Monday marks 18 years since the 2/1/03 launch of BAGeL Radio, and we will celebrate next Friday (2/5) by giving away BAGeL Radio t-shirts and BAGeL Radio mugs, and possibly some SomaFM swag as well. SomaFM will send out prizes to the lucky contest winners, and the contests will not be limited to U.S. addresses only -- thanks Rusty!

In the news this week the quite literally platform-free Republican Party sent their current leader to Mar-a-Lago to get marching orders from the twice-impeached loser former President who incited a riot and invasion of the Capitol which could have gotten them killed. Sad.

The party hasn't seemed particularly interested in governing since the days of Newt Gingrich, when “compromise” and “liberal” were perverted into dirty words. Liberals allowed this to happen because to call out Gingrich’s naked power grabs might have seemed uncivil. Liberals kept compromising away their positions while the other side refused to budge, continuing the cruel and devastating political lurch to the right that brought us to this point in history where somehow wearing a mask to protect others during a pandemic is politically charged. The Republican party still wants to throw out the results of a presidential election everyone except Marjorie Taylor “Jewish Lasers From Space Cause Forest Fires For Profit” Greene knows it lost. With all of that in mind it is hardly shocking that the anti-democracy pro-violent insurrectionist party is digging its heels in for another round of obstruction and only obstruction causing obvious harm to the country including its members just as it did the last time a Democrat won the Electoral College.

Meanwhile the Biden/Harris administration has charged out of the gate with executive actions not only signaling its policies on an array of issues, but in several cases doing so to immediate, tangible effect. I am no fan of Biden nor many of his corporatist war-hawk cabinet members/nominees, but I am impressed that despite being stonewalled by throughout the transition period by the outgoing vandals, the administration has managed to hit the ground running. 

Maybe I shouldn’t be impressed. Maybe my perception has been so distorted by having just been gas-lighted for four years by an administration of malevolent incompetents. Either way, kudos to the current group.

My personal favorite news item of the week was seeing AOC destroy Ted Cruz on Twitter after he agreed with one of her Tweets. She replied directly to Cruz:

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out. Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”

Before that my favorite news item of the week was Senate minority leader McConnell (R-Bait and Switch) signing on to a motion filed by Rand Paul (L-Labradoodle) to block impeachment as unconstitutional. The now-defeated motion suggested that impeachment cannot happen after the subject leaves office. First of all the motion is dead wrong on the law, but beyond that it is also a funny argument for McConnell to support when, just a couple of weeks ago, during the previous administration, he was reportedly pleased that impeachment was going to move ahead. Then, as one of his final acts of sabotage as Senate Majority Leader, he prevented the trial from getting underway until after the inauguration... What a card, that Mitch!

Anyway, today's show will feature excellent new music by Cheekface (Los Angeles, CA, @cheekfaceREAL), Cub Scout Bowling Pins (Dayton, OH, @_GuidedByVoices), The Notwist (Weilheim, Germany, @TheNotwist), The Dirtiest (Florence, Italy), TV Priest (London, England, @TeeVee_Priest), and Yard Act (Leeds, England, @YardActBand).

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Tune in and chat with other members of our music discovery-loving community on Slack. Also, if you'd like to join us for our Saturday Zoom chat (5pm ET), send me an e-mail and I'll add you to the invite list.

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