Leftist Lens 54

Intro
Hello, Im Matt and this is James or I’m james and this is Matt
This is Leftist lens
Today we have a lot to talk about: Amazon workers strike, updates on Luigi, Elon Musk's now obvious control over the republican party, and what happened when i went to a city council meeting and why you should get involved in local politics, especially now
RIP Ricky Henderson
1.406 career stolen bases, second place Lou Brock 938. Active player, Starling Marte with 228, nobody else over 300
130 in a season in 1982
Most in 202: ely De La Cruz with 67
TEAM with the most (Nationals) had 223 in 2024
Also Career .279 hitter and .820 OPS
Labor news
Amazon delivery drivers represented by the Teamsters Union are striking.
Once again, if it were up to me, all unions would withhold labor when one does
All employees everywhere are underpaid and deserve better benefits, except those in the C-suites
Also, if you’re still confused about police, notice how they assisted Amazon in breaking the picket line so scabs could do deliveries
Police do not exist to protect you, they exist to protect capitalists and their property above all else.
Luigi
Charged in NY with 1st degree murder with a terrorism modifier. The argument is going to be that CEOs are scared.
The media and politicians are continuing to try to convince us that Luigi is dangerous. I don’t think it’s working
The perp walk in NY was insane, like he was Cameron Poe or Superman
Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing his own trial on corruption charges decided to join in
He was also charged federally with murder, stalking and a gun charge for his use of the silencer
Executive stabbed
Why are CEOs scared? Copycats
CEO in Michigan stabbed by employee during staff meeting
Government shutdown
Democrats and Republicans had a bipartisan funding deal worked out,but Elon Musk didn’t like it
He tweeted a bunch of criticisms of it that were all false, but trump believed him and called on his sycophants to vote no and they did.
Musk didn't like the 40% pay increase for Congress, the bill only had a 3.8% in pay increase
He didn’t like $60 billion for Ukraine and vaccine mandates which weren’t in the bill at all.
A bill was later basses to prevent the shutdown, but the division in the republican party might prevent a budget from being passed in the new year
Elon for speaker?
Rand Paul called for Elon to be speaker of the house
Mike Lee and MTG later also supported this idea
Is it possible?
It doesn’t matter, it is clear that Elon has control of trump and trump controls enough republicans to allow Elon to shape policy for the next 4 years
Wealth inequality
The FED cut interest rates again this week, but signalled there would be less cuts in the future, and the stock and crypto markets retraced because of that.
Apparently only zero interest rates are ok today
In 1980 mortgage rates were around 12%
My parents bought a 4 bedroom house then on the salary of a school teacher and a chemical salesman
Another School shooting, so common it’s way down here
14 year old student at christian school in Wisconsin killed a teacher and another student
Republicans didn’t even bother with thoughts and prayer this time
Georgia appeals court disqualified Fanni Willis from prosecuting trump in the election fraud case
This case was already paused for the next four years
A special prosecutor can be named to continue the case, or Willis may not be Da in 4 years
Likely this case, like all the others against trump, will never move forward
City Council Meeting in Erie 12/18
Jasmine Flores, city council president said on her personal Facebook that 90% of trump voters are racist
I’d say that’s 100%, if you’re not racist why would you support so many racist policies?
Former city council member Brian Shank, huge MAGA asshole, called for magats to show up at the meeting to harris Flores
I was invited by Podcast listener Geoff to join a group that was going to support her
Not too much happened in that regard other than a guy telling us all it's time to work together under the guy that is “president TODAY, Donald J Trump” proving that republicans in general don’t understand how anything works
When we arrived as a group early, the security at city hall asked is we were there to support Jasmine or.., when told we were, he called us the good guys, which was a bit surprising
The main focus of the meeting was a proposed Tenant Bill of rights in the city to protect tenants from the slumlords that own most of the rental properties in the city
At least 3 people asked the council to put protections in place for immigrants and LGBTQ residents against trump policies
This is why local elections and involvement in local politics is important
One person explicitly asked the mayor to order the city police not to cooperate with ICE
Odds and ends
New Superman Trailer

[@AleckOtilde]

Great content, as always! Could you help me with something unrelated: My OKX wallet holds some USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How should I go about transferring them to Binance?

[@AaryanSajwani]

18:37 Save Germany from Trump's tariffs 🤣

[@geoffreygroce9144]

Go to your city council meetings!