1) WHAT’S GOING ON WITH TV?
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is not just a reality show, it is also a true crime drama. The past two episodes have been two of the most stunning hours of television ever. In the episode two weeks ago, Homeland Security arrived before the Housewives left for a cast trip to arrest Jen Shah, who managed to get a tip and flee the scene. This past Sunday’s episode, on a drive to Vail, the women dealt with a roller coaster of emotions (and Lisa Barlow called her six lawyers) as they discovered that Jen Shah was being indicted for defrauding elderly people. These two episodes are a must watch!
Review for the first three episodes of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: It was so smart for the producers to lean into how contrived the “all-star” show is by letting the women break the 4th wall and talk about being on reality TV. Ramona Singer should be considered a domestic terrorist, but I kind of enjoy her strolling around as a golden girl troll ready to cause mayhem at any moment.
I’m also watching Big Mouth, Sex Education, and The Morning Show. I have two words for HBO’s Sunday night lineup (Succession, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Insecure): NO NOTES.
We are entering the second week of Britney Spears’ freedom from her conservatorship so it’s time we all start celebrating her film work, which includes the movie Crossroads and all those Pepsi commercials.
2) WHAT’S GOING ON WITH DEMOCRATS?
On Monday, President Biden signed the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (aka the “bipartisan infrastructure framework” aka the “BIF”) into law after stating, “I truly believe that 50 years from now, historians are going to look back at this moment and say, that’s the moment America began to win the competition of the 21st century.” Oh, I always though the competition of the 21st century was The Masked Singer but this is cool too.
Less importantly, this law is driving Donald Trump insane as it serves as a reminder of his failures. If he were actually the political genius some people think he is, Trump would have passed his infrastructure bill in his first year in office, but instead he started a Twitter war with Kim Jong-Un. In a lengthy, unhinged statement, Trump lambasted Republicans who voted for the bill, in particular Mitch McConnell who he called an “old crow.” Looks like Trump has lost his insult touch as he is now resorting to terms used to insult old, unmarried women in medieval England.
According to Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, inflation will get worse before it gets better, but the economy will continue to grow and unemployment will continue to fall. Inflation is not an American problem, it is literally happening all over the world due to the pandemic. President Biden is working with the private sector to speed up the supply chain and even asked the chair of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate if oil and gas companies are conducting “anti-consumer behavior” to drive up gas prices. Biden also visited a GM electrical vehicle plant in Michigan and drove an EV hummer, so yes, it’s not all business all the time for Pop Pop. Let him have some fun once and awhile!
Senator Patrick Leahy announced that he will not seek reelection for the seat he has held for nearly 48 years. Leahy, a Democrat, is 81 and the longest-serving current senator, but fortunately Vermont’s future in the Senate rests on its junior senator, a spry 80-year-old Bernie Sanders.
Former congressman and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas! Attention to all diner owners in Texas, make sure your tables are sturdy because Beto will be standing on all of them.
So apparently the Bureau of Labor Statistics underestimated the amount of jobs created over the summer. By how much? Well, it undercounted job growth by 626,000 jobs between June and September. I look forward to seeing pundits ignore this fact and continue to perpetuate the idea that the economy is in a free-fall and it’s all because Joe Biden wants to spend money on childcare.
President Biden had an over three-hour virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Though the meeting didn’t produce any concrete “deliverables,” it cooled the rising hostility between the two superpowers. If I’m on a Zoom meeting with someone for more than 20 minutes I want to kill them so this meeting between Biden and Xi sounds like a great success to me!
In the most boring episode of Star Wars ever, the United States claims that Russia intentionally destroyed one of its own satellites in order to create a debris field in space that hurts other nation’s satellites and astronauts. To be fair, this episode is boring but it’s better written than Attack of the Clones.
3) WHAT’S GOING ON WITH REPUBLICANS?
What-happens-when-a-bridge-troll-mates-with-a-pig, Alex Jones, is liable for damages in a lawsuit brought by the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims (the one where 20 children died) for claiming the shooting was a hoax.
Accountability seems to be a theme this week as Jacob Chansley, “the QAnon Shaman,” was sentenced to 41 months in prison, three years of probation, and a $2,000 fine for his role in the January 6th insurrection. I’m sure he’s not worried though. JFK Jr. will come back from “hiding” and break him out!
A guy from Clark County, Nevada who claimed to have evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election pleaded guilty for voting more than once (for Trump) in the same election. He voted the second time with his dead wife’s ballot. So it turned out dead people voted for Trump and Joe Biden actually won the popular vote by 7,059,548.
More information has come out about the lengths Trump went to in order to lie about the lethality of COVID-19. He knew the disease was deadly, but still tried to silence CDC officials and alter the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.” His selfishness and stupidity costs hundreds of thousands of lives (cc: James Comey).
Republicans in North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and Georgia have passed extremely gerrymandered congressional maps that will make sure, mostly white, Republicans remain in power. The only way to stop this injustice is for Congressional Democrats to pass the voting reform bills being held up by the Senate filibuster. Unfortunately, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are still horny for the filibuster, so really our Democracy is…
The two men convicted of murdering Malcolm X were exonerated, the defense team for the men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery rested their case, and the jury deciding the fate Kyle Rittenhouse is still deliberating. I have to admit, Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense of having the judge be unabashedly on his side was a great strategy!
Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma commuted Julius Jones' death sentence just hours before he was scheduled to be executed for a 1999 murder he says he did not commit. Jones will now serve life without parole.
The House of Representatives voted to censure Paul Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments due to him posting an anime video of him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only two Republicans joined Democrats to censure Gosar because the rest think it is fine for people to post about killing their colleagues. Sure, sometimes I hide in the storage closet in order to get away from my coworkers but I don’t post videos of me killing them! By the way, if you think the Democrats overreacted, know that Gosar is such a horrible person that even his own family hates him and wants him to be expelled from Congress. Those are the people that know him best!
Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to the charge of criminal contempt of Congress even though he is very much guilty of that charge and for being a terrible person. I believe I am contractually obligated to write this, lock him up!
4) WHAT’S GOING ON WITH COVID?
The Biden Administration announced that it will invest billions of dollars to increase vaccine manufacturing in the U.S. to at least one-billion vaccine doses a year by the end of 2022. Though some are criticizing this deal with drug companies as being too reliant on the private sector, this partnership will ease the global vaccine-supply shortage and help prepare us for the next pandemic. The next pandemic? I can’t go back to pretending I want to learn how to bake! Oh and my eye twitch is back…
The FDA will likely approve of Pfizer booster shots for all adults who received their second dose at least six months earlier. New York City has already approved that all adults can receive their booster shots because New Yorkers don’t like to wait when we already know where we need to be. Seriously, I once pushed an entire family tourists into a pothole because they were blocking the entire sidewalk!
The Biden Administration bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s Covid treatment pill for over $5 billion. Pfizer also agreed to license the pill so generic drug companies can cheaply produce it. This is a huge development in ending the pandemic, but it may take a little song and dance to get people to swallow these pills.
5) WHAT’S GOING ON WITH… ARTICLES? Whatever. Here’s more to read.
NY Times: At the Willard and the White House, the Jan. 6 Panel Widens Its Nets
Vox: States have the power to make or break the infrastructure law
Vox: Democrats are set to leave immigrants in the lurch again
Politico: Emails reveal new details of Trump White House interference in CDC Covid planning
Reuters: EXCLUSIVE Rating agencies say Biden's spending plans will not add to inflationary pressure
The Washington Post: The government dramatically underestimated job growth this summer
Hollywood Reporter: Lady Gaga on Mining Personal Pain for ‘House of Gucci’
Vulture: The Ultimate Real Housewife, According to Real Real Housewives