Ode To A Serious

Part 3: Continuing the celebration for International Women's Day

During Women’s History Month and continuing my tribute to women and Marlene, it’s still important to keep an eye on the news stream. Among other things, it’s nice to see the Biden-Harris Rescue and Relief Plan pass. Presidents traditionally get 100 day honeymoons and it took half that time for Biden, Harris, Pelosi and Schumer to get that historic piece of legislation passed while the entire Republican patrty stuck their fingers in their ears and their thumbs up their buts and told Americans to go Eff themselves. Gotta wonder what else the Democrats can achieve in the next 50 days.

Getting Merrick Garland in as AG and Kristen Clarke in as the Assistant AG for Civil Rights will also be hugely important if the latter gets in. Not only hate group terrorists can be prosecuted, but racist police, racist landlords and racist city governments with a good group of justice leaders. They can also go after similar groups and businesses who discriminate against women. And should.

Among the prosecutions I look forward to, I think a Marine vet who served as “crew chief for the presidential helicopter squadron, a highly restrictive unit that requires a top-secret security clearance” certainly will be one to watch. Insurrection is a pretty bad career move for guys like that.

It’d be nice if Congress had something with more teeth than the Ethics Commission to deal with lawmakers who may be complicit in the same Insurrection effort. It’d be nice to end the Mo, Lauren, and Paul Show. We deserve more than that cheap knockoff of the Three Stooges. (Viagra Falls! Slowly we turn, schlep by schlep…..)

A second state, Oklahoma, is advancing a bill to establish the important Right To Run Over Protestors. This should be called the Screw Heather Heyer Bill. By Okie Yokel definition, blocking a roadway constitutes ‘a riot’. Merle Haggard would not be amused.

But even in the cosmopolitan state of New York, there are lawmakers who should quit, be recalled or run into prison cells asap. Andrew Cuomo is a clear and present danger to women. He’s also a disgrace to his father’s legacy, a guy known for his politically risky but principled stand against the death penalty. I’m not easily impressed like some others are by moments when a Boss Tweed stands up to Boss Tweet. Machine Politics is just so 19th century with its quaint bosses and such.

Meanwhile, ‘The Sleepy Don of the Mobsters’ is busy playing kingmaker, announcing candidates he intends to back. Trying to recruit Herschel Walker is notable because that could complicate future Georgia races for the US Senate. Sleepy Don is doing all he can to diminish the powers of other Congressional Republican PACs to advance their choices for their leadership pool. Clearly, his disregard for American lives and his world record levels of incompetence qualifies him for this MiniMental task. I just hope the famed Georgia running back is smart enough to resist the Sleepy Don’s appeals. It’s an advisable end run since the majority of Georgia’s voters are smart enough to prevent the endeavors of the relentless racist control freak with the Krylon Gold hair.

Sometimes I think I should try similar Republican scams. The ongoing efforts of Marjorie Toyer Greene are the highest form of entertainment on Nutflicks. She ran for Congress on a platform of “Gonna Fuck Shit Up” which proved so popular that the House stripped her of committee assignments so she has very limited capacity to do that job description thing of legislating stuff that Georgians and other Republicans might like. Now she keeps herself busy trying to impede all other US Representatives, even the Republican ones. Both parties are joining forces to overcome her silly antics.

I kinda wonder, too, if her so-called ‘husband’ is actually her pimp who keeps her extramarital affairs in order. Or maybe he’s another Chance The Gardener Falwell Jr who just likes to watch.

What makes it richly entertaining is how she still is successfully raking cash in despite all of it. It’s tempting to me. I could run for Congress by flicking the nuts of a cardboard Trump, getting laid on the regular and once in office, hire staff to tell me when I’m needed somewhere but mostly just do nothing but stand in the middle of doorways all pouty faced. I mean, EVERYBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO DO THAT in our Land of Opportunity and it sure beats subsisting on drive thru Pink Slimeburgers and Freedom Fries. Anyone out there willing to pay my filing fee? Just look how big this sockroll is in my pants! (And speaking of pink slime, anyone know where Stephen Miller is lately?)

Greene is not alone. Lauren Boebert is regulary seen sporting her arsenal on Capitol grounds, assuring Congress that she can defend them better than the National Guard can.

>> Lauren Boebert has come under fire for an attack advert against Nancy Pelosi – with shooting sound effects included.

The advert, released by the Colorado congresswoman on Tuesday, immediately drew criticism for featuring shooting sound effects at the end.

It calls on Ms Pelosi, the speaker of the House, to “tear down” the security fence that currently circles the US Capitol Building. <<

Now I wholly advocate women getting self-defense training to ward off rapists and racists and real estate heirs, including the use of arms with essential training, because such dangerous men remain in too much abundance. But Lauren, please.

Your act might suit your Colorado Springs constituents permanently deranged by Cold War paranoias, but it also seems pretty immature and childish. You’re no Annie Oakley. Got anything besides stage props in your bag, Lauren? I mean, even my popcorn is getting cold and stale. An intermission would help. Or an intervention.

Everyone in both major parties is well aware that the country requires immigration rules and plans to permit people to become Americans without risking the overrun of our resources, natural and economic ones. Since about 1996, ppresidents from both parties have done a fair job at reducing undocumented immigration. Yet Congressional Do-Nothings continue to impede sensible ways to give Dreamers a path to citizenship, preferring to threaten the innocent with deportation orders.

It’s not real news that Republican Congress Players intend to stage Southern Border Photo Ops to shed light on the fact that playing on racial fears is still a successful way to get re-elected. But it’s still not a sensible way to act like adults or display real leadership.

Biden and Harris can’t solve decades of political immaturity in 50 days. I mean, get real. It’s gonna take another 50 days to achieve that. So let’s skip the theatrics until May. That buttery oil on our popcorn’s getting pretty rancid so please stahp.

Finally, there’s the whole pandemic thing, which still should take precedence over all the other stuff. Two months of decline is great and impressive as hell. But serious problems continue to exist.

First, the state and county methods of notifying people is a total mess in mulltiple places. Getting people to pre-register should mean, when one thousand doses are available, notifications should ONLY be sent to a slightly larger number, like 1,050.
Instead, tens of thousands get notified, causing a rush on computer systems and most fail to secure a vaccination appointment. Haven’t system designers incorporated math or human psychology into their Cliff Notes yet?

Secondly, Covid-19 has yet to raise a white flag of surrender. The massive rise in new cases in Brazil is frightening. After you check that chart at Worldometers, take a look at the fresh rises occurring in the charts of India, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Germany, too.

While I continue to monitor the states that are flattening rather than declinining further, I gotta add that we’re seeing red flags that Michigan is reversing and starting to rise. We’re likely to see more of that in other states in the next two weeks, too.

We race forward with vaccine rollouts trying to dampen those rises so they can be tamped down quicker than before. Mid-March till mid-June will be crucial in that quest. Which means, whether it’s school or business reopens, we should be careful to avoid one-size-fits-all approaches. Every state and school district is unique and it’ll require multiple approaches to meet the needs of children, working parents, educators and businesses.

If we can’t agree on that, more Americans will die. Let’s not go that path again. Maintaining universal safety protocols with larger public groups makes good sense, but beyond that, it’s time to customize better to fuly defeat Microbastard-19.

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Expect more newsletters today. I’m investing more efforts this week because it’s important to pay our tributes and respect. Women have built this country and world as much as men have. Let’s just stop silly efforts to quantify who has done more as that misses the point entirely.

As Spring approaches (and at a personal level, as my 3 month battle with insomnia fades), you can expect to see positive changes in this newsletter, too. With several other excellent newsletter writers, Tik-Tok creators, podcasters and other infotainment outlets afoot, it’s taken awhile for me to determine the topical array and publishing schedule that will distinguish mine.

After a year filled with pandemic and civil rights protests, violent hate group terrorism and anarchistic government approaches that promise to reform bureaucracies but deliver greater government inefficiencies and a horrific waste of human lives, this week should be a time of respite and reflection. Many of us have sustained awful losses and traumas and miss the comforts of healthy human interactions like hugging our friends and family.

That’s why I’ll continue to add extra music this week, music that can be healing and pursue the healing of hope and optimism. Everyone needs that for balance and better health.

If anything in my newsletters this week brings a smile to your face, please share that with others you care about. I bet they need some R & R too.

Rachel Price and Lake Street Dive put out this new release this morning.

And here’s another Rainbow from two days ago.

If you prefer Brit references and scandalous humor unfit for your workplace - but potentially perfect for Zoom conferences - there’s this, from two weeks ago.

Bon Appetit! And subscribe for more treats and recipes ahead.