BAGeL Radio turned 21 years old on Wednesday. Many thanks to the many individuals over the years who have helped us reach this milestone. You know who you are, & as Al shrieked, you know what you are.

In less fun news, Congressional Republicans are simultaneously shrieking about a non-existent existential crisis at the southern border of the United States AND preemptively dismissing a bill to address the situation, a bill gives them almost everything they want. Clearly the border is and has long been a “scare the white people” political tool, & with this obvious cognitive dissonance they no longer care who knows. Some of them are even saying out loud that they are against the bill they haven’t seen yet because it would help the President win re-election. Existential threat! Needs immediate attention! We’re not going to address it now because doing so would hurt our guy’s chances of winning in November…you remember our guy, the one who came into office with his party controlling both houses of congress yet couldn't get anything done on this issue…yeah, him. Only he can fix this issue.

For the same craven reason (to help Trump) several Senate Republicans are trying to slow-track (if not outright kill) the child tax credit expansion bill (which helps the neediest Americans feed their kids) using arguments that didn’t hold water when the CTC was created in 1997. They say it disincentivizes work (most recipients are working families) & lament that is not paid for (kinda like their 2017 $2T tax cut gift to the corporations & wealthiest Americans). Meanwhile, more than 2/3s of the money distributed through the CTC go to red states. These are families they are in Washington to represent, but somehow helping over 5 million hungry children gives some Republicans pause. Welcome to the United States of Cruelty.

New playlist additions today will include 🎵 by Action Painting! (Gosport, England), Dream Home (Pittsburgh, PA, @DreamHomePGH), False Tracks (Philadelphia, PA, @FalseTracksMusic), Matt Pond PA & Alexa Rose (Kingston, NY via Philadelphia, PA, @MattPondPA, @AlexaRoseMusic), Office Dog (Auckland, New Zealand @OfficeDogBand), Otherworldly Things (New York, NY), KMFDM (Hamburg, Germany, @KMFDM_official), San Gabriel (Austin, TX, @SanGabrielMusic), Sleater-Kinney (Portland, OR, @Sleater_Kinney), TORRES (Brooklyn, NY, @TorresLovesYou), TR/ST (Los Angeles, CA, @TRSTmusic), & Ty Segall (Los Angeles, CA, @TySegall).

The show will be rebroadcast in its entirety on Friday evening beginning at 7 p.m., Saturday at 5 a.m. & 3 p.m., and Sunday at 1 a.m. ET.

If you work for a company that offers to match your contributions to non-profits you can now double your impact — we are now set up for such matching donations through Benevity, so please check with your Human Resources Department & see if your company has a matching program. Either way, please help keep us on the air & commercial-free by making a tax-deductible donation.

Show your love for BAGeL Radio by owning merch from the BAGeL Shop like this travel mug from which your host will be sipping hot tea throughout the program today:

Our handy-dandy BAGeL Concert Finder is working again: type in a location (city, town, or postal code) & the distance you are willing to travel. The list of results will include only artists you hear on BAGeL Radio making that list a lot more manageable for those who live in or near big cities with 47 million things going on every day.

Videos

480 Minutes / Episode 863