So the latest January 6 hearings have established fairly well that our former “stable genius” President knew full well that he’d lost the 2020 election, and spread lies about it anyway for the express purpose of overturning the result (and the will of the American voters). Epistemological hand-wringing aside, one would think “Trump Knew” would be a fairly important fact – our media have long suggested that Donald Trump didn’t really get that he lost, because insanity – yet I wonder if this fact will resonate with very many more voters. Your right-wing acquaintances will deploy a lot of stupidity – “they think that’s news?,” “I’m tired of hearing about this already,” “what’s the big deal now that we know the system worked?” – to prevent it from resonating; you can ignore it, except, of course, if it sways your friends and family.
And now, after much hilarity, British Prime Minister Liz Truss has not only abandoned plans to cut taxes for the rich, but she’s even re-embraced a plan to hike corporate taxes Recent polling has shown an almost absurdly large lead for the opposition party, Labour – seriously, I’ve never seen a party get over 50% in a British poll! – but luckily for Ms. Truss, she doesn’t have to face the voters again until January 2025. I suppose she could always push for Scottish independence in the meantime, since that would seriously hamper Labour from forming a government. Or she could call a snap election tomorrow! That would be some chutzpah, but chutzpah may be all the Tories have left.
Another day, another reminder that executive pay has risen far, far faster than working families’ pay, i.e., your pay. CEO pay went up an inflation-adjusted 1,460% from 1978 to 2021, while worker wages went up a mere 18.1% during that time – I wonder how many Costco memberships Paul Ryan says that’ll buy! – and, you know, workers are a lot more productive than in the old days, while bosses are a lot more useless. As a bonus, the article reminds us that when Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he’s raising rates to “get wages down,” he means your wages, because he certainly doesn’t mean the wages of big corporate CEOs. The article further reminds us that Sen. Sanders (I-VT) put forth a bill that would have at least raised corporate tax rates for corporations that paid their CEOs too much, but neither the Democratic-held House nor Democratic-held Senate would vote on it. Then again, think a Republican-held House or Senate would vote on that? That is to laugh.
Uh oh: Ohio Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance loses a fundraiser after Spectrum News informs his campaign their intent to report that the fellow hosting the fundraiser was “one of several Ohio pain doctors cited in a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and others for the amount of opioids they prescribed and the amount of money they received from major drug companies.” And the best the Vance campaign could do in response was say hey, he’s not in jail, which resembles a lot of folks' best defense of Donald Trump these days. This could make all of Tim Ryan’s stiff ads about opioids more effective, but really, nobody should lose to a pretend redneck who couldn’t escape Ohio for the bankster world fast enough.
Sen. Ron Johnson (E-WI) had quite the night during his second debate with Democratic nominee Mandela Barnes, getting laughed at for (among other reasons!) saying that “the FBI set (him) up with a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me” when warning him that he was a “target” of Russian propaganda. “The FBI set me up” is already a social media meme, but I still suspect Ron Johnson will win this race, no matter how many debate audience members mock him, because I don’t think Mandela Barnes is ready for prime time. I’d be happy to be wrong! Because nobody should lose to a man who gives the “Citizen Legislator” a bad name.
Finally, Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger Herschel Walker, vying for a Senate seat representing Georgia, faced off in a debate Friday night. Lowering expectations and saying “(t)his race ain’t about me” were smart moves on Mr. Walker’s part, of course, and “there was a baby in that room” was a pretty good retort, too, but I don’t think any of these moves will get him more votes. On the other hand, Sen. Warnock decisively won the insulin debate, not just because Mr. Walker said “you got to eat right,” which helps no one who was born diabetic, but because Sen. Warnock turned his ire on big pharma, and that will win Sen. Warnock more votes. And finally a Democrat says corporate profits help cause inflation! I mean, it’s almost too late for that message.
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