 So in a twisted way, it's actually almost impressive how creative our government is at screwing all of us over, both parties, Democrats, Republicans in all branches here. For example, the House passed the debt ceiling deal struck by Kevin McCarthy and Joe Biden yesterday by a 314 to 177 vote. And all of this could have been avoided. Democrats didn't need to compromise if they just chose to raise the debt ceiling back in December when they still had control of the House. But they didn't. So now Democrats can conveniently inflict more austerity on Americans while using Republicans as a maximum shield. That's the way that it always works. Now, even though Republicans got some cuts that they wanted, they were mad that those cuts weren't deep enough. In other words, they were mad that this package wasn't cruel enough, didn't inflict more pain on the American people because as ABC News reports, a majority of the GOP conference backed the legislation with 149 votes, but it was 165 Democrats who helped ensure the passage as 71 conservatives ultimately voted no, as did 46 Democrats. Four lawmakers, two Republicans, and two Democrats didn't vote. So more Republicans voted against this than Democrats. So the far right, these Republicans in particular who didn't support this, they're now pretending to be mad simply because this is a branding exercise. They got what they wanted. Sure, it wasn't enough, but they still got cuts that were completely unnecessary and avoidable. Again, if Democrats simply passed a clean debt ceiling raise back in December, none of this would have happened. So the fact that they get anything is something that they should be thankful for. But regardless, they're against because if they did support this and you position yourself as one of these far right Trumpian figures, the base, they would pounce if they agreed to anything that this rhino McCarthy and communist Biden came up with. So the ones who are pretending understand that it's nothing more than political theater, but the ones who really got screwed in Congress were the progressives. Aside from the American people, of course, but politically speaking, progressives, they got played because as Holly Otter Bean of Politico explains, on its face, the debt deal is a nightmare for the left, but progressives in Congress aren't revolting. A victory for Biden that reflects the relationships he's built with them. The congressional progressive caucus didn't whip against the debt deal. Even some progressives voting no wanted to pass. Quote, the Democrats should supply the votes needed to get to 218, but we don't have to supply any more than that, said representative Ro Khanna. So in other words, everything that we're seeing is completely fake and disingenuous. Since it's a bad look for progressives to support austerity, because obviously it is many members of the congressional progressive caucus chose to vote against this, but they were willing to supply at least enough votes to ensure that it passed. So even if they were voting no, they still were crossing their fingers and hoping that it passed because of course they don't want to be held responsible for triggering an economic crisis if they're the one specifically who's blamed for tanking the deal and that results in a default on our debt. I understand the position that they're put in. The problem is that once again, they got played by the Biden administration because he knew that waiting until the last minute would give him maximum leverage over progressives. So if he comes up with this compromise with Kevin McCarthy and its austerity, it's a repayment plan or restarting of repayments for student loan that I should say, and they're going to be against it. Well, there's not really anything that they can do because you have a day until we default on our debt two days. So what are they going to do ultimately? The best that they can do is performatively vote against it, but still make sure that the votes are there to pass it. It's just exhausting. But I mean, the legislation is now going to move over to the Senate. But I don't want to talk about the debt ceiling with regard to the Senate because I assume it's going to pass. But I do want to talk about a different thing that the Senate chose to do. And they chose to send us a very clear message that they hate our guts. They hate you. Yes, you watching this specifically. And I say this because the Senate passed a measure 52 to 46 overturning Biden's student debt cancellation plan, and it mustered the necessary support because mansion cinema and tester crossed the aisle to join Republicans. I'm completely shocked personally. But here's the kicker because that's not even surprising. But here's them pouring salt in our wounds. As the debt collective points out, their bill will literally raise student debt balances by retroactively adding interest that we weren't paying while payments were paused for the pandemic. Let me repeat that. They're not just saying we shouldn't cancel anything for you. We want you to owe more and pay more ultimately. And these are millionaires who sang this about us. They are very, very, very bold. I'll just say that. Now, thanks to the Congressional Review Act, only 50 votes were needed for this legislation to pass. And now it probably is going to go to Biden's desk. But here's the thing. Biden has explicitly said that if it gets to his desk, he's going to veto it. So the question is, if you're a senator, why would you vote for something so cruel knowing that this is going to enrage at least some of your constituents, regardless of what state you live in? Well, it's because they want to piss off their constituents. They want to send a message to all of us that they're not with us. They're with their donors. Even though you voted them in office, they stand with their donors. The cruelty is the point. They want you to know that they want you to suffer and they like seeing you suffer. They're just rubbing it in our faces at this point. For example, Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen tweeted, quote, if you take out a loan, you pay it back. A student loan is no different from a house or car loan. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to foot the bill. Student debt transfers reckless and unfair to the 87% of Americans who either never took out loans or responsibly paid them back. But as people were quick to point out on Twitter, Mark Wayne Mullen had the entirety of his 700,000 plus PPP loan forgiven, including interest. And even though he is a multimillionaire, he thought that the responsible taxpayers who didn't take out a PPP loan themselves, they should foot the bill for him, even though he's rich. He's already a multimillionaire. Do you understand how they're just laughing in our faces at this point? They're so unnecessarily cruel. They give us the finger any chance they get, and then they turn around and pretend as if they're actually representing us. I mean, it's just it's sickening, honestly. Now, while they continuously vote to fuck you over, they are constantly spreading propaganda telling you that it's not them who's the problem. Actually, it's immigrants who's causing all of your economic suffering, not them. It's LGBTQ plus people who are the problem. But if we actually knew any better, we don't know that it's them who's the problem. But most Americans, even though they sense that something is wrong, they can't put two into together and realize it's these politicians who are beholden exclusively to their corporate donors. But it's gotten so bad to where they won't even let us have crumbs anymore. Right? Remember before when we would be so angered by the fact that we only get crumbs? Now we don't even get crumbs. We get no crumbs and an additional fuck you and we're expected to continue voting for these ghouls every single time. But I mean, that's just the House and the Senate because I want to make it very clear this week. We got fucked over by basically every branch of governments. And of course, our far right corrupt Supreme Court decided to blow another major blow to unions. But guess what? We can't display them conservatives this time because two of the three liberals on the court joined their conservative peers in this particular case. As more perfect union explains, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a concrete company that wanted to sue a union because a strike cost them money. The eight to one decision means the company Glacier Northwest Inc. can sue the union over a strike where truck drivers left wet concrete in their trucks. The one dissenting judge, Kintanji Brown Jackson, argues that the majority is inserting itself into an assessment of labor disputes that is lawfully the purview of the National Labor Relations Board and that the court is overstepping here. She also argues that the court is putting the onus on workers and their union here when it is actually incumbent on Glacier, the company to take steps to negotiate with the union and mitigate their losses. Now, that sounds reasonable to anyone with common sense, but only one Supreme Court justice made that argument, Justice Jackson. Every other justice said actually these companies, they can sue unions if their strikes are a little bit too disruptive. It doesn't matter that the companies are negotiating in bad faith most of the time. It doesn't matter if these employees take steps to mitigate damage caused by their strike. It doesn't matter. Unions can now be sued. This is a door that we're opening and I just have to send a special thank you to Sadamayor and Kagan. Really appreciate them joining their conservative colleagues here to open the door to this new phenomenon that we're going to see companies suing unions who they hate if their strikes are too disruptive. Now, in the majority opinion, Amy Coney Barrett suggested that the union purposefully tried to cause damage to the company, but that's factually incorrect. The National Labor Relations Board actually issued a ruling saying that the workers and the union tried to mitigate damage. They left the trucks running, for example, so the concrete wouldn't harden. They took these steps, even though that's not their responsibility, but Amy Coney Barrett is ignoring all of that and saying we're going to insert ourselves into a labor dispute, even though it's not our jurisdiction, and we're siding with the company here. Now, we talked about this back in January and I kind of laid out why this was so bad. So I don't want to rehash all of that. I'll play a quick clip followed by a more perfect union explanation of what's going on here. And then I think that that kind of puts it all into perspective. So let's watch the fact that they're even getting involved here is a red flag in and of itself. So there's a couple of questions that we're going to get answered with this case. First and foremost, it's kind of a rhetorical question and it's whether or not the Supreme Court even cares about the authority of the NLRB. And we kind of have an answer because they're taking up the case rather than just letting the NLRB decide. Second of all, what are the broader implications that this case can have on workers once you open the door to companies being able to sue workers for striking? That's a whole can of worms that could lead to really dark places. Now, Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law, explained some of the potential implications of this if the court sides with the concrete company in a video for more perfect union. And what she says is genuinely chilling. Imagine you're a newly unionized Starbucks barista discussing whether to strike. You've got lots to think about. But what you probably wouldn't expect to have to consider is whether your union-busting boss Howard Schultz is going to sue you for the impact of your strike on Starbucks for the coffee that gets wasted or milk that goes sour or lost revenue from customers who get tired of waiting in line. But if a Seattle concrete mixing company and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce get their way before the Supreme Court this year, that's the crazy position that American unions are going to be in if they want to strike. Yeah. So the Supreme Court is choosing to take up this case, which is a matter squarely in the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. And in the event they greenlight companies suing workers, this could lead to a horrifying, even darker dystopia than we're living if you can believe it. Welcome to that new dystopia, my friends. Now, if you're wondering why things keep getting worse in this country every single year, it's because every single election cycle, we Americans vote for these same politicians over and over again. And that's not necessarily our fault because we have a majoritarian first-past-the-post electoral system that really serves these incumbents, that keeps them in power. And I mean, when you consider the fact that 2024, the presidential election is likely going to be a rematch between Trump and Biden, I mean, you can kind of see why nothing ever changes. Nothing ever gets better, because we're not voting out the politicians who are causing all of this pain. We're not getting enough pro-worker politicians in Congress to make a difference. So when you have a system that is this ruthless to working people, you might ask yourself, how does this system continue to survive if not thrive? And it's because the system has to reinforce this narrative that it is good and does good for us, right? Everything is copacetic as long as we keep capitalism. Whatever economic angst that you're feeling, it's not because of our capitalist system. It's not because elections and every single aspect of our lives have become commodified. It's because diversity is the problem. People of color are taking the jobs that you're entitled to. Immigrants are taking your jobs. They're actively trying to dupe all of us into believing that LGBTQ plus people are transing your kids, and they want you to believe, one, that that's a thing, and two, that it's the most important issue and so many Americans fall for, not all of them, not even most of them, but enough to continue voting in these ghouls who routinely fuck them over again and again and again. But so many Americans, they think, well, as long as the marginalized people are being held down, I'm fine being held down myself. That's why we're perpetually in this state of decline. Because even though most Americans can sense that something is deeply wrong with our system, it's rotten to the core, the idea that capitalism is good and socialism is bad is constantly reinforced. It was taboo up until only recently to say that you were a socialist. So I mean, if you're wondering when things are finally going to change in this country, it's when working class people wake the fuck up and realize that it's not marginalized people who's their enemy. It's the elites at the top who want you to believe that your neighbors are the cause for your pain. But keep in mind, it is not your neighbors. It's not queer people. It's not people of color. It's not immigrants. It is the capitalists. They fucked you over. And to continue to support this system, you do so at your own peril.