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Here's a member of Congress with too much time on his hands ... and way too little of anything on his mind.
Rep. Greg Steube of Florida is a run-of-the-mill, extremist Republican specializing in such partisan slapstick as trying to nullify Joe Biden's election and install GOP loser, Donald Trump, as president.
But Steube went full-tilt ridiculous when he excitedly announced that, "Tomorrow I will introduce legislation to rename our coastal waters after ... Donald Trump!" This would brand all the seas around America's entire coastline with "TRUMP" logos -- like trapping all of America in a big fat Trump bear hug.
But isn't it rather blah to "honor" an ex-president with obscure boundary waters? It's like a town council voting to put the ex-mayor's name on a drainage ditch. Still, Stuebe hoped that this would charm the MAGA demigod, prompting him to smile on Greg's future election ambitions. Believe it or not, this is what is considered serious congressional business by the GOP!
Republican Congress critters are in a frenzy to kiss up to their convict-in-chief, proposing multiple government gifts for him. Arizona's Paul Gosar, for example, is demanding that the U.S. Treasury print $500 bills bearing a portrait of the Donald. And Florida's Anna Paulina Luna proposes to tarnish the Congressional Gold Medal by bestowing it on the political mad dog who launched the Jan. 6 mob attack on -- yes, Congress! How cynical -- especially since Steube and other Donald worshippers had opposed giving the congressional medal to police officers who had risked their lives to protect them from Trump's rampaging mob.
Meanwhile, how about a more fitting honor for the huckster: Name a federal prison "Trump Tower." Put it in big gold letters!
THE RIGHT-WING TURNS ANTI-CORPORATE! SORTA ... NOT REALLY
Wow. Big political news, folks!
In an astonishing twist, some far-right-wing Republican groups and politicians are demanding that their longtime corporate allies -- such as Walmart, the Koch brothers, GE, and Wall Street banks -- stick to their business and stop interfering in the people's political decisions. One group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, bluntly declares that it now prefers "corporate behavior without partisan influences." It's even urging corporate shareholders to pass resolutions requiring top executives to halt their overbearing political intrusion. What an unbelievable breakthrough for progressive reform!
Well, it would be ... if true. But it's a fraud. NCPPR only wants corporate powers to stop politicking against (SET ITAL) right-wing (END ITAL) issues. Specifically, the tricksters demand that corporations cease all efforts to advance diversity, equality and inclusiveness in American society. Also, they oppose any corporate embrace of pride events, or corporate acknowledgement of America's history of institutional racism. And, they say, corporations should stop all efforts to combat climate change, since right-wing orthodoxy says global warming is a hoax. Forget head-in-the-sand politics, NCPPers want to bury political reality itself in the sand.
Now for the good news: They're buffoons. Even profiteering investors aren't buying their hokum. Their "anti-WOKE" resolutions are being rejected by (SET ITAL) 98% (END ITAL) of shareholders' votes! Even in the rigged system of corporate voting, that's a stunning rejection. Meanwhile, shareholder proposals to support progressive ideals and policies have been gaining ground, now winning a fourth to a third of the vote. That's three times better than the support that such proposals got 20 years ago.
This is further proof that the fundamental political barrier to right-wing extremism is that the vast majority of Americans actually believe in economic fairness, social justice ... and reality.