Permanently blocking spam senders

Recently I'm getting A LOT of spam. (I use Thunderbird.) So, two questions:

1) The "Filter" process is really cumbersome to permanently block senders of spam. Is there an easier way?

2) Is there a way to have a desktop shortcut to Comcast email? And to have it show my gmail emails too? (Using Thunderbird is the only way I've found to see mail from both of my accounts in one place.