Again, it happens: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) calls Major League Baseball's moving of its All-Star game out of Atlanta "economic terrorism." And here I thought Republicans would call that the free market in action! I kid, of course, but just you try making a killing self-publishing and watch Amazon call you a "literary terrorist." Or try growing your own organic tomatoes and watch Big Ag call you an "agricultural terrorist." Or, hell, just oppose whatever war our government wants to fight, and they'll call you "terrorist" without any qualifiers.
In a related note, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, reacting to a boycott of Home Depot for its so-far refusal to oppose Georgia's recent vote suppression law, says "This insanity needs to stop." It's "insanity" to boycott Home Depot? Gosh, where else will good Georgians buy silicone caulk and paint stripper? Last I looked, the First Amendment did not command me to spend money at any particular place of business. But keep being hysterical, Mr. Kemp; it's a really, really good look to the 75% of the electorate that isn't actually insane.
Ho hum, Nike responds to reports of its success in avoiding federal income tax last year by whining we do so pay a lot of taxes, like state and local taxes and customs duties. Which no one asked! Nike's own tax disclosures reveal that they actually got a $100 million-plus rebate. If you ask someone did you steal my money? and they respond by listing all the gifts they've ever given to anyone ever, you'd have every reason to be suspicious.
Actual economist Dean Baker finds the "alarm" over recent increasing government debt "misplaced." Pundits wring their hands over inflation and it never seems to come! Even in 2020, when government debt was a bigger chunk of national GDP since WWII, inflation went down, which makes sense when you remember how little you got around in 2020 or how anxious you were about whatever pile of money you had getting smaller. Right-wingers love saying how much they "understand human character," but too many of them, it often seems, don't understand how people get through. Money shot: "If we paid off the national debt, but left an economy in ruins and a devastated environment, we will not have done our children any favors."
Yesterday we said big corporations aren't falling out of love with Republicans like they might want us to think, but the estimable Kevin Drum will, at least, entertain the possibility that they are, and not for silly reasons -- "big corporations have mostly adopted the vaguely liberal 'responsible citizen' attitude of the majority of Americans," he says, not because they're so, so liberal, but "because their market research says this is what most people want." Still, Mr. Drum says, "businesses do still care about unions and regulations," and their hatred of both may keep them aligned with Republicans, if Republicans would just stop "upsetting the apple cart over trivial crap like Dr. Seuss and trans bathrooms that no one would care about if they'd just shut up about it." So, reports of corporate America abandoning Republicans are premature -- but the fissures between them will give us openings to do good works.
Finally, in a peripherally-related note, Charles Pierce at Esquire reminds us that "(w)e need to reckon with January 6 whether or not Republicans are prepared to participate." If that means "Democratic congressional majorities have to go it alone, then they should," and "(i)f Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice needs to be the venue for that reckoning, then so be it" -- but let's not wait for Republicans to take part in a reckoning that will look bad for them. I would go further: this reckoning means we must shun those friends and family who have spent the last couple of decades helping to create the climate of insanity that led to January 6. Republican politicians might never come around, but our friends and families might, once they find their worlds much smaller than before.
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