Who's gonna work & let the economy grow if we all hang out in the street? Well, I don't know & I don't care, just as long as it ain't me.

 I'm in a fairly foul mood, so fair warning. The world is a mess, this country is filled with dingbats, this state is run by cheap grifters, and I'm still not getting enough decent sleep.

 I'm not linking to it, but Cenk Uygar tweeted out how if we get a Democratic president "with balls," they'd completely cut off the Red States and make them come begging for federal aid so as to punish them for electing Republicans as state leaders. You see this a lot, people wanting the South to secede again or arguing that they should've never been allowed back in the union. If they have any shame at all, they'll claim they're "just blowing off steam" over frustration at how denizens in those states always managed to screw it for the rest of us. They don't mean it, they claim.

 And that is, of course, complete bullshit. Mean it or not, just saying it - even to "blow off steam," deservedly or not - just shows you how much they don't care. And I'm not talking about white liberals/leftists being cast adrift. Nearly 40% of Mississippi's population is African American. Atlanta and New Orleans, along with having large black populations, are havens for LGBT folks. And it's not just the "undocumented workers" packing your food and picking your vegetables. The most red Midwest and West has an enormous Chicano population, most who can trace their families back before there was an America, much less a "progressive movement" much less a suburban middle class.

 And speaking of time spent compared to middle-class honkies, there are still plenty of Native tribes in red states who have been screwed, blued and tattooed by the federal government, sure, but the states don't have the best record, either. Probably what made for the final blow for Bernie Sanders' 2020 nomination run was giving up on the South just before Super Tuesday. The argument, not necessarily from him but definitely from his lieutenants, was that since the South was going red in November anyway, there was no reason to bother with them. And people wonder why Southern black folks went overwhelmingly for Biden.

 Bringing it all back around to Uyagr's nonsense, there is and has been a large strain bourgeoisie attitude towards anyone who didn't come up middle-class white and from the suburbs. You can deny this all you want, but I've seen it go all the way back to the implosion of the Greens after Ralph Nader (who's leftist bonafides are suspect to say the least). They put a few people in elected positions in a few cities, all of whom were out the door before Bush's first term was over. Then they sit on their thumbs before rolling out Dr. Jill Stein in 2016 to get stomped and then embezzled money that was supposed to go to a state recount, and that's the last we heard of it.

 Again, I'm in a bad mood and will probably regret this, but outside of work in certain cities and decent-sized towns, the "progressive movement" in America is horseshit geared more for yuppie spawn to pretend like they care until they knock each other up and start worrying about "safer neighborhoods". They don't really care about Southern or Western states, they don't care about rural areas, and concern for urban areas is more lip service than anything else while they pretend "medicare for all" and "American foreign policy".

And I hate to break it too y'all, but the money made off "American foreign policy" has way, way too much swing in this country to be too much damaged by one dude. Sanders would've fallen in line or wound up dead in a ditch. Neither he nor Elizabeth Warren were that big a danger to the groups of people who make money off blowing up brown people across the sea. I don't know how you goofballs think Jesse Ventura's the new Great White Hope of "progressive politics" when he's as much as anyone is involved with the worst horrors of the Bush Jr. Administration. Look up Paul Wellstone, Norm Coleman, how conservative media battered "The Body" into giving the GOP the edge in the Senate, and well... there you go.

 The flip side of this is, of course, the right-wing dingbats who're losing their absolute shit at being asked to hunker down for a bit so the people they actually want to go back to work die from the COVID-19. They're screaming at cashiers, physically attacking game wardens, and some poor bastard was shot to death just for asking folks to wear a goddamn mask. Even when employees are offering the mask the goons are losing their shit. And why? So Karen and Andrew can get a haircut. They're saying it's a "Constitutional" thing, and you know? That's just too dumb to dig into.

 It's been said that this whole push by right-wing politicians and pundits who can stay inside all they want are pushing this and getting the hoi polloi worked up so they can get workers fired and cut their unemployment insurance. This sort of strike would allow them to go further, cutting health insurance and employee safety regulations. Far as I can tell, this scans fairly well. Part of the appeal of being the Upper Class is the chance to enact cruelty on the plebes. And that's one of the main legs of the Republican Party. Cruelty is the point.

 "Matt, you're letting liberals and centrists off the hook." No, because y'all got that covered. I've seen enough chants of "fake news" and "liberals suck" from red roses that I'm pretty confident that, like the MAGAts, they didn't start paying attention to politics until around 2013 or so. Furthermore, they haven't put any effort into learning the history of American politics, much less how it operates from day to day. How the sausage is made, in other words. None of us are innocent, and facing the truth of American politics reminds people of that. Everyone wants to be the hero and no one wants to admit they're just another person keeping their head down.

A lot of this is why I have an affection for anarchism. It's not perfect and there are flaws or places where reality is just flat-out ignored in favor of ideology. However, I don't have to pick a group to join with to pretend I'm not guilty as everyone else. In any event, everyone should read more Emma Goldman, I don't think anyone can argue that. And, lord-a-mighty, do not get me started on just how dumb and ignorant the whole "MSM sucks/fake news" thing people don't want to bother to understand because if they're not going to spoon fed, then they'll kick the bowl away. It's easier than having to use your brain.

 Okay, got that off my chest. Heading back to the world of XCOM and XCOM: Chimera Squad and ignore the rest of the world. If I can remember it, tomorrow's News will focus on just how badly screwed Tate Reeves is with regards to the welfare scandal that's popped up. Hey, we made The New York Times. Big time, baby.