“480 Minutes” - The Clampdown

Jul 11

In recent decades it has become common to MLB contests w/ a request for quasi-enforced performative patriotism: “please rise, remove your caps, & join in the singing our national anthem.” Later in the game, during the 7th inning stretch, the group singing returns w/ “God Bless America.” That it’s meaningless is made clear when thousands stand, take off their hats, & put their hand over their hearts for a pop song that is not the national anthem.

Meanwhile the first song mentions the land of the free & the home of the brave.

This is not the land of the free & have lurched in the opposite direction. The Great Grifter administration & Supremely compromised Court have been actively stripping away rights both hard-won in recent decades when we figured out that discrimination is bad & ones that are actual parts of the U.S. Constitution (i.e. the 4th Amendment which protects individuals from unreasonable searches & seizures by the government -- ICE Barbie & her goons arresting people en mass w/o warrants or law enforcement-marked cars or even goddamned uniforms are in clear violation our Consitution. Seriously, if someone had told you even 5 years ago that bands of armed, masked, unidentified goons in unidentified vehicles would be rolling up & disappearing people without warrants in U.S. cities you’d have rolled your eyes. You’d have thought, “that can’t happen here.”

I’ve got news for those of you who are not clear on Trump 2.0: IT’S FUCKING HAPPENING HERE & NOW. Sorry not sorry for shouting but WTAF? I know it’s not fun to think about, but if you believe in a land of the free & home of the brave & care to live in such a land, you’ve got to participate in what’s left of our democracy. Silence is complicity.

Oh, & when Texas freezes, Ted Cruz goes to Cancún, then throws his daughters under the bus for the vacation. When Texas floods, Ted Cruz goes to Greece, then his PR people get him on a plane a whole day after he’s notified & claim it was the fastest he could have made it home to his constituents which is simply untrue as there were multiple other flights Grandpa Munster could have hopped on to get back far sooner. Meanwhile in the statehouse $50B in flood risk money sits unallocated to specific projects.

Music making its BAGeL Radio debut today will include 🎵 by The Beths (Auckland, NZ, @TheBeths), Frankie and the Witch Fingers (Los Angeles, CA, @FrankieAndTheWitchFingers), Frankie Cosmos (New York, NY, @FrankieCombos), Miynt (Stockholm, Sweden, @ItsMiynt), & Pulp (Sheffield, England, @WeLovePulp).

As usual today’s 480 Minutes program begins at 9 a.m. Eastern U.S. Time & is live-hosted until 5 p.m. The show is rebroadcast in its entirety on Friday evenings beginning at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 5 a.m. and 3 p.m., & Sundays at 1 a.m. ET.

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