Ticking Up, Georgia Down

With so many things happening this past week, the Schloss-Blog is wondering just how many of them can be considered good.

Or ... not.

For instance, in case you noticed prices up everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store shelf, you were right. The container-bearing Ever Given, a freighter the length of which is the height of the Empire State Building, was finally freed after six days jammed up in the Suez Canal.

The cost to the world's economy?

How about $400 million an hour. How about $10 billion all told. How about the spot in the canal where it got hung up was the only part where the Egyptians did not spend billions to upgrade the canal during its last major renovation in 2015.

Donald Trump is blaming Jewish lasers from space for the hang up.

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Joe Biden is aiming at spending $3-4 trillion to upgrade this country's infrastructure. It needs it, before we have another bridge collapse along I-35W in Minnesota or before the commuter-train tunnel between New York and New Jersey collapses, stranding people, as in the Sylvester Stallone flop, "Daylight." Except Trump blocked repairing the Hudson River Tunnel or building the new Gateway Tunnel because, as we all know, he's an ass who hated New York and New Jersey, which hate him right back.

Hundreds of thousands of commuters, along with Amtrak, depend on that decaying tunnel every day. "60 Minutes" explored the decaying tunnels two years ago. It ain't pretty. It is dangerous. Very. Dangerous.

Republicans in Congress are dedicated to blocking this infrastructure legislation and ruining the lives of Americans everywhere, let alone blocking as many as 18 million jobs it might create.

Republican don't care if you live, die, or get to work.

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Georgia's new, restrictive voting law would make it very difficult for people to vote, to get to polling places while they're open, to deposit absentee ballots or to keep themselves refreshed and sustained while waiting in line to vote.

Already the business community has struck back, with Major League Baseball removing this year's All-Star Game from Atlanta. or a few days’ worth of several billion dollars being spent in greater Atlanta.

Now, if only Coca-Cola, Delta, Home Depot, UPS, Cox, NCR and so many of the other major employers in the state threatened to move or actually did pull up stakes and move, maybe then Gov. Brian "Dr. Death" Kemp, as a dear friend of mine who lives there calls him, would get the message.

If he gets beaten for reelection, word is he has a job offer from Oath Keepers.

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Derek Chauvin, to anyone who has watched the trial, is guilty of killing George Floyd. Now, will it be Murder 2 or Manslaughter 2?

Jack McCoy, where are you when we need you?

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In Colorado and Georgia, a lot of people died in mass shootings. 2020 was a record year for gun deaths. 2021 is trying to catch up.

Congress has done nothing. But even when their own have been shot (Steve Scalise, Gabby Giffords), they've done nothing, except offer condolences, in the way of thoughts and prayers, as the colloquialism goes.

Until the next one.

We'll say it again - Republicans don't care if you die.

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Baylor's women's basketball coach, Kim Mulkey, says no further testing of players should've been done as they headed into the Final Four this weekend.

Next, she's going to propose moving the Final Four permanently to South Dakota, where the governor has been trying to infect people with COVID since the whole pandemic thing began.

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The NFL is going to have a 17-game regular season this year. The league says most injuries occur in preseason anyway.

Does it really matter? NFL coaches will bench key starters in Game 17, pending playoff games, unless they need to win to make the playoffs. Teams that rest players while already having clinched a playoff spot are cheating teams that have a chance to make it with some help from a team that has already clinched.

Again, game 17 changes nothing. Just one more chance to watch your team blow its playoff chances.

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One more thing: Matt Gaetz, the Florida Congressman, is being investigated for sex with a minor and prospective sex trafficking.

Hopefully, they won't forget to investigate him for just being a putz.

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Mrs. Halper.

More on my Sunday night rock 'n' roll show on Radio Free Phoenix