NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER LOVER'S DAY UPDATES
And Who (Except Those With Allergies, Sad Face) Doesn't Love Peanut Butter!?
-Today I start with a Point of Personal Privilege, and give a gigantic tip of my hat and virtual hug to my friend Marianne Lalonde. Marianne ran for Alderperson of the 46th Ward four years ago and lost the runoff by 25 votes against a terrible incumbent, then came back to run a truly fantastic race for an open seat against five other solid candidates. Two of those candidates are in the runoff, neither of them Marianne - heartbreaking for her and for all of us that worked for her, but proud of the races she ran which helped set the table for a new Alderwoman to do better. Hopefully she sees this after a long and well-deserved sleep, because she will continue to work with and serve her ward and her neighbors - because she is That Damn Good. Y'all should be blessed enough to have someone like her in your corner and YOU ROCK, MARIANNE!!
-Speaking of bleak news, Supreme Court observers marveled as the challenge to President Biden's proposed executive action to forgive student loan debts to over 40 million Americans were met with what they felt were absurdly weak arguments to kill it that, thanks to the radical right-wing six-member majority, still looked likely to kill the program. Two cases were brought, one by two students who demonstrably would not suffer one iota if the debt forgiveness were made, the other by six GOP states claiming economic hardship even they admitted wouldn't be all that hard. The program, initiated as part of the COVID relief programs Biden introduced, looks to be struck down because, well, the six SCOTUS majority appears ready to OWN DA LIBZ by killing a massively popular program on very weak grounds, thereby further pushing younger voters away from the GOP.
-Meanwhile, the UltraMAGA hearings promised to them in exchange for the votes to put Kevin McCarthy (SINO, CA) as House speaker continued yesterday, to continued comic effect. A hearing about "open borders" led to UltraMAGA leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) to insist that the White House's historic seizures of fentanyl at American borders was ... proof that the White House was weak on border security (accompanied by mangling several statistics)? A hearing about the "weaponization of the federal government" that was supposed to show collusion between the FBI and the White House to stop Ex-President Trump from doing things became a steady demand by Democrats to investigate the weaponization of the Attorney General's office under former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr. And a hearing designed to "expose" "proof" that the COVID vaccine was released from a lab in China was flipped into pointing out that, even if that were true (and there is NOT scientific consensus on that), the facts were that in the earliest days of COVID the President at the time continuously downgraded the COVID threat and praised China's handling of the crisis - and the President at the time was NOT Joe Biden. (Is there enough popcorn for all of this?)
-As the revelations of the knowledge of the highest executives of Fox Corporation that its Fox News hosts were spreading misinformation about the 2020 Presidential election, there was another revelation equally ethically (if not legally) damning: that producers at Fox News regularly gave the Trump campaign information about advertising purchases by the Biden campaign and even early screenings of ads as part of the "news network's" support of the Trump campaign. Whether there violate any rules or laws is unclear, but those who follow Fox News exploits are undoubtedly not at all surprised.
-The aforementioned revelations came as part of the Dominion Corporation's defamation lawsuit against Fox News, and questions have been asked about whether the revelations could result in actual damage to Fox. True, the $1.6 billion figure is not totally difficult for Fox to pay if need be - but other legal analysts point out that this figure does NOT include potential punitive damages, which as we saw in the Sandy Hook defamation suits against hate podcaster Alex Jones can be in multiple billions. So ... maybe?
-THIS JUST IN: Eli Lily announced they will now charge patients $35 per month for its insulin. The 70% cut brings its price in line with prices now charged to patients over 65 and using Medicare and Medicaid, and represents a private corporation making a move under pressure from the White House, who was ready to try to do so by legislative action.
-Let's end on that good news!
-On this date in 1872, Yellowstone became America's first National Park. On this date in 1932, the child of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped out of his home in New Jersey. On this date in 1961, the Peace Corps was founded. And on this date in 1973, Pink Floyd's THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON was released - and is still on the Billboard Album charts.
-Happy Birthday to Frederic Chopin, Glenn Miller, David Niven, Harry Caray, Ralph Ellison, Dinah Shore, Robert Lowell, Yitzhak Rabin, "Deke" Slayton, Pete Rozelle, Robert Clary, Harry Belafonte, Jacques Rivette, Robert Conrad, Roger Daltrey, Alan Thicke, Catherine Bach, Ron Howard, Timothy Daly, Nik Kershaw, Javier Bardem, Chris Webber, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Lupita Nyong'o, Kesha, Justin Bieber, and Tyreek Hill.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Jackie Coogan, Joe Besser, instant photography inventor Edwin Land, Jack Wild, Bonnie Franklin, Alain Resnais, Minnie Minoso, and Jack Welch.
-Feed the Worms: Robert Bork, whose decision to execute Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre and arch-conservative Constitutional views led to his failure to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice (and got his name enshrined as a verb as a result) entered Earth on this date. Misinformation purveyor Andrew Breitbart left Earth on this date.