Wake up, America

Rachel Maddow is the first major media television host who I have heard report: TRUMP IS A DICTATOR and we are living in his dictatorship! It’s true and it’s going to get worse. Americans appear very confused about our government. Otherwise Trump would’ve never been elected. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

— John W Dean (@johnwdean.bsky.social) August 4, 2025 at 9:35 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

#VoteBlue2024 #18

 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

A criminal is a criminal regardless

.@maddow nails it. The fact that it is unprecedented in American history for a former President to be indicted is meaningless when you consider that *this* former President is a lifelong criminal and perpetrator of fraud. His indictment is not only not a surprise, but a necessity pic.twitter.com/NgltlUnQV2

— Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) March 21, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

This is not Chicken Little--this shit is real

“It’s either democracy or it’s not. And if it’s not, it’s violence and force…Our vote this year is about whether we ever get to vote again.” —@maddow

Please vote.

— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) November 1, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Can we get an "Amen!" for Michigan?

In Michigan, Democrats came, saw, and conquered

Though I don't watch her show anymore, Rachel Maddow has spent considerable time over the past eight years explaining (and rightfully so) how Michigan has been a laboratory for implementing the republican game plan--everything on the GOP wish list, from passing a right to work (for less) law to privatizing government responsibilities, from taxing seniors and giving tax breaks to corporations to cutting working folks' pensions, the GOP has done here in Michigan.

No more.  Last week Michiganders delivered a gut punch to the republican agenda from top to bottom.  For the first time since I moved here nearly twenty years ago, Democrats will control the top three spots in our state--Governor (Gretchen Whitmer). Attorney General (Dana Nessel), and Secretary of State (Jocelyn Benson).  For the first time since 2010, Democrats will be on par with republicans for the U.S. House, with seven representatives each.  Also for the first time since I moved here, my U.S. House representative will be a Democrat (Elissa Slotkin).  While we didn't end republican control in our state legislature, we did end the republicans' super majority which means their agenda is done through at least 2022.  We added a Supreme Court seat, elected the first Muslim woman to the U.S. House (Rashida Tlaib), and passed propositions ending gerrymandering, implementing automatic voter registration, and legalizing marijuana.

I know I'm biased as Michigan is my adopted home, but the Democratic rout in Michigan has to be the most under reported story of the 2018 midterm elections.  In a state that is a must win for Donald Trump in 2020, we provided a blueprint for turning a recovering purple state blue again.  And it's a very progessive blueprint.

Michigan is a bellwether for 2020 because Michigan voters resoundingly found the republican experiment to be a massive failure.

Just like Donald Trump.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

MSNBC's lonely hearts club band

Seems the ratings at MSNBC have been falling and it's giving republicans the warm fuzzies because we Liberals are tuning out.  As Digby notes, it seems to be happening across the blogosphere as well.

There are a number of reasons this could be so--it's not an election year and I don't think the enthusiasm is quite the same in off years.  President Obama hasn't exactly been inspiring.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi make the Cowardly Lion look like fucking Audie Murphy.  There's also the fact that we Liberals have never tuned into radio and TV quite like conservatives do.  And being in power (at least the Presidency and the Senate) always makes for a bit more complacency.

But as someone who rarely watches MSNBC anymore (and I used to be a regular viewer, as in every night, sometimes watching the same show twice), I wonder if the people who have tuned out have noticed what I've noticed:  the station is suffering (at least the nightly shows, I'm not home during the day) from a terminal case of tin man's disease--absolutely no heart.

Don't think so?  Watch the way Rachel Maddow gets all glassy eyed when some foreign policy wonk is discussing drone strikes, though she doesn't have nearly the same reaction when discussing striking fast food workers.  Or Chris Hayes when he has a panel discussion on climate change.  Or Lawrence O"Donnell when he's taking about the workings of the Senate.  Christ, Ed Schultz was about as clumsy on air as I would be wearing a tutu and performing Swan Lake on a Detroit street corner, but his love for ordinary Americans was a joy to watch.  Most of the time watching MSNBC anymore I get the feeling their big three are a lot more interested in extolling their intellectual bona fides than they are in the problems of everyday America.

Don't get me wrong--I think Guantanamo and the use of drone strikes are antithetical to everything America stands for.  I know climate change is real...but these days, I'm a lot more concerned with my family making it from payday to payday than I am about how much Arctic ice will be left a hundred years after I'm dead.

And I'd be willing to be there are a lot of Liberals in the same boat as me.

Peace,
emaycee

Subverting Democracy in Michigan

Why it took a piece by Rachel Maddow--not a Michigan native, not a show based in the state--to bring the republicans in Michigan's legislature subverting of democracy (and the state's constitution) with their failure to follow the state's immediate effect law  to the forefront of Michigan news (lame, page 7, he said/she said journalism) is beyond me.  It's not often the Free Press, usually as lily-livered as far too many of the Dems in the nation's capital, is to be commended for their editorial stands, but they hit the nail on the head with this one.

Still, outside of the Progressive blogs (Daily Kos here, Digby here--and Digby wonders why there hasn't been more of an outcry from Michigan Dems, the simple answer is that's what happens when your party is lead by a DINO, State Party Chairman Mark Brewer, whose claim to fame is leading Michigan Democrats to their greatest defeat ever in 2010) there hasn't been nearly enough outrage and eventually it's going to come down to how the Michigan State Supreme Court decides it.  Since it's in the republican advantage (4 justices to 3), I'm really looking forward to their ruling explaining to us Michiganders who own a calculator how two-thirds of 110 equals 63 (note to those who suck at math:  it doesn't, two-thirds of 110 is 73).

Ought to do wonders to help those state test scores in arithmetic soar, though--remember kids, percentages equal whatever you want them to!

Peace,
emaycee

The enemy that never sleeps

Two pieces of interest this week, one farcical, the other maddening.

So...an adulterer, an idiot, and a racist walk into a bar--not really, it's only a republican shindig in Iowa featuring Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, and Haley Barbour where they had their usual  circle jerk and predicted big gains in 2012.  Against who--the fucking Green Party?  Kudos to the AP writer who wrote this piece and presumably somehow managed to keep a straight face.  I mean, this is the We're from Fucking Pluto wing of the republican party.

The second is a little more troubling.  The Mackinac Center for Public Policy--a smaller scale version of the anti-worker Chamber of Commerce--is filing FOIA requests for e-mails from labor department studies at various Michigan universities that use the words "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison," or "Maddow" (Rachel? what the mother fucking fuck?) and claiming there's nothing remarkable about their requests.  Horseshit.  While they are perfectly within their rights to do so, anyone who believes their claim that this is about worrying over public universities using public funds for political purposes is either really stupid, a republican, or more likely, both.  The Mackinac Center is to Michigan workers what a lit match was to the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.  They don't give a rat's ass about the good people of Michigan and whatever they can do to keep us getting paid less and CEO's and corporations getting paid more, they'll do.  The Mackinac Center specializes in fellating at the altar of corporations and the wealthy.

Peace,
emaycee

Words

There was an interesting exchange on "The Rachel Maddow Show" (sorry, I still haven't figured out the whole link thing yet): J. D. Hayworth (who I'll grudingly give credit to for appearing on a decidedly liberal show)**Aside: I can't be the only one who's noticed how few Republicans show up on Maddow (granted, I'm guessing Olbermann is like me and couldn't give a shit what they think and thus they never appear on his show) yet how many--even hardcore liberals--Dems show up on on Faux News--we've actually got cojones, for fuck's sake!**who is running a far right challenge to John McCain (like we give a shit: two mother fuckers who'll have their noses far up the asses of corporate elite and fuck over the rest of us) was debating with Ms. Maddow over what the court ruling that allowed gay marriage in Massachusetts said. Mr. Hayworth claimed the ruling said marriage was defined as a state of intimacy. Ms. Maddow said he was mistaken. Mr. Hayworth then said, they'd "just have to disagree." Um, no--either that wording is in the ruling or it is not (it isn't). Mr. Hayworth's contention, when I was but a wee lad, would be called "lying." Now it's called a "disagreement."

Words.

I also saw a snippet of Rush Limbaugh in which he called those of us with a liberal bent, "...the Democrat Party." No, you fucking idiot, it's the Democratic party. We are smart enough to use proper English--therefore, we do not call you the Republic party. At one time, this would have been called "misleading people." Now he's "playing to his audience."

Words.

The company I work for is instituting a new policy which is not going to make many of our employees very happy. As we pass along this policy**Aside--note how the peons have to communicate this new policy: the kings sit in their castles and issue their edicts. Note to executives: they're still going to blame the corporate office.**we have been told that we have to understand it's "...the wants of the employees versus the needs of the company." Get it? The greedy, overly pampered employees "wants" versus the poor, pitiful, put upon company's "needs." Once upon a time, this would have been called "bullshit." Now it's "being a team player."

Words.

Peace,
emaycee