Jun 012022
 

Yesterday, I got an email from WellRed Comedy. That’s not terribly unusual,since I get emails on their tours But this one was about a new series which I had seen a little of on Trae’s channel but which now has its own channel, which they call “Puttin on Airs.” I had seen a couple on Trae’s channel, but the new channel (which has videos and clips ranging from under a minute to over an hour) puts them together in a way which – shall I say – makes them ore coherent. I may be able to use some in the Video Thread (not that I’m ready to just yet. I do suspect looking at, for instance, Marie Antoinette and Henry VII through Trae’s and Corey’s eyes may well be worth a look see.

Also, I have to admit that that tiny little patch, smaller than a postage stamp, actually stayed in place overnight. Amazing.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

No More Mister Nice Blog – MAYBE THE COMMENTARIAT SHOULD TRY LEARNING SOME BASIC FACTS
Quote – I’m pleased that he recognizes the uniquely American nature of this sick fetishization. But how can he not “fully understand the message”? This ad shows a little kid fondling an assault weapon under a Bible verse (Proverbs 22:6) because — as is obvious to anyone who’s paid a reasonable amount of attention to U.S. conservatism in recent years — right-wing Americans don’t just believe they have an unlimited right to bear arms, they believe that this right was given to Americans by God.
Click through for full blog. I don’t know what the answer is. I am coming around to the idea that, since “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” we should concentrate on regulating gun owners before trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the guns, and also that a big part of that should be getting ANY guns out of the hands of domestic violence perps and animal abusers who are provably associated with way more than their share of incidents.) This also may not work, but at least it is in line with their own rhetoric, and not just ours.

Daily Kos (Walter Einenkel) – Qronicles of Anon: It’s all about saving the children—until actual children are killed
Quote – This has been a hard week in America. They’re all hard weeks, but this one was particularly difficult. It was a glaring reminder of the violent cost of our country’s obsession with guns and weapons, and how conspiracy theories like QAnon help feed the paranoia that’s necessary to believe everybody should own an assault rifle. The fact that the QAnon world, not unlike its Republican leadership, hides behind children while allowing their actions and inaction to end in dead children as collateral damage is breathtaking and gut-punching all at the same time.
Click through – the article doesn’t so much develop the headline; instead, it rounds up all kinds of QAnon insanity surfacing.

Raw Story – Pope Francis sends ‘powerful message’ by elevating liberal Bishop over Archbishop who banned Pelosi from communion
Quote – “The choice of Bishop McElroy is the biggest surprise of this consistory [the council of cardinals] for the church in the United States,” reports the Jesuit publication America. “A graduate of Harvard, Stanford and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Bishop McElroy has demonstrated that he is one of the strongest supporters of the pope’s vision of church among the American bishops since Francis appointed him to be bishop of San Diego in March 2015. By choosing him to be a cardinal, instead of others, Pope Francis is sending a powerful message to the American bishops and church.”
Click through for details. So many of the humorous things we see are just pure idiocy (like “gazpacho police”); our laughter diesn’t affect them, and the stories lead nowhere. This is a story I can laugh at and treasure – because accountability.

Food For Thought

Share
May 312022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Georgia DA Willis issues 50 grand jury subpoenas; is “weighing racketeering charges” against Trump

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Jim Acosta EVISCERATES NRA Board Member and leaves him SPEECHLESS!

Rebel HQ – Trevor Reed’s Father SHREDS Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Actions

Truth Matters – Slaughter of the Innocent (featuring Senator Chris Murphy DCT) hanky alert

Robert Reich – Why Your Barbecue Is More Expensive This Year

Puppet Regime – Zuckerberg Practices Free Speech On Elon Musk

Beau – Let’s talk about metaphors, hair, and Florida….

Share
May 302022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Kevin McCarthy decides to commit crime of contempt of Congress rather than “snitch” on Donald Trump

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Lauren Boebert’s Dumbest Statement Yet

Robert Reich – How SCOTUS shapes economic rights for the little guy (a very old video but just posted. He posted 9 Thursday – old, new, long, short – I’ve picked just a couple at this point.)

Mallory McMorrow – The speech Michigan Republicans adjourned the State Senate to avoid hearing (hanky alert)

Mrs. Betty Bowers – CHURCH S_X SCANDALS!

Parody Project – RUSSIAN ARMY NOTABLE

Beau – Let’s talk about cops waiting outside, Rule 303, and the way…. (Wow.)

Share
May 292022
 

Glenn Kirschner – New reporting disclosing Trump’s statement about Pence suggests Trump committed the crime of treason

Meidas Touch – Desperate Republican makes DISGUSTING ATTACK on Stacey Abrams

Robert Reich – Why We Need a Windfall Profits Tax

Farron Balanced – Russian State Media Slams Trump And Calls Him A Fascist

PBS – Trailer for the National Memorial Day Concert – TONIGHT – Check local listings

Liberal Redneck – On the Horrific Texas Shooting

Beau – Let’s talk about renaming military bases….

Share
May 292022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Akhnaten” the third opera in Philip Glass’s “portrait trilogy” (the first two being “Einstein on the Beach” and “Satyagraha.” The three touch on science, politics, and religion respectively, Glass explains.) Akhnaten was (as far as we know) the first monotheist in history. He decreed that Aten (the sun) be the only god worshiped in Egypt (Akhnaten was not the name he was given at birth, but the name he chose to honor Aten.) Needless to say the priests, especially the priests of Amon-Ra, who had been considered the king of the gods, were not happy. And it will come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to history, or to contemporary politics, that the people were also not happy. Theocracy can only hang on to power when thee are enough people in sympathy with its exact teachings to cush those who aren’t. Still, he might have been more successful had he paid more attention to governance – and defense. Without his failure to send reinforcements to his armies fighting on the borders, there might not have been quite such an opening for him to be overthrown. (And the Egyptians were not as dilatory as we are about removing monuments to discredited figures, so there is much about the historical Akhnaten we don’t know.)

Cartoon – 29 0529Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

CPR News – Wildfire smoke and poor air quality are coming. Here’s how scientists protect their homes.
Quote – [Alex] Huffman[, an associate professor studying air contaminants at the University of Denver,] recommends households explore … methods to monitor outdoor and indoor air quality. To help manage his asthma, he keeps a careful eye on the EPA’s fire and smoke map, which tracks nationwide smoke plumes and air quality readings. To monitor indoor air quality, he purchased an egg-shaped monitor from PurpleAir, which now sits on a table inside the front door of his home in Centennial. It glows green, yellow or red depending on the severity of suspended particulates.
Click through for methods and details.   This is applicable, not only to Colorado and California, not only to the entire southwestern US, but really to everywhere. Sadly.

Mother Jones – He Did Not Act Alone
Quote – [W]hatever we learn about the Uvalde shooter, or any future ones—because there will be more—don’t say they “acted alone,” which is largely media code for “this doesn’t appear to be Islamic terrorism.” No matter the particulars, these “lone” gunmen all have scores of accomplices. Here is a wholly incomplete list of those who bear direct responsibility in this slaughter of 19 children and two teachers, and the brutality visited on those still in the hospital, all the families, and the community and country at large:
Click through for [in]complete list.  Did you find your Representative or Senator in there? Or maybe even yourself?

The Daily Beast – The Texan Working Overtime to Customize 19 Little Caskets (hanky alert)
Quote – The funeral directors in Uvalde decided that it should all go through a single casket distributor and customizer, Trey Ganem of SoulShine Industries in Edna, Texas…. “The funeral directors know who I am, and they said, ‘If anybody can do it, you can. Would you help out in Uvalde?’” Ganem told The Daily Beast. “I said, ‘100 percent.’” Ganem added that he would cover the cost of the coffins, around $3,400 each. And he would not charge for any customizing.
Click through for full story.  There is a reason why the motto of The Daily Beast is “Truth is a beast.”

Food For Thought (  Nameless)

Share
May 282022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ/federal grand jury squeezing Trump’s lackey lawyers: Rudy, Eastman, Ellis & Chesebro

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul unveils his plan to TROLL the GOP

The Lincoln Project – Run Away

The Ring of Fire – New Legislation Could Dismantle Independent Media

Robert Reich – The Real Motive Behind the GOP’s “Culture War”

Brent Terhume – We have a problem in this country  (Brent is angry.  And I probably don’t have to say it isn’t doors he’s angry at.)

Beau – Let’s talk about falling dominoes….

Share
May 282022
 

Yesterday, I started work on cartoons for the second 10 days of June (I did finish framing and watermarking the ones for the first ten days Thursday.) I also discovered Randy Rainbow has a couple of new videos up. Neither is a parody, though – they are from the first album he has released. So I will get them into Video Threads, but on slow days. There are things that need to come first (like Mrs. Betty Bowers).

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Daily Beast – The Massive Screwup That Could Let COVID Bypass Our Vaccines
Quote – The leading Western vaccine manufacturers are focusing on developing boosters specifically for the recent Omicron variant. But by the time these boosters are ready in the fall, Omicron is likely to have been replaced by a new and more dangerous variant. Two years ago the world worked together to develop highly effective messenger-RNA vaccines, and fast. Today there’s less money and less urgency, meaning vaccine development is slowing at precisely the moment the virus is speeding up.
Click through for discussion. Like so many things, it appears to come down to Republicans.

CPR News – Elijah McClain’s mother attends signing of executive order on police reform, but says Biden’s plan wouldn’t have helped her son
Quote – The order, which affects federal law enforcement only, will create a national database of police misconduct, bans chokeholds and tracks data on use of force incidents for all federal law enforcement. It also orders new guidance on the use of substances, like ketamine, outside of a hospital setting…. “It would not have kept my son alive. If this executive order would have been in place on the day he died, he still would have died,” she said, in a phone interview from a bench on the White House lawn. “There needs to be so much more done on the state level.”
Click through for more. If I may correct the headline, it’s not the plan which is insufficient – it’s that an executive order can only apply to federal law enforcement, and the cops who killed ELijah were state and/or municipal. (I still take Elijah’s death personally, having been a violinist myself in a previous lifetime.)  She does say the President did the best he could.

US News and World Report – California Senate Advances Newsom-Sponsored Gun Bill Modeled After Texas’ Abortion Law
Quote – Among the bills is one proposed by Newsom that takes a cue from Texas’ abortion law, replicating its unusual mechanism, which deputizes private citizens as its enforcers. Gun manufacturers have largely been shielded from lawsuits associated with their product under federal law. The California rule would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells so-called “assault weapons” or ghost guns or parts in the state. And, just as importantly, it would provide incentive to do so, with an end goal of removing such weapons from circulation.
CLick through for story. This comes the same week that Speaker Pelosi publicly stated that she would refuse to accept communion from Archbishop Cordileone as long as he was in contempt of the Pope’s directive to refuse communion to no one. If more California Democrats are going to start trolling Republicans in real time, I can’t wait to hear from Ted Lieu.

Food For Thought

Share
May 272022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump offered Kellyanne Conway an unsolicited blanket pardon. Let’s talk Rudy/Don Jr./Ivanka/Jared

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Marjorie Taylor Greene defending White Supremacists

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – May 24, 2022

MSNBC – Rev. Al Sharpton: I Think The President Is Legitimately Angry On Guns

VoteVets – Semper [Illinois]

Miserable blind cat crying for help rescue cat before & after 7 monthsThis one is kind of a roller coaster – but ends on an up)

Beau – Let’s talk about what Dems can learn from the Scopes trial….

Share