I was watching THE NEW ADENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE tonight -- Stan had written about it being streamed online and I loved and watched the show CBS when it was in production. He told me to go to PLUTO and that it airs on their TV LAND channel for three or so hours. HOT IN CLEAELAND airs right before it an I'd watch that but after THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE goes off, it's several hours of SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH and hard pass on that.
So I was able to catch two episodes, the last two with pregnant New Christine in no mood for anyone.
Julia plays "old Christine." She does so very well -- or did so. The whole cast was amazing -- including Wanda as Barb. But Emily is flat out hilarious and I don't think I appreciated that as much when the show was still making new episodes.
I first saw her in THE ELLEN SHOW, Ellen's CBS sitcom at the start of this century. It was funny but only lasted one season. She was Ellen's sister. (The sitcom shouldn't have been cancelled. It was on Friday nights -- a death day -- and led off CBS's prime time programming. When it was briefly moved to Mondays -- such as with the episode Mary Tyler Moore guest starring episode -- it's ratings were much better.) After that, I caught her on WILL & GRACE where she played Joanne, a student in Jack's acting class. She's going nowhere until Jack takes over the class and 'teaches' that acting is "attracting." So she goes out for a sad commercial and doesn't get it because she was "too jazzed" over her sick dad but they loved her "attracting" and gave her a toothpaste add. Her best episode is the one with James Earl Jones. She's at Jack's class and Jack gets her to do a scene (from SEX IN THE CITY) with James Earl Jones. She's excited to be on the stage with James Earl Jones and Jack calls her out saying something like, "Don't gush, Joanne, you're a professional actress." Then she plays Samantha to James Earl Jones' Carrie and it's very funny.
She's always delivered.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE really allowed her to show a range because they let her character grow. And watching her go off on Richard and old Christine in the two episodes I caught tonight really drove home her range and her gifts.
So here's my plea for tonight Someone please, please get Emily Rutherfurd in another sitcom ASAP!
Thursday, July 10, 2025. Whistle blower Joni Ernst outed herself and
her party when she declared healthcare cuts don't matter because "we're
all going to die." That 'logic' explains the indifference to the
flooding, to the destruction of families across the country, to every
vile and evil thing the GOP is promoting in 2025.
The
tragedy in Texas continues with the death toll from the flood having
now risen to 120 and approximately 170 people still missing.
As
MEIDASTOUCH NEWS notes above, questions need to be asked and need to be
addressed. There is a failure of leadership here. It goes beyond
Chump attacking former President Joe Biden. But let's note that as
well. The first time he spoke of the flood, Chump blamed Joe and then
tried to say he wasn't blaming Joe. Joe's name came out of your moth,
no one else's and it came out of Chump's mouth again yesterday.
Less than 24 hours before Leavitt’s comments, though, it was
her boss, Trump, who was levying blame – not on the incumbent
government, but the previous one.
Trump quickly clarified that he wasn’t actually blaming
Biden – he cited the historic nature of the floods – but there is no
question he was attempting to shift potential responsibility for any
government missteps to his predecessor.
And indeed, this has become Trump’s M.O. When something bad
happens – including tragedy – Trump’s reflex has been to blame his
predecessor. And often, despite Leavitt’s admonishment, he casts blame
very quickly.
Airplane crashes and air traffic control problems
After a tragic crash in the Potomac River near Washington, DC, in late January that killed 67 people, Trump blamed the Biden administration and diversity, equity and inclusion
(DEI) policies – despite no evidence forming anything close to such a
link. He did so even as bodies were being pulled from the river.
In May, after more crashes and technical problems that in
some cases traumatized air traffic controllers, Trump added that “Biden
didn’t do a thing for four years.”
And just last week, Trump suggested air traffic controllers
would have had better equipment, but “then Biden canceled the order when
he came in.” The comment echoed previous ones from Transportation
Secretary Sean Duffy.
It’s not clear what Trump was referring to. Administrations
have for decades declined to proactively modernize air traffic control.
That included Trump proposals that were never enacted, the New York Times reported.
An antisemitic attack in Colorado
After an antisemitic firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado
last month that led to dozens of injuries and eventually a death, Trump
the next day blamed “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy.”
Other top administration officials echoed that line, with
White House adviser Stephen Miller calling the suspect an “illegal
alien” who benefited from the Biden’s “suicidal immigration” policies.
The reality was more complex, as the Atlantic reported.
The Egyptian man had arrived in 2022 during the Biden administration,
but he didn’t cross the border illegally. He instead arrived on a
tourist visa that Trump’s first administration had frequently awarded,
and then applied for asylum – a process that allows one to temporarily
stay in the country. That application was still pending when the attacks
occurred.
Ruth notes that I told her how the
disgusting Secretary of Defenses Pete Hegseth can't make it through a
Congressional committee hearing without attacking Joe Biden -- and we're
not talking deep into a hearing, we're talking his opening statements,
his prepared remarks.
The GOP keeps insisting
this is being politicized. They politicized it. They went along with
DOGE cuts, they went alone with the destruction of the safety net, they
want to deregulate everything. They are responsible.
These
are not accidents, this is not they didn't have accurate information.
This is GOP not caring and not caring because "We're all going to die"
and "People die" -- they are in the US government and that's their
attitude to the chaos and misfortune they create. This is not, "Oh,
they're just msiguided." No, this is their outlook and this is their
escape that allows them to live guilt free and lie.
If
we're all going to die (yes, we are), their attitude is who cares? Who
cares about saving the planet, who cares about saving the people?
Especially when there is big money to be made.
As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.
The
billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the
control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald
Trump's administration follows through on a decade-long Republican
effort to privatize government weather forecasting.
Deadly weekend flooding in central Texas has drawn a spotlight to budget cuts and staff reductions
at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, two agencies housed within the Commerce
Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data
that can be crucial during natural disasters.
What’s
drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an
effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the
companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to people tapped
by Trump to run weather-related agencies.
Privatization
would diminish a central role the federal government has played in
weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say poses a particular harm for those facing financial strain who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.
The
effort also reveals the difficulty that uber wealthy members of Trump's
Cabinet have in freeing themselves from conflicts, even if they have
met the letter of federal ethics law.
“It’s
the most insidious aspect of this: Are we really talking about making
weather products available only to those who can afford it?” said Rick
Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, a
Democrat. “Basically turning the weather service into a subscription
streaming service? As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be in the position of
saying, ‘I get a better weather forecast because I’m willing to pay for
it.’”
That's
what they're doing, they're focusing on enriching themselves and they
don't care about public safety because "we're all going to die."
Someone
needs to make clear to the useless pieces of garbage that we were all
going to die before they ever got into office and the whole point people
into office is to make things better for us while we're alive. They
needed to be called out every time they say "thoughts and prayers"
because, for them, that is just a cop out to avoid taking
responsibility. Their actions have made things much, much worse. They
shouldn't be allowed to pretend otherwise.
Yesterday
on CNN, Bill Nye The Science Guy provided some context on the extreme
weather that we are seeing in the last seven days.
That's
reality, that's science. We need to stop letting the GOP get away with
their garbage. No more cop outs, no more pretending that because we're
all going to die they don't have to address our concerns and our
needs. If they can't offer more than that, they don't deserve to be in
office.
When you grasp that they really are
just blaming God for everything and using God as a cop out, you grasp
not only why they don't care about Medicaid, but why they don't care
about any of the damage that they inflict upon the American people.
Next topic . . .
Every couple needs their love song and Donald Chump and Pete Hegseth have theirs.
Every chain
Has got a weak link
I might be weak, yeah
But I'll give you strength
Oh, hey
You told me to leave you alone
My father said, "Come on home"
My doctor said, "Take it easy"
Oh, but your lovin' is much too strong
I'm added to your chain, chain, chain
(Chain, chain, chain)
Chain, chain, chain
(Chain, chain, chain)
Chain, chain, chain
(Chain, chain, chain)
Chain of fools
One of these mornings
The chain is gonna break
But up until the day
I'm gonna take all I can take, oh hey
For now, the chain's held but some question how much longer it will? David McAfee (RAW STORY) reports Republican
Doug Heye was on CNN yesterday and noted Hegseth's twice stopping
shipments of weapons to Ukraine without apparently informing Chump was a
"fireable offense" and "When we've seen problems in this
administration, it's always coming from the DoD... It's always the DoD.
[. . .] We have to wonder if the branch is going to break there," he
then added. "This is absolutely out of bounds."
Last
week’s halt was the third time Secretary Hegseth unilaterally decided
to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to NBC News.
Pentagon
officials last week said the halt was due to concerns over U.S. weapons
stockpile levels, but NBC News reported that “an analysis by senior
military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the
American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S.
officials.”
Hegseth’s decision “blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies.”
Now, critics are calling for Hegseth’s resignation.
Declaring
the Defense Secretary “completely unqualified, and on an ego trip,”
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a post about Hegseth not
informing the White House about his weapons halt.
“When is Pete Hegseth going to resign?” asked Congressman Lieu, a retired U.S. Air Force officer.
[. . .]
Iraq
War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America (IAVA), and host of the Independent Americans podcast, blasted
Hegseth.
“No surprise here,” he wrote, also
responding to a post about the weapons halt. “The sloppiness and
incompetence is consistent. And his flawed leadership continues to
disrupt and frustrate folks all across the Pentagon. And now, it’s also
frustrating the White House and Trump himself.”
“He is
Secretary Chaos,” Rieckhoff continued. “And every day he falls deeper
beyond his depth. We are less safe, our allies are weakened, and our
enemies are celebrating.”
Chump
and Loose lips Hegseth have always been a threat to active duty service
members. However, Chump's also a threat to veterans. Michael Embrich (ROLLING STONE) reports:
President
Donald Trump's administration has backed off its plan to fire 83,000
employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA will
still get rid of about 30,000 employees, a figure that includes the
thousands it has already let go.
After arguing
for months that the proposed cuts were essential to ensure the VA could
continue its mission, the administration has done a 180 on these
claims. It is unclear whether the administration has decided to back off
due to pressure from veterans groups, no longer needing the money for
their billionaire tax breaks, or pressure from Congress. It may be a
combination of all three. But it is more likely that this is a shell
game to buy Trump time.
This revised approach is
being sold as a win for efficiency, but it's actually a calculated
retreat in language - not in intent. They swapped pink slips for
attrition, hiring freezes, early retirements, and a bureaucratic
euphemism called "deferred resignation," which lets people technically
stay on the books while being paid to prepare to leave. The new plan is
not a full walk-back - it's a workaround. All this at a time when the VA
patient base is growing and its supply of doctors and nurses is
shrinking.
Frontline staffers at the VA are
sounding the alarm. Nurses and doctors are now being asked to cover
administrative duties because the people who used to handle billing or
facilities management are simply gone.
Since
January 1, the VA has lost 17,000 employees. By the end of September,
12,000 more will be gone. The administration claims these departures
won't impact veteran care. Ask any veteran waiting months for a
disability claim to be processed or stuck in a long line for an
appointment if that's true.
But
remember, kids, no complaining. Governor Asshole says trying to figure
out blame is losing the football game -- despite the fact that football
games do not involve healthcare for veterans or, for that matter,
surgery or any real knowledge of medicine. And Joni Ernst says that
we're all going to die. And that Holman says . So what's the point?
That's their attitude -- destroy people's lives and then ignore it
unless forced to comment. And if forced to comment? Just mutter
through thin lips, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them." It's the
MAGA way.
Right
now, we are witnessing the effects of Chump's attack on the US
government. It'll probably be months before we are fully seeing the
effects of his attack on the VA. I have to wonder how the GOP expects
to go into next year's mid-terms? Are they praying for mass amnesia?
That somehow the whole country forgets what's been going on and who
caused it?
For some clarity, logic and truth, let's insert Lawrence O'Donnell right here.
San
Francisco Immigration Court was again the scene of chaos and clashes
between authorities and protesters Tuesday as federal agents detained at
least one person and faced a swarm of activists trying to prevent the
arrest, including several who clung to a black van as it drove away.
Videos posted on social media
showed a tense scene Tuesday morning as roughly 30 protesters attempted
to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from escorting the
person to a van outside the courthouse at 100 Montgomery St. The group
screamed, physically confronted agents and tried to block the van from
departing, and ICE officers in body armor, at least some of whom wore
masks, yelled for them to stay away and forcefully pushed and moved them
away.
The arrest is the latest of at least 26
courthouse detentions in San Francisco immigration court since May,
according to Milli Atkinson, legal director at the San Francisco
Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, who heads up the city's Rapid
Response Network that responds to immigration enforcement actions. The
arrests in San Francisco, Concord and other cities have sparked angry
protests and near-violent confrontations at courthouses where immigrants
facing potential deportation attend hearings.
Atkinson said that the attorney of the person who was arrested Tuesday is trying to get access to the client.
In
videos, as the van departed at least two protesters can be seen
clinging to the vehicle as it accelerates past the intersection of
Montgomery and Sutter streets. One falls off the car at the crosswalk,
while the van sways side to side, seemingly attempting to rock the other
protester off of the front windshield. One video
shows the protester still clinging to the van as the vehicle approaches
the intersection of Post and Montgomery streets, one block further.
This
pushback, happening across the country, is not going to be forgotten at
the mid-terms. Families are being destroyed, communities are being
destroyed and our economy is being destroyed by Chump and Noem and
Holman's attacks on immigrants. People are outraged and they've had
enough. At THE HILL, Max Burns writes:
To
the families sent fleeing from MacArthur Park on Monday in California,
President Trump’s latest ICE raid must have seemed like an invasion. The
massive operation involved nine federal agencies, the National Guard,
local police and more than a dozen armored military vehicles. It was the kind of shock-and-awe campaign more at home in Fallujah than in a quiet Los Angeles park.
The
agencies involved sure seemed to think the raid on MacArthur Park was a
military campaign. Photos from the scene show federal agents dressed in
camouflage combat gear pouring out of armored trucks as stunned
civilians look on in disbelief. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
even gave the raid a puffy, military-sounding name: “Operation Excalibur.”
Trump’s
draconian immigration crackdowns may play well with his MAGA base, but
they’re alienating nearly everyone else — including the mainstream
conservatives Republicans will depend on to protect their fragile
congressional majorities next year.
The
agencies involved sure seemed to think the raid on MacArthur Park was a
military campaign. Photos from the scene show federal agents dressed in
camouflage combat gear pouring out of armored trucks as stunned
civilians look on in disbelief. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
even gave the raid a puffy, military-sounding name: “Operation Excalibur.”
Trump’s
draconian immigration crackdowns may play well with his MAGA base, but
they’re alienating nearly everyone else — including the mainstream
conservatives Republicans will depend on to protect their fragile
congressional majorities next year.
Prior to May, most Americans viewed ICE positively. Now the agency evokes images of masked men huddled around blacked-out vans and Alligator Alcatraz.
Agents’ refusal to identify themselves, and MAGA’s celebration of their
unaccountability, has led millions of Americans to see the agency as
little more than Trump’s personal skullcrushers. Now, 54 percent of adults say ICE’s actions have gone too far.
People also know exactly who to blame for letting ICE run wild. Six recent polls show a collapse in public support
for Trump’s immigration policies, leaving the GOP 3 points underwater
with voters on an issue they’ve dominated for years. In fact, it’s been nearly 20 years since Republicans’ immigration policies were this unpopular with voters — a dip Democrats exploited to reclaim both houses of Congress in 2006. Trump’s stumbles are setting the stage for history to repeat itself next year.
People
watch as a chaplain at Cincinnati's Children's hospital is rounded up
by ICE and they rightly think, "How is that man a 'violent criminal'?"
And they rightly conclude, "He isn't." This does not have the support
of the American people. You see it in the polling and you see it in the
rising sentiment against Chump personally.
The move, announced at a news conference earlier this week at the
Diocese of Austin, comes at a time when Catholic bishops across the
state have denounced President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts.
Many influential Texas Catholics, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have
expressed support for the new administration's plans that include
allowing ICE agents into schools, hospitals and churches to make
arrests.
While the Catholic church teaches that a nation has the right to control its borders, Garcia, a 64-year-old Texas native, delivered a message in both English and Spanish
to say the church would also speak up for the "poor, the weak, and
those who live on the margins," including undocumented immigrants, per
the Catholic News Agency.
The
bishop, who is a board member of Catholic Relief Services—which faces
an uncertain future amid Trump's slashed aid funding—cited St. Vincent
de Paul during his speech, saying, "It will be the poor who will be our
entrance into heaven."
Let's wind down by noting this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
ICYMI:
At HELP Hearing, Senator Murray Presses CDC Nominee on Commitment to
Scientific Integrity, Vaccine Access, as RFK Jr. Fires ACIP Members,
Pushes Vaccine Conspiracies
Senator Murray, along with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), authored the PREVENT Pandemics Act that made the CDC Director a Senate confirmed position for the first time starting this year
***WATCH HERE: Murray remarks at HELP markup on measles outbreak***
Washington, D.C. – Today—at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup
to advance the nomination of Susan Monarez, PhD to be Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—U.S. Senator Patty
Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Committee, spoke
forcefully about how measles cases in the U.S. have reached a 33-year high,
and yet our conspiracy-minded Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has only doubled down on his dangerous
anti-vaccine activism, and the Republican leadership of the HELP
Committee is refusing to exercise any serious oversight of the measles crisis or other public health disasters the Trump administration is fanning the flames of.
At the markup, the HELP committee voted 12-11 to send Dr. Monarez’s
nomination to the Senate floor—Senator Murray voted against advancing
her nomination.
The CDC Director is a Senate-confirmed position for the first time
this year thanks to a provision in Senator Murray’s bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act, which she negotiated and passed with former Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) in 2022.
Senator Murray’s full remarks at the HELP markup, as delivered, are below and video is HERE:
“I think it’s really important as we consider a CDC nominee today, we talk about the real elephant in the room.
“Because we could actually have the best CDC director in the world,
and it wouldn’t change the fact that we have a person leading HHS who is
an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist—and a Committee that I fear is
failing to do its bipartisan, public oversight of public health
disasters.
“Measles cases are at a record 33-year high. They have not been this high since before we eliminated the disease in 2000.
“And now we are over 1,200 cases—that is really, we believe, also an undercount.
“But instead of pounding the pavement to encourage people to
get vaccinated—the single most effective protection against measles, as
you know—RFK Jr. has been firing every single member of the CDC vaccine
advisory panel, and he loaded it up with his favorite vaccine skeptics,
so they can pursue debunked conspiracies.
“And I am concerned because this Committee, it feels like,
has all but abandoned serious oversight of this crisis. We haven’t had a
hearing on the record-breaking number of measles outbreaks.
“Or a hearing on how the CDC vaccine panel is now stacked
with people who are actually not unvetted, and all the previous board
members—every single one of them—was removed with no credible
explanation.
“So, I really believe we need public oversight.
“I really do hope that Dr. Monarez will defy my expectations, I hope she will stand up for science, and put public health first.
“But again, I have hoped that for others, and here we are today. So, I
just want to express my disappointment, and real feeling that this
committee should have oversight and do hearings before it’s too late to
do anything all.
“And I would just say, my door is open to everyone. I think that we
do need to work together and try and repair some of the harm that this
anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists are doing to our country right now,
and I hope that you take that into consideration.”
_______________
At her nomination hearing
last month, under Senator Murray’s questioning, Dr. Monarez admitted
she agreed with Senator Murray that the eight new members of the CDC’s
Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP)—which Secretary
Kennedy handpicked after firing every member of the Committee for no
reason—should go through a thorough ethics review process before
participating in ACIP meetings. At the hearing, Senator Murray also
raised alarm over Secretary Kennedy bringing Lyn Redwood in to the ACIP
meeting to give a presentation
on thimerosal in vaccines, and pressed Dr. Monarez on how changes to
the ACIP recommendation could force families to pay out of pocket for
vaccines, or forgo vaccination altogether. Senator Murray has been
speaking out for weeks against Secretary Kennedy’s reckless decision to
fire the entire slate of ACIP members without cause—holding a press call with Dr. Helen Chu of Washington state, one of the 17 ACIP members who was fired, and calling on Secretary Kennedy to reinstate the ACIP members he fired and ensure any new members undergo appropriate vetting.
Senator Murray forcefully opposed the
nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary
of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedlyspeaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in
the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance
of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need
to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the
2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in
under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with
former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC
Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to
promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.
Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress against RFK Jr.’s
dismantling of HHS and attacks on America’s public health
infrastructure, raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of
the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory.
Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to
lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking
Americans’ health and safety and will set our country back decades, and
lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and
through no fault of their own.
###
The country really does owe
Senator Joni Ernst a thank you. She told her ugly truth. When her
constituents pointed out that the cuts to healthcare Chump was proposing
and Joni was supporting (and she, in fact voted for) were going to
result in the deaths of many people, she replied, "We're all going to
die."
"We're all going to die."
She's a US senator who could fight to make life brter for Americans but "we're all going to die."
A
health crisis in the country and no leadership from Secretary of Health
Junior? To Joni, it doesn't matter because "we're all going to die."
Every
thing the GOP is doing to harm and hurt this country right now? The
answer for their actions is they believe that since "we're all going to
die," they don't have to do anything for us.