite our lip and not say anything about that idiotic Tik Tok video (Mama Kelce’s chocolate chip cookies?)? Or when Biden acts like he’s unable to do anything about Netanyahu’s butchery in Gaza (and just how the hell is THAT going to get Israeli hostages returned...and no, I’m definitely not letting Hamas off the hook either).

It’s not Stewart’s job to give public figures a pass if he thinks what he has to say will hurt people’s feelings; I trust his judgment enough to keep his remarks balanced. And I believe he did that in his segment. By contrast, I’ve given up on Bill Maher because any notion of balance with him went out the window awhile ago. My take, for what it’s worth, is that it’s now more important for him to suck up to his conservative pals and ridicule libs whenever he can than to give a fair hearing to all sides of the political spectrum.

Maybe this is “apples and oranges,” but I’m going to say it anyway. I hope we haven’t forgotten what Stewart has done to ensure health care for the 9/11 first responders (under the Zadroga bill, named for James Zadroga...his father Joseph was killed recently in an accident in a hospital parking lot). That doesn’t have anything directly to do with Stewart’s segment I know, but that’s more than I and a lot of other people have done for that heroic cause (and I thought that informed Stewart’s truly commendable words at the end of his segment...and I haven’t heard anybody say a damn thing about THAT).

So, without any more ado, here is the Stewart piece...



...and in a matter more directly germane to the U.S. economy, Robert Reich brings us information on the Dickensian minimum wage in this country of $2.13 an hour for tipped workers, which dates back to 1991 (and kudos to Saru Jayaraman for trying to fix that)...



....and Beau gives us some inside info on Egypt’s decision (maybe?) to rescind its peace treaty with Israel based on that country’s expansion of hostilities into Rafah...it’s true that this isn’t a positive development, but it doesn’t necessarily mean war between the two countries either, thank God (and by the ICJ, Beau means this)...



...and with all of the struggle and suffering in the world, maybe I’m just being a pointy-headed lib to include this tune, but I’m doing it anyway for Valentine’s Day...hope it’s a good one for all.

Tuesday Stuff

Beau brings us the story of Our Treasonous Orange Nightmare encouraging Russia to attack NATO (definitely picked up on Beau’s sarcasm about Trumpers supposedly having read the Constitution...and yeah, it’s pretty much “game, set, match” for Bronzer Beelzebub’s claim about not supporting a NATO member country based on Article 5 of the treaty... can’t think of a word to describe the sociopathy of somebody criticizing that international organization for allegedly not paying its bills when the accuser may be the world’s biggest deadbeat)...



...and John of TYT addresses the dustup over RFK Jr.’s Super Bowl ad...nice that Jr. apologized, but I thought the excuse of “oh, I didn’t know what my Super PAC would do” is totally lame, and apparently Jr. is keeping a tweet with the ad pinned on his X account, or something, as John says; here’s my question, though – who seriously thinks that ad is going to do something for Jr. one way or the other? To me, it looks like a bunch of rich bastards with too much time and money on their hands decided to do something to “piss off the libs”...the only people who will recognize what this ad is trying to do are folks who actually voted for JFK way back when or their kids (like me)...



...and this Rebel HQ clip features some nice work by Dem U.S. House Rep Susan Wild of PA-07 making the case for unionized employees in favor of their non-unionized counterparts, in terms of having better wages and benefits...and of course, this Mark Mix character keeps repeating “why don’t non-unionized employees join a union on their own?” when in fact, as Wild points out, non-unionized employees are very much discouraged from doing that by their employers (see what happened when we tried to get the EFCA passed), though increased union baseline salaries are also beneficial to non-unionized employees doing similar work...and yeah, this union carpenters guy for Trump is about as out to lunch as you can expect...I can take or leave Jackson White, but nice work by Alex Wagner in that clip (and I’m sure it’s not surprising to find out that Mix is tied to Charles Koch; that and more odious garbage on so-called “right to work” can be found here)...



...and Thom H. said that Neil Gorsuch in particular referred to Dementia J. Trump as our current president during the recent SCOTUS arguments over removing #45 from the ballot in Colorado...interesting rehash of the 2000 election, specifically about Sandra Day O’Connor not wanting to resign while a Dem was in the White House, and Al Gore should have been there based on the Miami-Dade votes that were FINALLY counted after it didn’t matter anymore...also, interesting speculation on where our politicians in robes on the High Court could take this whole matter – not holding my breath for a just outcome either from these frauds...

...and Lawrence O’Donnell touched on some of what Beau discussed previously (good job to take a shot at the fourth estate on trying to make Biden’s age this year’s “BUT HER EMAILS!!!”), but O’Donnell adds a lot of important historical context IMO...”the flawlessly uninformed people at (Trump’s) rally”...spot-on...and here comes another “sir,” story, which means Our Traitorous Orange Meat Sack is lying once again...one of the reasons why this commentary is terrific is because O’Donnell cites FDR, Eisenhower and Gerald Ford, all of whom had more integrity in their little fingers than Combover Caligula has in his corpulent, fast-food-bloated, cowardly body (yes, Ford was wrong in that debate for sure as O’Donnell points out, but read about how Ford almost died in the Pacific in WWII when a typhoon hit his aircraft carrier...what guts to get through that...the individuals who should pay heed the most to this commentary are the life forms such as the one driving the vehicle with the sticker shown above, but good luck with that I know...more here)...



...and yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the first performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin.



Update: Apologies for not pointing this out MUCH earlier, but there is actually a special election in Lower Bucks County today for the state PA-140 house seat vacated by Dem John Galloway (who was elected as a judge). Please slog through the snow and get to your polling place to vote for Dem Jim Prokopiak; you’ll feel the warm glow of satisfaction in the midst of the winter cold, and you’ll be doing yourself a favor by keeping the house under Democratic control.

Update 2/14/24: AWESOME!

Monday Stuff

This feature from Chris Wallace titled “Tell Me Why I’m Wrong” has to do with The Swanson TV Dinner Heir’s alleged interview with Vlad The Butcher (I have to admit that I’m shocked to agree with Bretbug, but I do, and his “take” is uncharacteristically commendable...and speaking of “useful idiots,” that applies to Reihan Salam also as far as I’m concerned...nothing against “Really American,” but they need to “jazz up” these clips a bit)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us some analysis on this BS report on Biden from wingnut lawyer Robert Hur, who apparently guessed that everyone would zero in on his executive summary and not drill down into the details of what Hur found out, and it seems he was basically right (more here, here and here, and for good measure, there’s this too...Merrick Garland should have his resume updated and on the street for this cluster...NSFW/H...and yeah, way too damn funny to see that nematode Jesse Watters get busted for a verbal screwup when he accuses Biden of the same thing)...



...and Emma V. of The Majority Report gives us some insight on the back-and-forth over funding for Israel (looks like the Senate worked through the weekend on $$ for them and Ukraine)...have to admit that I’m a little squishy on not supporting Bibi if it also means that we don’t send $$$ to Ukraine (and kudos to Rashida Tlaib, and once more, if the Dems had any damn brains, they would listen to her...that being said, we should never stop trying to make Hamas responsible for their horrific acts also, though I’ve heard positive stuff about the proposed three-phase plan on this which Netanyahu dismissed in one word...briefly NSFW/H a couple of times)...



...and David Doel touches on the proposed peace plan between Israel and Hamas in this clip – I’m in agreement on his basic point that John Fetterman should be giving a press conference calling for Netanyahu to support the deal to return the hostages currently on the table...FWIW, I think any such deal should also include full criminal liability for anyone from Hamas who had anything whatsoever to do with the attacks of 10/7 as well as the wholesale destruction of Hamas’s military infrastructure, but for the moment, the hostages should be the priority...and I agree that “there is no equivalence” either, but not in the way Fetterman thinks...



...and turning back to domestic politics, Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with elections lawyer Marc Elias of Democracy Docket concerning a typically beyond ridiculous conservative lawsuit against Louisiana redistricting, in the face of a case that is actually settled in favor of two “black opportunity districts” (I believe that’s the term) that were created in response to gerrymandering in the first freaking place in that state! – “everyone in America has a right to sue – it doesn’t mean you have a right to win,” indeed (NSFW/H also)...



...and RIP Henry Fambrough, the last original member of The Spinners.

Friday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore gives us an update on the tale of Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels roughing up someone who (they thought) was an illegal immigrant who was (they thought) caught shoplifting...the video aired on the Sean Inanity program, but now apparently it looks like the individual in question was a U.S. citizen...gee, I wonder if that means there will be ANOTHER lawsuit against The Roger Ailes BS Factory...pass the popcorn...



Update 1: Looks like the CYA festival has already started (here).

...and Thom Hartmann asks Has the GOP Been Grooming Us To Accept Fascism (once again, if you have to ask the question, you probably already know the answer...Thom talks about how we’ve supported dictators including Pinochet in Chile of course, along with the potential impact of Project 2025, with the wingnuts trying to create a “break the glass” moment that leads to a strongman in the U.S., and Thom goes back the last 40 years, which I think is apropos...have to admit that I didn’t know about Poppy Bush’s role in this whole mess, but I’m not surprised)...



...and based on this Brian Tyler Cohen video, I take back my criticism of James Lankford not having a spine when it comes to immigration, and apparently, he did in fact vote for his own bill, even though it went down to defeat (and I agree with Cohen...Dan Crenshaw remains a bad faith actor on this in particular as far as I’m concerned)...



...and speaking of bad faith actors, Farron Cousins (not him) discusses this Valentina Gomez loon in Missouri who’s apparently running for secretary of state, so of course, being a Trumpette, she makes some kind of a campaign video burning books (Gomez is obviously unfamiliar with this quote...hard to get my head around all of this insanity sometimes)...



...and concerning yesterday’s escapades with The High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR, I have to admit that I thought this gentleman made a lot of sense, so here he his (really not familiar with Tennessee Brando, but I may come back to him if he has more clips like this)...



...and Elizabeth Warren pretty much lays out the stakes in this fall’s elections when it comes to women’s ability to exercise their bodily autonomy – pretty sure we know all this already, but it bears repeating IMO...



Update 2: I know we don't need a reminder, but here is another one anyway.

...and RIP Carole King collaborator Toni Stern, who helped compose this number along with a few other hits...



...and also Philly’s own Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, whose remarkable voice and presence was featured in the 1981 film Diva, one of the most wildly original pics I’ve ever seen...she basically gave up what likely would have been a lucrative career to teach kids with special needs...truly a hero as far as I’m concerned.

Thursday Stuff

John of The Damage Report lets us know about the oral arguments that our thoroughly compromised SCOTUS conducted today in the matter of Our Ochre Abomination potentially being removed from the ballot in Colorado for the election this fall (with KBJ getting a little pushy with a Trumpster lawyer...boy, is John ever right about the cowardice on display today, and I’m not surprised to hear the wingnut justices trying to change the subject of whether or not 1/6 was an insurrection – I think anyone with a brain realized that THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS – but I realize that “anyone with a brain” excludes 45...I’ll wait to hear what folks like Laurence Tribe have to say about this, but if I were to guess, I think the SCOTUS plan is not to rule on Trump’s eligibility for the election and not to let ANYONE ELSE rule on that either)...



...and Lawrence O’Donnell interviews Dem U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Almost Silent Clarence Thomas and his laughably pathetic tax problems, which would truly have landed the rest of us likely in the gray bar hotel or permanent indebtedness at a minimum...more on Whitehouse’s legislation to end the thoroughly corrupt practice of billionaires reaping tax benefits from donations to dark money groups is here (have to admit that the ultra-wealthy making donations pre-tax as opposed to after-tax like the rest of us who contribute is truly the cherry on the icing on top of this sh*t sundae)...



...and Trae Crowder lets us know that the D.C. Circuit Court ruled that Dementia J. Trump actually DOESN’T have immunity to do every damn thing he wants...color me shocked (NSFW/H...and OK, I’ll allow a little bit of a plug for Toby Keith, but not much)...



...and Jesse Dollemore gives us his take on #45 telling Maria Bartiromo that President Xi Jinping of China will be responsible for a terror attack if Biden gets back in...yeah, he’s paying terrorists $50K a head to cross our border and do such a dark deed...but oh, Tangerine Palpatine got along GREAT with China, didn’t he?...as usual, they want us scared and not using the brains God gave us to realize how utterly full of fertilizer they are...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 2/8/17 – Thom Hartmann tells us about the plot to attack peace-loving Muslims in an upstate New York community, egged on by “pastor” Robert Doggart, among other despicable life forms – kudos to Dean Obeidallah for reporting on this horror show (here)...so OF COOUURRSSE Kurt Schlichter at clownhall.com tries some misdirection and blames “the left” instead with his eliminationist garbage, written mainly for views and clicks (oh, and if innocent people end up getting killed, I guess that’s just the ”price of doing business” as far as Schlichter is concerned)..



...and RIP Neil Kirby McMillan, Jr.(aka Mojo Nixon)...God, they’re dropping like flies.

Wednesday Stuff

Rayyvana, Cenk and Jackson White of TYT give us the latest on “Curtsy Kyrsten” and her “let them eat cake” spending (and yeah, I’m sure she’ll end up with KKR or the Carlyle Group – as I and others first said awhile ago, to paraphrase Churchill, it’s plain what Sinema is...all that matters is negotiating her price...when I heard about Sinema paying $110K a month to Tulsi Gabbard’s sister, all I could think of was the BS that Cori Bush has gotten for paying her husband $42K a YEAR for supposedly the same thing, and he’s actually a professional in that business (and to do something about Arizona’s U.S. Senatorial mistake, click here)...



...and I thought this was a pretty good analysis from Sam and Emma of The Majority Report on the recently-failed immigration bill that I alluded to yesterday, including Repug U.S. Senator James Lankford VOTING AGAINST HIS OWN BILL to appease Mango Mussolini, which he likely will do (I thought Sam did a good job of explaining the triangulation – I guess you can call it that – of Chris Murphy trying to get the Ukraine aid by giving the Repugs everything they want on Israel and the border...not trying to attack Murphy, I wish to emphasize...and of course Lankford does nothing but toss red meat to his Trumpist base in response to Jake Tapper’s question, truth and factual reality be damned)...



Update: My money is on Sean Inanity, proving once more that the Repug Party works for Fix Noise and not the other way around (here...and what a "profile in pudding" by Lankford BTW).

Update 1 2/8/24: OK, so it was this Jesse Kelly life form (here).

...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us the sorry tale of J.D. Vance from “The world’s greatest deliberative body” admitting he would have confirmed a duplicate set of electors on 1/6...and I realize I’ll probably be repeating this for the rest of my days in response to meat heads like Vance, but here I go again...THERE WERE NO FREAKING PROBLEMS WITH PENNSYLVANIA’S ELECTIONS IN 2020, YOU CORRUPT, LYING WEASEL!! Repugs won one – ONE! – lawsuit, and it had to do with not counting mail-in ballots where the address was accidentally written on the secret envelope. THAT’S IT!!! And as I watched this, I couldn’t help but think of all of the poll workers giving up because they don’t want to be “swatted,” doxed or otherwise attacked (to say nothing of family members also) by single-digit-IQ’d Trumpist life forms WHO THINK VANCE IS ACTUALLY TELLING THE TRUTH!! (more here).

And oh yeah, nice job by Vance to utterly wreck the bill providing relief to the people in East Palestine (here and here)...anybody remember them??...



Update 2 2/8/24: More here.

...and when it comes to the “D” team, Thom Hartmann tells us how President Biden’s economic policy echoes FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ by investing in manufacturing from the bottom up...pro-labor, FTC investigating mergers/monopolies, etc. (yes, more to do, etc., but let’s not lose sight of exactly where we are with this stuff, versus where we’d be with, God forbid, President Combover Caligula for another term)...



...and for more good news form our side, Mike Figueredo tells us about Connecticut guv Ned Lamont forgiving medical debt to the tune of $1 billion for about 250K eligible residents, which is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in this country...and yeah, it was pretty funny to hear that Repug in that state pretending to care about other social spending in response (I remember Lamont’s run for the Senate against “Holy Joe” Lieberman, and I’m glad to see how much good he’s been able to accomplish in his life in politics in this current role...NSFW/H)...



...and I’ll be honest; I really wasn’t planning to say anything about Toby Keith one way or the other until I came across this great tweet...he entertained our military, so he deserves credit for that, but otherwise I thought he was a POS (yes, I know, you’re not supposed to talk ill of the dead, but Keith had no problem talking smack about libs, as noted in the tweet, especially during the high-and-mighty, ruinous Bushco reign).

About the incident in question...Keith could have owned up to it and taken his lumps, but no, he said it never happened. Kris Kristofferson, for his part, took the high road and kind of blew it off, which he had the right to do. However, Kristofferson’s wife confirmed that the incident took place (proving once more that Keith only acted like a “man” when he attacked women rockers).

Well, if that isn’t an excuse for a Kristofferson tune, I don’t know what is.

Tuesday Stuff

Oh, by the way, when it comes to the supposed “grand bargain” on immigration between the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, it looks as if the familiar cycle has played itself out once again (more to come I'm sure):

Repugs kick and scream about an issue

Dems offer to help and give Repugs everything they want

Repugs still kick and scream and (almost completely) refuse to help

Dems try to come up with a bill pretty much on their own that, once more, gives Repugs everything they want

Repugs “overturn the game board” like spoiled brats

Bill fails at the last minute

Repugs blame “socialism” (running to Fix Noise with their hurt fee fees) while corporate media blames “both sides”

Voters get confused by politics generally in response and lose interest

Lather, rinse, repeat

(And I'm completely aware of the role played by Tangerine Palpatine in this latest mess, of course...here.)

Now to the videos...Sam and Emma and the crew from The Majority Report discuss the recent online idiocy from “The Moustache of Understanding,” comparing the Middle East to the Animal Kingdom (so “Bibi” is a “lemur”? Like that character from the “Ice Age” movies? GMAFB!)...nice job by Sam to recall Janeane Garofalo, going back mainly to Friedman cheerleading for Dubya’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq...I’d heard the story about Sam and Friedman before – great stuff...nice job to recall the “F.U.” And oh yeah, the U.S. is an “old lion” and Iran is a “parasitoid wasp”? Really??? Gee, I wonder how well THAT will sit with the mullahs, e.g., pointlessly inflaming an already tense situation for no good reason other than for Friedman to be feted at cocktail parties I’m sure...



...and when it comes to the “party of Lincoln,” doing everything they can to utterly destroy any chance of immigration “reform” so Dementia J. Trump can have something to complain about while he tosses ketchup against the wall at McDonald’s, or something...well, it looks like they’re a little short in the “long green” department too, as Jesse Dollemore informs us (though I’m sure the donor class will come riding to the rescue with all of that sweet, untraceable dark money courtesy of the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR...love to be wrong)...



...and when it comes to Our Ochre Abomination, Thom Hartmann tells us that scholars are examining Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to make sure #45 doesn’t get another crack at the presidency...at around 3:00, Thom talks about anti-abortion states forcing kids in school (“no later than grade 3,” huh?) to watch something called the “baby Olivia” video, which is apparently pretty hardcore from the “forced birth folks”...



...and that's a fitting transition, sadly, to John and Francesca bringing us the gut-churning news that nearly 65K pregnancies have resulted from rape in the states that have effectively banned abortion after Dobbs – I don’t encourage violence, though it tragically has already occurred in these stories, but I’m waiting to hear about a woman killing one of these monsters, and I’m sure they’ll punch her ticket to the gas chamber (or whatever method they use now) almost right away (GREAT point by John that, if you want to go after something truly evil, go after the rapist instead of the woman...but yeah, good luck with that)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 2/7/14...I’ll be honest; every now and then I get to the point where I really can’t find anything that I think I should include or comment on (particularly having to do with Our Orange Nightmare or OH GOD I SWEAR I’M NOT GOING TO MENTION THAT WOMAN’S NAME!!), so that’s when I “set the wayback,” and I’m glad I found this clip on actor/activist Mike Farrell...happy 85th (as I’ve said, I part company with him, and a lot of others, when it comes to Mumia, but I applaud him on everything else...interview ends at about 9:05, and the Gore Vidal stuff on the “national security state” was good also...more on The Real News is here)...



...and also in the milestone department, RIP Wayne Kramer of the MC5 (NSFW/H).

Monday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Marjorie Trailer Trash Greene’s typically disgusting new attack on Ilhan Omar and this misinterpretation of what Omar said about this breakaway portion of Somalia, and oh yeah, Cori Bush too while they’re at it, led by this Troy Nehls life form who only wants to see Dementia J. Trump installed for another term, the good of the country be damned – I still don’t like ”defund the police” as a slogan (embraced by Bush), but I support the underlying policy of reallocating police budgets to provide more funds for communities in the way of funding for early childhood and pre-K development, job training, housing assistance, etc., and I know Bush does too, to her credit (and the Leeja Miller video that shows up soon gets into how much $$ politicians and government officials need to spend on security, so the $42K video for her husband sounds reasonable IMO; actually, it sounds like a bargain)...NSFW/H...



...and speaking of Miller, she brings us her first video of the new year on political violence...I have to admit that I didn’t know how widespread the problem was until she started listing all of the states where these incidents occurred, though I knew it was bad; the info on election officials was particularly jarring IMO...the amount of threats since Our Treasonous Orange Overlord seized power is eye opening, but I guess it shouldn’t be surprising (and it’s pretty plain what Marjorie Traitor Greene and Lex Luthor Scott are, but that doesn’t justify violence and “swatting” against them or anyone else – “The call is coming from inside the house, and it has the potential to take us all down with it.”; also, kudos to Miller for giving us ideas on a “way forward” potentially out of this mess, which, as far as I’m concerned, includes throwing #45’s mangy ochre ass in the slam, and I don’t care how butt-hurt his guttural followers get over that...NSFW/H)...



...and Jesse Dollemore informs us of Laura Ingraham and Baby Newton Leroy Gingrich screeching about “OMIGOD, THAT ‘WOKE’ JAMES LANKFORD IS GOING TO GIVE BIDEN A WIN ON IMMIGRATION – HE CAN’T DO THAT...THAT’S TRUMP’S ISSUE!” (spoiler alert – Lankford is indeed a Trumper with a staunchly conservative voting record, in case nobody knew that somehow)...



...and Beau discusses President Biden’s “measured response” to the drone attack that killed our three service people...the bottom line to me is that we just don’t know yet if there will be a “response to the response” as Beau admits, but from all accounts, it looks like this was a prudent move by #46, particularly in that it apparently didn’t strike inside Iran, God forbid...



...and RIP actor and former football player Carl Weathers...have to include a clip from the incredibly PC-incorrect ‘80s film “Action Jackson,” which is a lot of fun IMO if you’re in the mood...



...and in the milestone department, I also should mention that last Saturday was the 65th anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (here)...I should probably include “American Pie” here for the occasion, but to be honest, I really can’t freaking stand hearing that song any more, so as a compromise, here’s Don McLean performing a Holly tune (absolutely love the bottleneck guitar on this one).

Friday Stuff

I thought Chris Hayes did a pretty thorough job here of backing up his claims on how well the economy is doing under Biden with actual data...so of course the winguts have to kind of blow that off and start screeching about OMIGOD MIGRANT CARAVANS COMING TO DESTROY US!! instead...



...and David Pakman made similar points here, letting us know about more good financial news that Fix Noise is forced to report, including Larry Kudlow...but of course, what REALLY matters to these cretins is that his interview with Marjorie Traitor Greene is only moments away, as well as the impeachment idiocy with DHS Secretary Mayorkas...



Update: More here.

...and Farron Cousins tells us about the recent closed-door testimony (because, as Cousins correctly points out, God forbid U.S. House Repugs in particular would want to conduct business in the cold light of day) of someone named Rob Walker, who makes it abundantly clear that attacks by “the party of Lincoln” in the lower chamber on the Bidens constitute a FREAKING NOTHINGBURGER LIKE WE’VE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG!!...



...and I don’t know much about Colin Cowherd, except that he’s got his sports TV show on a lot when I’m going in and out of restaurants and food places of one type or another, but Brian Tyler Cohen brings us Cowherd’s recent commentary on OMIGOD I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT HER YET AGAIN I KNOW!!! – no chance of me becoming a “Swiftie,” but man oh man, does Cowherd nail it about Travis Kelce’s girlfriend and the NFL and the overall misogyny in sports (and 18 minutes out of a 3 ½ hour NFL broadcast is actual football as opposed to other BS? Not surprised)...



...and Jesse Dollemore discusses a recent Lincoln Project ad calling out white “Christian” nationalism, giving these crazies the treatment they truly deserve (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Beau discusses the utterly awful story of the PA guy who (allegedly) decapitated his father (nice, and in a ‘burb not far from that of your humble narrator) and made a video online, it seems, because it’s 2024 and why the hell not I suppose; Beau uses this to lead into a pretty well done IMO commentary on the border stuff...the “Hee-Haw Hezbollah” – that’s why Beau is who he is (I don’t completely understand Beau’s comment about Abbott in Texas doing what the SCOTUS is allowing, but maybe that wretched governor found some legal wiggle room somewhere)...



...and I’m really trying to be careful with videos from The Young Turks, but I thought this clip was pretty good...Ana and Cenk inform us that Maria Bartiromo recently scraped the proverbial bottom of the barrel once again, blaming DEI for the recent deaths of three of our military in Jordan...I believe they were three reservists...and of course this Texas congressman assumes Biden hasn’t responded to attacks on our military in the region (uh, no)...



...and it’s taken me a little while to get around to this recent tune, but here it is finally – hope the weather dries out where you are and you have a nice, sunny weekend.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins informs us that the recent Repug primary candidates’ debate for the CO-04 seat didn’t go very well for anyone really, but in particular for Bo-Bo Boebert, who came in fifth out of nine in a straw poll (and 6 of the 9 candidates have criminal records, huh? Terrific - one way to respond is to click here)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about the recent antics of Marjorie Train Wreck Greene, who gave some kind of rally speech in New Hampshire before the “victory” from Tangerine Palpatine...I have to admit that I didn’t know anything about the “Abraham Accords” (which obviously didn’t do a damn thing to prevent October 7th), and after this clip, I care even less ...and Greene is way too much of a dim bulb to realize that she alternately gives Biden credit and blames him at the same time (very mildly NSFW/H at end...more here)...



...and given the prior lunacy of the “party of Lincoln,” I think that’s a good transition into this clip from Robert Reich about the “chaos agenda,” not just for Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former *Preznit, but his entire stinking party (I’m detecting more urgency from Reich on this stuff, which is definitely welcome, though it’s not like he’s been a slouch or anything...far from it)...



...and continuing under the heading of U.S. House Republican idiocy, I need to present the following...I don’t know anything about reporter Jim DeFede in Flori-DUUH!, but boy, does he do yeoman work here holding congresswoman Maria Salazar’s feet to the proverbial fire on Salazar taking credit for $$ brought to her district from bills she voted against (and kudos to Brian Tyler Cohen for pointing out that USPS “cluster” where their pensions need to be funded 75 years into the future in an effort to bankrupt the postal service...yeah, exactly NO ORGANIZATION ON EARTH has to deal with a pension burden like that! – more here)...



...well, for a contrast, I’d like to offer the following, and that is Dem U. S. House Rep Dan Goldman speaking out against the impeachment of DHS Secretary Mayorkas in this video from Daily Kos...I think this clip sums up the typical wingnut nonsense on this issue pretty well...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 1/31/18, in which Kyle Kulinski tells us about an article in The Guardian that asks “Why does it cost $32,093 to give birth in the U.S.,” and I’m sure the cost has only increased from that over the last 6 years...important to remember when you hear the wingnuts screeching about the declining white birth rate in this country...NSFW/H...



...and I thought it was great to hear that Jon Stewart is coming back to “The Daily Show,” but I have a feeling that he’ll be toned down a bit from what is displayed in the following clip...still, though, Stewart on a part-time basis and in a bit of a modified form is still a very welcome development...we’ll see (more here)...



...and six of the nine Repug candidates for the CO-04 seat have criminal records, huh? That sounds like a good excuse for this tune.

Tuesday Stuff

Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ informs us here that our prior ruling cabal under Dementia J. Trump went through A LOT of drugs apparently, about $750K worth, including a lot of name brands at the expense of generic substitutes...I’m actually a little sympathetic to the argument that some of these are needed on a moment’s notice for travel purposes, for example, but I’m even MORE sympathetic to the argument that there should be oversight because we’re paying for this stuff, to say nothing of pharmacologic purposes (and I’m sure this happens regardless of which party is running An Oval Office, but it happens to be more egregious under the Gropenfuhrer)...



...and given the subject of this More Perfect Union report, that makes me even less sympathetic of what is described in the prior clip...this MPU video is titled “Why Going to the Pharmacy Sucks Now”...yep, blame “vertical integration,” short staffing of pharmacists and technicians at the chains, driving the “mom and pops” out of business, etc. – looks like we need another “pharma-geddon” nationwide, to say nothing of more unionization...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report bring us this clip of Rula Daoud of Standing Together speaking out for peace on both sides of the border when it comes to Israel’s Gaza incursion...I know I’ve gone on the record when it comes to what I think of “Bibi,” but the murdering Hamas butchers also need to make a full accounting for all of their captives seized on October 7th...I wouldn’t mind seeing Netanyahu standing in a docket in The Hague along with everyone associated with Hamas who launched their cowardly, despicable attack...I’m sure one day someone will write a book researching everything that went into planning that atrocity, and I definitely will read it eventually...



...and David Doel discusses the recent mass layoffs in the video gaming industry...unionized workers apparently were protected while Microsoft laid off 1,900 non-union employees in one of their gaming divisions, combined with layoffs all over the place at other gaming companies (and yes, more people should follow the courageous example of Saturo Iwata of Nintendo...yeah I know, good luck with that...everybody should commit to memory that line graph Doel presents at about 13:40)...



...and John and Daniel Franzese of The Damage Report bring us some Gen Z demographics...to me, the takeaway is that the “D” team needs to pay more attention to the issues that are important to this ascendant demographic, as opposed to trying to win over some wavering independent boomer voters in a suburban midwestern diner somewhere...”the more woke you get, the more annoying it is to go to sleep” indeed...



...and I'm probably a little early for Valentine's Day with this one, but here it is anyway.

Monday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore discusses the $83.3 million verdict against Our Ochre Abomination in the latest E. Jean Carroll defamation suit... it really is unbelievable when you consider that all #45 had to do was shut his vile orange maw and not keep spouting BS at Carroll, but even that was too much to ask...also, this clip pretty much shows up Alina Habba for being the clueless legal neophyte that she is (she thinks she can "fake being smart"...uh, no - more here)...



...and I thought Farron Cousins did a pretty good job here of analyzing how Biden should handle Texas guv Greg Abbott basically saying “F.U.” to the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR and continuing to put up the barbed wire in the Rio Grande river to kill migrants trying to enter this country...I think Biden ought to wake up Merrick Garland and tell him to go petition the Supremes to try and get an arrest warrant against Abbott if he continues...I would love to see Biden federalize the Texas National Guard also, but that would be handing an issue gift-wrapped to the wingnuts at a time when they’re sinking because of the millstone around their necks in the distinct corpulent form of Combover Caligula...



...and under the heading of crazy Republicans, John and David Shuster (not them of course) discuss U.S. House Rep Nancy Mace apparently wishing to get punched in the face during the 1/6 insurrection...in addition to the great points raised here (especially Mace’s BS towards AOC, with Mace getting put out because the Dem NY rep faced trauma for real, as opposed to the South Carolina rep imagining it apparently), I’m kind of wondering also if Mace believed the nonsense that the insurrectionists weren’t just Dems in disguise and sought combat for that reason as well...



...and we shouldn’t ignore Repug insanity on the state level also as opposed to federally...this Joel Kitchens character of the assembly in Wisconsin sez that he’s an abortion expert because he knows about breeding livestock...just say “oops” and get out (with Sharon Reed and Rayyvana – I think Reed needs to work on her presentation, to be honest...either that, or let Rayyvana take the lead instead...more here)...



...and I’m glad to hear Beau blow up some political clichés here, in particular about getting more conservative as you get older...one of the better analyses IMO on what constitutes the mindset of a Repug voter...and yeah, looks like the boomers are heading for the last electoral roundup as opposed to the Gen Zers and millennials, including LGBTQ folk of course...cry me a freaking river...



..and RIP '60s hipster Melanie Safka.