Something About Procedure

When your very unpopular Obamacare Repeal bill is bound to lose, there's no space between losing by 1 vote and losing by 95 votes.

Cuz once they know it's a loser, your own guys understand they'll gain more than they'll lose by voting against the thing.

We've known Ryan isn't very good at his job for a while, but until now, everybody's been telling us what a fucking wizard McConnell is - not any more. Not with this anvil chained to his leg.

A lot of normal people (ie: rubes) have been absolutely sure that the blustery rhetoric was just for show. All they wanted was for somebody to "go on up there to Washington and poke them ruling elites in the eye once or twice" and blah blah blah.

It'd be nice to think maybe now they'll start to see how real the consequences can be - especially when a few too many of these TeaBagger congress critters have their heads so far up their asses, even if they manage to open their eyes, it's no longer possible for them to see anything but their own shit.

This animal is badly wounded now.

Times Change

...except when they don't.

This takes a while and it's not the greatest thing anybody ever put on, but there're great recurring themes - as in: History doesn't repeat itself, but it sure as fuck rhymes.

John Oliver

Again - comedy shows on cable TV are doing a better job of covering real problems than any of the "real" news shows anywhere else.

And just to keep it out there - notice how Boris Epshteyn looks and sounds like one of those old Soviet guys from the late 80s who spent way too much time and energy trying way too hard not to look and sound like one of those old Soviet guys in the late 80s.

Today's Tweet

ha, this guy. (via @NellSco) pic.twitter.com/EOtdP7Qarv

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) July 3, 2017

Today's Pix

Social Good

This is a new one for me - Social Good Now on YouTube

hat tip = FB pal Carol B

And the first one ties in with Michael Shermer's explanation of Type 1 and Type 2 Logic (or Cognition) Errors:

So, you don't have to sit around wondering why so many "conservatives" reject your arguments even though what you're saying is accurate and provable. 

And also too - you don't have to wonder why so many of those "conservatives" are at least pretending to be devoutly Christian. They've been thoroughly conditioned to accept religious nonsense without evidence - why would they need facts when deciding what Political Religion to follow?

Let's review:

What are the tools we use to detect lies?

a) the absence of confirming evidence

b) the presence of conflicting evidence

What do Faith and Ideology often demand that we disregard?

a) the absence of confirming evidence

b) the presence of conflicting evidence

Externalizing The Cost

Rachel lands the fuckin' airplane - and in a timely manner for once.  Nicely done, Doctor Maddow.

Today's Irony

There is something very wrong here.
The political party currently holding all the power is moving to cut back on almost all of the rights guaranteed under US law, while encouraging people to take up arms for fear the federal government is taking away our rights.

President Lowlife

Sometimes, if it was any less tragic, it wouldn't be funny.

Alexadra Petri, WaPo:

I stand with my colleagues in Congress to say: The president’s tweet is beneath the dignity of the office.

This is not making America great.

The president has at last done the unthinkable: He has insulted a morning television personality in crude and ghastly terms and I must — in consequence of this hideous and vile breach of the dignity of the office — withdraw none of my support from his legislative agenda. (If you can call it a legislative agenda and not a ragtag collection of bad ideas quickly stapled together with a dead pigeon in the middle.)

--and--

I am shocked and appalled by his behavior. And I am not afraid to say so. At a fundraiser. For him. Before asking for more donations.

Everything else the president has done is fine — the continued attacks on the media’s legitimacy, the carelessness toward history and diplomacy, the harmful rhetoric about Muslims, the — well, it is all fine. This is too much, though, and I am putting my foot down, here, on my way to vote against icebergs.

A quick observation: the Grossitude Factor of any given diversionary scandal increases proportionally to 45*'s perception of the Bigly Threateningness of the Russia Thing. So it must be pretty fuckin' bad now.

Today's Tweet

Trump has tweeted 182 times since May 30.
Breakdown:
☑️Taxes: 1
☑️Infrastructure: 3
☑️Economy: 8
☑️Healthcare:10
❗️Russia is "fake news": 60 pic.twitter.com/Qe0KOURUsb

— Holly O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) June 30, 2017

The Podcast

Episode 395 - Collusion's Just Another Word

The Professional Left

(click☝🏻to shop their Amazon link)

Keith

Trump will not be cleared

Bill Maher

The monologue

Choose Well

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.
To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

--Octavia Butler, Parable Of The Talents

Today's Tweet

what she said pic.twitter.com/OKb8iir9Ff

— Rev. Atheist Girl 🦄 (@iamAtheistGirl) June 30, 2017