FRIDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN: TOO GRIM TO BE FUNNY & VICE VERSA EDITION.

Ry Cooder doesn't get enough love.

If the actions of this administration weren’t so harmful to actual human beings, I could enjoy them as living satires of human folly. Kansas demanding trans people turn over their drivers’ licenses? (Now driving while trans is even more dangerous than driving while black -- and if you’re tempted to say, “well, they’re not going to kill trans drivers,” maybe check the eliminationist rhetoric conservatives have mainstreamed.) And forbidding U.S. military officers to attend Ivy League schools because they might be taught “social justice activism”? (Because once exposed to woke education -- which to a ruff tuff creampuff like Hegseth is synonymous with indoctrination, because in his conception of society no one would ever become a teacher except to bend the young to their will -- even the most tough-minded serviceman helplessly succumbs and turns hippie.)

At least we can enjoy the Ellisons’ acquisition, via the Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery,  of CNN. True, the rightwing scheme of taking over and vandalizing media entities like CBS News as vengeance for years of perceived “liberal media” persecution is disgusting, but look on the bright side: Those entities were shit anyway. Every time I come across CNN in a waiting room or rest home, it’s bawling some LCD bullshit as if trying to get the attention of hyperactive monkeys. True, whatever capacity these institutions had for investigative journalism will be wrecked, but let’s face it, their will to make good use of those resources was already fading with their ratings anyway; the real talent is all in independent media now, and the opportunity to put some muscle behind it and make a real difference is there waiting for some smart, civic-minded rich guy to pick it up -- now, if only there were more (or any) smart, civic-minded rich guys out there.

This week’s ROY EDROSO BREAKS IT DOWN freebie (yes, just one, this particular indie journo enterprise needs paid subscribers, and can’t be giving it away like a soft-hearted country gal in the big city) is a post-mortem not so much on Tuesday’s State of the Union as on the very idea of paying attention to Tubby’s cheeseball spectacles in the first place. I mean, the guy who’s planning to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with a wrestling match is not going to show us anything except how low the country has sunk, and we know, brother, we know.