For the first time in nearly 4 years Republicans are once again pretending to care about "fiscal responsibility" and  some have even dared bring up the national debt for the first time in 4 years. This administration had been running up debt even before the pandemic (remember the 2017 GOP Tax Scam that would "pay for itself?" It has not), but now that it's about time to give the car keys back to the adults, the sky is falling.

Meanwhile for the 20th consecutive week more than 1 million Americans filed new jobless claims. More than 32 million are now receiving some form of unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, the $600 additional monthly benefit was allowed to expire, as was the eviction moratorium that was also part of the previous pandemic relief package, leaving millions of those already struggling Americans wondering how they are going to feed themselves and their families, afford prescriptions and other medical expenses, pay rent, keep their homes, stay safe....

The House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, passed legislation in May to continue the now expired necessary aid. The Senate, controlled by the Republican Party, claims to need more time to work out legislation that Senate Republicans can agree on. Those are the same Senate Republicans who voted not to remove the know-nothing-in-chief before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The resultant public health debacle with over 150,000 dead (and no end in sight thanks to enforced confusion and no national plan to control the spread!) is a permanent stain on every Senator who decided it was cool to let an unfit sociopath remain at the helm.  While most other countries have gotten the spread of the infection under control, this country continues to suffer record numbers of new infections. 

How did that happen, Republicans? Well, here are some thoughts on what one would do to extend and exacerbate a pandemic: fail to come up with a coherent national strategy to fight the spread; allow a con man to blare mixed messages that are at odds with those of the top epidemiologists on the planet; blame others; sideline public health experts; suggest it will just go away; refuse to effectively employ the Defense Production Act; force states into a bidding war against each other and the federal government for necessary public health supplies; lie, lie, lie; blame other others; spread disinformation; suggest it will just go away...again; repeatedly appear without masks in public including huddling together on podiums shaking hands; put the unqualified Vice President in charge of the Pandemic Response Task Force; suggest the virus will just go away again because no one held you accountable for your dangerous, childish magical thinking the first few times; repeatedly peddle false hope in an ineffective drug to which you've tightly hitched your wagon for some unknown reason; look busy by setting up a shadow task force headed by Boy Plunder, the unqualified first son-in-law; blame others (new ones, repeats, unrelated others, it doesn't matter, as long as it distracts from the fact that your "strategy" caused 150,000+ unnecessary deaths to date and allowed the virus to continue to spread and infect more Americans); punish children you've forced into unconscionably unsafe school situations when they show evidence of said unconscionably unsafe school situations. What did I miss?

Today's show will be live-hosted from 9am-5pm Eastern U.S. Time and feature new music by The Cavemen (London via New Zealand), CR Dicks (Cedar Rapids, IA), Fontaines D.C. (Dublin, Ireland, @fontainesdublin),  Green Blue (Minneapolis, MN), Guided By Voices (Dayton, OH, @_GuidedByVoices),  Midnite Snaxxx (Oakland, CA, @msnaxxx),  Model Zero (Memphis, TN, @ModelZeroMem), Priors (Montreal, Canada), and  Tommy and the Commies (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, @tommy_commies).  

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