This week during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing an actual federal lawmaker referred to rioters who beat, maimed, and killed Capitol Police officers as "peaceful patriots" who are now being harassed by the Department of Justice, while another actual federal lawmaker said, "You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." Both are obvious lies attempting to re-write recent history which has been documented on video and death certificates.
Forget the "cowardly" narrative, these craven power-mad fascist wannabes are actively trying to undermine reality, undermine Americans' faith in reality, undermine democracy, undermine Americans' faith in democracy, and normalize challenging any election that doesn't go their way. They are doing so because Republicans have realized that their policies are unpopular and will continue to grow less popular with time as the patriarchy is both actively and passively dismantled out from under them, weakening their already slim chances of winning national elections. No Republican has won the popular vote to become President since George H.W. Bush in 1988. As an incompetent incumbent Dubyah win the popular vote. Somehow. Regardless, the writing has been on the wall for decades hence the furious scrubbing of those walls now.
For those of us who believe that representative democracy (you know, "Truth, Justice, and The American Way") is the way to go, the GOP is a threat to our form of government and national security and must be treated as such.
Some of us thought that Nancy Pelosi should refuse to seat those members of Congress who voted to overturn the election, others thought that was too extreme. I don’t accept that using legal means to uphold the rule of law and remove from power those who oppose it is extreme. Considering the threat we face I’d suggest that is the very least we should do. I wonder if any from the latter group are now coming around to the idea. The longer this aggression against democracy is allowed to stand, fester, and grow, the more dangerous is becomes.
Congress is clearly too dysfunctional for the job making the establishment of an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate 1/6 imperative, and with 2022 just around the corner, pressing.
What Republican rule in this age of discarding the will of the people looks like was expressed in stark terms this week when the Republican Governor of Missouri reversed himself and spit on voters by refusing Medicaid expansion despite a ballot measure approved by Missouri voters. As if ignoring the will of the voters isn't bad enough, try to wrap your head around these numbers: Missouri currently requires that a family of three earn less than 21% of the federal poverty level (about $5400) to qualify for Medicaid, and Missourians who don't have children cannot qualify period. 53% of voters recently told their state government that they wanted that number raised to 138% of the poverty level. The Missouri state government has replied to said voters with a resounding "Fuck you."
Why do Republicans oppose Medicaid expansion? Because it is part of the ACA (aka Obamacare), and they can't let people see that the government can actually help people -- that reality undermines the malarkey they've been selling since Ronald Reagan. Being part of the ACA, 90% of these Medicaid expansion funds come from the federal government, meaning accepting them would save the state money by offering services for which Missourians now rely on state programs.Will their news sources point that out the fact that foolish, senseless cruelty like this is self-destructive and hurts the vast majority of Missourians? Hopefully the disturbing fact that their state government is defying what they just voted for will open their eyes to the reality of the situation.
Today we will debut new music by The Chills (Dunedin, NZ, @TheChills), Chris Connelly and Monica Queen (Edinburgh, Scotland, @Connelly_Chris), Lumiere (Montreal, Canada, @LUMIERE_1971), PACKS (Toronto, Canada), Pardoner (San Francisco, CA, @PardonerBandSF), Shannon and the Clams (Oakland, CA, @ShanAndTheClams), and Sunflower Caravan (Prague, Czech Republic, @SFCPrague).
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