Jon Stewart tells Fox News to “shut up” and adds “fuck you and your false patriotism”:
Is it my imagination, or is Jon Stewart actually getting angry about the media noise machine? If so, I love it. Because if we are indeed watching the decline and fall of America, I don’t want it to end with a whimper.
Wow. Just wow. I knew that Republicans were the party of no, but I didn’t realize that they would argue that it would be an abuse of power to just do your frickin’ job.
So here is the situation. Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder has resigned. Obama will now nominate someone, who has to be confirmed by the Senate. Only a majority vote is required (no filibusters are allowed), so this should be pretty straightforward.
But wait. What if Republicans gain a majority in the Senate, which polls are projecting that they will do in November? Then the Senate could block approval of any nominee and hold the nomination hostage until their demands are met. Don’t think they would do this? Did you forget that they recently shut down the entire US government because Obama wouldn’t repeal the ACA?
So the GOP is already calling for delays in any confirmation hearings or votes, even though Obama hasn’t even nominated anyone yet.
Republican senator Ted Cruz is leading the charge, declaring in a statement “Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced.”
OMG, he is practically drooling at the prospect of taking over the Senate. He wants the Senate to stop doing anything until then.
I fear that the last two years of the Obama administration are going to see even crazier levels of Republican obstructionism.
Pundits should be given a big dose of their own 20-20 hindsight medicine:
It always amazes me how wrong the pundits are, but for some stupid reason the media keeps putting them on TV to make more stupid prognostications.
“Tonight President Obama will make a prime-time speech about how we’re going to deal with violent extremists and their sickening behavior. And when he’s done talking about the NFL, he’ll talk about ISIS.” – Conan O’Brien
“President Obama was on TV tonight. He gave a prime-time address to detail his plan to stop ISIS. And also to give his pick for tomorrow night’s game between the Ravens and the Steelers.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“The president reassured Americans that while we face no immediate threat from ISIS, we’ve got a ton of bombs sitting around so we’re going to use them.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Here is Obama’s 3-part plan. First, we’re going to gather intelligence. Next, we’re going to launch air strikes. And third, his plan is to lose the midterm elections. So he’s got a full plate ahead of him.” – David Letterman
“Guess who we may be partnering with to fight ISIS. None other than Iran. Iran used to be our enemy back, like, last week, but now we may be upgrading our relationship to frenemy.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Earlier tonight President Obama spoke to Americans. Obama is getting tough with ISIS. He’s now going to force them to sell their NBA team.” – David Letterman
“It’s never good news when the president addresses the nation in prime time. He never comes out and says, ‘Great job, everybody. I’m throwing y’all a pizza party.'” – Jimmy Kimmel
“The NFL is, of course, coming under a lot of fire. Today it came out that law enforcement sent a copy of the Ray Rice video to NFL headquarters back in April. Then the NFL commissioner apologized, saying the video got buried in the stack of other illegal things NFL players are doing.” – Conan O’Brien
“A federal investigation has found the Department of Homeland Security is ‘ill-prepared’ for a potential disease pandemic. I’m not sure I agree. They did a great job of wiping out Bieber Fever.” – Seth Meyers
“Joe Biden will be in Baltimore this weekend to celebrate the 200th anniversary of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ Yeah, 200 years — or, roughly how long it takes today’s pop singers to finish the national anthem.” – Jimmy Fallon
“The New York Times had to issue a correction after an article referred to Dick Cheney as president of the United States. The Times apologized to Dick Cheney and changed his title to ‘former president of the United States.'” – Conan O’Brien
“Today The New York Times had to issue a correction after it mistakenly referred to Dick Cheney as a former president. Of course, George W. Bush made that same mistake all the time.” – Seth Meyers
“Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo won the Democratic primary after a close race against an opponent named Zephyr Teachout. I know what you’re thinking: Is Zypher Teachout a man or a woman? And the answer is … probably.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Yesterday Mike Tyson traveled to Toronto and met with Mayor Rob Ford. It was a meeting between one of the most dangerous heavyweights ever and Mike Tyson.” – Seth Meyers
“Mike Tyson was in Canada yesterday and actually met up with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Of course, it got weird when someone yelled, ‘Loved you in ‘The Hangover!” and they both said, ‘Thanks!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Mike Tyson and Rob Ford had a meeting. If you’d like to see a transcript of their conversation, just have your cat walk back and forth on your keyboard.” – Seth Meyers
The Daily show covers the New York Climate Action march, and contrasts it with the idiots on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology:
Are you worried about the Republicans taking over control of the Senate? Apparently you are in the minority. In fact, only 36% of Americans can correctly identify the party that controls both the House and the Senate.
Interestingly, there is virtually no difference between Republicans and Democrats in answering this question correctly.
“Prince William and his bride are expecting her second baby. That’s pretty quick for Kate to have a second baby. It’s almost as if producing an heir is her job.” – Craig Ferguson
“The royal couple had to keep Kate’s pregnancy secret from the rest of the royal family. And that’s not easy because Prince Charles is all ears.” – Craig Ferguson
“Apple announced the iPhone 6 today, which they say has a more durable screen that won’t crack or scratch as easily. Or as your kids put it, ‘Challenge accepted!’ Apple promised less cracking. Then Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said, ‘Hey, that’s my campaign slogan.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Mike Tyson, for reasons unknown, stopped by City Hall to meet with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Mike Tyson and Rob Ford — what could possibly go right?” –Jimmy Kimmel
Around 400,000 people gathered in New York City Sunday to demand action on climate change, making it the largest climate march in history.
The march started with a moment of silence, with thousands walking through Times Square with their fists in the air but without making a sound. Tweeters declared that they had never heard it so quiet.
Politicians and celebrities including Al Gore, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Senator Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Dennis Kucinich, celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and Gane Goodall, joined activists, scientists, and ordinary people who came from states as far away as Oklahoma to march.
There were also hundreds of climate protests in other countries, including Britain (with marchers Peter Gabriel and Emma Thompson), Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Columbia, Afghanistan, and Bulgaria.
The United Nations Climate Summit starts on Tuesday.
However, the march was largely ignored by Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. “Meet the Press” didn’t even mention the march. I guess it is true that the Revolution will not be televised.
I’m thinking that climate change has become the defining issue of our time. If we stop burning fossil fuels for energy, not only will it stop climate change, it will reduce pollution and eliminate our dependence on foreign energy sources that have led to costly and stupid wars. And contrary to misinformation being spread by the oil industry, it will actually help our economy as we develop newer, sustainable energy sources. If we could land people on the moon 50 years ago, surely we can solve our energy problems in innovative ways. Yes, there will be technical and political problems, but I’m confident we can overcome those. Let’s do it.
UPDATE: Media Matters reports that the Sunday news shows on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox all failed to cover the massive climate march. Meet the Press, Face the Nation, State of the Union, and Fox News Sunday completely ignored the event, while ABC’s This Week briefly mentioned it. WTF is wrong with our media?
Texas has a long history of producing school textbooks influenced by hard-right conservatives, but we had hoped those days were over.
Nope.
Of more than 140 people on the textbook panels, only three are actually college-level educators. For example, the chair of the History Department at Southern Methodist University, who is also faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, applied to be on the history panel, but was turned down. Instead the US History panel includes a former car salesman who runs a Christian ministry in his hometown and had been a Republican nominee to the Texas Legislature (and who publicly announced that he does not “believe that there is a separation of church and state in the Constitution.”)
Needless to say, a review of the proposed textbooks found numerous mistakes, conservative bias, and overt religious messages. (Well at least Christian messages. In general, Muslims are portrayed negatively.)
There are also cartoons making fun of affirmative action, and perhaps worst of all, contain numerous inaccurate statements about climate change and climate science. For example, one textbook says that global warming will cause Earth’s temperature to rise for only a few years before temperatures will start to cool and eventually “even out”. The textbook even quotes non-scientist staffers from the Heartland Institute, a Koch-funded libertarian think tank whose climate doctrine has been discredited.
Unfortunately, because Texas is such a large market for textbooks, these problems will also show up in textbooks adopted by other states.
Science once again proves what we already knew. A psychological study of self-identified internet trolls shows that they are sadists, narcissists, and psychopaths. Or as Psychology Today put it:
So next time you encounter a troll online, remember a few things. (1) These trolls are some truly messed up people and (2) it is your suffering that brings them pleasure, so the best thing you can do is ignore them.
Amen.
“On Friday President Obama made a surprise visit to Stonehenge on his way back from the NATO summit in Wales. And even crazier — today he made a surprise visit to the White House.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Over the weekend President Obama visited Stonehenge. Yes, the cold, rigid entity no one can quite figure out said he enjoyed Stonehenge.” – Conan O’Brien
“President Obama visited Stonehenge. It was going well until Biden said ‘Look at the size of those dominoes’.” – Jimmy Fallon
“This week President Obama will announce his plans for addressing the threat posed by ISIS extremists in Iraq. It’s an incredibly difficult situation. I think at this point he should just tell Liam Neeson that they have his daughter.” – Seth Meyers
“On this date in 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. A lot of people think Nixon’s trouble was for Watergate, but it was not. It was for wearing a tan suit.” – David Letterman
“The Department of Transportation is considering building a new high-speed train that could get people from D.C. to Baltimore in 15 minutes. It gets you out of Washington in 15 minutes — or as President Obama calls that, ‘Still not fast enough.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“AMC is coming out with a spin-off of ‘The Walking Dead’ that will show the apocalypse in other parts of the world. It’s called ‘The News’.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Prince William and wife Kate are expecting another baby. This is big news — in the year 1614.” – David Letterman
“Now there will be two royal babies. This guy is going to have to start looking for a job, you know what I mean?” – David Letterman
“Also from England, it turns out they have now identified Jack the Ripper. They found the DNA off an old white Ford Bronco. Not only that, but they now know the guy was married to Kelly Ripper.” – David Letterman
“Reportedly the identity of Jack the Ripper, who killed five people in London, finally has been revealed. After hearing about it, the commissioner of the NFL suspended him for two games.” – Conan O’Brien
“This weekend a Native American group gathered outside of the Houston-Washington game to protest the Redskins’ nickname. And a group of Cowboys wide receivers gathered outside of the Dallas-San Francisco game because that’s where most of Tony Romo’s passes were landing.” – Seth Meyers
“Our former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, returned today to Sacramento, where they unveiled his official portrait. They do this for all the governors, even the ones who were in ‘The Expendables’.” – Jimmy Kimmel
Another brilliant comic from Tom Tomorrow. Isn’t it strange that we have to attack Syria, international law be damned?
The terrorists seem to have figured out a winning strategy for them. Do something outrageous that pisses off the American people (9/11, beheadings, even genocide) and then sit back while the American response becomes the best recruiting tool they could ever want, and paid for by the American taxpayers!
Heck, Republicans even told Obama that he should take the lead on this one. Who thought that would ever happen? Of course, they are mainly doing this so they can blame him for whatever goes wrong in the Middle East, completely ignoring the amazingly stupid things they did to screw it up. After all, they seem to think that Dubya kept us safe from the terrorists.
Likewise, Republicans are continuing to deny climate change. We’ve had 25 years to do something about this before it is too late, but … oops.
“Happy Birthday to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who turns 52 years old tomorrow. The star of TLC’s show ‘Cake Boss’ is actually making the cake for Chris Christie’s birthday party. In fact, I hear he’s even making the cake in the shape of Christie’s favorite thing: cake.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Of course, it’ll get weird when Chris Christie’s family says, ‘No, no, no, you’re supposed to blow the candles out BEFORE you eat it!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Chris Christie has to brush up on foreign policy, so he went to Mexico. Remember when he was in Africa? He was followed by ivory poachers. Now he’s in Mexico, and he was taunted by a matador.” – David Letterman
“Yesterday John Kerry joined five previous secretaries of state at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new diplomacy museum. Sorry, I just fell asleep saying that.” – Jimmy Fallon
“While the diplomacy museum is just a pile of dirt now, pretty soon it’ll be even LESS interesting.” – Jimmy Fallon
“The White House has decided not to send President Obama to campaign in battleground states because his low approval ratings could hurt Democrats. They’re only sending him where he can’t do any damage — or as that’s also known, ‘The Biden Circuit’.” – Jimmy Fallon
“President Obama is getting tough with that Vladimir Putin. Boy, what a bad guy that guy is, that Vladimir Putin. Obama is really getting tough with him. Now he’s wearing a much more aggressive shade of beige.” – David Letterman
Robin Evans, a Republican warehouse worker who recently signed up for Medicaid when Kentucky finally implemented the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, loves her new health coverage. “I’m tickled to death with it. It’s helped me out a bunch.”
But she hates Obama, and says she prefers Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who wants to repeal Obamacare, saying it should be “pulled out root and branch”.
Does Evans even know that if McConnell had his way, she would lose the health coverage she now loves?
Which gives us the ironic situation where people hate the word “Obamacare” while loving everything else about it. Heck, former Republican Senator Scott Brown even recently called for repealing Obamacare and replacing it with Romneycare. Which is funny since Obamacare is directly based on Romneycare and is virtually identical, the only substantive difference being that Romneycare was implemented by a Republican at a state level, while Obamacare was implemented by a Democrat at the national level. Brown has even said that current beneficiaries of Obamacare could be grandfathered in, which means he doesn’t dare actually repeal it, since that would be so unpopular.
The bottom line is that the word “Obamacare” has become a dog whistle term signifying dislike of our president. Even among people who love everything that Obamacare has done for them. There is no longer any chance of it being repealed, but there has been so much propaganda used against the term (“Death Panels”, anyone?), that it is still a potent, albeit hollow, weapon. Besides, it seems so much less racist to disapprove of his policy achievements than to disapprove of him.
UPDATE: Because of the ACA, healthcare spending is up 9.9%. In fact, without the increased healthcare spending due to Obamacare, the US GDP would have gone down 1%. And in addition to helping (saving?) the US economy, all that spending on healthcare will result in a healthier America, which has long had some of the worst health statistics in the developed world.
Yesterday’s post was an amazing video showing how climate change deniers cast doubt on the science when there really is not any significant scientific doubt. But there are many other ways that propaganda is used by the climate deniers.
For example, in 2012 the New York Times (the poster child for the supposed left-wing media) published an article titled “A Fine for Not Using a Biofuel That Doesn’t Exist“. The biofuel in question is cellulosic ethanol, which is a form of fuel alcohol made from agricultural waste products like corn stalks and cobs, leaves, wood chips, and other plant residue.
On the surface their article sounds reasonable – why should fuel suppliers have to pay a fine for not blending in a fuel that doesn’t exist?
Conservative media outlets jumped on the story. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial saying “Congress subsidized a product that didn’t exist”, while Fox News called the fuel “merely hypothetical”. The National Review Online went one step further, saying that the “EPA might as well mandate that Exxon hire leprechauns.” But my favorite quote is from The Daily Caller, which blames the whole thing on Obama:
First, President Obama decided that the government can punish consumers if they don’t buy a particular product (e.g., health insurance). Now, his administration has decided that the government can punish consumers if they don’t buy a product that can’t be purchased because it doesn’t exist.
Well, first of all, the law mandating the use of cellulosic ethanol was passed by Congress in 2007. So it is difficult to imagine how the Obama administration, which didn’t exist until 2009, is responsible for that law. Not only did Dubya sign it, it was passed with broad bipartisan support.
But the big lie is that the fuel didn’t exist. Of course it existed. The whole point of the law was to create incentives to dramatically increase production of the fuel, which generates an amazing 96% less greenhouse gasses than gasoline because it uses raw materials that often get burned as waste.
And the law worked. There is now a cellulosic ethanol facility in Iowa which can convert 570 million pounds of crop waste into 25 million gallons of ethanol each year. And that facility is the first of three such plants scheduled to start production this year.
This is great news in the fight against climate change and it also significantly reduces our dependence on foreign oil. But of course, none of the right-wing media outlets mentioned it. Personally, I’m waiting for the National Review to write an article admitting that it was wrong, that leprechauns do exist.
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