It Wasn't 6-3

Susan Collins is a big fat fuckin' liar.

New Channel

Gotta be very careful not to pick the Dems who're just trying to get us back to some kind of "Post-Trump Normal".

We have to push for some foundational change to the way we've been doing things.

Quick Reminder

I have my little blog, and I try to put up information I hope will be of some use for someone as they form their outlook and make decisions on politics or whatever.

But let's get real clear on this: Spending some time chasing around the internet, looking for odd bits of cultural debris that I find interesting doesn't qualify me as any kind of expert. If I come off as such - my apologies.

Likewise, spending $600 on a ring light, and a webcam, and a microphone doesn't confer on you any kind of credentialing or specialized knowledge. You're most likely just another regular nobody who thinks it's a good idea to show his ass in public.

So go ahead and barf your opinions all over creation - fake lord knows I do - just don't take yourself so fucking seriously that you get people thinking you're an awesomely awesome deep thought thinker who has a better handle on things than anybody else.

You're not.

And I'm not.

If you lack the years of schooling, and the education that comes with extensive experience, then you're just another blow hard schmuck planted on a barstool polluting the atmosphere with beer-fueled steams of semi-consciousness.

Let's get the fuck over ourselves.

SmarmSpace Today

Who's the fuckin' idiot who decided volunteers don't have to disclose possible conflicts of interest?

Anybody working on my dime has to be vetted and cleared, so I can be reasonably sure they're not stealing from me.

Who the fuck doesn't get that?

Erika Explains

Alexithymia is a subclinical personality trait characterized by difficulty identifying, describing, and processing emotions, often described as "emotional blindness".

A Podcast

A new one for me.

Pod Save America

On Trump's fucked up flip-floppy trade "policies".

Auctioning access

Polling

DOGE

etc

We're Here

This is where we are now.

Which is to say: We ain't dead yet, but the fat lady's warmin' up.

It Won't Get Better

Near the end of this piece, Steven Rattner hits the mark by identifying the problems of income & wealth disparity, and the long slide from middle class prosperity into stagnation.

But he fails to fully acknowledge that the causes lie, in large part, with short-sighted corporate policies, and the lopsided advantages handed to big companies and their management teams.

None of this gets better until we burn a few CEOs at the stake.

    IF WE TAX THE RICH NOW

WE WON'T HAVE TO EAT THEM LATER

Diseased

Coupla things:

• The idea that public health moves in cycles is a brand new one 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!!