Don't bother they're here (well, except Rush, who's dead)

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

There's no there there

Me, me, me, me, me, me.....

 Word this week that Joe Manchin's opposition to ending the filibuster, as well as his determination to have republican votes on Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, are built upon his desire to polish his political legacy is laughable to the point of being pathetic.

At best Manchin's legacy will be a footnote that he was that rare Democratic candidate who proved so personally popular in his home state (West Virginia) that he could overcome his state's decidedly republican lean and win multiple elections (no small feat, but not all that historically noteworthy).  At worst, Manchin's legacy will be a footnote that he cost ordinary Americans thousands of dollars by requiring that the COVID Relief Package reduce the extra unemployment benefit from $400 to $300 a week and cut the time extension by two months just to get his necessary vote (guaranteed that his required cuts didn't affect anyone in his family).

Other than that, Manchin is a forgettable Senator from a forgettable state who a hundred years from now will have his name be listed in a Wikipedia entry as one of numerous forgettable Senators from the state of West Virginia.

Though Wikipedia should note that Manchin was far more concerned with what was best for his legacy than what was best for the American people, and was therefore nothing more than your typical asshole politician.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

An incel says what?

 

It's Not Just a Jobs Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Traitors 'r' Us

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXIX--Johnny Mathis: Chances Are

 About a thousand years ago (actually it was the 1990's) when I was still managing a store for Camelot Music, we got a free sampler of a four CD set featuring classic vocals from the 30's, 40's, and 50's called Sentimental Journey.  I must have been channeling my father (because I'm sure he would have loved it) and I came to really appreciate the artistry of big bands and those blessed with a wondrous singing ability.  I was introduced to this week's tune by the sampler, and next week's as well.

Johnny Mathis was born the same year as my mother (1935) in Gilmer, Texas, and a few years later his family relocated to my hometown of San Francisco.  Mathis began singing at a young age, and got his first recording contract at the ripe old age of twenty-one.  From the mid-50's through the mid 60's Mathis was a hit making machine, and had numerous top ten hits before settling into a fine career of recording and touring with his velvety vocals.  For his career Mathis has released 73 studio albums (with one #1), three live albums, and thirty compilations (also with one #1).  He also has released 113 singles, with (you guessed it) one #1.  Mathis came out as gay in 1982 but backed off from his admission after receiving death threats--eventually he would embrace his sexuality.  Amazingly, even at the age of eighty-five, Mathis still performs 50 to 60 concerts per year.

Fun Fact:  At one time, Mathis was considered the best all around athlete to come out of San Francisco.  He was a starter in basketball in both high school and college (San Francisco State), and was also a world class high jumper in track and field (he competed against NBA legend Bill Russell in the high jump at the collegiate level).  In 1956 Mathis was invited to the tryouts for the Summer Olympics in Melbourne the same week he was asked to audition for a recording contract in New York--Mathis chose the vocal audition and the rest, as they say, is history.

"Chances Are" was released as a single in 1957, and was put on a compilation album, Johnny's Greatest Hits in 1958 (mini fun fact:  often considered the original greatest hits package).  Both the song and the LP hit #1 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard charts.

All you really need to know about "Chances Are" is that when angels sing they sound just like Johnny Mathis when he delivered the performance of a millennium on the song.  It's a syrupy sweet ballad, likely one of the ten best romantic songs ever, and one of those songs that no matter how many times I hear it never ceases to amaze me with the majesty it creates with such simplicity.  I've been singing it since I did my half-assed research in the run up to this post...and I'll be treating my wife and youngest son to my version of it for days to come.  How lucky they are!  "Chances Are" is heavenly proof that on occasion all can be right with this crazy world....

Lyric Sheet:  "Guess you feel you'll always be/The one and only one for me/And if you think you could/Well, chances are your chances are awfully good..." 

Enjoy:  

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

You know it's so pathetic

The GQP war on the poor continues

 Georgia asshole Governor Brian Kemp said last week that voters who had to wait in long lines to vote didn't need to have meals supplied because it wasn't a big deal for such voters to call Uber Eats to have their dinner delivered.  The idea that the voters standing in line are generally poor does not appear to have registered with Kemp, though you'd think it would have considering that the Georgia GQP specifically designed it to punish poor folks (especially people of color) for voting Democratic.

In all honesty, if it isn't such a big deal shouldn't it be okay for those voters to charge the republican party for their meals?  Or better yet, maybe Brian Kemp can pay for them.  It's only a few bucks, right?  Shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Once again, though, it's another member of the republican party letting their racist flags fly.  The GQP motto should be, "If You Ain't White, We Don't Give a Shit."

Because they don't.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Madame Badass

 It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Idiot wind

 It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

The KKK took my country away

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXVIII--Loggins and Messina: Danny's Song

This week we're going to head down the Sappy Highway...though as far as overly sentimental singles go, thanks to its folk roots it's a cut above the standard top forty ballad fare....

Loggins and Messina formed quite by accident, when in 1971 Jim Messina (of Poco and Buffalo Springfield fame) gave Kenny Loggins a leg up and was helping to produce Loggins' first solo album...but did so much work on it that the two decided to become a duo.  Loggins and Messina would be together through 1976 before splitting amicably and going solo (which was a commercial boon for Loggins, whose otherwise uninteresting solo work was given a boost by appearing in such popular movies as Caddyshack, Footloose, and Top Gun).  For their career together, Loggins and Messina released six studio albums (four of which hit the top 20), three live albums (with one of them giving the duo their highest chart position at number five), and four compilations.  They also released ten singles, enjoying one peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and two others reaching the top twenty.  They have reunited twice, in 2005 and 2009, and both musicians are still working in the music industry to this day.

"Danny's Song" was on Loggins and Messina's debut album, Sittin' In, released in 1971.  The song was not released as a single, though thanks to generous airplay on the radio became well known for the duo.  The album was the lowest charting of their career, hitting #70 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  In what I believe is a Friday Night Jukebox first, "Danny's Song" actually went on to be a top ten single for another artist--Canadian (so many cool kids in Canada) country crooner Anne Murray took the song to #7 (with a bullet!) in 1972.  She was also nominated for a Grammy for her version.

Kenny Loggins wrote "Danny's Song" for, amazingly enough, his brother Danny after the birth of his brother's first child.  The song is a celebration of the love that created the child, as well as the joy that comes (most of the time) with the birth of a child.  Loggins' vocals capture the grace and blessings that are often felt by a couple in the throes of sharing such a magical moment.  Messina adds some wondrous acoustic guitar, and Loggins is accompanied by a twinkling piano.  Loggins and Messina came to be known for their harmonies, but they don't sing together until the final chorus on this one but you can see the inkling of what would become a hallmark of their time together.  Every now and again a pop song comes along with a simple tale shared by so many, and when a catchy chorus is thrown in it becomes the sum of its parts--and a hell of a tune, too.

Lyric Sheet:   "Love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup/Drink it up/Love her and she'll bring you luck..."

Enjoy:

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

The highway to hell

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Fools in sheep's clothing

 

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

COVID Queens

Shouldn't we have freedom from morons, too?

 News this week that people who refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine because "freedumb" will eventually cost businesses and the United States billions of dollars is just further proof how far from reality the republican party has strayed.  Not only has the pro-life party decided killing others with COVID-19 because they don't want to do something as simple as wear a mask is perfectly acceptable, the big business party is now more than happy to cost their (former?) benefactors billions of dollars to coddle idiots.  Not to mention higher premiums for the rest of us because they're too lazy to get a fucking shot.  And apparently the deficit hawks are just fine and dandy with blowing our deficit ever higher, especially considering that god only knows how many of these nitwits think having health care is for the feint of heart and will drive up government spending with their expenses paid by other taxpayers trips to the ER.

"Stupid is as stupid does" is cute when it's in a heartwarming movie, but when it's the slogan of the republican party and its base it's going to do a lot of damage to those of us who don't walk around with our heads permanently up our asses.

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of having our lives worsened daily by imbeciles--if they don't want to get the vaccine they should be the ones to be charged higher healthcare premiums and higher taxes so the rest of us don't foot the bill for their stupidity.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Never forget

 

Donald Trump's America

Back in late January, one of my favorite writers for The Daily Kos, Dartagnan, published a post highlighting the PBS series Frontline's episode entitled "Trump's American Carnage."  It took me a while to sit down and watch it as, like at least 81 million other Americans, I was pretty much burnt out on Donald Trump in any incarnation (watching the show was a massive reminder of how little I miss Trump and how much happier I am now that he is awaiting death in Moron-A-Lago).  The show lays out in no uncertain terms exactly how much of a disaster Donald Trump was for America, and shows just how far the Trump cult has fallen down the rabbit hole.

Most important, it is a reminder to those of us who are not riding the fascism train to nowhere to never forget the wreckage that Trump left behind, how quickly it happened, and how close we came to being just another failed experiment in the annals of the governments of nations.  And how hard we have to fight to hold onto the House and the Senate in 2022--over 150 republicans refused to validate Joe Biden's election and as the republican party lurches farther and farther toward fascism it is not hard to see a republican controlled Congress overturning the will of American voters in 2024.

And with so much hate as its guiding light, it's not hard to imagine the twenty-first century version of Adolph Hitler being our next President.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Another fact of the day

One of these is not like the other...

 A new study shows that if the minimum wage had kept pace with the rise in Wall Street bonuses since 1985, the minimum wage would now be $44 an hour.

Which leaves Americans working at minimum wage jobs about $37 short of where they should be--there isn't a CEO anywhere in America that didn't have the help of many, many dedicated workers, and those workers should be paid commensurate with the help they gave their upper echelon bosses.

And I'd really like all the assholes in Congress refusing to raise the minimum wage from the $7.25 rate that was last raised in 2009 to explain why it is that American businesses can afford exorbitant bonuses for executives but not $15 an hour for the folks who actually do the goddamn work.

My guess is it would just be some mealymouthed elitism about the pressures and demands of being an executive, as if keeping the engines of America running like so many of us do is like tossing a frisbee back and forth.

And heaven forbid that women and people of color might actually have a chance to live a comfortable life.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Fact of the day

 

Reverse Robin Hood

In 2020, fifty corporations with over $40 billion in pre-tax income paid zero federal income taxes.  These companies included Fed Ex (remember this the next time one of their asshole drivers cuts you off while driving on roads that you--but not their employer--helped pay for), Nike, Dish Network, and Hewlett Packard (among many others).

All of this courtesy of Donald Trump and the republican party.

It's a continuation of a decades long pattern from republicans to give corporations welfare but skimp on basic necessities for average Americans.  And it's why the Biden administration is right to pay for the upcoming jobs plan/infrastructure bill with an increase in corporate taxes.  

And it's why Biden is saying goodbye to republicans failed trickle down economics and hello to building America back better by investing from the bottom up.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Their naivete on display

Is far too prevalent in our leaders

 In the past week, we've had three instances of supposedly smart people...not looking so smart:

• Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer remarked that Americans should be careful of any court packing initiatives because they would weaken our confidence in future decisions of the Supreme Court.  Somehow Breyer failed to notice that Mitch McConnell has already packed the court, and that Americans' confidence in John Roberts' Supreme Court is plummeting. 
• Joe Manchin wrote an op-ed outlining his opposition to removing the filibuster which was so flawed as to be laughable--he truly believes Democrats can get ten republican votes to pass any bill.  We got zero republican votes on the COVID Relief Package and we're going to get zero on the infrastructure bill and the voting rights bill.  If he's unaware of republican obstructionism over the past thirteen years, he's far too stupid to be a Senator.  He has yet to acknowledge the filibuster's racist roots, as well, which further calls into question not only his judgment, but his motive as he comes from one of the most conservative, if not the most conservative, states in the union.  In 2021, conservative = racist.
• Krysten Sinema, Democratic (WTF?) Senator from Arizona (not for long), and Fred Ridley, Chairman of the Masters Golf Tournament, both seem to be under the delusion that the best way for America to solve its problems is for both parties to work together to fix our problems.  Sinema has the false illusion that Americans want both parties to work together, but republican voters have repeatedly stated they are more likely to vote for republican candidates who don't, and other than her and Joe Manchin I know of no Democrats who want to waste two seconds of our lives working with republicans in Congress.  We just want the infrastructure and the voting rights bills to pass.  While I have no qualms with Ridley announcing the Masters would not boycott (Stacey Abrams has repeatedly asked that Georgia not be boycotted and that's good enough for me) Georgia, his statement that the solution to Georgia's voter suppression laws is for people to work together and have a constructive dialogue shows an obliviousness to what has transpired politically in this country that is mind boggling.  Republicans do not want to talk--they want to whine and obstruct.  

The naivete shown in all three instances above is beyond the pale, but let it be a reminder that we need a) Breyer to retire, b) a Manchin and Sinema proof Senate majority, and c) to reject the platitudes of America's business leaders as much as we reject "Thoughts and prayers" every time there's a mass shooting.

The future is now.

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXVII--Local H: Bound for the Floor

 The alternative movement of the 90's was probably the closest the music business has ever come to the wonder that music created in the 60's and 70's--there were oodles and oodles of exciting bands, exciting songs, one hit wonders, and more than a few sleepers.  This week's tune features one of those one hit wonders from alternative music's heyday....

Local H got its start as a four piece band in Zion, Illinois in 1990 when four high school friends got together and started a band...and that's the spirit that's keeps us coming back for more rock and roll.  By 1993 the band had evolved into a two piece outfit, and continues to record and tour to this day in that incarnation.  Guitarist Scott Lucas has teamed with three different drummers since Local H got its first recording contract.  For their career the band has released nine studio albums, 7 EP's, and two live albums.  They've also released 15 singles with only one of them breaking into the Billboard Hot 100.  Local H is known for its many tours, and for its quirky concert ideas, among them letting a fan choose an album title of theirs out of a hat and performing that album in its entirety before breaking into a selection of their hits, or having a contest where bands perform a cover version of one of Local H's songs and having the winner open up for them on one of their tour dates.  Good times, I'm sure.

Fun Fact:  Local H got its name by taking a word and a letter from two songs by R.E.M.--"Oddfellows Local 151" and "Swan Swan H."

"Bound for the Floor" was released as a single in 1996 from their album As Good as Dead.  The song was the most successful chartwise of their career, reaching #46 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would hit #147 on the Billboard 200 (and was later certified gold).

"Bound for the Floor" is a teenage anthem about the frustrations of a lack of confidence...which is a frustration pretty much most teenagers can identify with.  Lucas lets every teen's favorite emotion (anger!) fly in his vocals, and his three chord rock rules the day with his guitar.  The drums bash throughout driving the song down the power pop highway, as the chorus simply and repetitively pulsates around your ears.   Add in that it's one of the few (only?) pop songs to use the word copacetic (adjective meaning "in excellent order"), and you have a golden nugget from the angst driven glory days of the alternative movement.  

Lyric Sheet:  "And you just don't get it, you keep it copacetic/And you learn to accept it, you know it's so pathetic..."

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee

A Nazi by any other name

Not a good human being

 An interesting piece this week declared that QAnon is nothing more than the Nazi Party with a different name.

How long do you suppose it is before we can say the same about the republican party?

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Praying to gods that cannot save

Jesus doesn't think Trump is just alright

 A pastor in Wisconsin lamented recently that evangelicals seemed to idolize Donald Trump more than they worshiped Jesus Christ...which should have come as no surprise to anyone paying attention.  The religious right in America decided long ago that riding on the crazy train was a lot more important than the word of God.

While I will never live long enough to understand people's adulation of Trump (he's dumb, lazy, a boor, incompetent, cowardly, crude, and wimpy--if he moved into the house next door most folks would be putting their homes on the market as soon as they could), it's important to remember that plenty of people idolized Adolph Hitler (if you don't like the comparison then don't have a wannabe fascist dictator as your party's leader) when he rose to power and there are people that worship him to this day.

Many white Americans worship at the altar of Donald Trump just like many white Germans reveled in the leadership of Adolph Hitler--fortunately for America, our democracy was strong enough to elect Joe Biden and give us a chance to escape the carnage that a second term would have wrought.  That there are those who still worship Donald Trump despite his manifestly disastrous tenure says as much about the sorry state of their lives as it does about the inadequacy of Trump himself.

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

emaycee's Believe It Or Not!

Speaking of the walking dead..

 A guest on disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker's show this week literally said that the nasal tests for COVID-19 are being used to gather DNA so a biological weapon can be made to turn every American into a zombie.

Chew on that for a moment.

Look, I understand that there is a seriously demented faction of republican voters but that their numbers are small.  But the problem is that their number is growing by the day, with each and every fatuous conspiracy theory.  And even worse--while most republicans may be (relatively) sane, they're more than happy to give these birdbrains license to wreak whatever havoc they want (see also, January 6th insurrection), consequences be damned.

Giving an incompetent idiot like Donald Trump four years in office has cost us almost 600,000 American lives, but for as disastrous as that is, it could get even worse.  Russia and China have to be salivating as they wait for the next idiot republicans throw out there to appease their base.  There will be other pandemics.  Imagine an ill-prepared and ill-equipped Trump wannabe overseeing a crushing recession.  Countless millions dead and unheard of poverty in America--not to mention being at the mercy of the whims of a madman dictator.

I don't have the answers but I do know it's time for the adults in the room to stand up and recognize the precipice we're standing before.  It's one thing to argue about tax policy or how big of a role government should play in Americans' lives.  It's a complete other thing to believe that powerful forces are trying to turn us all into zombies.

If our leaders don't wake up to the inanities driving the far right, we might enter into a tailspin from which we will never recover.

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Bad for business

Republicans are bad even for these young entrepreneurs 

 News that Georgia republicans tried to punish Delta Airlines for condemning their recently passed racist voter suppression laws by taking away one of their tax breaks (it passed in Georgia's House but their Senate didn't take it up before closing out their legislative year) certainly had to open a few eyes.  And to have Mitch McConnell (if you look up "panicked" in the dictionary it is now a picture of Mitch McConnell from these past few weeks) follow it up by threatening businesses who want to take political stands (he actually said republicans welcome their donations but wanted business to stay out of politics--what the fuck?) I'm sure opened quite a few more.

How long do you suppose before the titans of our industries begin to understand (if they haven't already) that the republican party is running completely off the rails?  From the threats above to condoning an insurrection to letting Trump pander to Vladimir Putin (who didn't get to be the richest man in the world--as some believe--by accident and took very few partners along for the ride) to destroying the economy and killing nearly 600,000 of their customers with their epic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's becoming clearer and clearer that not only is the republican party not the best party for business interests but it's actively bad for business.

Frankly, if America's businesses want to sniff the sweet smell of success in the future, they're going to need to start making a big investment in the Democratic Party because the GQP is rapidly becoming the kiss of death to their profits.

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Regulation time

The republican motto

 What is it about republicans that when the government wants to make regulations for businesses to protect the safety and health of consumers and workers alike they do everything they can to stop it?  And now even businesses can't make decisions to protect their customers and workers--sad sack Trump wannabe Ron Desantis, Governor of Florida, has acted to prevent both government agencies and private businesses (good luck with that one in the courts) from requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports to conduct their day to day affairs.

Why it's enough to make you think for all their pro-life blather the GQP really doesn't give a shit whether their fellow human beings live or die.

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Imitation of pro-life

 400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXVI--Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind

I've noted a time or two here on Friday Night Jukebox that I pick out the songs for each week years in advance, and every now and again there's an odd coincidence that gives a particular week's song more relevance to me.  For whatever reason (mostly that I've been off work for a year now), I've been playing my guitar (still badly, unfortunately) a lot more these days, and as I perused through old music song books a few weeks back I came across this week's featured tune...and promptly decided to add being able to play "If You Could Read My Mind" on my guitar (easy guitar version--I'd have to live another hundred years to pick it like Gordon Lightfoot) to my bucket list.  What an exciting life I lead!

As I already wrote about Gordon Lightfoot in Vol. LVIII, I'll just note in this week's artist bio paragraph that Lightfoot released his twenty-first studio album in 2020 at the age of 81, and it came fifty-four years after the release of his debut album.  That's a hell of a run, folks.  I'd also like to mention that it is a damn shame that the Canadian Bob Dylan, whose songs and songwriting are widely revered in the music industry, is still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  What's a poor boy to do?

Fun Fact:  While Lightfoot is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Songwriting Hall of Fame in 2012 in New York...with Michigan's own Bob Seger.  That's two songwriting heavyweights--both have written a song that would easily br in emaycee's all-time top ten.

"If You Could Read My Mind" was released in 1970 on the album Sit Down Young Stranger (due to the success of the single, the album's title was eventually changed to If You Could Read My Mind, but being the anal-retentive curmudgeon I am, I'm sticking with the original).  The song reached #1 in Lightfoot's native Canada, and #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album peaked at #12 in both Canada and the United States.

I could note that "If You Could Read My Mind" features an understated yet heartfelt vocal that carries the song from beginning to end.  I could also note that Lightfoot's gentle acoustic guitar picking and the silky smooth strings that accompany him set a perfect tone for a song about a relationship that's ending.  But in the end, what truly makes the song remarkable is Lightfoot's lyrics, which solely from a craftsmanship standpoint rivals (and I say this without hyperbole) Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," Springsteen's "Born to Run," and Seger's "Night Moves."  Lightfoot deftly juxtaposes the relationship's partners (unfortunately for Lightfoot and his first wife, it's about their marriage) with a movie love story, and paints a sad tale of how, unlike movies, real life doesn't always have a happy ending.  I was in my fifties before I realized the true greatness of this week's tune, and I have spent the last several years making up for all the time I lost not listening to it enough.  A stellar offering from an underrated and underappreciated musician.

Lyric Sheet:  (This is one of my favorite sequences ever written in a song) "When you reach the part where the heartaches come/The hero would be me/But heroes often fail/And you won't read that book again/Because the ending's just too hard to take..."

Enjoy:

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Racists at the bat

There's no crying in baseball, except republicans

 In light of Major League Baseball moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta this season to protest Georgia's racist voter suppression laws, republicans led by Donald Trump are calling for their supporters to boycott baseball.

Not sure how much this is going to affect attendance because baseball is widely known as the thinking man's game, and your average republican has an IQ just north of the number of Christ's disciples (that's twelve for my republican readers...).  Besides, as stadiums begin to fill the bozos most likely to eschew wearing masks and infect other fans with the coronavirus because freedumb are members of the GQP.  They don't show up, makes us all safer and healthier.

Anyway you slice it, a baseball boycott by morons is a win-win for the rest of us.

Batter up!

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

The last refuge of scoundrels

 

Laura Ingraham did her best this week to prove Samuel Johnson's claim that "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrel" when she proclaimed that if Coke's CEO James Quincey didn't stop criticizing Georgia's new voter suppression laws "Patriots will choose another beverage."

Since trying to lead a coup against our duly elected government makes one a traitor instead of a patriot, my guess is the only patriots left are Democrats and we'll drink Coke all we want.

Besides, Coke doesn't make Pabst Blue Ribbon or Yoo Hoo so Ingraham's three viewers wouldn't have had to change their drink of choice anyway.

400,000 Needless American Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Say what?

Not this time...

 There was an excellent piece in the Daily Beast this week detailing how far America has fallen in happiness measurements, economic measurements, and health measurements when compared with the rest of the countries in our world.  Unfortunately, the piece blames baby boomers for these precipitous drops, presumably because so much of this has happened under our watch.

I'm not here to defend boomers--I'm one of them and I'd be the first to say we've had our ups and downs through the years in what we've accomplished.  However, this slippage is not one of them.  I will guarantee you that the blame for this begins and ends with the republican party, who, ever since the Reagan Devolution, have done everything they can to make sure our government does not work for the people.

If you look at any number of the polls cited in the piece, the countries showing better results than  America have governments that work hard to even the playing field for everyone, invest in their people and their infrastructure, and provide substantial social safety nets.  For the last forty years, the republican party has done everything it can to insure that benefits favor the wealthy and have decimated social service programs (the poverty rate in America has doubled since the Reagan years, which is a direct reflection of his administrations demonstrably false claim that government is the problem rather than the solution).

This, unfortunately, was made abundantly clear by Donald Trump's disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, aided and abetted by the gutless republicans who chose the free market over the health and welfare of the American people, which has left 566,000 Americans dead and countless more in dire economic straits.

If there is a silver lining, though, it's that the American people are waking up to the fact that if they're to have any hope for the future the government is going to have to invest in America.  The overwhelming support for Joe Biden's COVID-19 Relief Package and the early approval numbers for his infrastructure plan are proof positive that Americans are warming to policies that help them and not the wealthy and corporations.

And will most certainly improve our standing in the world.

400,000 Needless Deaths Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee

Creepy and crawly

A real life hairball

 It's hard, especially in light of defending the right of public companies such as Dr. Seuss Enterprises (racist books) and Hasbro (Mr. Potato Head) to make policy decisions they feel are in not only their but the public's best interest even if a few folks are upset by said policy decisions, to make too much of revelations that Ramsay Solutions (under the Lampo Group, LLC--they provide educational and training services to businesses) has terminated eight people (five of them men) in the past five years for engaging in premarital sex.  As a private corporation, they, like the aforementioned companies, are free to set policies such as they see fit.

Still, it's more than a little creepy that any company would feel it necessary to delve into such a private matter.  Even worse, how exactly (other than the young unmarried woman in their employ who became pregnant and who is currently suing them for discrimination) do you suppose they were able to uncover the fact that these folks were having premarital sex?  In a word...awkward!

As they sell services that I have no need for and my talents (you can call them that, I guess) aren't suited for employment with the Lampo Group, it probably doesn't matter all that much to me.  Any time, though, corporations are involved in this kind of overreach into their employees private lives it's more than a little unsettling and one hopes not a precedent (think QAnon or the republican party veering toward fascism) for others.

400,000 Dead Americans Because the Pro-Life Party Botched the Pandemic

Peace,

emaycee