MEDIA: Taylor Lorenz doesn't do analytics or journalism (at least not in any meaningful manner)

There's a moment in episode seven of PEACOCK's LONG BRIGHT RIVER where the whole mood seems about to shift as the mini-series appears to be on the verge of toppling over into absurdity and parody.  We thought about that today as two YOUTUBERS came close to doing the same with one actually toppling over the cliff.

  

 

Taylor Lorenz and Keith Edwards are the two YOUTUBERS and while we have hope for one, we are washing our hands of the other.

We were unfamiliar with Taylor's work until, following her dismissal from THE WASHINGTON POST (no, it was not a mutual decision, nor was it Taylor's decision), she ended up doing a YOUTUBE program.  We'd never read her work -- not her writing at THE DAILY MAIL, THE DAILY BEAST, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE POST, etc etc.  

By the time she got to YOUTUBE, we knew her name but not really any of her writing or anything at all other than she was a 'tech' writer.  The only thing other than her name that we knew about Taylor was that she had been the target of gendered attacks.  Out of a sense of solidarity as a result of those attacks, we made a point to catch her YOUTUBE show and post videos of it at THE COMMON ILLS.  

We enjoyed the videos.  She was a good host and conversationalist.  Watching her discuss an issue with a  guest didn't feel like time wasted.  And maybe that's what she can move over to?  Doing interviews?  Because that's apparently all she has any skill for.

Today, she posted a very lousy YOUTUBE video.  How lousy?  We're scrapping the piece we wrote Sunday (it'll run in Friday's the gina & krista round-robin) about the media's attempt to create and sell a martyr so we can instead focus on Taylor and Keith.  And writing a new piece meant more time and more work especially since we knew Taylor was hiding something -- much more than being fired from THE POST -- which meant we had to work the phones.

But don't worry, Taylor, we're not writing a biography about you so most of your secrets will remain safe (including your true age)

There are certain words and phrases that always stick out when you pay attention.  In the video she posted today -- nearly 25 minutes of garbage entitled "The Rise and Fall of 'The Resistance'" -- Taylor made clear that she possessed no analytical skills and also strongly demonstrated why she's usually out of a job within two years.

To be clear, we were never part of The Resistance or 'The Resistance.'

We called out Donald Chump.  We didn't like Donald Chump.  We actually knew the Convicted Felon before he was president and didn't like him then.  It's why, when we wrote about THE APPRENTICE here, we didn't lie and pretend he was a great business person. Or even a good one.

We felt the never-ending 'reporting' of his Tweets was pointless and counter-productive. 

So to read the title, we thought, "This is going to be informative!"

And it was.  In all the wrong ways.

Taylor has no analytical skills but she does have a ton of generational grievances. 

We were told, repeatedly, in calls today that she's very proud of her targeting of baby boomers.  If there was ever a reason to note Tayor's age, this would actually be it.  But we'll be kind and just note that she also hates on Gen X.  

She actually hates on a lot of people.  

'The Resistance,' she uses air quotes, she wants you to know, were all grifters and they were never left-wing and that's why they've gone on over to the right where the money is now.

She has some examples.  BrooklynDad_Defiant, she explains, felt the judicial system was biased against fathers due to his own personal experience.  That's all it takes for her to insist he was a right-winger who changed to pretend he was something else.  

We're not Taylor Lorenz.  Meaning?  We're not ridiculous enough to be a gossip columnist whose beat is social media and confuses that with reality.  

Though not social media addicts, we were aware of Brooklyn Dad.  Call it coincidence, luck or some high power steering us to him with the belief we'd need to know this at some point in the future, he did not wait until after the election of 2016 to post about left issues.  

Why is she lying?  Or is Taylor just stupid?

And why is some father feeling, based on what he went through,, that the court system is biased towards mothers a sign of right-wingery?

We have no idea what he wrote that Taylor found so objectionable -- she had nearly 25 minutes and never offered one example -- but, reality, the courts are biased towards mothers and against fathers when it comes to child custody. 

That's because courts are biased towards norms, mores and, yes, stereotypes.  

The one pro-bias women have legally had has been that a mother is seen as a more important parent than a father and, no (Keith), we're not going to worry about prettying that up.  We're feminists, we've got a body of work behind us which predates Taylor's high school graduation.  We're not going to worry about saying something we believe -- especially not when we can back it up.

Taylor can't back up much of anything.

Time and again, we marveled at Taylor's ignorance.

For example?

Brooklyn Dad has written picture books about Donald Chump.  She can't offer her take on them but she does read a review from "Joe" on AMAZON.  We're familiar with review bombing (is she not?) so we immediately did due diligence and "Joe" didn't even buy the book ("verified purchase" would be by his  review if he had).  Joe's done nine reviews.  Only two are one-star reviews.  He hated Brooklyn Dad's book about Chump and, surprise, surprise?, he also hated John Lithgow's book about Chump.  The seven other reviews?  All verified purchases.

Who trained Taylor in what she thinks passes as journalism?

Let's stay with Joe one more minute to really show you how Taylor doesn't understand research.

She quoted a review attacking Brooklyn Dad's book.  A review by nobody "Joe" who is not a top AMAZON reviewer and has only done nine reviews and who is not even someone who bought Brooklyn Dad's book.  If she'd read Joe's review of John Lithgow's book she would have seen that Joe hates "woke" and if she'd read this review, she would have known he was a Trumper.  Do not let the title of the book fool you, it is not pro-Democrats -- it's by a DAILY WIRE writer and it's the kind of garbage the thankfully deceased Rush Limbaugh would've written (the DAILY WIRE writer guest hosted on Rush's program before Satan called Rush home).  It is a book that Donald promoted and so did Ben Shapiro. Click here and scroll down but, knowing that's too much work for Taylor to do, let's just copy and paste below:

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great book for your reading enjoyment." -- Tweet from President Donald Trump

"Thorough." -- Ben Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Bullies

“Michael Knowles perfectly documents what's inside the minds of Democrats. A real page-turner!” -- Michelle Malkin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sold Out

“I read it twice!” -- Dennis Prager, New York Times bestselling author of The Ten Commandments

“Brilliantly argued! You will not find a more enlightened defense of liberalism. Ever.” -- Jason Mattera, New York Times bestselling author of Obama Zombies

“Insightful, yet remarkably easy reading!” -- Guy Benson, bestselling author of End of Discussion

"The most efficient way to learn about the issues that Democrats really care about. This is a must read." -- Katie Pavlich, New York Times bestselling author of Assault and Flattery

"The reasons to vote for Democrats can be subtle and complex, but Knowles boils them down to their essence." -- Andrew Klavan, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Good Thing

Watching the segment and watching her co-sign on Joe's review of BrooklynDad, you have to ask if she's not the grifter and if she's not existing to help the right-wing?

It's over for boomers and Gen X, she wants you to know.  And Millennials are limping off to old age as well.

They don't understand things like RUMBLE!

That's their big problem, she insists smugly -- the kind of smugness that derives from knowing nothing.

At this point in time, social media is still just a form of communication.  That's all.

She may need to lie to justify her pathetic work.  Maybe she has to pretend it's so much more to avoid dealing with how empty and shallow her own life and interest are?

Instead of grasping that she's no investigative reporter -- just a gossip columnist folded into the travel and leisure section of a daily paper -- she wants you to know in this latest video that Democrats are over and they're evil.  They did this and they did that.  And only the out of touch -- unconnected people with actual lives -- fail to see this.  

And never will see it because they're aging out of 'the cool kids' generation.

The only one worried about aging out is the Taylor Lorenz who lies about her age.  

The rest of us, we're pretty much okay with aging especially, as they say, considering the alternative. 

But Taylor has no actual life which is why so much of her 'analysis' is devoted to Lindy Li.

Lindy Who?

She's a relative nobody who never had any real influence and whose name we didn't even know until after the 2024 election.  But to Taylor, she's one of our most prominent Americans.

Time and again, Taylor makes a point to shower publicly in her own stupidity.

Sorry to break it to her, but the "famous" boy yodeling at Wal-Mart?  Until today, we'd never heard of him.  Your goal posts are not ours.  You have wrongly decided your freakish fancies are mainstream and you ignorantly refuse to grasp that voters are not to be written off or mocked because they don't keep up with this year's MySpace.  

She's a sad, troubled and deeply stupid person.

Keith?

Keith Edwards is just troubled. 

We didn't realize how much until we were going to post videos at THE COMMON ILLS.  We realized that YOUTUBE was recommending a lot of garbage.  Again.  Not sure how that works but more garbage.  And while we were going through and doing "Do Not Recommend Channel Again," we realized that Keith wasn't showing on our YOUTUBE page.  Had he not done anything in the last 48 hours? No.  We went to his channel and he had new videos.  We were going to leave a note about this on his BLUESKY feed so we hopped over there only to discover he'd written a piece "How the Big Tent Became a Gated Community: Making people feel heard is more powerful than making them feel wrong."

Keith worries that were too quick to call out bad behavior.

Keith, take a breath and think on that.  When is it ever wrong to call out bad behavior?

Second, don't cite the CATO Institute  if you want Democrats to take you seriously.  

Third, what were you trying to say here:

Recently I watched the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, and it struck me how cool it was to be a Democrat. Madonna, Dr. Dre, TLC all embodied progressive causes. By contrast, Republicans – personified by the square, ancient (72 used to be old for a politician) Bob Dole – were the butt of every other joke. Today, it’s decidedly less cool to be a Democrat: Kamala Harris of course barely beat Donald Trump among 18-to-29-year-olds, and some of the most popular podcasts and Twitch streamers among young men are conservative.

WTliteralF do you think you wrote there?  

We have no idea how to disect that?  Should we go with an awards show isn't reality?  Should we go with all of Dr. Dre's legal issues and his terrorizing women?   

You feel like you can't express yourself.  Oh, life is so hard for you.  You are, right, the first person ever having to watch their words, right?  No one could ever know how you feel, right?  Certainly not Blacks in the south under Jim Crow.  No, it's just you, just now, for the first time ever.

It was so wrong, you write, when you got push back:

Amid the recent shakeup at MSNBC, I contested the idea that the personnel changes were due to the hosts’ races. To be clear, I knew exactly what I was getting into: I’ve been doing social media for a long time, and I have a good idea when something will go viral, and a good idea when something will touch off a war in the comments. So when I pointed out that several minority hosts were in effect receiving promotions amid Joy Reid's firing, I was not surprised to receive many responses like the following (emphasis added):

The responses told him he didn't know what he was talking about.  And they were right.

"Several minority hosts were in effect receiving promotions"? 

One of the women  'promoted' is Symone Sanders-Townsend.  She may appear Black to you; however, you are not the Black community.

She doesn't read Black.  Not to the Black community.  Joy did.  Now Symone reads Black to a White progressive like you because she's got dark skin and she is  DSA and so much more.  Her speech, her points of reference, all speak to the fact that she grew up in one of the least diverse cities in the country -- the White dominated Omaha, Nebraska. She went to a Catholic school and a more-than-majority White university.  She's also a liar who just announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an "independent."  She was DSA -- that's a Socialist organization.  It is not the Democratic Party.

The second female host?  Alicia Menendez.  Ann's dubbed her father Shady Menendez.  You now Bob The Indicted  Bob The Crook?  She's not Black.  (Cuban on her crooked dad's side, Anglo White on Mom's side). 

And then you have the third host, Michael Steele.  A Republican Black male is not representative of the average Black man although Republican Black males have traditionally been over represented by the media when it comes to guesting and hosting chat and chews.

So you had an authentic Black woman who read Black.  And now you've replaced her with three people -- two of whom have dark skin but neither of whom reads Black.  

And there's another point to this.

Most people don't realize how ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY was birthed.  TV GUIDE had been a dull little publication for years and years.  Then they got a little spunk and started writing truthful pieces.  Like the one where JOANIE LOVES CHACHI star Erin Moran learns she's not the star of the show but cries -- tears, cries actual tears -- as she insists she's more the star of this show than she was of HAPPY DAYS.  Too many truthful pieces like that led to firings and a whole group of writers free to start ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

Do you get the point, Keith?

It's a point Don Lemon got when he was demoted on CNN.  He lost his own show and was moved to mornings where he had to co-host with two others.

No, Keith, Joy hosting her own show is not the same as a three hosts hosting one show.

Keith writes:

I believe we learned the wrong lessons from the Obama years. Between 2008 and 2016, we elected a Black president, we as a country began to recognize the pernicious role of institutional racism, and gay people earned the right to get married. It became easy to believe the good guys had won the culture war, and now it was simply a matter of enforcing the new norms.

We didn't learn the wrong lesson but you clearly did as evidenced by your insisting that "gay people earned the right to get married."  Earned?  

Oh, well you're just so much more worthy than Jack Baker an Michael McConnell, right?  Those shifty and lazy men who applied for a marriage license in 1971. If only they'd taken the time to earn it, right?

We are feminists.  We are fully aware that women won the right to vote.  Won.  

Earned?  

Maybe your fear over the response people might have to what you say stems from your inability to use the appropriate words?

LONG BRIGHT RIVER is set in Philadelphia and stars Amanda Seyfried as a police officer Mickey Fitzpatrick who is struck by the deaths of several women and seeing that they're connected.  She is helped along the way by Nicholas Pinnock's Truman Dawes. SPOILER, as the series gets close to winding down, we're suddenly told that Truman's the killer.  He's fortunately not.  Had he been, the show would have truly jumped the shark and make us fear for the future of twist-and-turn TV thrillers.  At this point, they're still somewhat grounded in reality.  At this point.  And LONG BRIGHT RIVER is a series worth streaming.

As for YOUTUBE?

Keith isn't as bad as Taylor Lorenz -- though both could stand to do more research.  But what makes Taylor worse -- and now worth ignoring -- is her lack of common sense and her sheer stupidity.  In today's video, she wanted you to know that White women were grifters as well, fake members of 'The Resistance.'  She shows them marching on DC after Trump's 2017 inauguration.  And then they, per Taylor, got over it.  While a huge number of White women did vote for Donald Chump, the reality is that those who elected to go to DC in January 2017 to demonstrate against Chump did not, in 2024, get on board with him -- not in any serious or large number and you'd have to be an idiot to make that claim.

 

Truest statement of the week

Minority students — and especially low-income minority students — already face barriers to higher education. Explicitly enforcing those barriers to equal opportunity is an unforgivable step backwards.

This was never about combatting discrimination. The administration is intentionally removing pathways for marginalized students to attend school and do research — preying on minority students and targeting the programs that make our most vulnerable classmates feel at home at Harvard.

In the uncertainty following the initial Dear Colleague letter, students and clubs faced murky waters seemingly governed by vague, fickle orders from the White House. Such confusion does indisputable harm to education and student life — in a forest of threats and ultimatums, progressives tread carefully, which is exactly what our aggressors want.

-- "The Ed Department Is Coming For Diversity," HARVARD CRIMSON editorial board. 

A note to our readers

 Hey --

Monday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen, 

Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

 

And what did we come up with?

• Truest statement of the week

We didn't get much done this weekend and were going to just do Ava and C.I.s media piece this week.  But, as we scrambled, we thought of somethings to include.  Ava and C.I. were the ones who picked this.

• Media: Some returns work better than others

Ava and C.I. cover a sitcom (HAPPY'S PLACE) and a train wreck (Donald Chump).

• Books (Isaiah, Ava and C.I.)

Isaiah discusses a book he reviewed with Ava and C.I.

• Book List

Books reviewed so far this year at community sites.

• You can learn a lot on BLUESKY

Repost of Marcia's post.

• 2025 passings

Some of this year's deaths we felt needed noting. 

• Last week's Senate moment you should have caught

Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

• Elections have consequences

It's amazing how they raged against Kamala Harris supporters and told them to go to hell but now the freaks expect Harris voters to help them.  

• Where's the accountability?

Know the enemy and hold the enemy accountable. 

• BLUESKY chuckle

Ha ha.

• Video of the week

MTN.

• BLUESKY reality

We actually did not intend to note this twice.  But it's good enough that we'll consider our mistake the universe telling us to note it more than once.

• This edition's playlist

This is what we listened to while writing tis edition.

Peace.

 

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Media: Some returns work better than others

HAPPY'S PLACE?  

Is there such a thing in the US these days?

On TV, there is.  NBC on Fridays has been where to find it, Reba McEntire's third attempt at a sitcom. First up was REBA which lasted six seasons and 127 episodes and still plays daily on CMT and other channels.  Next came MALIBU BEACH which only lasted one season and 18 episodes.  Now HAPPY'S PLACE and, with a second season renewal, it's already doing better than her second sitcom.

Reba and her character Bobbie were strong and steady from the start of this series but other elements took a bit and, around episode three, the show found its stride.  Teaming up Reba and Melissa Peterman again was a smart move.  Peterman played Barbara Jean on REBA and was a source of angst and tension on that show.  They've got a Christine and Barb chemistry (THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE) and that's not easy to create.  Joining them is Belissa Escobedo as Bobbie's half-sister Isabella, Reba's real life husband Rex Linn (the two previously worked together on the TV series BIG SKY), Pablo Castelblanco as accountant Steve and Tokala Black Elk as Takoda who works at the bar.

The bar was left to Bobbie and Isabella by their late father and it's HAPPY'S PLACE.

Maybe, in The Age of Chump, the only place Americans can find happiness -- or some approximation -- is at a bar?

Makes sense to us. 

In fact, we find that easier to grasp than the recently found ruins Mahendraparvata -- the capital of The Khmer Empire (802 to 1431).  

Mainly because putting up with Convicted Felon Donald Chump's attacks on our country and our way of life requires that you hit the hard stuff.  A lot.

For some that may be booze, for others it might be sweets.  Everyone's got their own thing and we're all in need of a fix.

It's really the only way to stomach all the lies.  

Such as?  How about JD Vance, Second Lady in Waiting, claiming he was chased over the weekend.  Chased?  Chased involves running.  Have people not seen Vance's ass?  He can't run with that thing.  And he didn't. Nor did have to.  As Vice President, he has a Secret Service detail with him where ever he goes.  But if Miss Sassy couldn't milk the drama with his own two hands, he'd have to use a breast pump.

Even more out of touch are the Republicans in Congress who were given the advice -- and so far have wrongly taken it -- to stop doing townhalls and encounters with their constituents.  

Their constituents are their bosses.  It's not smart to avoid them.  Avoidance makes it clear that you don't respect them, makes it clear that you aren't connected to them and most likely will make it clear to them that they shouldn't vote for you.

Infected with a toxic case of MAGA, the members of Congress believe this to be good advice.

Adam Gabbatt (GUARDIAN) reports:

After Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas, was hounded out of his own town hall event last week, Republican party leaders had had enough. Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, and Richard Hudson, the chair of the GOP’s fundraising body, decided the embarrassment had to end, and they told Republicans to stop holding the public events.

But while that might save some Republican politicians from public humiliation, it could also deprive Americans of opportunities to interact with their elected officials, experts said, and prevent people from letting their representatives they are not happy with the increasingly divisive direction of the Trump administration.

“It’s certainly a unique view of representation that representatives should hear only from constituents who agree with them,” said Marjorie Hershey, professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University Bloomington.

“But it’s entirely in keeping with the recent direction of the Republican party: to become more and more extreme because they listen only to their far-right base.”

Johnson and Hudson’s edict came after several Republican town halls were interrupted in recent weeks. Scott Fitzgerald, a four-year congressman, faced an angry crowd at an event in West Bend, Wisconsin, in late February. Fitzgerald was repeatedly booed as he defended the role of Elon Musk, in particular.

Apparently misjudging his audience, Fitzgerald said Musk is “getting rid of the DEI”, to loud jeers, before receiving a similar reaction when he praised “the fraud and abuse that has been discovered” by the department of government efficiency.

A video from TMJ4 showed attendees carrying signs including “Presidents are not kings” and “No cuts to Medicaid”. Glenn Grothman, also from Wisconsin, received similar treatment at a town hall a couple of days later, being loudly booed as he claimed that “across the board [Trump] has done some very good things”, including birthright citizenship and – using the same phrasing as Fitzgerald – “getting rid of the DEI”.

Now maybe we overindulged -- or maybe having not been infected with MAGA, we're not suffering from swamp fever -- but we're having a really difficult time seeing how a member of Congress avoiding their constituents does anything but piss them off.  However, those suffering from the scourge of the West, insist that it won't and believe that avoiding the voters and the issues they raise will pacify the voters and make them forget.

Amnesia is the Donald Chump strategy when it comes to voters.  And he's convinced that, if everyone will stop talking about the high costs of eggs, people will stop noticing the huge increase in the cost of eggs and other groceries.  JD Wolf (MTN) explains:

As Americans continue to grapple with soaring grocery prices, Trump shared an article that downplays concerns over the rising cost of eggs. In a Truth Social post, Trump reposted an opinion piece by right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, titled "Shut Up About Egg Prices — Trump Is Saving Consumers," which dismisses the outrage over the price hikes.

The article acknowledges that “a dozen currently costs around $7, up from just $2 in October,” but argues that inflation under Trump is not as bad as critics claim. Telling voters to shut up about high prices in the Trump economy may not be a winning strategy. 

Charlie Kirk, noted racist and evil doer, thinks ignoring inflation is "a winning strategy"?  That tracks. Mainly because Charlie Kirk is just stupid enough to believe that.  The brain's been warped by MAGA and he no longer remembers that his first act of activism was in high school when they went up on the price of a cookie and the hissy fit he threw.  If he only had a brain, he'd remember how angry that increased cost made him and grasped that trying to bottle that anger is not going to work -- not for him or his pin up and man crush Donald Chump.

It wouldn't for Charlie in high school and it's not going to work for Chump.  Prices do not just remain high, they've gotten higher and they are continuing to climb.  Not talking about inflation will not erase it from our minds.  Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) makes an important point:

However, Trump campaigned heavily on not just cutting prices, but doing so on his very first day in office. 

“I will immediately bring prices down starting on Day 1,” he said on Aug. 15, for example. “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down,” he promised later that some month. 

He backed away from that last month. 

He promised it.

There's another point that needs to be made there.  

It's true that many politicians break promises.  It's also true that those running for president often make very big promises and then fail to deliver.  But while you might cut slack for a first time nominee, Chump occupied the office of president from January 2017 through January 2021.  Meaning?  He was no starry eyed first timer.  He knew from experience what was possible and what was not.  He also knew what he had to say -- which lie to tell -- in order to garner votes.

He lied knowingly and willingly.  He got back into the White House and he no longer cares about the needs of the people.  

HAPPY'S PLACE finds Reba back on TV and she's a crowd pleaser, yes,  but, more than that, she's also a better actress now and can offer more than personality.  Chump?  He never had personality to coast on to begin with.  And he's got nothing to offer -- nothing that any sane person wants at any rate.

Books (Isaiah, Ava and C.I.)

 

 

As we did in 2021 and 2023 and 2024, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. This go round, we're talking with  Isaiah about his review of  Chaz Gower's "STAN LEE LIED: YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERY LIE IN THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS.".  You recommend it?

Isaiah: I do.  I recommend it for a number of reasons.  First, it's a fascinating book.  Gower gets very detailed and involved and you'll love the amount of information he presents.  Second, Stan Lee has stolen credit over and over from others so I recommend it because it sets the historical record straight.

And that's important.

Isaiah: It's very important.  The truth does matter.  That's what so many of us respond to in your writing.  And look at the impact -- "California Dreamin'" was the Mamas and the Papas biggest hits.  But it took you two pointing that out at THIRD for WIKIPEDIA and others to grasp it.

To be clear, for any late to the party, "Monday Monday" was a number one hit for one week.  "California Dreamin'" -- the group's first single -- peaked on different charts around the country at different times and never hit number one on the national weekly chart.  But it is the bigger hit because it made to number one on BILLBOARD's singles chart for 1966 -- the number one selling song of the entire year.  It sold two million more copies than "Monday Monday."  It is the band's biggest hit.  What was Stan Lee's biggest hit?

Isaiah: When MARVEL started reprinting older comics and he got to add his name to them as writer even though Jack Kirby wrote and drew his own comics.  People were credited in the original editions.  But when those 60s editions were reprinted a decade or more later?  Suddenly, they had Stan Lee's name on it.

Why?

Isaiah: Because he was a glory hog who had no glory and because he was related to the owner.  And putting his name -- falsely -- on these books meant he and MARVEL could retain the intellectual rights.  He's just a liar.  And it's interesting how lies get started and who they're used against.  The book reminded me of the stuff you two have written about THE WIZ and how it's been falsely attacked regarding money and regarding Diana Ross.

You can talk about that if you want, we're probably not going to very much because we've actually traced down another lie on that, the original lie that popularized it online.  And we plan to write about that soon.  But we will again note that the film was not a bomb.  And that the film was released beyond North America even if no one wants to ever note the overseas box office. But it is cute how IMDB is the basis for box office for CRAPAPEDIA and CRAPAPEDIA calls CONVOY, released the same year as THE WIZ, a hit and they call F.I.S.T. a hit when THE WIZ is 21 for 1978, right between CONVOY and F.I.S.T.  It's part of the attack on Black history and Black artists to downgrade THE WIZ and to attack Diana Ross.

Isaiah: Without Diana, there is no movie.  It would never have been made.  Can we talk about that?  I know it's not books but as a Black man I've gotten really sick of all the attacks and that was before you guys started writing about how these attacks were based on lies.  

Sure.  Rob Cohen, the producer,  knew that Diana as Dorothy meant two things -- the film got made and Diana would get a million dollars for her portrayal.  Diana was the first box office actress to be Black.  She twice made the list of the 20 box office stars.  And without her, the film wouldn't have been made.  It would have been another successful Broadway show with an all Black cast or even a majority Black cast that got optioned throughout the seventies but never got made.  Diana meant box office.  A film that brought in that amount -- and this is film rentals, not ticket sales -- is not a bomb. 

Isaiah:  It brought in basically four times the box office that Richard Pryor's BLUE COLLAR did the same year. But NETFLIX didn't mention that in the 'documentary' where they slammed Diana and accused her of ending Black movies.  And, to bring it back to the book, Chaz Gower's book does a real service, for the record, for truth, for Jack Kirby and others who've seen their credits watered down or outright stolen. 

------------------------------

Previous book discussions:

"Books (Jess, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Stan, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Trina, Ava and C.I.)"

"Books (Rebecca, Marcia, Ava and C.I.)"

Book List

 Book coverage continues in this community.  For earlier lists of books covered see 2021's  "Books," 2023's "Books" and 2024 "Book List"

Books reviewed in the community this year.

1) "bob hope should be a lesson" -- Rebecca reviews Richard Zoglin.  

2) "Shattered Love: A Memoir" -- Marcia reviews Richard Chamberlain's insipid autobiography. 

3) "Help! My Apartment Has A Dining Room Cookbook: How to Have People Over Without Stressing Out" -- Trina reviews a cookbook.

4)  "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism" -- Ava and C.I. take on Eoin Higgins bad book.

5) "Sly's awful books proves Questlove a liar" -- Stan reviews Sly Stone's memoir. 

6) "THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF HEIDI ABROMOWITZ (Jess)" -- Jess reviews a humor book by Joan Rivers.

7) "STAN LEE LIED: YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERY LIE IN THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS" -- Isaiah reviews a book documenting truths. 

You can learn a lot on BLUESKY

We're reposting Marica because (a) we should all be off Twitter and (b) BLUESKY is a platform we recommend.  Marcia's done a grab bag post tonight using just BLUESKY.

BlueSky grab bag

I'm just going to note some BlueSky posts tonight.

And I'm big STAR TREK fan so I've got to include this.

Here's C.I.'s "The snapshot:"

2025 passings

 

In 2025, we'll continue to note passings that we see as significant -- as we did previously "2024 passings" and  "2023 passings."

"David Lynch" -- Stan notes the passing of a director.

"Joan Plowright" -- Marcia notes the passing of an actress 

"Movies and Leslie Charleson" -- Stan notes the passing of daytime actress Leslie Charleson. 

"Roberta Flack" and "Roberta Flack was one of a kind amazing" -- Kat and Elaine reflect on the art of Roberta Flack. 

"Gene Hackman" -- Stan covers the passing of a two time Academy Award winner.

"Angie Stone" -- Betty covers the passing of the queen of neo soul.

Last week's Senate moment you should have caught

 

Video of Exchange (YouTube) 

Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned Dr. Michael Faulkender, President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, on Republicans’ “magic math” for their plans to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy. Republican leaders are increasingly supportive of using a “current policy baseline” for their tax package to hide the true cost of their proposed $4.6 trillion tax package.

Congress’ independent scorekeepers have historically scored legislation using a “current law baseline,” which assumes that temporary tax cuts will expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost money. A current policy baseline, on the other hand, assumes that temporary tax cuts will not expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost $0. When pressed by Senator Warren on whether this gimmick actually produces additional revenue, Dr. Faulkender admitted, "I can't imagine that it would.”

Last month, Senator Warren sent a letter to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which provides Members of Congress with revenue estimates for tax legislation. She pressed for answers on whether JCT has ever used a “current policy baseline” for official scoring purposes on the Senate floor, among other questions, to set the record straight on Republicans’ “magic math."

Ahead of his nomination hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren also sent a 32-page letter to Dr. Faulkender, pressing him to explain his views on his potential Treasury responsibilities.

Transcript: Hearing to examine the nomination of Michael Faulkender, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
Senate Finance Committee
March 6, 2025 

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. So, President Trump had exactly one big legislative accomplishment in his first term: a giant tax cut for millionaires, billionaires, and massive corporations. In fact, it was so giant that a big hunk of it lasted only eight years and still cost $2 trillion. Now, the eight years are up, so Republicans want to do another tax cut for the ultra-wealthy, which Congress’ non-partisan budget scorers say is going to cost $4.6 trillion this time. Now, Congressional Republicans say they care about the deficit, so they have a plan to fix things up: repeal math. Here's their story: because they already had eight years of tax cuts that ran up the debt, Congressional Republicans claim that 10 more years of tax cuts will be free. They named this gimmick the ‘current policy baseline.’ They should have named it “magic math.” It is so nuts that when we need to figure out the cost of tax cuts, the Senate has never, never switched to it over using real math. 

Now, Dr. Faulkender, if confirmed, you will play a role in whatever tax deal the Republicans put together. So let's talk about math,“magic math” and real math. Dr. Faulkender, does renaming tax cuts produce any additional revenue?

Michael Faulkender, Deputy Secretary-Designate, U.S. Department of the Treasury: Does renaming them–

Senator Warren: Yes, calling them something different. Does that produce any additional revenue?

Dr. Faulkender: I don't think renaming something changes—if it changes behavior, it has the potential to change revenues.

Senator Warren: Wait, so, are you saying renaming tax cuts produces additional revenue? Just renaming it?

Dr. Faulkender: I can't imagine that it would, unless it causes people to behave differently. 

Senator Warren: Okay, I'll take that as no. Fair enough? Claiming that somehow losing $4.6 trillion in tax revenues is free is just plain nuts. Congressional Republicans are hoping they can fool people long enough to deliver giveaways to their wealthy donors before anyone figures it out. But at the end of the day, Republicans cannot repeal math. A bunch of tax cuts for billionaires will cost $4.6 trillion.

But congressional Republicans don't like that answer. So, I'm wondering, if they love magic math so much, I want to ask the same question in reverse. If the Republicans’ idea of magically not counting the cost of tax cuts for billionaires makes sense, what about not counting the cost of tax cuts for ordinary people? That is, for extending the Child Tax Credit? 

Dr. Faulkender, according to Republicans’ magic math, if extending the tax cuts is free, shouldn't extending a temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit also be free?

Dr. Faulkender: Thank you, Senator. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, and so if we allow that tax cut to expire, it would mean that the child tax credit would go back to the $1,000. 

Senator Warren: Right. So, the question I'm asking is, using Republican “magic math,” if it is free to extend tax cuts for billionaires, isn't it also free to extend tax cuts for poor kids? 

Dr. Faulkender: Senator, I'm not familiar with magic math, but what I do know is that the American people look at the current tax code, what they paid last year and what they paid this year as the current environment. So, the question is, when we talk about extending it, I would argue that extending the TCJA is making sure that the American people don't incur a $4.5 trillion tax increase.

Senator Warren: So, you do think that renaming the tax cuts will produce $4.5 trillion in revenue? 

Dr. Faulkender: No, Senator, I didn't say that it had any impact on the bottom line deficit. I'm just saying when you ask me what a baseline is, to me, the baseline is what I'm currently doing.

Senator Warren: I’m not asking you that. I'm asking you what it costs to put in $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Look, if Republican “magic math” works, then why not extend it to everything we spend money on? How about the money we spent last year on roads and bridges or child care subsidies and the workers who process Social Security checks? Of course not. No one is going to do that. 

Congressional Republicans want to use “magic math” to pass giant tax cuts, and then try to tell the American people those tax cuts cost nothing. Hard-working Americans understand that $4.6 trillion for a billionaire tax cut is not free. Congressional Republicans are trying to sell magic math so they can help billionaires, and fortunately, the American people are just not buying that. 

###  

Elections have consequences

 

We're with Tabitha on this. 

If you're surprised a non-citizen is being deported by Donald Chump, it's because you're an idiot.  You could've voted for Kamala Harris.  You made your choice, try owning it and stop dragging us into it because this isn't our dance.  Someone's getting deported?  Again, you could've voted for Kamala.  This wouldn't be happening under Kamala.  

Where's the accountability?

Rashida and her cult did so much damage.  Never forget that.

BLUESKY chuckle

 

Video of the week

 

BLUESKY reality

 

This edition's playlist

 

 

1) Joni Mitchell's JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES -- VOL. 3: THE ASYLUM YEARS (1972 - 1975).

 

2) Diana Ross' THANK YOU. 

3) Aretha Franklin's SPARKLE.

4) Aretha Franklin's WHO'S ZOOMIN' WHO.

5) Cher's FOREVER.

6) Beyonce's COWBOY CARTER.

 7)  Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo's BLACKBIRD: LENNON - MCCARTNEY ICONS.

8)  The Rolling Stones' HACKNEY DIAMONDS.

 

9) Pretenders' PACKED!

  

10) Green Day's  'SAVIORS.'

 

 

  

It's not needed (Ava and C.I.)

 It's not needed.

Too often, that's our feeling as we look around -- at TV, at the political scene.

Last week, Stan noted the unwelcome return of THE PUNISHER.  He is right.  It's not needed.

MARVEL live action TV shows in this century largely aired on NETFLIX.  And they did very well; DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES, LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST and THE DEFENDERS did very well.  THE PUNISHER really was where the quality seriously declined.  And then MARVEL decided that they were going to make the content instead for DISNEY+.  

They did a lot of damage as did girl fannies -- 'critics' who were both male and female and bought into sexism despite many proclaiming themselves to be feminists.

MS. MARVEL, for example, was Little Miss Weakingly.  Not only was she a never ending embarrassment, she was also too pudgy to be a super hero.  Worst of all, she was a secondary character to the man on the show.  (See our "TV: Good taste is the reason viewers ran from MS. MARVEL" from 2022.)  Then they took her over to the film and she helped tank that because she was a fat little roly poly there to provide laughs.  No one gave a damn about that weakling except for the girl fannies.

And it was the girl fannies who promoted WANDAVISION as a feminist statement.  It was not.  (See our "TV: Can anything be worse than fall 2020?" and "TV: The way things are or are thought to be   .")  It was an attempt to ridicule and devalue Wanda. Now after this storyline was established over the nine episodes of that bad, bad series, the character pops up in the film DR. STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS and, all the sudden, girl fannies show up to weakly remake some of the points we'd made a year earlier. (See our "TV: No, MARVEL movies do not make stars.")  Some even blamed the director Sam Raimi despite the fact that Raimi had nothing to do with setting up the degrading and trivializing storyline of WANDAVISION. 

And then came THE LIFE AND LOVES OF THE SHE-HULK.  Or was it LAWYERS IN LOVE STARRING THE SHE-HULK?

It was 'cute' and it was 'funny' and it was mocking women.

Here's the thing, those three bad programs were presented as "woke."  Had Kamala Harris won the presidency -- as she should have -- our plan was to do a lengthy feature on all the ways in which bad things were marketed as "woke."  They weren't "woke."  But they were presented as that and when these bad things bombed, it let the fright wing giggle and chant: "Go woke, go broke."

There was nothing woke about DISNEY's MARVEL series.

They were nonsense and they were garbage.  

And they bombed as a result.

But having been falsely presented as feminist and woke, their failures were supposed to reflect upon the left and not upon the minds of idiots who thought weak and frivolous was the way to go.

People do not watch superhero programs to see weak.

Somehow MARVEL -- working for NETFLIX -- got that.  JESSICA JONES was about a strong woman.  She wasn't giggling.  She wasn't competing with the Hulk.  She was doing her job.  

The backlash to woke was about racism, to be sure.  But the reality is that a lot of airheads encouraged and fed the backlash with their pathetic portrayals of women.  

And when we should have all been calling the nonsense out.  There was never the need for action series for boys and STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE for girls.  That was nonsense and that was misgendering.

There are many other ways that certain cultural touchstones and politicians helped further the attacks on woke.  Again, had Harris become President, that was the first article we planned to write.  

The return of PUNISHER -- and not the actually popular JESSICA JONES -- goes to things that are not needed so we're noting the above now.

Not needed also included  Karine Jean-Pierre last week.

She was the White House spokesperson from May 2022 until Chump was sworn in January 20th of this year.  Overall, she was good at her job.

She is lousy at her retirement. 

Last week, she was in the news whining and whining some more.

Bad Nancy Pelosi and bad other people caused Joe Biden to (finally) step aside in late July and announce he would not seek re-election.  They shouldn't have, insisted KJP, Biden would have won!

Crazy isn't needed nor is it required. 

And it helps no one.

Reality: Joe Biden did lousy in the debate with Chump.

That's why the calls began.

We don't think Joe was that awful in the debate.  Go back and check ("").  One week later, we did join the chorus calling for Joe to step aside.  We watched his interview with George Stephanopoulos.  He should have been prepared.  He wasn't.  He should have addressed the issue and then flipped it.  He was unable to.  He was unable to reassure the public.  That interview depended upon that.  He had to come off energized and in charge.  Instead, he looked tired and weak and the narrative coming out of the debate was now established: Joe is too weak to run.

Joe was so weak, he wasn't able to campaign effectively for Kamala and we need to remember that as well.  On a very small schedule, he still managed to make one misstep after another.  Karine wants to rewrite history and that's not helping anyone.

At the start of the year, the press started writing pieces about how out of it Joe was and how his staff worked to conceal that fact.

Some pundits tried to argue that they were lied to.  

Karine is aware of that, right?  She does get that and that she and others in the administration are the ones who lied, that they are the ones who should have informed the public but felt serving Joe was more important than serving the country?

He couldn't have run.  He would have collapsed on the road.  That's reality on how bad his health was.  

He shouldn't have run but if by some miracle he had, Karine, was your plan to lie to the American people for four more years and pretend Joe was on top of his game?

Instead of slamming Nancy Pelosi, Karine should be singing Nancy's praises.  Nancy did what was best for the country.  She stood up to a man in the Oval Office in clear cognitive decline.

We've got that again, Karine may not be aware of that.  Maybe Joe's cognitive decline rubbed off on her?

Karine's nonsense helped no one -- not when Joe was president, not now.

Now?  Now we are calling on Republicans to do their job.  And Karine's hypocrisy makes it a little harder since she willing lied and continues to lie for Joe Biden.

She is a hypocrite.  But for GOPers who want to accuse the Democratic Party of being hypocrites?  We're not.  The pushback Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer -- among others -- actively gave Joe Biden demonstrates that.  

So the real question for Republicans officials and office holders is whether they want to be the next Karine (looking the other way) or a Nancy or a Schumer actually serving their country.

Truest statement of the week

 

Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke.  And by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.

-- Jane Fonda accepting the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

A note to our readers

Hey --

Monday.

Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen, 

Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

 

And what did we come up with? 

• Truest statement of the week
• Whose presidency is it anyway?
• Media: Musk a purveyor preying on children
• Books (Jess, Ava and C.I.)
• THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF HEIDI ABROMOWITZ (Jess)
• Video of the week
• 2025 passings
• Book List
• BLUESKY post of the week
• Oh, Danielle, you're such a disappointment
• This edition's playlist
• Highlights

Peace.

 

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Whose presidency is it anyway?

Good question.

Alien Musk and Donald Chump -- not a brain between the two.  Headed for a show down and judging by their past relationships with other men, the break up will not be pretty.

Illustrations are Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "White House Service: Donald Tries To Please His Man" and "The Tongue Bather In Chief"

Media: Musk a purveyor preying on children

Some things seem obvious to us.  For example, ZERO DAY -- the new Robert De Niro mini-series on NETFLIX.  Like Meryl Streep, we've never really been impressed with De Niro's acting (creepy and odd like in too many films including STANLEY & IRIS and FALLING IN LOVE).   By contrast, we love the work of Al Pacino and find him exciting and experimental even in bad project.  AMAZON's HUNTERS lasted two seasons and we don't think it should have lasted even one episode -- it certainly wasn't worthy of Al.  So when we heard The Water Cooler Set was hissing and sputtering about ZERO DAY, we couldn't wait to watch and to call out De Niro.

The mistake we made was in watching because there went all our plans of going to town on Robert.  ZERO DAY is a tense thriller and melodrama.  We hate binge watching but we got pulled in on that first episode and watched it all the way through.  Not only was it worthy of praise but so was De Niro, some of the finest acting he's done in years.  And as producer, he also deserves some of the credit for the outstanding performances of Angela Bassett,  Mozhan Navabi, Joan Allen and Clark Gregg who all demonstrate shadings and levels that you just don't see from a TV cast that often.  

Some things seem obvious to us like the fact that ZERO DAY is quality television that captures the viewer.  

Some things seem obvious to us like the GOP today will turn their back on any supposed core belief, they will embrace what they have claimed to hate and that's most obvious when it comes to Convicted Felon Donald Chump's co-president.

That, of course, is South African born Alien Musk.  The media likes to present the racist as the person behind Telsa (sales are tanking and a self-driving model crashed into a light post)  or the person behind the disaster that is SPACEX (debris crashing in Poland, debris falling on populated islands in the North Atlantic Ocean).  Alien's considered a successful businessman.  That's in part due to the fact that (a) journalists write bad books that avoid the topic of his government welfate that the US has pumped into his companies and (b) because people don't tell the truth.

Let's deal with the government welfare first.  IO Dodds (INDEPENDENT) explains: 

Elon Musk is on a crusade against government spending. Unless, apparently, it's going to him.
"If action is not taken to curb the deficit, America is in deep trouble. No different than a person who gets into too much debt," said the DOGE boss on his social network X in December.
[. . .]
Yet according to federal data analyzed by The Independent, Musk's own companies have been promised or awarded nearly $21 billion by the U.S. government since 2008.
The cash was still flowing as of Feb 17, with another $76.7 million promised since Donald Trump's inauguration.
So how much of money is the American taxpayer forking over to each of Musk's companies, and what is it all for?

$21 billion in US tax payer dollars.  We think most people in America would be billionaires . . . if the US government gave them $21 billion. $200 million pounds from the UK.  $1.4 billion from the Chinese government.  The list goes on, but we'll stop there.  Musk is the original and definitive Welfare Queen.

And yet he's been made, by Chump, someone in charge of deciding who remains a federal worker and who doesn't.  He has no skill in that.  And that's become increasingly clear.  

RAW STORY notes:

In just a few short weeks, the Trump administration has brought drastic changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health. Beginning with the removal of websites and key public health datasets in January 2025, the Trump administration has taken actions to dismantle established public health infrastructure as part of its second-term agenda.

In addition, the administration has begun a widespread purge of the federal public health workforce. As of Feb. 19, around 5,200 employees at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health had been let go. About 10% of the CDC’s staff have been removed, with plans for additional firings. 

And it's never just one mistake, mind you.  Week after week, day after day, Alien Musk keeps screwing up.  Christine Peterson (MOTHER JONES) notes:

A President’s Day weekend swept by fear and grief from the sudden termination of thousands of federal employees in the US Forest Service and Department of Interior left chaos and uncertainty after the latest assault on the federal workforce by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

For people on the ground in mountain communities, small towns and rural areas, the cuts were nothing short of devastating. They came with no explanation, warning or discernment, and the impact on public land and wildlife, observers say, will be felt for years.

“It’s pretty hard to fathom,” said Claire Thompson, 35, a trail leader who was fired Friday afternoon after eight years with the US Forest Service. “It feels like they’re punishing the people who least deserve it. We have chosen to stay in careers working for so little money. We are literally the boots on the ground, physically working all day.”

Jobs cut included park rangers and interpreters, National Environmental Policy Act coordinators, endangered species biologists, trail crews, maintenance staff, and wastewater treatment operators.

This is one of many 'planned' actions by Alien that had to be fixed afterwards.  Why?  You can't have summers in the national park for Americans if you don't have the workers.  He didn't think of that because he's not that smart.  ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS observes:

If anyone should’ve felt safe in their government jobs, you’d assume it would be the 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, charged with oversight of the country’s nuclear arsenal.

Never assume.

In what the White House is now calling a mistake, a large swath of NNSA employees were fired last Thursday before the Trump administration realized they had cleared out the wrong agency. By Friday, they were scrambling to rehire these essential workers. All but 28 employees had their dismissals rescinded, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Exactly.  And after Alien Musk 'acted,' it was yet again realized that these workers needed to be back on the job.  But, oops, they didn't get contact info for the people they fired.  

Isn't that something Chump and his flight attendant Alien Musk should have figured out and known before the plane left the runway? Certainly before the two headed off the toilet to join The Mile High Club.   Forget partisanship, that -- and other examples -- say to the American people, he's just destroying things -- our things, the possessions of the American people.  Musk doesn't know what he's doing. 

Musk and Chump don't know what they're doing and they keep lying.  ABC NEWS reports:

 President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, in their hunt for "fraud, waste and abuse" in the federal government, are falsely implying millions of dead Americans are receiving Social Security benefits, experts told ABC News.

It started in the Oval Office last week when Musk -- facing reporters for the first time since the Department of Government Efficiency began its aggressive overhaul of the federal government -- said he found "crazy things" in the Social Security system, including, he said, people who are "150 years old." 

[. . .]

Social Security policy experts and economists told ABC News that they are getting it wrong, contending Musk is misreading the agency's records system. 

  The Social Security Administration (SSA) has multiple databases, including one that gets sent to the Treasury Department each month outlining who is receiving payments.

According to agency statistics, of the 67 million people who receive Social Security benefits, only 0.1% are over the age of 100.

"So, when they're throwing around numbers like tens of millions of dead people are getting Social Security, well there's only 67 million total. What are they talking about? Half the people are actually dead? The numbers are so ridiculous. It's not true," said Kathleen Romig, the director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

SSA does make some improper payments, but they are not widespread (roughly 1%) and most of the mistakes made are overpayments to living beneficiaries, according to a July 2024 inspector's general report. That report found from 2015 through 2022, the SSA made $71.8 billion in improper payments. The agency issues $1 trillion in benefits every year.

How many lies do they get to tell and who the hell still believes Alien Musk knows how to provided any form of oversight?

Day after day, we find Musk  'overseeing' an agency he has no knowledge of.  He doesn't know what he's doing and he doesn't care.  This isn't his country, after all.  That's why he's a citizen of two other countries -- Canada and his birthplace South Africa.  

It's creating chaos and creating huge numbers of people who will be added to the unemployment rolls.  Yet it continues, just like their lying continues.  Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency may be trying to inflate the numbers of its spending cuts.

DOGE published an itemized list of canceled government contracts Monday accounting for an alleged $16 billion in spending. Almost half of those savings were attributed to a hefty $8 billion contract for D&G Support Services to provide “program and technical support services” to the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights at the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

There was just one problem: The DOGE website included a screenshot of the award, which showed that it was only worth $8 million, not $8 billion, as was the amount listed directly below the image. 

Chump and Musk keep lying.  And so do others.  Greg Abbott can't stop praising Musk.  Here's a typical Tweet -- and again, we don't provide links to Twitter:

Greg Abbott

@GregAbbott_TX

Elon Musk, making Texas proud.

Is he making Texas proud?  Abbott's the fool and prude in the governor's office in the state of Texas.

If you don't know, he's having a war on porn.  Possibly due to his inability to get erections -- that's what we're told, paralyzed from the waist down, he's always attacking porn.  Is there another governor who, in the last four years, who has issued more press releases on porn than Greg Abbott?  He's issued over eighty in the last four years.  

Doesn't he seem a little obsessed?

As a general rule, we don't care about porn.  

But Greggy does and so do other Republicans and they preach family values and they pretend to call out what they label as sin.

So we're confused.

I'm a real traditional man

My folks got a real rich legacy 

They passed on the birthright 

So it ain't about you and me 

You've been saying you want it

And I believe you do 

Just don't to running

At the moment of truth

You've got a nice little chocolate a**

And I got a ten inch White c**k

Then I bend you over

It ain't over till I stop

I know you bow to White men 

Just like a n**ger should

I don't know if you're ready for all this White wood 

I love taming n**ger boys

Ain't nothing like it 

To be clear, those are some of the lyrics to a song -- a  song that plays on a video on Twitter, a video of a White man raping a Black man.  It's posted by Intimately Colonized whose handle is @propertyofyts.  There are also videos at that account where White women abuse Black women.

Is that why it's okay, Greg?  Because it's racist porn?  Does that make it okay for you?

We really wonder what a hacker might find if they got into Greg Abbott's personal computer..  We fear it would be even more disgusting then the above.

"Race play."  That's what those into the racist fetish call it.  

There is no real protection for children on Twitter.  

As FAMIGUARD notes this month:

Twitter's platform includes a secure search filtering option for all accounts. This will conceal sensitive information (including sexual content, graphic violence, and so forth). However, your children will be able to switch off this function at any time without your permission. 

That's not good enough for Greg Abbott when it comes to, for example, PORNHUB.  But somehow he's fine with it when it comes to Twitter.  

But Greg's war on porn was supposed to be all about protecting children.  He's been exposed as a hypocrite. 

Is there a reason that today's Republican Party feels the need to hug and glorify a porn merchant?

That's all Alien Musk is.  

It's obvious to us.  Is it not obvious to others because they're being willfully blind or is it not obvious because the media has spent far too much time glossing over Musk's actions and far too little time noting his role as a purveyor of porn?