If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show last night, it was -- just exuberant. It's basically an 18-minute scathing and hilarious takedown of the Really Bad last couple of weeks for Trump and his campaign. That's pretty much all you need to know.. As a bonus, for those interested, this is the very good, thoughtful, detailed (sometimes very detailed) interview that Jon Stewart did afterwards with Mark Cuban. It covers a wide range of subjects, including basketball, his dealings with Trump, a lot on AI industrialization, and medical drug transparency.
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When the stock market plummeted 1,000 points on Monday, MAGOPs in Congress took to social media doing their best to scare the public about how their retirements had just been crushed by President Biden and Kamala Harris. They were all similar, but one posted by the House Judiciary GOP account stood out best for each of them. It said –
“If you look at your 401k today, remember that it was all brought to you by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.” Basically the same was one from Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) – who, being MAGOP, of course, includes a Bible quote in his Twitter bio, about walking humbly. His was --. “When you look at your 401k today, remember that Kamala Harris has spent the last three and a half years saying that #Bidenomics works.” Their comments, designed obviously to score quite political points by scaring people about their retirement funds, was ludicrous for many reason, But most notably and obviously by the reality that if a person didn’t sell anything in their 401k account, they didn’t lose a penny. It might be worth less on that day, but the account is fluid and is always going up and down. Most people don’t even touch their 401k for a decade – or decades. At which point its value with be overwhelmingly different. For all any MAGOP knows, people who did take their 2024 distribution did so before the stock drop. Or they’ll be taking it at the end of the year in four months, when (again) the market will be totally different. So, what the stock market was on Monday has literally no meaning on what almost every person’s 401k will be when they deal with it. Also notable and obvious and easy to figure out while MAGOPs are trying to scare the public about how President Biden and Kamala Harris have supposedly pummeled the value of their 401k is the Really Easy to Figure Out Reality that since Biden and Harris took office...the stock market (even after Monday’s 1,000-point drop) has gone up 7,000 points! So, for all those who did take MAGOPs up on their suggestion and decide to “look at your 401k today” – something most people likely don’t very often – saw that it’s doing incredibly better than when Trump left office. And are likely overjoyed. So, y’know, thank you, MAGOP officials for the reminder to check our 401k’s!! And, of course, there’s more. A couple night later, I was talking with a friend about the market drop. One of the things we noted – and neither of us are stock market whizzes – is that history shows that when the stock market has a big drop in one day (and is pretty much only that one day), it eventually comes up – in fact, often very soon. Furthermore, as my friend noted, a friend of his – who is, in fact, involved with finance and investing -- has told him in the past that, after there’s a big drop in the market, that is actually the best time to buy. It means stocks had a correction, so they’re at a low point, but should likely go up. Indeed, I’ve been checking the stock market the last few days with all of this in mind. And it led to me to tracking down tweets by severely MAGOP officials (including, of course, the House Judiciary GOP) written the day of the drop and sent the following yesterday – “UPDATE: And if you look at your 401k TODAY, just three days after you tried to terrrrrify the public, you'll see that the stock market has gained back almost all it los, and is now only 300 points lower than its drop on Monday! “Well-done, MAGOP, doing what you do.” This is one of more offbeat, strange and special TV ads you’re likely to see. And one of more offbeat and strange pieces you're likely to see from Mike Nichols and Elaine May. It’s Nichols and May, early in their careers doing what is almost a two-minute, high-British drama sketch advertising GE refrigerators. If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday, the Main Story was about Deep Sea Mining. It's an extremely fascinating piece, that deals with a subject that has the potential of being an ecological disaster. That they make it as funny as they do is just a bonus. If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting on The Daily Show, he did a virtuosic takedown of corporate self-congratulatory, but weak support of Gay Pride month -- and then expands it to corporate support for any cause...or pretty much anything. It's detailed, pointed and extremely funny. If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday, his Main Story was on corn. Yes -- corn! It's actually a very interesting report. Full of a lot of humor, of course (how could it not be, given the topic...) -- but also serious about government policies, subsidies and significant environment concerns that impact the planting and health issues and more that revolve around the subject. And just for the heck of it, here is a bonus. A brief excerpt of the opening song, "Corn," from the Tony-nominated 2023 musical, Shucked. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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