Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills): 12/8/24

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Does Will have a secret? And the top ten tours of 2024

Will Smith has requested people stop posting memes on social media that align him with Sean “Diddy” Combs, saying he hasn’t been anywhere near the controversial music mogul.

The Oscar-winning actor was speaking onstage Thursday in San Diego, California, when he referred to his name being associated with that of Combs, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, all of which he denies.

Will Smith. He's a joke so no one believes him.

It's too bad because he's publicly homophobic and yet we've all heard the rumors -- even his former bodyguard repeating online that he walked in on an unnamed rapper plowing Will who was bent over a couch.

What if P Diddy turned Will out? What if that's why Will struggles so with same-sex sex? It would certainly explain a lot.

Still on music, DEADLINE notes the top ten ticket selling tours of the year -- here are the first five:

1) Taylor Swift

2) Coldplay

3) Pink (go Pink! That one completely surprised me)

4) Luis Miguel

5) Bruce Springsteen

6) Rolling Stones

7) Bad Bunny

8) Zak Bryan

9) Metallica

10) Madonna

So Taylor was number one -- no surprise and good for her. I was a little surprised Coldplay made it to number two. I was blown away by Pink. Good for her. She's an amazing artist but you barely heard about her in 2024. In fact, most people might have realized she was on tour when she performed at the DNC. Pink's the real deal and I'm glad she did so well.

I'll skip to number five to note Bruce extorted his fans with those overpriced tickets. Think about that. If hadn't charged hundres for a ticket, he probably wouldn't have made the top ten. While his audience is devoted it's also dwindled. The Rolling Stones keep on touring -- as do Metallica so good for both of them. Is Bad Bunny the only 'recently' emerged artist to turn out a huge crowd? That surprises me. But good for him and good for Madonna. Clocking in at number ten during a year where she was savaged by the press over and over.

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Friday, December 13, 2024. Nancy Mace is the new Jussie, Donald's breaks campaign promises before even being sworn in, and much more.

We should probably start with nut job Naomi Wolf. Her out of shape body gets fatter and fatter and apparently so does her brain. But we're not going to.

I really wanted Kamala Harris to win the presidency. I wanted that for democracy and to save our country. I also wanted to write in depth about media failures from 2016 forward that enabled Donald Trump. I don't think I can write about that now. With Kamala in the White House, we'd be at a different place and could shine an honest light on multiple issues.

Nut job Naomi is part of the media problem, however, and we can carve out a small sliver of our planned topic -- Ava and I -- by focusing on the dim wit. If you've seen the Tweet -- and a number of you e-mailing have -- just know we'll address it at THIRD.

Now it's time to plea for money. From time to time, in the past, I would note PACIFICA RADIO or BUZZFLASH and encourage people to donate if they could.

Clearly, most of those groups just stole our money. And they walked away from the Iraq War. After using it as a fundraiser.

So I stopped noting things like that in 2008.

But I think I've found an issue that we really need to dig into our pockets on. If you can't, that's fine, like I used to say back when we'd do this. I'd honestly prefer us to do this on June 28th. But that's a long way off. Now I'm not going to ask you to donate to any media -- independent or 'independent' -- because all they did was waste our money.

What I'd like us to do is to focus on helping one person. They are in need.

I'd like us to all buy a Christmas gift -- or Hanukkah or Winter Solstice or Kwanza or whatever -- for someone.

Elon Musk.

Wait -- wait. Hear me out.

Elon does not wear under shirts. He insists upon wearing paper thin shirts. And I'm sorry but I am just sick to death of having his MOOBS (Man Boobs) in my face when I'm just trying to follow the news. He needs a bra. I think it need to be something more than a training bra because he's really getting stacked. He looks a bit more curvy than Susan ("Medea") Benjamin so I'd guess maybe a 34C or a 34D would best fit him.

I know he has the money to buy these himself. But he hasn't. And I was thinking that maybe he was refusing to face reality. But discussing this with a number of people, we kept coming back to our first bras. And how it was kind of intimidating -- maybe even scary.

So that means we need to help him.

You can buy wireless, you can buy one with hooks in the front or hooks in the back or any color you want. And then put it in an envelope

Please hold for Elon Musk

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,

Washington, DC 20500

It would be such a relief for Elon and mean so much to him. So this giving season, give generously to the man with the ever increasing MOOBS. Let's fill up his chest of drawers with bras now that we know his chest won't stop filling out.

Now let's turn to TV. FOX's new series ALMANAC is in trouble. The hour long drama was set to premiere next year and the setting was Elbert, Colorado and the premise was local MAGAs form their own recording industry in an attempt to revive minstrel music. The main character, Vira Hazel Slutsky did a screw rap version of "Old Black Joe" and wasn't getting residuals so she shot the label head. The fate of the show is now, however, in doubt. In real life, the actress playing Vira Hazel Slutsky staged an attack and cried in public about it. Now she's going to have to leave the show because no one can trust her.

Oops! She's not on TV, she's in Congress. Which means she can stage her own attack and suffer no consequences.

Yes, we're talking about transphobe Nancy Mace. WIKIPEDIA:

On November 18, 2024, Mace introduced a resolution to ban transgender people from using bathrooms other than those of their sex assigned at birth at the U.S. Capitol, in anticipation of the swearing in of Sarah McBride, who is the first trans person elected to Congress.^[119]^[120] Mace described McBride as a "biological man trying to force himself into women's spaces" and as a "guy in a skirt", later following this up by saying "It's offensive that a man in a skirt thinks that he's my equal".^[119]^[121] She confirmed that McBride was "absolutely" the target of her bathroom resolution.^[122] Talking to Leland Vittert, Mace announced that she will "fight like hell" to exclude McBride from women's restrooms on the Capitol.^[123] Mace's 2024 House resolution prevents McBride from using "single-sex facilities". H. RES. 1579 entitled, "Prohibiting Members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex, and for other purposes."^[124]^[125] Mary Miller and Matt Rosendale co-sponsored her bathroom resolution.^[126] Two days later, Mace announced a new national resolution to ban "biological men from women's spaces on all federal property."^[127] As some trans activists were protesting her bill, Mace referred to the trans activists using the slurs [. . .] resulting in her posts on some social media being flagged for hateful content.^[128]^[129]^[130]^[131]

Then, this week, Tuesday, December 10th an encounter took place in public. Here's how Nancy wrote up her encounter:

I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man. One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine.

The Capitol police arrested the guy.

Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO.

She went and reported the person to the police.

All that drama and not a Subway sandwich in sight which is all the more surprising since it turns out Nancy lied about the encounter. Some people just need attention and they'll do anything to get it -- like Nancy who'll play the victim her entire life.

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Jussie Smollett Is Nancy Mace's Life Coach" went up yesterday.

Katherine Fung (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Eyewitnesses who watched the interaction between Representative Nancy Mace and James McIntyre are questioning the congresswoman's claims about being assaulted, describing instead a scene where McIntyre was just shaking her hand.

McIntyre, a 33-year-old from Chicago, was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday evening at an event for foster children and charged with assaulting a government official. Authorities said that the suspect was tracked down after Mace's office reported an incident in the Rayburn House Office Building.

[. . .]

Lisa Dickson, a veteran advocate for foster youth from Ohio, wrote in a Facebook post, "I want to express deep disappointment in the fact that Congresswoman Nancy Mace came to a national foster youth event, told participating youth that it was a safe space — and literally had one of them arrested by Capital police for simply shaking her hand and asking about trans rights."

Martha McHardy (NEWSWEEK) adds:

But three witnesses at the scene have contradicted her claims, telling The Imprint and The Hill that McIntyre merely shook Mace's hand at a Foster Youth Caucus reception and asked her to support the rights of transgender people. Mace, who co-chairs the congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, spoke at the reception, telling attendees she looked forward to working with them.

"James [McIntyre] met her by the door where people could see her and him to say, 'trans youth are in foster care and they need your support,' and gave a handshake and then walked back to his seat and sat down," one witness told The Hill, describing it as a "pretty normal interaction."

Zoë Richards (NBC NEWS) reports on eye witness Elliott Hinkle's account:

"I think James took that seriously," Hinkle said, describing how they and others watched McIntyre, who co-founded Foster Care Alumni of America’s Illinois chapter, approach Mace after she spoke and reached out his hand.

"They shake hands, and James says, 'Trans youth are also foster youth, and they need your support.' And then sat down," Hinkle said.

Shortly after Mace left with a congressional staffer, Hinkle said, the staffer came back into the room and approached McIntyre, asking for his name and the message he had for Mace.

Several minutes later, Hinkle said, U.S. Capitol Police began arriving outside the event. Capitol Police said in Tuesday’s statement that officers later arrested McIntyre after an investigative interview.

"I watched that interaction happen, and I saw a handshake and a conversation and a very normal thing for an advocate to come to D.C. and do," Hinkle said. “She didn’t even seem to have, like, that big of a reaction to him. She just sort of made, like, almost like a tiny shock face, and then she left the room.”

Nancy's now threatening to sue reporters covering the story and/or self-created drama. Ryan Grenoble (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

Mace also shared a photo of herself wearing an arm sling and a brace on social media Thursday. The photo was immediately ridiculed by Natalie Johnson, a former Mace staffer, who called it “a pathetic ploy for attention.”

“This is the same woman who told staff, myself included, during Jan. 6 that she wanted to get ‘punched in the face’ by a rioter so she could get on TV,” Johnson said on X, formerly Twitter.

As Ann pointed out last night "BlueSky gets millions of new users while Twitter loses millions." Let's move over to BLUESKY.

Before we move on, let's emphasize something. Jussie Smollett lied about being attacked and his career ended. EMPIRE let him go from the show. I'm not saying that shouldn't have happened. It should have. But a member of Congress fakes an attack and we won't see Republicans line up to demand her resignation. She'll stay in office and continue to lie.

Speaking of the liars, Satan Trump. Alice Tecotzky (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports:

Trump said in his Person of the Year interview that lowering grocery prices is "very hard."
He said that high food prices were part of why he won the election.
Some economists think Trump's economic plans, like tariffs and deportations, will be inflationary.

President-elect Donald Trump didn't commit to being able to lower grocery pri ces in his Person of the Year interview with Time Magazine, after flagging the issue as an important part of his win.

David Badash observes:

As a candidate, Donald Trump campaigned—and won—this year on the promise he would lower prices for Americans angry after the COVID pandemic’s inflation brought steep price increases, but now he’s backtracking, saying he’s not sure he will actually be able to fulfill those vows. Outrage at Trump, and the people who voted for him based on that pledge, was palpable on Thursday.

As recently as Sunday, MSNBC reports, Trump insisted, “We’re going to bring those prices way down.”

On Monday, Fox News reported: “Pointing to high grocery prices, Trump says, ‘I won an election based on that'”

But in his TIME magazine “Person of the Year” interview, Trump suggested he might not be able to lower prices as he promised to do. Appearing to remove himself from the equation, he declared: “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

Sam Stein of The Bulwark and MSNBC noted via social media, “’Prices will come down,’ Trump told voters during a speech last week laying out his vision for a return to the White House. ‘You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.'”

Not even sworn in yet and he's already making excuses for not keeping a campaign promise -- that has to be some sort of a record.

Pair that news with Rafael Bernal's reporting for THE HILL:

President-elect Trump’s mass deportation proposals threaten to gut the U.S. economy, shrinking growth and the labor force while juicing inflation, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats in the Congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC).

Sourcing data from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the report found that deporting 8.3 million immigrants in the country illegally would reduce GDP by 7.4 percent and reduce employment by 7 percent by 2028, likely resulting in zero overall growth throughout Trump’s second term.

Trump has proposed deporting all such immigrants in the United States — currently an estimated 11 million — and millions more currently protected by humanitarian programs such as Temporary Protected Status, who could lack legal status if those programs were cut.

According to an American Immigration Council (AIC) estimate sourced by the JEC report, deporting at a clip of 1 million people per year — echoing a proposal by Vice President-elect JD Vance to “start with 1 million” — could generate a 4.2 percent to 6.8 percent loss in GDP. The U.S. economy shrank by 4.3 percent during the Great Recession, the report’s authors noted.

“Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants does absolutely nothing to address the core problems driving our broken immigration system. Instead, all it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy. His immigration policy is reckless and would cause irreparable harm to our economy,” JEC Chair Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said.

Which brings us back to yesterday's point. If we can survive the next four years, MAGA will do itself in.

As Ashford and Simpson sing, "Times Will Be Good Again" (they wrote the song and it first shows up on their classic album STREET OPERA). Or at least good again for those of us lucky enough to survive. As Betty noted this week in "Chicago's the first city targeted," not even in the White House yet but already they've decided who will be targeted firs: Chicago.

A lot of people are going to suffer.

And we need to keep our heads right now. We do not have a lot of friends in the media. We have liars who tell us that it's over for the Democratic Party -- unless we move to the right. Ana Marie Cox has a piece at THE NEW REPUBLIC on how we need to learn from MAGA.

Huh?

No, we don't. But more to the point, Ana Marie -- who did a gossip blog years ago -- never understood politics, was a hack at TIME magazine and has never been right about anything political.

We need to grasp that. We need to be very diligent about the media we consume.

Jonny Stewart wants to talk about the election with . . . Mark Cuban. I don't have any beef with Cuban but we are not on the same page politically. More to the point, it's further proof of how useless Jon Stewart truly is -- and it's yet another example of another White man being brought on Jon's show to discuss . . . nothing of value. Cuban's not an activist, he's not a scholar. He's also not really impacted -- wealth will shield him. It's amazing that Jon wants to talk the election and the direction of the party with someone making the same generic talking points.

It's even more amazing that Jon wants to try to pass that off as information.

This is not helping anyone and Jon needs to take a hard look at what he's doing as opposed to what he thinks he's doing.

The Democratic Party will have a new party chair in the new year. Patrick Svitek, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Alec Dent (WASHINGTON POST) report:

As the race to lead the Democratic National Committee ramps up, a range of factions is jockeying to shape the priorities of the next leader after a disappointing presidential election.

But looming over the internal party debate is a more fundamental question: Just how much power does a DNC chair have to change the direction of the party?

“There’s no savior that’s coming in to save the DNC,” said one candidate for chair, Ken Martin, who argued the DNC is part of a “larger ecosystem of organizations that are fighting for economic and social justice.”

A key role for the DNC chair, he added, is to take the lead in bringing those groups together.

The DNC chair contest is expected to become more formalized Thursday, when the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is set to meet in Washington to go over the rules and procedures for the Feb. 1 election.

At least four candidates have already declared they are running: Martin, a DNC vice chair who also leads the Minnesota party; Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin party; Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration and Maryland governor; and James Skoufis, a New York state senator from a battleground district.

Remember that whomever gets the job needs organizing and leadership skills. It would also help if they had a little understanding of the 2024 election -- including that there was no landslide for Trump, none at all.

In the real world, Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

Murray discusses how bipartisan overhaul she negotiated has simplified FAFSA, expanded aid eligibility—and shares update on law’s implementation

Washington state lags in FAFSA completion rates; in 2023, WA left $65 million in Pell Grants on the table by not completing the FAFSA

Senator Murray: “Take advantage of every penny of federal grants available to you. Fill the FAFSA out—it’s quick, it’s easy, and thousands of dollars in federal grants could be just ten minutes away.”

***WATCH: Senator Murray discusses FAFSA form that is now live***

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), urged Washington state students and families to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, which is now live, to take full advantage of the federal grants, assistance, and loans available to them to pursue a higher education. Senator Murray discussed how the new FAFSA form is easier and quicker to complete than ever and how more aid is now available to more students—thanks to the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act she negotiated and got signed into law in 2020. The law overhauled the financial aid application process, simplified the FAFSA form for students and families, and significantly expanded eligibility for federal aid. She also provided an update on implementation of the law.

“Here’s what high school seniors, college students, and families across Washington state should know: the FAFSA form for the upcoming school year is available now and you should get it done as soon as possible,” said Senator Murray. “Filling out the FAFSA is the only way to unlock federal grants, assistance, and loans to help you get a higher education. Whether you’re looking to get a four-year degree or to head to community or technical college, fill the FAFSA out! And now, thanks to the bipartisan reforms I worked hard to make happen, the form is shorter and quicker than ever.”

“Unfortunately, our state has lagged behind in filling out the FAFSA—and that means not taking advantage of federal aid that they qualified for,” Murray continued. “In 2023, Washington state left $65 million in Pell Grants on the table because no one applied for them—so let’s turn that around! That’s the message I want to get across today: take advantage of every penny of federal grants available to you. Fill the FAFSA out—it’s quick, it’s easy, and thousands of dollars in federal grants could be just ten minutes away.”

Washington state still has one of the lowest FAFSA completion rates in the nation. In 2023, students in Washington state left $65 million in Pell Grants on the table by not completing the FAFSA.

The bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act Senator Murray negotiated and got signed into law:

Significantly expands who is eligible to receive Pell Grants and the maximum award;
Significantly simplifies the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA);
Makes the financial aid process easier to navigate for students experiencing homelessness and students formerly in foster care.
Restores Pell Grant eligibility for students who have been defrauded, students with drug-related offenses, and more.

Senator Murray has led oversight efforts of implementation of the new, simplified FAFSA and has continued to stay in close contact with the Department of Education to ensure the new form works for students and families. The draft Senate Fiscal Year 2025 spending bill, authored and negotiated by Murray, which funds the Department of Education, includes an additional $100 million for the administration of student aid programs—the funding would support a wide range of activities, including implementation of the FAFSA. The bill also directs the Department of Education to undertake various activities related to the FAFSA, including conducting outreach to students who have uncompleted FAFSA applications, providing weekly updates to Congress on FAFSA implementation, and correcting errors that have made it difficult for unaccompanied homeless youth to access the FAFSA application. Senator Murray’s funding bill passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee 25-3—and she is now working to get it signed into law.

Read about the FAFSA Simplification Act HERE.

Senator Murray’s full comments, as delivered, are below:

“My siblings and I all were able to pursue a higher education thanks to federal support.

“So I personally know just how important it is. And that is why I have been so focused throughout my career on making sure students can get the federal support they need to make it through higher education.

“Today, one of the first steps many kids take to make that dream a reality is filling out the form called FAFSA, which is how they get access to funding for higher education through the federal government.

“Now, for many, many years, the application was daunting. Many, many questions. Very complex to fill out. You had to import your tax information.

“And I’ve always believed there’s no reason for what should be a first step on the path to a higher education to become the first stumbling block. And I wasn’t the only person who thought that.

“So I set out to make the form a whole lot easier and quicker to fill out. And I worked with my Republican counterpart on the Senate Education Committee—and together we passed a bipartisan bill to streamline the FAFSA—and to rework the financial aid formula so that we could get more aid to more students, including, of course, in Washington state.

“The rollout of the new form and the overhaul I negotiated last year was rocky—to say the very least.

“So I’ve had to continue to work with the Department to push them to address the incredibly frustrating problems that students and families were experiencing.

“Now, many of those major kinks have been addressed, and I am much more optimistic about where things stand this year, and going forward.

“So I’m going to keep making sure it works well—but bottom line: students can expect a much smoother, easier process.

“And despite the challenges over the last year—we are already seeing more students get more aid, which is exactly why I pushed so hard to reform this process.

“We know now that, nationwide, 10% more students are on track to receive Pell Grants—not loans, Pell Grants—this school year than last year.

“And in Washington state, over 12% more students are now eligible for Pell Grants than just a year ago. Which means more people will be able to get federal grants so they can get a higher education.

“This is really important for students and families across our state to take advantage so that they can get access to the federal money to open those doors to higher education and it will be available for them immediately.

“So here’s what high school seniors, college students, and families across Washington state should know: the FAFSA form for the upcoming school year is available now and you should get it done as soon as possible! It’ll just take 10-15 minutes, as little as 18-20 questions—done with it, and you will know whether you are eligible and whether you can be eligible for financial aid.

“Even if you think you may not be eligible for financial aid, it is worth taking a few minutes to fill out that form and find out. And I think many students will be very surprised to learn they are eligible to get additional support—especially with the expanded aid that we helped to get.

“Filling out the FAFSA is the only way to unlock federal grants, assistance, and loans to help you get a higher education.

“Whether you’re looking to get a four-year degree or to head to community or technical college, fill the FAFSA out!

“And now, thanks to the bipartisan reforms I worked hard to make happen, the form is shorter and quicker.

“Instead of over a hundred questions, it’s now down to as few as 88. So it’ll only take you about 10 minutes to fill it out.

“So I encourage anyone thinking about going to college, community college, or technical school next year—or who will be returning—to take a few minutes and get the FAFSA done.

“Unfortunately, our state has lagged behind in filling out the FAFSA—and that means not taking advantage of federal aid that they qualified for.

“In fact, in 2023, Washington state left $65 million in Pell Grants on the table because no one applied for them—so let’s turn that around!

“That’s the message I want to get across today: take advantage of every penny of federal grants available to you. Fill the FAFSA out—it’s quick, it’s easy, and thousands of dollars in federal grants could be just ten minutes away.

“And know that I am working hard to make sure students and families and people who work in higher education know this form is out there. Let’s get it done. Let’s make sure everyone gets access to higher education that qualifies.”

###

That's probably the case in every state so take her advice to heart.

The following sites updated:

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Sinema's so disgusting she lied about her childhood

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Jussie Smollett Is Nancy Mace's Life Coach" went up a few hours earlier. I love it. And I loved Ruth's "Joni Mitchell's FOR THE ROSES" from last night.

We keep trusting the wrong people in this country. Charles R. Davis (SALON) notes:

There are two types of “independents” who presently caucus with Senate Democrats: those who are basically Democrats, in all but name, and those who are barely not Republicans. On Wednesday, Sens. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., offered a clear reminder of which category they fall into, serving as the two “no” votes that killed the possibility of a pro-union majority helming the National Labor Relations Board through 2026.

Lauren McFerran is one of three Democrats who currently serves on the five-member NLRB, which under President Joe Biden has functioned as an ally of organized labor and foe of corporate overreach. Under McFerran, the board’s chair, the NLRB has voted to ban severance agreements and bar employers from holding mandatory anti-union propaganda sessions.

McFerran’s term expires next week, prompting Senate Democrats to see if they could extend her appointment before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office. As one law firm advised its business clients, an NLRB run by Trump appointees will likely “ease up on prosecuting employers for alleged labor violations and shift certain policies to favor employers over workers and unions.”

“It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

A Trump-led NLRB is now a done deal, Manchin and Sinema’s “no” votes on McFerran’s nomination serving as what Axios describes as their “final middle finger” to Democrats. Both senators are returning to the private sector next year.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Manchin made clear that his vote was based on hostility to the current, Democratic-led NLRB, specifically citing its ruling on “joint employers.” In 2023, the board found that a company such as McDonald’s can in fact be held liable for labor violations — unpaid overtime, underage employees — found at its franchise locations.

Manchin, who quit the Democratic Party last spring, told HuffPost that his vote should “not [be] a surprise to anyone.” And indeed it should not: A month before he left the party, Manchin joined Republicans in voting to overturn the NLRB’s joint-employer decision, which he claimed at the time would “destroy the system of franchising” and “shut the door for thousands of citizens who want to start a business and fulfill the American Dream.”

Manchin and Sinema are embarrassments and sell outs. Sinema? We knew she was garbage. She dated Keith Olbermann, that tells you everything you need to know about her. But WIKIPEDIA will give you a little more clue about her:

Sinema has said that when her stepfather lost his job and the bank foreclosed on their home, the family lived for three years in an abandoned gas station^[18] and that for two years they had no toilet or electricity while living there.^[19] She later recalled: "My stepdad built a bunkbed for me and my sister. We separated our bunkbed from the kitchen with one of those big chalkboards on rollers. I knew that was weird. A chalkboard shouldn't be a wall. A kitchen should have running water."^[19]

According to journalist Jonathan Martin in The New York Times, Sinema has given "contradictory answers about her early life", and her mother and stepfather have filed court documents saying they had made monthly payments for gas, electricity, and phone bills, even though Sinema had said they had been "without running water or electricity".^[20]

Grasp that. She lied about her childhood. She made it look horrific but she was just lying. She was willing to embarrass her family in public and it was a lie. I'm lucky and I know it -- have great parents -- great siblings, I love everyone in my family. I know everyone doesn't have that same luck. And I know some people really suffer as children and I feel for them. But I have no respect at all for an adult who lies about their childhood. That was a lie. It was probably very hurtful to her mother.

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Thursday, December 11, 2024. We know so very little when we don't know our history and we can fall for a lot of lies as a result. The next four years will be rough and tough but what's awful on the Dem side is the liars who want to push the party to the right and lie to people to try to get them to go along with a rightward push. All that and Aaron Mate finally gets the attention he's earned.

At SLATE, Christina Cauterucci writes:

Once upon a time, politicians refrained from using slurs to describe members of minority groups. Instead, they expressed their hatred through euphemism and impersonal fearmongering, lest they be deemed uncivilized. For public officials, it seemed like enough to pass discriminatory laws and promote negative stereotypes—they didn’t need to name-call too.

That era is over. Last week, a group of trans-rights activists staged a sit-in at the Capitol to protest a resolution, proposed by South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, that would prohibit transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the building. After a few of them were arrested for protesting, Mace herself headed down to the offices of the U.S. Capitol Police to make a video at the scene.

Here’s how Mace explained the situation: “Some tr—y protesters showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill.” To make sure no viewers would miss the slur, Mace posted it with subtitles.

Mace read it like a throwaway line, but it was clearly calculated. Her Republican peers in the House have already made a practice of calling transgender people—including their soon-to-be colleague, incoming transgender Rep. Sarah McBride—by the wrong pronouns and names. If Mace wanted to be the national face of keeping trans people out of bathrooms, she had to go further. So she used a slur. Later that day, she did it again.

Her escalation marks a new stage of U.S. anti-transgender politics. When the current backlash against trans visibility began, about five years ago, right-wing politicians limited their rhetoric mostly to fantasies of protection: protecting trans children from medical therapies, protecting cisgender children from being beaten in sports, and protecting all children from malicious abusers in bathrooms. Conservatives have since expanded their pearl-clutching to transgender adults—but often, it’s still under that same guise of protection. Medicaid shouldn’t pay for gender-affirming care for anyone, they said—unless patients jump through a series of arduous and time-consuming hoops—because it protects against future regret. However disingenuous all this was, it still suggested that most right-wing politicians considered it politically smart to refrain from trashing trans people in extreme ways.

Nancy Mace and her kind are disgusting.

As Ruth notes, we're in for "A world of hurt" on January 20th. And we're there for a number of reasons including the racism and sexism in the media (including Amy Goodman's DEMOCRACY NOW! and Katrina vanden Heuvel's THE NATION).

48 and 49%.

What's that?

AP's current toll for the US presidential election. Kamala's at 48% and Satan's at 49%. There are a few more votes still to be counted. When we repeatedly note that here, it's not saying, "She can still win!" We don't elect the president by popular vote. We need to. We need to do away with the electoral college. But we haven't. We've made no move on -- even when Hillary won the popular vote in 2016 but lost the presidency.

You want to increase voter turnout? Make voting matter.

It doesn't matter with the electoral college. I voted knowing Kamala would carry my state. When you know that, your vote doesn't really matter. If every vote mattered in the US presidential elections, you would probably get a higher turnout. Instead, we're left with the reality that we know our state will go this or that way -- know that in many states -- so why bother voting? Life's busy, life's tough, we all are short on enjoyment time, why vote if you already know the outcome.

So that's us in California, that's Texas that will go GOP, that's this state and that state. Only in the swing states does your vote really matter. Popular vote determining the president would most likely increase voter turnout across the country.

But the reason we note those totals over and over since the election is because it's reality.

As opposed to what the media told you immediately after the election and continues to attempt to lie about.

And they do that for a number of reasons including the right-wing tilt of the media. It's not a left wing tilt. It used to be a centrist tilt but it's gone on over to the right-wing.

Trump has no mandate. He has no landslide.

Now if most Americans grasped that -- especially Democratic voters -- it would harm a lot of people.

Like?

US House Rep Seth Moulton for one. Senator Mark Warner for another -- see Rebecca's "old man mark warner needs to retire already." People like that -- lazy fat asses who would just as soon sell their own mothers to get a vote -- who want to lie because they don't want to have to fight to defend women's rights, or LGBTQ+ rights, or Civil Rights, or human life for that matter. They're cowards and they're liars. And they will destroy the Democratic Party given the chance.

Simon Rosenberg. E-mails come in insisting that I have him all wrong.

No, I don't.

He may be a progressive today or pose as one. I have no idea.

When I bring him up, I'm talking about what he did in 2004 and 2005 right after that election. That's when he insulted Black women, that's when he was pushing for Dems to stop supporting ROE V WADE and abortion rights, that's when he rallied against LGBTQ+ rights.

He's done a 180, you say? I doubt that very seriously. WIKIPEDIA:

Simon Rosenberg (born October 23, 1963) is a Democratic political strategist and blogger. He was the founder of New Democrat Network (NDN), a centrist think tank and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.^[1]

According to the 2015 book How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley, Rosenberg and NDN were instrumental in shifting control of the Democratic Party away from labor unions and toward Silicon Valley businesses.^[2] Rosenberg said in 1999, "Our problem as a party is that the biggest source of our venture capital now comes from labor, which is a group that's becoming less and less important, and representing less and less of a percentage of American voters. [...] We have to replace labor's investment in the party with investment from another source, and hopefully from a source that's growing."^[2]

Rosenberg shuttered NDN in March 2024.^[3]

That's who you're wasting your time defending. NDN was the DLC made over. It was a right-leaning, Joe Lieberman hand-holding group of trash.

He waited until March of this year to shut it down. Now I felt sorry for him in 2004. He seemed gay and he was publicly gay hating, so I felt sorry for him. Closet cases can be so pathetic. But even that bit of sympathy didn't stop me from calling him out.

Rachel Maddow called him out as well. I'm not remembering a lot of others calling him out.

Simon was running for DNC chair (he would drop out of the race in February 2005 and tell his few supporters to back Howard Dean).

We see the same garbage over and over.

REUTERS notes, "The job of DNC chair is largely administrative and involves logistics and fundraising. But focus on who will next fill the role has grown given the breadth of the Democrats' losses and urgent calls from some party members for a complete reset." The first sentence is about the duties of the chair. Again, we need to make sure the person going in has the skills required. That's all the jobs about.

After the 2004 election, Simon went around insisting Dems needed to move further to the right and you might have thought this would result in his being called out. Very few bothered to call him out. We did. And after John Kerry lost to Bully Boy Bush, people lied to get what they wanted -- they wanted to push the Democratic Party further to the right.

And that's what the continued nonsense of 'oh, we lost the voters!' is about. It was a close election. We needed better turnout. Turnout was depressed and suppressed by all the attack pieces posted at THE NATION, all the segments trashing Kamala at DEMOCRACY NOW!, not one article praising Kamala by THE PROGRESSIVE or IN THESE TIMES. These are outlets that beg us for money and they used their space to tear down Kamala Harris. Nothing she did was good enough. Donald Trump was elected because of that.

No one should be giving a dime to DEMOCRACY NOW!, THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, IN THESE TIMES and so many other crap-ass outlets. A friend at THE NATION begged this week for an article on trans issues to be highlighted here. I replied, "Sure, and you can go back in a time machine and remove all those attack pieces on Kamala, right? Including the interns editorial that Kamala didn't deserve anyone's vote?"

What we need to focus on is turnout for 2028. What we need to focus on is how to respond -- and respond rapidly -- to attacks on our candidate -- especially when these attacks come from outlets that depend upon our money to stay afloat. Always begging us to send money. Only a damn fool would send money to Amy Goodman or THE NATION et al right now. Only a damn fool.

There were plenty of damn fools on the 'left' who attacked Kamala non-stop. She wasn't supporting Lina Khan! That's what the whores would say. And then they'd tell you that even JD Vance supports Lina Kahn! And attack Kamala and build up Trump. They did it -- from the 'left.'

POST-LEFT WATCH wonders:

They lied and they lie. And they think we're going to forget. We're not forgetting anymore than we're forgiving.

They built up Satan and they built up grifter Jill Stein. Where is Jill these days?

Exactly. She's a grifter, she's a fake ass.

We'll go out with an example of another fake ass.

For now, I pray that we survive the next four years.

The world of liars today who keep trying to water down the Democratic Party instead of strengthening it, they also fail to impart some basic wisdom.

If we do make it to 2028, the Democrats are very likely to win regardless of whom they nominated.

When the GOP embraces hate, America grows tired of them very quickly.

They wear out their welcome.

They preach hate and they pursue programs and policies that the American people are against -- even if it takes them a while to figure that out.

And if you'll watch, even though the new Congress isn't sworn in yet nor is Satan, you can see the signs as to why the American people are going to turn against the GOP. For example? Aliss Higham (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Republican Congressman Mark Alford has touted raising the retirement age to help cut federal government costs.

Speaking on Fox News, the Missouri representative said GOP members had recently sat down with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will head up the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] under Donald Trump, beginning in January, to explore ways "to cut our budget."

"I think there's a way, when people are living longer, they're retiring later, then on the front end, we can move that retirement age back a little bit," Alford said. The current full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 or later, and is the earliest age at which workers can begin getting Social Security benefits without any financial penalty for claiming early.

Alford said the "$36 trillion" national debt and its interest payments is "unsustainable," with a whittling down of government spending required to "right the ship."

So to deliver even more tax cuts for the obscenely rich, the GOP is gearing up to raise the retirement age. Or take this from Jeff Schogol (TASK & PURPOSE):

A growing chorus is calling for cuts to Veteran Affairs disability benefits as a way to save federal dollars — a move that ignores the very real costs of two decades of war, and could cause irreparable harm to generations of veterans, experts warn.

The most recent call for cuts is a widely criticized opinion article in The Economist on Nov. 28 that described veterans’ disability benefits as “absurdly generous.” Experts told Task & Purpose that the essay is representative of widespread public misperceptions that threaten to reduce veterans’ compensation for service-connected health conditions.

The Economist piece echoes an argument made by the Washington Post’s editorial board last year that limiting disability payments to veterans would help get America’s financial house in order.

These arguments may now have a real chance of becoming law.

Policies laid out in Project 2025, touted as a blueprint for a second Donald Trump term, would revamp the Department of Veterans of Affairs with proposals to increase privatization, narrow the eligibility criteria for health benefits and replace civil service-style employees with political appointees in its ranks. Produced by the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., the policy guide states that a growing number of health conditions that qualify for VA disability are “tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service.”

In mid-November, President-elect Donald Trump has tappedRussell T. Vought, one of the key players in Project 2025, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a powerful federal post that oversees government spending.

And then there are the efforts to repaint insurrectionists as heroes.

You've got Public Citizen noting:

Washington, D.C. — Today, President-elect Donald J. Trump declared on his social media platform that, “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.”

Tyson Slocum, Energy Program Director at Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:

“The President has no authority whatsoever to waive statutory public health and safety protections based upon a dollar value of capital investment. Trump’s claim deserves ridicule for being so outlandishly illegal and wrong, and it will not come to pass, no matter what Trump fantasizes.

“However, the statement does highlight Trump’s utter disregard for protecting the environment or human health and the imminent peril that he and his cronies will push policies that jeopardize health, safety and planetary well-being.

“Of special importance, Public Citizen has noted Trump’s efforts to use national security designations to force bailouts of coal power plants during his firm term — which Trump may seek to expand to all domestic oil and gas production, transportation, and export, especially with Trump’s declaration that his Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum would have a seat on the National Security Council.

“This, along with other moves the administration is likely to take starting January 20, offers a more realistic and insidious Trump scheme to allow Big Oil to sidestep an array of environmental laws by designating domestic fossil fuel production and export as essential for national security.”

These are not things you can support and then run easily for re-election.

Let's get some humor in here. Trashy FOX "NEWS" and the gutter rats on it did an insulting segment on First Lady Jill Biden where they insisted that Jill was attracted to Satan Trump. No woman is attracted to Satan Trump which is why his current wife got a redo on the prenup. From Marcia's "Top 10 reasons Jill Biden would never be interested in Trump:"

1) She's never been a chubby chaser, let alone someone to run after the morbidly obese.

2) While Trump's never minded sporting lipstick on his collar, Jill knows damn well that orange foundation Trump wears will burn a hole through fabric.

3) His halitosis.

4) He farts with each step he takes.

5) She believes in marriage.

6) Hooking up with a rapist has never been on her bingo card.

7) She believes in and supports education.

8) Long ago, as a teenager, she made the decision to never couple with a man whose boobs were bigger than her own. As David Bautista has noted, Trump "has jugs, like Dolly Parton."

9) While she enjoys primates and animal documentaries, she has no desire to mate with an orangutang.

10) A bad boy might be intriguing but a traitor is a buzz kill.

Let's not another fake ass poser. Aaron Mate of Mate-Taibi-Halper-and-Scum.

At long last, Aaron Mate is finally getting the attention he's always craved. Speaking of I Need Attention Benjamin . . .

Susan Benjamin who goes by the stage name Medea. Actors have stage names and we all know that there's nothing real about Susan. There she is with registered sex offender, convicted pedophile Scott Ritter. You stand with Ritter, you stand with trash.

Here's the backstory on Susan's current problems. CODEPINK represents as a women's group. Don't dig too deep into those roots. Jodi who is the money behindf the project -- which is why she was able to marshal the group against John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and others seeking the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination (Jodi supported Barack and was, in fact, a bundler for Barack -- a detail that proved most embarrassing for Jodi when discovered in the summer of 2008 after she had deployed CODEPINK to bird dog Barack's opponents) -- Anyway, Jodi's the money of the group and she's gotten rather tired of Susan Benjamin's cozying up to Scott Ritter. It's bad for donations and it's bad for the brand. And when Susan announced she would be speaking at the faux Rage Against the War Machine, it appalled members of CODEPINK because they don't understand why anyone would be part of event featuring a convicted pedophile. So, faced with a huge rebellion within the ranks, Jodi had to tell Susan "NO!" Now, a few years later, Susan's taken the stage with Ritter and it's causing Jodi more problems. Things were so much easier for Jodi when she was just bungling her duties working for then-Governor Jerry Brown. So Susan's being told, yet again, to pipe down or find her way to the exit door.

It's Jodi's own fault for letting 72 year old Susan Benjamin remain the face of the group. I can remember as far back as 2005 when CODEPINK was facing criticism for being all White and all middle aged. They're still basically all White and Susa is still holding the mike.

The following sites updated: