“It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” – George Carlin
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Tuesday Stuff
Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that Repug U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (long “A,” in case you were wondering) of Idaho opposes the monthly child tax credit passed during COVID relief which pulled about 35-40% of kids out of poverty, and then it ran out and we said whoopsie! and Repugs blocked renewing it (along with President Manchin I believe)...sounds like there’s some half-assed scheme to try and bring the tax credit back tied to corporate tax cuts – OF COOOUUURRRSE!, as Cenk Uygur would say (more here)...
...and Farron Cousins informs us that U.S. Senate Repugs recently told MAGA Mike Johnson to not be a coward...yeah, I can’t think of the Kubrickian absurdity behind those Repug lowlifes in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” now supposedly being the responsible adults vs. the other chamber, or some such nonsense...I mean, Team “D” could be the ones yelling about this stuff instead, but I guess that’s too controversial for Dem Senate “Leader” Chuck Schumer (who will NEVER get called out in our corporate media for being utterly spineless)...
...and speaking of those unruly children in the U.S. House, David Pakman tells us about an incident from last December with Bo-Bo Boebert that we’re just finding out about now where she was apparently “three sheets to the wind” and trying to force a “selfie” with Combover Caligula...pathetic for so many reasons (and to do something about Boebert, click here)...
...and the prior clip is probably an appropriate segue into this one, where Leeja Miller points out all of the distractions that we’re faced with from our media consumption...yes, like Miller, I’m definitely not trying to be “holier than thou” either – one person’s mental break online can be another person’s source of ridicule I suppose, though I definitely don’t advocate attacking folks for going to Tik Tok or scrolling over Facebook or Instagram if that’s your “jam”...if Lauren Boebert actually acted like a reasonable adult in her job, then yeah, it probably would be excessive to include a clip having to do with her getting hammered at some fundraiser or whatever, but in her case, the hypocrisy is the point... interesting historical context on the rise of our preoccupation with celebrity, and I knew media consolidation was bad, but I didn’t know we’d gone from 50 companies down to six...ugh! – and yes, lay the blame at the feet of The Sainted Ronnie R, though he’s hardly alone on that one...one of the reasons why this clip is important IMO is because it explains how our preoccupation with what I would call “celebrity piffle” sucks all (or most) of the effort out of actual political engagement, as Miller points out (more here and here – NSFW/H)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias discuss state Repugs in AZ trying to get rid of judicial retention elections so the wingnuts in robes can stay on the bench for-evah...some minutiae and fine print stuff discussed here by Elias, but this is what the “R” party does to stay in power since their numbers to do that through the electoral process are dwindling (and when it comes to judges, the goal of the “R” party of course is to stay in power to render more goofball decisions to take away voting agency from the majority of this country and hand more of it to the ”one percent”)...
...and there are a couple of belated 80th birthdays I’d like to acknowledge if I can, and here is one for John Kay of Steppenwolf...one reason why this tune is awesome is because it tells Kay’s early life story on the run with his mother from then-Soviet occupied East Germany to West Germany; I think it’s pretty safe to say that that experience informed some of the band’s more political work, which we can all draw from for inspiration as far as I’m concerned.
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