Wednesday Stuff

Francesca Fiorentini and Nina Turner discuss the Biden/Harris ad to protect abortion rights (I’ll grant Turner's point that Roe wasn’t “codified” when it should have been, but I blame the Democratic Party at large for that as opposed to one president...the “D” team should have seen the game the other side was playing on abortion and fought back – of course, HRC said in ’16 that the SCOTUS was on the ballot and too damn many people blew her off, and that played a part in our current mess also...really, though, what we need is a constitutional amendment on this, as well as birth control, interracial and same-sex marriage, etc., since that seems to be only way to really beat the wingnuts on this stuff, but good luck with all of that when we, to this point, still can’t get the ERA done in this country, which isn’t even binding, but just a recommendation that women get paid the same as men...Turner also assumes that Biden could have gotten Manchinema to do what he wanted on the filibuster; would that that were true...to be honest, I think Turner’s take on Biden’s role in this is a little skewed, to put it mildly – not saying Biden is perfect, but only that he can’t just tell Congress to “make it so” by snapping his fingers or whatever)...



...and in a related item, Beau tells us that the “party of Lincoln” thinks it should restrict reproductive rights on the federal level...yeah, keep playing that number despite the fact that it’s MASSIVELY UNPOPULAR, and do the Dems’ work for them of having to remind voters about how wretched the Repugs are on this issue in particular...



...and Thom Hartmann asks if the governor of Flori-DUUUH! Ron #DeathSantis inspired the Jacksonville gunman...I realize we’ll never know, but interesting, and important, to speculate (Thom goes down the list of policies from the wretched governor of that state that likely played a role in their recent gun carnage)...



...and Farron Cousins focuses on another Repug candidate for preznit, and that would be Nikki Haley, who apparently wants Gen Zs and millennials to work until they’re dust (assuming they can all find decent paying jobs of course)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT bring us the story of a CEO of a bank in Australia who’s forcing employees back to the workplace for their “mental health”...I actually agree with the take here that the CEO has the right to encourage the work force to come back to the office, even if only for a couple of days a week (she may have just misspoke on the “mental health” thing; she probably would have been fine if she left that out)...it’s kind of a “push pull” thing with the workers; I definitely get it (e.g., at what point does it become financially prohibitive given commuting costs, for example, versus just staying at home and doing the work there)...I’m a little surprised Ana and Cenk didn’t know what “hot desking” was, which means that where you end up working when you DO come back to the office is kind of a crapshoot...



...and when it comes to the latest developments concerning Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, Rachel Maddow tells us what it could be like if, by some horrific possibility, #45 manages to get elected again (kind of restating the obvious, but it needs to be repeated over and over IMO...this is the kind of typically restrained corporate media take that I’ve come to expect from The Comcast Network...nothing personally against Maddow, but I almost expected her to start blinking her eyes in some kind of code like a hostage, as if to say “DON’T YOU FREAKING PEOPLE REALIZE THE GAME THAT’S BEING PLAYED HERE BY MANGO MUSSOLINI AND HIS MINIONS? WAKE THE F*CK UP!”...more here)...



...and I’ve had this kicking around for about a week or so, and I think this is the time to present it (actually some GOOD news)...U.S. scientists have achieved a net energy gain for the 2nd time in a nuclear fusion reaction...I mean, it’s not like we’re going to be living in the world of “The Jetsons” tomorrow, but it’s still cool stuff I have to say (report is from the CBC)...



...and here’s a bit of an inspirational newer tune to help us keep trying to bend that arc towards justice, as MLK once said (and I know we recently observed the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and the “I Have A Dream” speech – more here).