Monday, March 3, 2025. Are you a political YOUTUBEr on the left -- if so, do you know what you're doing? Really? And we look at Friday's Oval Office disaster and much more.
Let's start by being smart. If-if-if we only had more platforms!
We don't deserve more platforms if we can't get it right on what we already have.
To pick on THE HUMANIST REPORT for a moment, there are videos Mike did that never got up here even when I agreed with him. Even when I applauded him on something he said forty seconds to two minutes in.
Why?
He was addressing an important topic (not some garbage like 'Jon Stewart needs to be our next nominee for president!') such as a Moms For Bigotry attack on LGBTQ+ rights. But he opened his video with the attack. There was no Mike speaking to the camera saying, "What you are about to see is a disgusting attack on . . ."
It was just open the video with a clip giving the fright wing the mike and letting them spew whatever.
Need an example?
Brian Tyler Cohen, this is not smart.
Brian, are you trying to build support for Joe Rogan? Is that the point? For Elon? For killing Social Security?
"This is Elon Musk finally admitting what we knew all along," declares Brian . . .
One minute and twenty-five seconds into his video, Brian declares, "This is Elon Musk finally admitting what we knew all along."
Is it?
Then why didn't you say that at the top of the video?
Instead, you gave him one minute and 24 seconds to lie before you said a word.
Do you not get that?
Brian, do you really think that you are so important that all people hang on your every word?
Look at your own analyticals.
Keith Edwards, I'm sure, knows that in the first minutes after he goes over what he's going to address, before he makes the plug for his sponsor, is when most people who stream watch. That's no doubt why, he starts his videos that way.
At the one minute points, most viewers of that video above have already tuned out.
Alien Musk is making a bulls**t argument that was more effectively spouted -- and dressed up with pop culture references -- in Neil Howe and William Strauss' 13TH GEN: ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, FAIL? which was published in 1993. Amidst the movie quotes and song and TV references, you'd find the authors stoking generational resentments as they advocated for the dismantling of Social Security and other programs.
What Brian did was take the most watched section of his video -- a nine minute video -- and allow Alien Musk to have free reign and spout nothing but nonsense.
Does he not grasp that Alien's nonsense has been peddled for decades?
Does he not realize that people are going to turn off his video?
Is it all just a commercial for Alien Musk and/or Joe Rogan?
It was Krystal Ball, after all, and her cohorts who went on Joe Rogan and praised Joe Rogan and told the left he was our friend. They did the same, please, remember, with Mother Tucker Carlson.
I think the 'left' has done enough damage to the left.
"Instead of telling us what people do wrong, how about telling us what we can do instead?"
That's an e-mail to the public e-mail account.
I talk all the time about how we can do better and ways in which we can do better. You may not like what I say but I do that all the time. Last night's "Rubio's political future goes up in smoke as Socialists on the Russian payroll attack Democrats" is about how the DSA f**ked the Democratic Party and the country over with their plan to deny Kamala Harris the presidency.
But if you need something a little more specific, that's one thing you can do. Stop starting your YOUTUBE videos with fright-wing talking points.
In fact, unless your plan is to refute every talking point, why are you even airing right wing talking points?
Alien Musk went on Joe Rogan to attack Social Security?
You don't need to play him. No one is going to be surprised and those who need to find it to believe it know how to use YOUTUBE already.
You presented lies -- via Elon's remarks -- that generations have been raised with.
And you really didn't refute them. You did a big picture refuting but you didn't go through each lie told.
So who got helped by your video?
Again, most people turned off by the first minute and found something else to watch.
What was the point of your video?
To reject Musk's lies? Then you should have said so before you started airing him. Instead you opened with a clip. And it's a clip of an attack that's now been made for decades. But you didn't note that. You just turned it over to Musk.
That's really shoddy work.
Let's note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
DOGE employees may be sharing classified government information using insecure communications channels.
“These incidents – whether due to maliciousness or incompetence – are inexcusable and raise additional questions about DOGE employees’ access to highly sensitive personal and national security information, and what they are doing with it.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Representative Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, along with every Democratic member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, including Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), wrote to Elon Musk, opening an investigation into DOGE.gov following two recent incidents of alarming security failures and reports that DOGE employees shared sensitive government information using insecure communications channels.
“These incidents – whether due to maliciousness or incompetence – are inexcusable and raise additional questions about DOGE employees’ access to highly sensitive personal and national security information, and what they are doing with it,” wrote the lawmakers.
DOGE has seized access to highly confidential government and personal information, including tax, Medicare, Social Security, and national security data, which has already led to multiple lawsuits. In just a matter of three weeks, DOGE employees have fed sensitive data into artificial intelligence software, ordered an unauthorized email server to be connected to the government network, and have accidentally been given “write” access to the U.S. Treasury payment system.
“DOGE employees do not appear to fully understand much of the information to which they have been given unfettered access, and given the cavalier and incompetent ways that they have handled this data, these individuals represent a clear threat to national security and the nation’s economy,” continued the lawmakers.
In fact, after the DOGE.gov website launched, two security researchers confirmed that the website was not hosted on secure government servers, making it especially vulnerable to third-party hackers. In particular, details on the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which designs and builds U.S. intelligence satellites, were searchable within the database, as well as controlled information about the NRO’s budget and head count. This incident left federal intelligence employees “scrambling” to see if their sensitive information had been accessed.
“These examples of DOGE’s recklessness and inability to accomplish simple tasks – such as establishing a secure database and website housing such critical and confidential government data – combined with its broad access to government data and systems, poses a grave threat to the United States’ economy and national security,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers are requesting answers from Mr. Musk by March 6, 2025.
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That's an issue people need to be hammering on. It has outraged the public and that's before you even get into Musk's outing American undercover agents. This is not minor. They have access that they shouldn't have and they demonstrate repeatedly that they can't keep the information secure.
Friday?
I had planned to cover other things this morning besides the next topic, however, Mike and Stan both argued it's too important so I'll try to adapt some of Saturday night's post here into the following.
Friday was The Day of Stupidity in the Oval Office.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump raged like a madman. Eyeliner wearing JD Vance tried to act tough and macho but just looked like he had a seven month food baby in his fat belly. A Russian outlet was given access to the Oval Office while REUTERS and AP were denied access. Then the White House tried to lie and say that the journalist from Russia just somehow managed to show up there -- is there no security in the White House? Did DOGE get rid of that as well?
Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on the meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office:
“Today in the Oval Office, in front of the entire world, Donald Trump and JD Vance chose to berate an American ally and side with a brutal dictator—willfully ignoring the plain fact that it was Putin who launched a deadly and unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation and started this awful war. Putin is the dictator with blood on his hands—and it is appalling, dangerous, and an affront to American values to pretend otherwise. Russian state media is already celebrating Trump’s disgraceful conduct in this meeting—this should be a wake-up call to everyone, and especially Republicans who have gone along with Trump’s acquiescence to Putin for far too long, to separate right from wrong, and truth from fiction.
“As I have said time and again, standing up for a strong and sovereign Ukraine in face of Putin’s aggression is not only the right thing to do, but it is squarely in America’s interest. As a U.S. Senator, I will continue to stand with Ukraine as they chart a path forward to protect their democracy and statehood.”
###
Most of all, Friday's event at the Oval Office demonstrated how hard up Marjorie Taylor Greene truly was. Her 'steady' showed up to ask a question: Why won't Zelensky wear a suit?
We've complained about that here in the past, by the way. We wouldn't complain about it now. Not only has John Fetterman's ridiculous Senate garb rendered that point moot, it's equally true that Alien Musk did a press briefing in the Oval Office in an outfit that he appeared to hae borroed from Marlo Thomas' THAT GIRL wardrobe.
So this was the big meet up where the peace plan got shredded -- as planned ahead of time by Chump.
And Marjoie's beau gets a question and he . . . makes it about wardrobe.
Hey, kids, MTG is dating a reporter for WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY!
Can't wait to see him dishing it with the other queens on FASHION POLICE!
This is what she left her husband for? This is what she left the father of her children for?
Video of the event just made clear how unhinged Donald Chump is. The video apparently ends before the nurse sedated the cranky old man and rolled him back to his room. It was appalling and it showed the whole world what a threat Chump is to it. It spat on allies and encouraged everyone to forsake the US for four years. If we're lucky, the country might be able to rebuild bridges with another president. Won't be JD Vance. Miss Sassy gets fatter every day as he eats his failure. And it won't be Marco Rubio. Could have been though. He's in a useless position that takes him nowhere. He's a nothing. A puppet in a corrupt administration.
The one time senator from Florida and the former presidential candidate was shocking on Friday. First, the appearance. He's long been accused of being too 'pretty' for the job of president. He looked flabby and that was his belly and his face. On his face, is it really that bad or were they just not bothering to light him? Second, the stupidity. When ambition outpaces brains, it's just sad and tragic. Marco has the ambition, he just lacks the brains.
This was how you position yourself for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination: You decry what took place and you offer to help try to salvage your relationship or they can take your resignation.
And you're set. It's not going to JD Vance whose everyone's ugly drunken uncle stuck in a nowhere job. But a dramatic moment here -- on an issue so many care about -- could've elevated Marco and made it appear he has actual leadership traits.
Instead, yesterday's cowardly poster boy looks like a bigger loser than ever . Lucy Leeson (INDEPENDENT) reports:
In an interview with CNN, Mr Rubio suggested Mr Zelensky’s behaviour leading up to the clash had been unacceptable.
The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.
Hey, Marco, what's Donald's ass taste like?
That's really the only question Rubio can answer anymore. He's nothing in the political world. He better be hoping he can line up a big lobbyist job because his career in government ends when Trump's term does -- if not sooner knowing Trump's inability to keep staff.
There are a lot of Republican unhappy with Chump right now. The first member of the administration to break with Chump could set themselves up for a real run at the White House in 2028.
Trump's dead in the water. The polling shows it. He's going nowhere. At some point, he's not even going to be able to threaten Republican members of Congress. They'll blow him off and find their spines as they (a) grow tired of the bully and (b) grasp that Alien Musk can't buy elections no matter how much he funds their opponents. All you have to do is point that out in your campaign: I represent America and my opponent in the primary will represent South African-born Alien Musk.
The press doesn't help Republicans by not knowing -- or noting -- what's going on.
“The enemy is on the inside,” former Republican Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman told Raw Story. “There’s so much fear, but we need to overcome that fear now, and the rational, the sane — those who care more about this country than securing mineral rights for their oligarch friends — might be the way we need to go now. This is America. This isn't Russia lite.”
But with Trump’s aides booting Ukranians from the White House grounds after Vance and Trump piled on Zelensky, critics fear the president is being played by propaganda
With tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk working inside the White House, disinformation is now regularly flowing from the Oval Office, Riggleman said.
“What's happened is that we have such a disinformation and propaganda landscape based on social media and far-right alternative media that there's no way for us to understand how integrated lies are into our policy making,” he said.
What’s so dizzying to Riggleman — an Air Force veteran who went on to be a National Security Agency contractor — is that Ukraine, formally at least, remains an ally, whileRussia is, formally, a foe.
After
today’s White House meeting blew up, Riggleman says it’s obvious Trump
and Vance are going out of their way to appease the Russian strongman.
“They're specifically trying to make Putin happy. It's interesting that the most powerful country in the world is bending the knee to a bare-chested b— horse rider,” Riggleman said. “This is absolutely unconscionable, and, because of his insanity, he should be removed on the 25th Amendment.”
Yes, Chump did come off insane, unhinged. And that reality is now in everyone's mind -- even the press, even the right-wing. An insane man revealed himself on the world stage And it's going to be tht much harder for people to trust his judgment as a result.
The best favor he can do the country is to continue showing those moments and making it clear how unfit he is for office.
And the fallout has been intense. Charles Switzer (WONDERWALL) notes:
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran and vocal Donald Trump critic, expressed deep disappointment in how the U.S. is handling Russia's war in Ukraine. Following the chaotic Oval Office meeting where Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kinzinger declared that the U.S. is no longer on the side of the "good guys." He criticized Trump's continued praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned that America's credibility on the global stage is at risk.Here are four key points from the veteran's critique of Trump and Vance.
He flipped it and for no reason. Which feeds into everything else he's doing -- in the eyes of the public it feeds into everything else.
He doesn't know what he's doing. The time for benefit of the doubt for the middle and the right has ended. He's provided them with the ending and from this moment forward everything he proposes or does is suspect.
Anna Carlson (IRISH STAR) reports:
Vice President JD Vance's ski holiday in Vermont with his family was disrupted by a swarm of protestors following the tense face-off between the United States and Ukraine in the Oval Office.
The protests follow the calamitous meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which spiraled into a fiery confrontation spearheaded by Vance. The meeting began amicably until Vance verbally attacked Zelensky, completely catching him off guard.
[. . .]
The crowd shouted furious insults at the second-in-command. People held signs with harsh words against Vance, such as "Nazi scum" and "go skiing in Russia."
Between this and the town halls, the honeymoon truly is over. Hope JD got to wear his black lace nightie for Chump before the honeymoon ended.
President Donald Trump's effort to remove the head of a federal watchdog agency was "unlawful," a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said Saturday.
The ruling sidelines Trump’s bid to remove Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel and is likely to set up a Supreme Court fight.
“The Special Counsel’s job is to look into and expose unethical or unlawful practices directed at federal civil servants, and to help ensure that whistleblowers who disclose fraud, waste, and abuse on the part of government agencies can do so without suffering reprisals,” Jackson wrote in her Saturday ruling. “It would be ironic, to say the least, and inimical to the ends furthered by the statute if the Special Counsel himself could be chilled in his work by fear of arbitrary or partisan removal.”
Trump fired Dellinger by email last month as his administration carried out widespread cuts to the federal workforce, including the terminations of nearly two dozen other government watchdogs.
Dellinger challenged the termination days later, arguing it violated federal law stating special counsels can only be removed by the president "for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."
Let's hope the courts hold.
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