Independence Day
Let's celebrate nothing
So, the promised back-to-back newsletters didn’t materialize, but really who’s surprised. Every time I’ve told you guys I’ll do something I haven’t, which you know is pretty characteristic of me. The only times I write this are when I’m really upset or really inspired and those things shockingly aren’t an everyday occurrence. Here we are and I’m feeling the writing so let’s hop right in. In addition, I moved 500 miles this week so give me a break.
Also, I should throw in that it’s July 4th and no I’m not proud to be an American today. Patriotism stops when we’re locking kids in cages, and I can’t feel “patriotic” when scores of innocent migrants are dying in our hands. Make no mistake, this isn’t their fault, it’s ours. With the debates already here it’s a good reminder that we need to fix this in 2020, or it will only get worse.
Every billionaire is a policy failure
The June debates are done and every idiot like me now has to just sit on our hands until the July debates or something. Unfair. Anyways, of course I have some thoughts on Miami Heat Part 2 and some more thoughts on Miami Heat Part 1.
Chiefly, who the hell encouraged Joe Biden to run. If a 76-year-old man came up to me and asked me to help him run for city council I’d say no. Any 76-year-old is too old and out-of-touch, no question. If it was one who loves to brag about how great his bipartisanship was because he could hang with segregationists, I’d kindly suggest he go hit the mid-afternoon blue plate special at MCL.
Joe isn’t the answer, and his smackdown by Kamala was, if anything, fun to watch. It’s very very clear that she was waiting on him to get a race question and to pounce. Full props to her team for that foresight as it worked. I don’t think Kamala is the answer, her time as a prosecutor and AG rub me the wrong way, but she’s sure as hell a better choice than old Joe.
Outside of them I saw pretty much nothing of interest on night 2. Marianne in no universe should have qualified, and is now being propped up with Republican donations. Cool, glad she won’t come close to making Debate 3 Democratic Redux in September (that one finally has strict qualification guidelines).
After the debates the only clear answer is until further notice I’ll be supporting Liz Warren. She has good, sound policy. Understands what this country needs going forward, and only flaw is a dumb DNA test she took which couldn’t matter less. The narrative that she can’t beat Trump is asinine.
This is a candidate who is more populist in policy than Trump ever was, populist in that she would actually help the people. Her taxing billionaires and breaking up big tech is exactly what we need, wallet be damned. Listening to this is inspiring, and what this country needs right now. I just hope more people see the light and run for the hills from Joe.
Niraj [Update]
I’ve decided I can’t write one of these without dunking on Niraj Antani. After all, he just makes it SO easy. Imagine my surprise while checking twitter following last weeks edition of this newsletter.
In it, I talked a bit about vaccines and how RFK Jr. getting media coverage for speaking at the Statehouse was idiotic. And as what I’m now calling the, “Niraj Rule,” if I call something dumb he, by nature, has to do something in support of it. In this case, it was meeting with the anti-vax man himself. It’s a good thing Niraj will never have to worry about vaccinating his kids or not. Folks, I literally cannot look away from this photo.
There is nothing in here that is not ungodly funny. The bad Republican presidents poker photo in the back, the creepy smile on RFK Jr., the Ohio for Romney hat, literally everything is truly awful. Thank you Rep. Antani for giving me an adult version of, “spot the difference,” except it’s, “spot the insane cringe.”
In vaccine related news, I wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the Columbus Dispatch about last weeks vaccine article that got published. Give it a read by all means, I figured ranting to my newsletter isn’t yet quite a big enough reach. (Please share this newsletter with your friends and have them sign-up so it is, that’d be cool.)
Lock her up
Last week some video went viral of a lady licking ice cream and putting it back on the shelf. I haven’t watched it and don’t even know where to link it so you’ll have to just take my word for it. I avoid every viral video as much as humanly possible.
Apparently, this woman is facing jail time for this disgusting act. Yeah that’s fine, it’s a public safety hazard and she should face some consequences for it. But, wait a second, she’s facing 20 years in prison for this. (She will not receive this, it’s a sensationalist headline that’s used by calculating the total maximum time for the charged crimes.)
Now clearly, it’s messed up that our criminal justice system would even have a maximum sentence for someone accused of this be 20 years in prison. “Prison” at its core needs to be about rehabilitation. Locking someone in a cage for 20 years, throwing away the key, and keeping them very isolated does not in fact accomplish anything.
For anyone involved in the criminal justice system there needs to be thoughtful rehabilitation and not a lock ‘em up mentality that does nothing. It’s shocking that, “fiscal,” Republicans love locking people up, despite the fact that it’s a massive waste of money. Republicans and wasting money, name a better combo.
Unsurprisingly the replies to that tweet focus very heavily on why this is a fair sentence for this woman. Yes, what a win for society, we’re locking up the true menaces.
Did she do something outrageously stupid- yes. Should we be locking anyone short of rapists/murderers/pedophiles et. al. in prison 20 years- NO. This isn’t rocket science, it’s about having a fair and responsive system where rehabilitation is the goal and we don’t just contribute to the problem more.
Now you’re saying wait a second, did you just apply a macro issue to a woman eating ice cream- yes I did, I was planning on ranting about criminal justice reform soon anyways. It just happens to be way more interesting to people when it’s someone licking ice cream.
The Rest
Thanks for bearing with me for another week, despite working full-time I will do my best to get back to regularly scheduled programming. There’s a lot to talk about lately and if you learn a single thing from this rag I’m glad I could help.
The trivia section of this has been postponed until I make a new friend group and start going to trivia regularly. Don’t worry, this is already in progress.
See you next week, and remember the police are not your friends and are directly complicit with perpetrating systemic racism!