Jimmy, Stimmy & FOMO (podcast)

TRANSCRIPT FROM PODCAST:

Covid FOMO

Alright, friends, so the first thing on the agenda is something called COVID FOMO, which is alive and well in Northern Virginia, if you’re one of those fortunate people that live somewhere in the hinterlands where COVID doses are being rejected by other people, and you’re able to easily get one, Hooray for you. Because if you’re in Northern Virginia, good luck, because it’s basically, you know, you go around…you try to like find leftover doses that weren’t used. I mean, I’m literally starting to feel like some sort of a heroin addict looking to score (clip: I need a miracle)

Even when you want to just take a leftover vaccine, because you’re trying to not cheat the system like a lot of people have, and you keep wanting to do the right thing. And then these workers at these places, look at you like you’re trying to cut the line and push an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs, (clip: I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up)

So I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get this vaccine – I’m assuming at some point, before Jesus comes back. I’m hopeful. Anyway, COVID FOMO is real. I’m living it every day. For those of you who have a vaccine, I do not disparage you. I am nothing other than jealous. We will eventually get there. I’m trying to be a little more positive about this. It’s fresh – it’s a fresh wound.

The Cancel Culture Club

Second thing I want to talk about today are the ongoing culture wars. I turned on fox news yesterday. Give this a listen…

(Fox News CLIP: “What’s great in this piece is you say we’re at this cultural inflection point where we were asking ourselves really at the national level, if teenagers can look at Mr. Potato Head, and still trans teenagers can still look at Mr. Potato Head and retain their sense of self worth or if we can, as adults still watch Gone with the Wind. ..”)

Hold the phone – Are we though? In the middle of a national pandemic Are we really just focused on Gone with the Wind and Mr. Potato Head? I feel like we’re not. I feel like that’s what they want us to be focused on. In any regard, this was an interview with a guy who wrote a piece for the New York Post, an Op Ed that hinged on the premise that Gen X should be the ones to push back on the Millennials’ Cancel Culture, because we lived through the Cold War, and we understand the importance of freedom of speech. So he just blathered on about going back to the virtues and the values of the 1980s, and he kind of lost me, honestly, because I lived through the 1980s and I don’t think the word values is what would come to mind. The 80s were a lot of things – don’t get me wrong, the 80s were a lot of fun, but it wasn’t all big hair and parachute pants. The 80s had some pretty messed up stuff. I mean, racism was rampant. You could tell any kind of racist joke against ANY nationality, anybody different, anybody fat, anybody skinny, anybody tall, Anyone with a disability – either physical or mental. You definitely could openly discriminate against women – I don’t really think the 80s values is anything I would want to pass down to my kids. I’m sure this guy remembers it fondly, because he is a 50-something white dude. And from the looks of him, I don’t think he ever had to fight for anything – except for maybe his right to party. (Yeah, man). You know, the reason those John Hughes movies were so popular is because they were spot on. And this is the part where I’m really tempted to say, Oh, I never laughed at that stuff. Well, I did. I mean, I thought it was hilarious. But now as an adult, I can see that those kinds of values and stereotypes aren’t really things I want to pass on to my kids. I think a lot of Gen Xers feel that way. I mean, I guess unless you’re the author of this Op Ed, who clearly spent a lot of time at the mall with a pocketful of quarters in front of the Donkey Kong machine.

Dumbo’s Blunder

Anyway Disney has acquired the Muppets, and they have flagged a little bit of the content because there are some of the human guests like Johnny Cash in front of a confederate flag and things like that. So they aren’t censoring it out. They’re just giving a warning at the front end for parents who might not want their kids exposed. Disney is being overly cautious because they’ve gotten in a lot of trouble over the years for some of their older cartoons, in particular. You know, a lot of things were more socially acceptable 80 years ago than they are today. I believe that’s called progress. Anyway, so Dumbo is a story where the elephant’s difference actually becomes a superpower. So it’s a really redeeming story for kids, but there are parts of this story that are a little bit less morally inspiring, like this next clip…

(CLIP: Crows sing When I see an Elephant Fly from Dumbo)

Now I didn’t know this and I’m guessing you didn’t either, but the main character, the sort of Louis Armstrong slash blackface of audio, he has a first name, Mr. Crow. His first name is Jim…. As in Jim Crow. ( Feel free to click on the link. I couldn’t even believe it…)

So, yeah, I mean, it’s not a reach for Disney to say Oooooooh – we should NOT have done that. Making light of the Jim Crow laws, even back then, was a push – but now, they have no choice but to divorce themselves from that kind of open racism and hostility. This isn’t censorship… Disney made a business decision for the sake of civility and being a good corporate citizen. And let’s be really, really clear… President Biden isn’t speaking out on this, or Seuss or Mr. Potato Head or any of this stuff. You know why? Because he’s busy like running the country and he’s just not going to engage in this culture war stuff. The Democrats aren’t talking about this at all – they’re busy doing their jobs, like passing legislation and getting people vaccinated.

So Republicans yammering on about this stuff does a number of things for them… Number one, it helps their right wing media outlets get higher ratings, because the current right wing viewership is bored by mundane governance issues like taxes and policy. In other words, if it isn’t sexy and scandalous, if it doesn’t make you enraged, the base doesn’t have an appetite for it. It’s beginning to feel like the Republicans’ answer to everything is ‘let’s get back to the way it used to be’ the Good Old Days, regression, Family Values. They’ll say The radical left is destroying our nation… the very fabric of what we stand for. They hate America, they hate God, they hate our culture, blah, blah, blah. Don’t y’all see? It’s the same old crap that I shoveled for two decades of my life. It was BS then, and it’s BS now. It’s not real. It’s not true. The plain fact is that happy, contented, hopeful people don’t write political checks. Angry, embittered, fearful people do. Just this week, I got three different direct mail pieces about the Radical Left and how they’re destroying our culture, and they all mentioned Dr. Seuss. Every one of them. Culture, transgender this, transgender that – they’re trying to scare people, they’re trying to point out the “other.” They’re doing their best to convince you that whoever is on the other side… they’re threatening your way of life, they’re taking something away from you. And once they have convinced people of that, all that is left to do is to sit back and let the checks roll in.

The Upside of The Stimmy

Alright, this is getting really dark, let’s pick it up a little bit. So I know I talked about this last week, but I’m not sure I really fleshed it out. So here’s the thing… this Covid Relief bill is going to be a lifesaver for a lot of American families. It is going to allow people to avoid getting evicted from their homes and to be able to feed their kids to put food on the table. This is going to be really powerful for the working poor, and also for middle class folks who live pretty close to the edge – paycheck to paycheck. Ideally, we would direct assistance only to those in need, in the exact amounts they need and nothing else, but executing such an endeavor is almost impossible. So its going to err one way or the other – either people won’t get enough assistance and it will not sufficiently stimulate the economy (a la Herbert Hoover) or some people will receive checks who are not in dire need.

So if you get a stimulus check, even if you don’t need it, the purpose is for you to go spend it – get it out into the economy, go buy yourself a little something pretty. And maybe you can help one of the many, many struggling small businesses pull through this tough time and get through to the other side. And here’s the beautiful thing…

With the slimmest of majorities (it can’t really get a lot slimmer) Joe Biden just got everything he wanted. Well… everything except Republican support. Remember, Donald Trump passed two COVID relief bills with Democrat support, but Biden had to pass this relief bill without a single GOP vote. While one could argue that it contains waste and could have been better written, those same ‘conservatives’ were fine with Trump’s big fat bill and the checks printed with his name. It seemed like they just wanted to deny a victory for Joe Biden – it smacks of the blind partisanship that now defines the Republican Party. Even more offensive, there are actually Republican members out there trying to take credit for the money that’s going to be going to their district. Keep an eye on that too, because this is not okay. It’s standard operating procedure for the Post Truth Party…I’m going to vote against this and then I’ll go out and take credit for it, and nobody at home is going to be any the wiser, because we think you guys are a bunch of dummies.

So this is sweeping legislation and it could cut childhood poverty in this country by as much as half. HALF, y’all. As hard as it is to believe,

The thing thats even harder for me to process is that in the 117th Congress, which is Congress right now, 99% of Republicans are self proclaimed Christians. They claim to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the majority of them want to reduce spending on entitlement programs, because it’s important to enforce personal responsibility over handouts. You know, like Jesus said…

CLIP: I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. And behold, now I’m all lazy and entitled, you shouldn’t have done that. Do unto others, as you suspect they might want to do unto you….

I love me some GOP Jesus… see the full clip here. So this bill has a lot of good things in it for families. And despite what you might hear, this isn’t just another bailout for like, pimps and drug dealers in ne’er do wells. This is going to go to working families who strive and struggle and worry at night about how to put food on the table for their children. I don’t know what else is more Christian than that. This is a pro family bill. This is a pro child bill. And please remember… it passed without a single Republican vote. How do Republican followers of Jesus think it’s fine for children to starve in America, in America, the wealthiest country in the history of our planet? And more importantly, what do they actually think Jesus would have to say about it? I don’t mean this in a tongue-in-cheek way. I mean, it’s not even funny. I shouldn’t have even played that clip because it’s not funny. It’s heartbreaking. You don’t get to call yourself Pro Life and a Christian and then ignore the fact that a third of America’s children live in poverty. What do they propose doing about it? Nothing. What are they gonna say? They’re gonna change the subject. And here we go – right on cue – this week they started talking about Biden’s border crisis.

I could barely say that with a straight face. I mean, we all know, this just cropped up in the last 60 days, right? This, this immigrant thing hasn’t been a problem at all…(she says with a voice full of snark). Okay, here’s the deal. If I was terrified for my family, if I had just crossed plains and deserts and rivers with my babies on my back to save them from certain death and/or a life in the cartel, I probably would have waited until the soulless tyrant who wanted to throw them in cages was dethroned. And then I would come. So I guess in that way, it kind of is Biden’s fault. Because he’s not, you know… he’s not dead inside.

Illegal immigration has been a problem we’ve dealt with for decades. And it’s not merely because we’re so great, or because these people want a free ride. For many of them, it’s because they’re running from something that is so terrifying, It’s worth it for them to risk the journey. Think about that. Have you ever been scared enough to risk your life or the life of your children to upend your entire world, just for a tiny glimmer of maybe surviving?

We can’t imagine that. And if there’s anything in the world I can’t stand is listening to Christians, opine about immigrants. Those of us who won the cosmic lottery… who were born White, Christian, and in America…born into a life of comfort, if not excess…. we have no idea what that’s like. This is a problem that’s been with us a long time, and there are no easy solutions. But as Christians, the very least we can do is give a damn.

Weekly Push Backs

Alright, time for our weekly push backs. Push back Number one, the COVID vaccine: If you know people who are planning not to get the vaccine, please make them get the goshdang vaccine, okay? Otherwise, we’re never going to get rid of this thing, and it’s going to plague us forever, and it’s going to come back around – it’ll be terrible, and nobody wants that. So as soon as you are able, everybody get the vaccine and make your people get the vaccine. Pushback number two, voter fraud: If you still know people out there are that are convinced about voter fraud, have them take a look at Texas, Texas just investigated their 17 million ballots. And they did find some instances of irregularities… 16 to be specific. Not 1600 or 16,000 or 16 million, just 16. Once again proving that the voting process is free and fair – something the GOP evidently wants to change…

Which brings me to the thing to watch for… there are now 43 states that are considering changing the voting laws to make it harder to vote. It’s kind of ironic we talked about Jim Crow earlier in this episode, because that’s what this is. They are trying to make it harder for people to vote. That’s called voter suppression – Its not democratic and its not okay. One last thing, if you’re a Gen Xer like me, I didn’t mean to put down that op ed guy from Fox News with his Donkey Kong habit. It’s just that I’m more of a Pac Man girl myself.

Have a great week. Stay safe. Hope the sun is shining wherever you are. I’ll talk to you next time. Thanks for listening

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This episode explores Fox News’ fascination with Dumbo and the Muppets, the 1980s, the Stimulus Package, and the pursuit of the ever-elusive Covid vaccine.

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