Diseased

Coupla things:

• The idea that public health moves in cycles is a brand new to me. It makes sense - and I hate it.
• Climate Change is a factor in the evolution of pathogens. That one makes sense too - and I hate it.

Going For The Close

"... now the rallies are the shit-posting."

In past cycles, Trump's handlers managed to get him under control for the last few weeks before the election so people would see him as "more normal" than he really is.

That's not the case this time. I think he figures he's going to lose so, "What the hell - I went normal last time and just missed, but then the crazy bit got me close with Jan6, so let's just go for it. I'm going to amp it up to 12 and see if I can get my vigilantes to carry me across the line..."

IDK, but I'm not going to simply dismiss his weird shit and call him nutty when I know there's always been a method to his madness.

Quick Hit

John Lovette - The Lovett Or Leave It Podcast

Pro Left Podcast

Joe Rogan Is A Bust

There's nobody better at playing the Both Sides Game than Joe Rogan. He's taken it to a whole new level where it's not Left vs Right, or Man vs Woman, or Light vs Dark, or any of that.

Rogan has decided to be Mr Radical Skepticism. He's saying nothing matters because it could all be bullshit, and we all die in the end, and even the universe has an expiration date, so just do whatever the fuck you please - it's like some weird, bizarre, pure form of nihilism (?)

Anyway, Ryan McBeth confirms for us what we've known for a while.

A Podcast

A clown with a flamethrower may look ridiculous and risible, and he may say and do stupid foolish things, but he's got a fucking flamethrower, and he's fucking dangerous.

And BTW - we can't very well be in a recession if people are flocking to buy Dollar Store sneakers at $400 a pair.

A Podcast

If you like the way it's going in Russia, you're gonna fucking love the next time a Republican wins the White House.

They're not bothering to hide it or dog-whistle it - they're saying it all out loud and as often as possible.

Charlie Sykes is good at pretending all the bad stuff that's been happening in the GOP started when Trump came down the golden escalator.

Trump did not remake the GOP in own image. He's the perfect reflection of what that party has been morphing into for decades.

The Needle Moves?

I'm really hoping the guys in these videos indicate a trend - that maybe some of the less rabid Republicans are beginning to see the glaring cynicism of the GOP - especially where Trump and his MAGA goons are concerned, and rebelling enough to get that party's shit together.

Like the first guy, I don't hold the Dems up as total paragons of civic virtue. They've got their share of manipulative assholes and smarmy characters too. And that's not to get all Both Sides-y or anything. I just always want to take some precaution against becoming too much of a fanboy.

Anyway, Tony Michaels is new to me, and he just popped up on my YouTube feed. I'll give him a try for a bit, but he's referred to as The Rush Limbaugh Of The Left, so I'm thinking I can prob'ly go without. We'll see.

Today's Podcast

The Professional Left with Driftglass and Blue Gal

The internet is a community band

where everybody thinks they've got the solo,

and nobody bothers to practice.

Today's Keith

Josh (Running Man) Hawley and Marge The Impaler Greene are on the wrong fucking side - again - as always.

Less US and NATO support for Ukraine means more Russian and Iranian support for Hamas.

SERIES 2 EPISODE 52: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN

SMITH PROMISES TO PROVE WHY TRUMP STOLE DOCUMENTS - 10.11.23

A-Block (1:44)
SPECIAL COMMENT: It is nearly impossible to be shocked by anything bubbling up in Jack Smith's prosecutions of Donald Trump, and yet Smith has pulled it off. He has promised the court that during the trial of the United States vs. Trump for the stolen documents and secrets: "Why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them – all issues that the Government will prove at trial, primarily with unclassified evidence."

It's a stunning guarantee, buried deep in Smith's filing, answering why Trump should to get his wish to delay the trial until after the election. And he tantalizes us: because nothing else in the motion even REFERS to it, let alone explains it.

But it does dovetail with the latest grim details from Israel - and the awful echoes from Washington.Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has now demanded that American aide to Ukraine be CUT OFF and sent instead to Israel, as if there were a reason for such a false either/or choice, and apparently unaware that people can see that his own performance and that of the rest of the Republican anti-Ukraine caucus is not in support of Israel but actually in support of Hamas and Iran. Twice in the last year the Kremlin invited Hamas to send delegations to Moscow and the terrorist group’s leadership met with Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in September 2022 and this past March. There is considerable analysis being done in Europe that the Russians encouraged – even bribed – Hamas, to undertake the full-scale attack that began from the Gaza Strip on Saturday and continues even at this hour. The Russians, this analysis reasons, wanted this because they are Iran’s leading ally and because a Middle East conflict of almost any size would amount to a second front, in which Western resources being dedicated to fighting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, might be re-directed TO Israel. In other words, Josh Hawley is doing exactly what the Russians want: degrading western support for Ukraine on the false excuse that the money must go instead to defend Israel. THAT would just give Russia a freer hand in Ukraine, and more money and materiel, to send to Hamas, to DEFEAT Israel, as Iran wants.

It MUST not be forgotten, especially not at this hour, that on May 10th, 2017, in the Oval Office, Trump disclosed classified intelligence – classified intelligence obtained by the Israelis – about an ISIS plot the Israelis unraveled in a town in Syria. Trump gave the information, directly, to Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The same man who twice met with the Hamas delegations in Moscow.

PLUS: not only confirmation that Egypt warned Israel about an attack from Gaza, but a reason to suspect that somebody in the Netanyahu government has thrown the defense services under the bus to protect the troubled Prime Minister.

B-Block (26:12)
IN SPORTS: Steve Garvey? Running for Senator? The baseball hero whose political career died in 1988 when he became "The Father Of Our Country"? His old team underscores baseball's playoff crisis. Hockey dives further into homophobia. And one of that game's best ambassadors has to quit to attend to his own health. (39:07) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Has-been Aaron Rodgers says nasty things about Taylor Swift's boyfriend who they still pay to make commercials, there's a 1/6 defendant worried about "chest-feeding" and the Murdoch empire inadvertently reveals that if the Democrats were to switch candidates, there's one alternate choice with all the name recognition in the world.

C-Block (45:00)
THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The words were spoken by the best Communications professor I ever had, 44 or 45 years ago. And every week since - and literally yesterday - it's been ignored. "Whatever you do: DON'T SAY THIS."

Today's Keith

It's Comeuppance Day!!

Today's Pro Left Podcast

Yesterday's, actually.

Plenty of rakes, and more than enough Republicans to step on all of 'em.

Podcast

From Driftglass and Blue Gal - chock full of delicious nutritious goodness.

Podcast

Why is Kamala Harris being held to a standard no other veep has had to meet?

Podcast

It's already been a long slog. And it's going to take a lot longer.

People my age may live to see The American Plutocracy Project win out (it won't last - because that shit is ultimately unsustainable), but it's not likely we'll see the end of the fight to beat back the dark anti-democratic forces of Radical Libertarianism.

Guess The Headline Source:

• "Record Number Of Americans Say They're Politically Independent..."
• "Political Independents: The Future Of Politics?"
• "What Independents Want"

embrace the suck

stay in the fight

An Excerpt

Most Republican leaders have bitterly fought and blocked the forward surge of average men and women in their pursuit of happiness.

Let us not be deluded that, overnight, those leaders have suddenly become the friends of average men and women.

We have all seen many marvelous stunts in the circus, but no performing elephant could turn a handspring without falling flat on its back.

--Franklin D Roosevelt 

The best way to a balanced budget is full employment and price restraint.

Ted Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention in NYC:

A Podcast

Episode 709 - that's one podcast episode every week for 13½ years - and that in itself is pretty fucking impressive.

The Professional Left

Scatter gun thoughts:

• Hunter Biden's letter of recommendation is why Buckley Carlson (Tucker's boy) got into Georgetown University. (yes - he named his kid Buckley)
• It occurs to me that Republicans are even more hollow and unimaginative than I thought. They steal ideas from the Dems: they steal whole sections of speeches (Melania's remarks at the GOP convention in 2016 comes to mind). So when they go on the attack, they take the (well-deserved) criticism leveled at them, and turn it around, baselessly accusing the Dems of everything the Republicans are actually guilty of
• "Bathe in the light of truth"
• The power of the Super Majority is a rot that won't be cleansed with anything but blood - because that's what a Death Cult actually wants. So - question: Do you think it's simple coincidence that the GOP Death Cult likes to crow about "Pro-Life"?
• Charlie Sykes is a fucking monster
• The asshole Republican Speaker Of The Tennessee house is crooked like a mountain road
• "Burnish"?

A Meduza Podcast

Meduza has been designated an "Undesirable Organization" by Putin's government.

The Russian army has a huge problem that's way bigger because of their corruption and their resultant abysmal performance in the field.

So the cycle is pretty well complete. Being riddled with corruption, a good army gets hollowed out, which leads to it being a bad army, which leads to lousy training, which leads to poor battlefield performance, which leads to discipline problems, which leads to more corruption, and so it goes.

Pro Left Podcast

"If you do what I tell you to do, I can keep you out of prison. I'm not sure, at this point, that I want to."

Podcast

DumFux News is filled with lying treasonous assholes - in case you still had any doubts.