I would've joined the circus if I wanted to work with a clown.

  Man, May sort of snuck up on us, didn't it? I doubt I'm the only person to point this out, but it's an interesting stroke that May Day as a holiday to celebrate workers was due to something that happened in the United States but we've never celebrated it on a national level. Regardless, happy May Day, friends and neighbors, and don't let the bossman get you down.

 Anyhow. Let's get this News in before we get into anything else. I rarely note the Weekend News because more often than not, it's more of a filler-slash-wrap-up thing. Last weekend, though, I did something on Joe Biden's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide and what that's a big deal. It's worth checking out, I think, so please do so.

 Otherwise, it was a pretty ranch-standard week. We talked a little bit about the Census and possible gun legislation Monday. Wednesday was a look at the raid on Rudy Giuliani and Jackson's honoring Bobby Rush. I had a busy day Friday, so all I could do was clean up but we did explore the mess India's having with COVID if just a little bit. Good week, check it out.

 I said it there, but I'll say it here. I don't mind criticism or comments or dissenting opinions or any of that business, but don't come at me in bad faith. Don't pretend you're genuinely curious and paint what I've written in the most outrageous way possible. I don't have time to explain to you that me not trusting most gun owners who feel the need to be packing to go to Wal-Mart doesn't mean I'm a "gun control freak." Honest to god, life is way too short to put up with that bullshit for too long and, be real here, I probably don't give a damn what you think.

 And so much for all that. "Woke." That's become the conservative's go-to concept for what's Destroying America this week. Know this: don't pay attention to white folks who use "woke" as a pejorative. It doesn't mean anything beyond "giving me shit for being a butthole." It comes from AAVE use during the initial run of Black Lives Matter and means nothing more than urging black folks to be socially aware and vote accordingly.

 But like most things we do from Black folks, White folks have fouled it up. Conservatives are legitimately saying that we're having "woke corporations" doing stuff they don't like. It popped up when Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball criticized the unnecessary, poorly written voter restrictions recently shoved through the Georgia legislature. 

 Look. These are billion-dollar corporations and they care about nothing but the bottom line. You're a goddamn fool if you think otherwise. What's happened is these companies have run the numbers and figured there's more money to be made in "being woke" than is to be lost doing whatever the fuck conservatives want. Same thing with interracial or gay couples in cereal commercials, that's where the money is and they do not give a solid gold shit beyond that.

 What's killing me is these conservatives never stop and considered what this behavior by these Icons of Capitalism says about their politics and, frankly, them. Mississippi got rid of the Confederate flag because the NCAA and the SEC told them they'd boycott the state if we didn't. The weird anti-trans legislation we've passed and other red states are working on is causing the same sort of mumblings from these big-time moneymakers.

 None of this is new. Christine Jorgenson was in 1952, for cryin' out loud. And, no, I don't believe conservatives are really that concerned about the purity of women's athletics. After watching them spend 20 years trying to scuttle Title IX, you're going to have to try something else. For that matter, Georgia doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to ease of voting, especially after an election when the Black vote flipped the state.

 My man Ashton Pittman has an excellent piece in the Mississippi Free Press about systematic racism in Mississippi despite our oleaginous governor claiming otherwise. The part I found especially interesting was the number of eligible voters disenfranchised due to felony convicts is massively greater than the margins of victory for both Tate Reeves and Cindy Hyde-Smith. It's 16% African American, too, and while those aren't all guaranteed votes one way or another, it is pretty telling, and it's all from the 1890 state constitution. Something to keep in mind the next time you feel like giving Mississippi shit. The game's been rigged against us from the get-go.

 Okay, what else? Well, apparently conservatives are losing their water because restaurants are having a hard time getting workers to come back. It's being called a "hiring crisis," but they get furious if you suggest maybe workers don't think it's worth the effort to work those shit jobs for shit pay. They want to explain the stimulus and expanded unemployment, but I really can't figure out why they refuse to wrap their heads around the concept of "supply and demand."

 And you know what? If it is thanks to government money that line cooks, servers, and dishwashers don't want to work, as we said, "shit jobs for shit pay," good. The COVID pandemic not only exposed the holes in our government's ability to handle emergencies but also revealed just how fragile the whole American capitalist structure really is. People scraping by on starvation wages are told to find something better and when they do, the exploiters pitch a fit.

 Maybe shit will collapse in on itself once the stimulus/expanded unemployment goes the way of the dodo and maybe nothing will really change once things resettle, but so what? Work to live, don't live to work, and anyone who tells you different is trying to screw you ought of the money you're due. Your boss is not your friend and you are overhead. Have a good time and enjoy life. If you can figure out a way to pay your bills doing it, right on.

 All right then. That's enough for tonight. Y'all take care and have a nice weekend.