Friday, May 7, 2021

Look, y’all. I stayed up all night last night getting a mess of Actual Paying Work done, the first big wad I’ve had since December. Therefore, I checked out the rest of the day and only paid the slightest bit of attention. Furthermore, I’m still a bit fuzzy-headed. It’s true what they say about middle age in that doing all night what you used to do all night with no problem will shut you down the next day. Bummer.

 But never mind all that. We got some interesting stuff to look at today so let’s get this News knocked out. The ongoing GOP drama got a new wrinkle. As we recall, the Republican Party is madder than an old wet hen at Colorado Representative Liz Cheney for daring to criticize Trump’s culpability in the January 6 Great American Temper Tantrum, where a bunch of MAGA’s finest stormed the Capitol building where then Vice-President Mike Pence was holding the traditional and entirely ceremonial validation of electoral votes from the previous election. Last November, of course, Joe Biden and 81 million people stomped a mudhole in the widely loathed Trump to become the 46th President of the United States.

 Of course, Trump still hasn’t lost fair and square, nor have his cult followers. They’re still trying to divide by zero seven months after it was all decided even though there was no evidence of wrongdoing except, ironically enough, from Trump voters. The main issue, though, was a double-handful of GOP House members who tried to protest/halt/change the vote count as well, giving credence to the conspiracy theory. One of those folks was Elise Stefanik from New York.

 Previously, Stefanik was one of Trump’s more vocal critics in the GOP and considered its most liberal Representative. However, she saw the light and made a hard turn into the Cult of Trump, becoming one of the Former Guy’s biggest cheerleaders. Most of Trump’s critics have been brought to heel with Cheney as the lone standout, which is why Stefanik is being pushed to replace her as the House GOP’s number three.

 Now. I said all that to say all this. For one, it came out today that Cheney led the charge against a plan by the Trump people to use the military to interfere in political disputes, something that’s only happened at the start of the Civil War. She got the backing of all living former Defense Secretaries, including her rat bastard of a father. We knew this was an idea, but this news suggests it was closer to happening than originally thought. She also circulated a piece debunking the claims made by Trump partisans about the election was rigged when it wasn’t.

 As for Stefanik, she announced today that if she got the position of House Republican Conference Chair, she’d only serve out the remainder of Cheney’s term. That’d mean she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2022 and, instead, plans to take over the House Education and Labor Committee, one of the more powerful facets of the Lower House. If one were cynical, one might say this was either typical politician horse feathers or a fine example of backroom wheeling and dealing in action. If one were cynical, that is, but does anyone doubt the sincerity of the Republican Party in this day and age?

 Moving on, my main man Ashton Pittman wrote up an excellent piece for the superlative Mississippi Free Press on the Mississippi National Day of Prayer. Connected to the National Day of Prayer, the event brought together Evangelical politicians, business leaders, and actual church folk together to emphasize the need for more Christians in the public sphere. Specifically, their definition of Christians, which is actually fairly narrow.

 The event focused on the “seven mountains” philosophy created by the New Apostolic Reformation movement, emphasizing the need to take over the “seven spheres” of public life by the proper type of Christians. It’s very heavy into the whole idea that the End Times are on the way and was championed by former White House Official Bible Thumper Paula White, an ex-Tupelo native, how about that. This movement started out in California, by the way, before anyone gets any cute ideas. Really, friends and neighbors, check out Ashton’s piece and read Jeff Sharlet’s The Family if you haven’t already. This ain’t no joke and it certainly ain’t your Mommaw’s weekly church meeting. These folks do not play.

 Anyhow. There’s been a bit of hoo-hah about a “labor shortage,” particularly among lower-wage jobs such as restaurant work. The argument goes these businesses can’t find workers not because of the shit pay and shittier working conditions – breaking your neck for a business that considers you overhead and waiting on jabronis that consider you lower than scum – it’s because everyone’s living fatback high up on the hog thanks to the extended unemployment benefits.

 However, studies on the matter say that’s not so. It’s more likely last year’s pandemic taught a whole lot of folks that The Way Things Are is off and they’ve used the opportunity to find better-paying gigs. Either way, it’s probably way too soon to really say for sure, but that hasn’t stopped conservatives from bellyaching that not enough people are bringing them iced tea on demand. In any event, South Carolina and Montana have found a “solution” to this “problem”: stop the distribution of the federally funded stimulus money.

 This will drop the unemployment benefits back down to pre-stimulus levels for regular workers as well as cutting off the money gig workers received, leaving them to swing in the wind. Montana announced early this week their intentions to halt all distribution come June 27 and South Carolina said they’re working on when. Both states have Republican governors, of course, and as of now, it’s unknown how this will work out or if it will run into issues because of the federal funding. If nothing else, it gave Karens and Chads across the country a mutual orgasm, and that may be enough.

 In better news, after eight years of fighting against it, the Alabama Legislature sent a medical marijuana bill to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk today. It passed in the Senate by a vote of 21-8 after just 15 minutes of debate and in the House by 68-34. The idea was first brought up in 2013 but was considered the “deadliest bill” introduced to the House that year because Alabama.

 This would make Alabama the second state to legalize medical marijuana if the Mississippi state government doesn’t figure out a way to screw up our bill, which passed with overwhelming support last election. Interestingly, if passed, it would only allow creams and pills, that sort of thing, not for smoking or vaping. If I had to bet, I’d say it’s fairly likely Gov. Ivey will sign off on the bill. She’s as big a Trumper as Tate Reeves, but not quite as dumb, so there’s that.

 Have a nice weekend, y’all.