RINGSIDE POLITICS – MAY 18, 2021
Written by WGSO Producer on May 18, 2021
Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere
Today’s Hot Topics:
1) President Biden on Thursday touted the nation’s coronavirus vaccine campaign and other efforts to combat the pandemic, calling it “a great day for America” hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed federal masking guidelines to say that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors.
“I think it’s a great milestone, a great day,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “It’s been made possible by the extraordinary success we’ve had in vaccinating so many Americans so quickly.”
Biden urged those who have not yet gotten the shot to do so as soon as possible and to wear a mask until they been fully vaccinated.
“It’s going to take a little more time for everyone who wants to get vaccinated to get their shots. So all of us, let’s be patient with one another,” Biden said.
2) President Biden’s energy secretary is facing renewed backlash for canceling the Keystone XL pipeline permit after she admitted this week that using a pipeline is “the best way” to transport fuel.
At a Tuesday press conference, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by a reporter about the “feasibility of using rail cars” to transport fuel across the country as the nation faces a gas shortage from a Russian cyber attack.
The energy secretary said the Department of Transportation was looking into the use of rail cars to transport fuel and that “these are not easy solutions,” as there are a lot of variables with rail transportation.
Granholm also said the Colonial pipeline, which runs from Texas to New York and is similar to the recently canceled Keystone XL pipeline, is the premiere way to pump petroleum into communities.
3) Joe Rogan sounded off on cancel culture, courting controversy by speculating that it could lead to the silencing of “straight White men.”
The podcast host, 53, sat down for an interview with comedian Joe List last week on his “Joe Rogan Experience” show where the duo got to talking about movies, specifically edgy comedies like “Superbad,” “Step Brothers” and more. While List tried to think of the most recent edgy comedy he’d seen, Rogan went off on a rant about how filmmakers couldn’t make a movie in that genre today for fear of getting “canceled.”
“The stuff that they talk about and say to each other I just don’t think you can do that today or if you did do that you’d face a tremendous amount of criticism,” the host says in a video clip of the episode shared on his official YouTube channel.
The podcaster continues down a road of hypotheticals about trying to make a comedy movie in today’s hyper-sensitive climate, eventually bringing race and sexual orientation into the conversation by suggesting that “straight, White men” will be “silenced” and not allowed outside by “woke” people.
4) North Carolina District Attorney Andrew Womble said at a press conference on Tuesday that the deputy-involved shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. “while tragic, was justified” – and no law enforcement officers will be criminally charged in the case.
Womble, the elected district attorney for Judicial District 1, which covers seven counties of the northeastern part of the state, said that Brown was shot at by three Pasquotank deputies, whose actions were “justified because Brown’s actions caused deputies to reasonably believe it necessary to use force to protect themselves and others.”
Womble began playing four body camera videos during the press conference, which was broadcast by several news outlets.
Today’s Guests:
1) Pastor David Scarlett; His Glory Ministry Worldwide
2) Former LA State Senator John Milkovich