Much of the media coverage relating to the impending rail worker strike has been misleading at best and outright pandering to corporate executives at worst. This headline for example, claims that the house of representatives passed a bill to “avert a rail strike” and moved to “impose a labor agreement”. Let’s break that down shall we?
For starters, “Averting a rail strike” is truly a first ballot Hall Of Fame propaganda phrase. It obscures the subject matter, flattens the power dynamic, and sanitizes the stripping away of a basic right. This clever little turn of phrase also allows both democrats and republicans off the hook, placing the blame on those pesky laborers and their greedy demands for *checks notes* seven paid sick days per year. There’s no explanation or clarification of what “averting” entails exactly. It’s as if we all just dodged a disruption to “the economy” like an asteroid. In actuality, the terms of this agreement were not good enough for the majority of rail workers, who just want a few days to spend with their families or a bit of flexibility if they fall ill, as we all do.
Moving right along to the more problematic phrasing, where politicians “impose a labor agreement”, which, let’s be real, we never want to impose things on people. In this case, those in power are quite literally making decisions for the laborers, sacrificing the time, energy, and wishes of the workers for the sake of the status quo. Given the opportunity, I’d love to impose my own labor agreement on members of congress, whereby they’d actually have to pass legislation that benefits the majority of folks in their stewardship. But what do I know? I’m sure they’re just looking out for the workers best interests, right?
Side Items
Chips for Brains: The prodigal son of apartheid returns! That boy Elon is back at it again, this time with false promises of computer enhanced brain activity. His company Neuralink, which has been killing and torturing monkeys for years, has decided to branch out into human trials, with a wireless device expected to begin human clinical trials within six months. Honestly, if you still trust this man to improve your brain activity then you probably deserve whatever debilitating side effects his brain chips are guaranteed to come with
Good Morning Affair-ica: Normally I’m not the type of person to wade into people’s messy personal lives, butttt it appears the co-anchors of Good Morning America have been engaged in a months-long affair with one another. T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, both married to other people, apparently started their affair when they were training for the New York half marathon, further proof that nothing good comes from running
Israeli Apologist as Democratic Minority Leader: Hakeem Jeffries, a representative for New York’s 8th congressional district, has been chosen as Nancy Pelosi’s replacement, and shockingly, he’s just as problematic. Here is a man so shameless and clueless that he proudly stands beside a settler-colonial state. Yet every major outlet will report this as a victory for progressive values, because this is a country led by the most shameless and clueless individualists
World Cup Recap
Where’s Saudi?? Further proof that blood money doesn’t pay, while Messi will be competing in the knockout stages, the Saudi’s can enjoy the short flight back to Riyadh. Send my regards to your vampire emperor, we shan’t be missing you
Tunisia took down France, doesn’t matter though, France still go through and Tunisia still goes home. Colonialism; even when you lose, you still win somehow
Mexico’s pain is Poland’s gain; sports are a zero-sum game. Somebody wins, somebody loses, and in the World Cup the margins are as fine as they can be
The Socceroos are through! Dozens of people and thousands of marsupials are celebrating Australia’s win yesterday over Denmark, which puts the Aussies through to the final 16
(Author’s note; I’ll be traveling for the coming weeks and won’t have guaranteed access to internet everywhere, so there may be some interruptions to your regularly-scheduled broadcasts. If you’d like to support or donate to the travel fund, feel free to hit my Venmo, otherwise, be on the lookout for dispatches from a foreign land!)