By Rebekah Kuschmider, MPU Co-host

Well, this week was a roller coaster, MPU-iverse! If you were looking for tension, drama, suspense, and sharp wit, you could get it all! And that was just the exchange between the White House and the Speaker’s office about when Trump was allowed to come give the State of the Union.

I haven’t even started to touch on the arrest of Roger Stone, Michael Cohen’s announcement that he, a witness, had been tampered with by Trump, the sudden end of the government shutdown, and a coup brewing in Venezuela.

The rest of the gang and I will get to all of that when we gather to record, but for now, here’s all the news that’s not fit to ‘cast!

No Day But Today: Last week, CBS news popped up a graphic that was supposed to lay out descriptions of all the living generational cohorts in America. They defined the Silent Generation, the Boomers, Millennials, Post Millennials. What no one except people who once had posters of Cobain on their walls noticed was that Generation X was completely left off.

WE ARE THE GENERATION THAT PERFECTED INTERNET PORN! The least we deserve is a mention.

We’re a tiny slice of the population, and we’ve been ignored before. But if you want pay attention to us for once, you can get a look at the heart and soul of GenX on Sunday night. Fox is presenting a live performance of Rent, the musical that shocked Broadway out of its torpor and gave voice to the struggles of a generation living through the the age of AIDS and the rise of corporate co-opting of every creative impulse Americans have. A musical, I might add, that is the one shining jewel in the crown of its creator Jonathon Larson, who died before he ever saw his masterwork become a part of the fabric of our culture.

I have been having a love affair with Rent since I saw it on Broadway in 1996, shortly after Larson died and before the show exploded into the collective consciousness. It has been the soundtrack of my life as a person who has always wanted to speak with a unique voice in a country that fights diversity in all its forms.

The music of Rent, the experience of people of all colors, all genders, all sexualities, the sick and the healthy, the dreamers, the crusaders, and the sell-outs, that story looked like the life my generation led in America at the end of the millennium.

Take the time to watch this production of Rent if you can. Listen to the sound of a generation afraid that there was no hope of surviving in a world where sex killed us and corporations numbed us and the opportunity to succeed meant giving up parts of our souls. Come meet GenerationX.

And afterward you can thank us for the internet porn.

Vaccines: I can’t believe I have to write this today but vaccines are a proven scientific advancement that. through widespread use, have nearly eradicated multiple diseases that once maimed and killed thousands of people every year.

This is a fact and anyone saying otherwise is being a dickhead.

No, I’m not sorry for saying that.

You see, some people really can’t have vaccines and therefore do not have immunity to diseases like measles. These people tend to have underlying health issues such as, say, cancer, and are immunocompromised to a degree that vaccines would be harmful. Their risk of acquired infection, therefore, is higher than normal people and their ability to fight off infections is diminished.

Which is why I want to spit nails at every smug hipster who says “Vaccinating my child is my choice and I don’t have to put toxins in their body if I don’t want to.”

You know what? Your kid is inhaling toxins with every breath so shut your bearded yap.

Washington State has had to declare a state of emergency because of a growing outbreak of measles. Measles can kill otherwise healthy people, never mind how risky it is for unvaccinated babies or people with immune issues. Which is why it’s so terrifying that people are doing things like getting measles, going to basketball games during the incubation period, spreading their germs willy-nilly and risking the lives of other people like it ain’t no thing.

If you are a person witholding vaccines from your kids because you read some bullshit from Jenny McCarthy or the Natural News website, you are part of the problem.

Vaccinate your family. Check your titers if you’re unsure of your vaccination status and update vaccines if you need to. Be a part of the solution.

Character Counts: We are now up to something like 37 from the Mueller investigation and I’ve noticed something. Whenever the FBI shows up with a warrant or an indictment, there’s no one rushing to be on tv and defend the character of the accused.

Just this week, when Roger Stone was arrested in the pre-dawn hours, there was no one to say “Roger? Really? He’s such a great guy. I can’t believe he was shady all this time.” Instead, all the Trump-world apologists can pull out is quibbling about the propriety of arrest protocols.

Every arrest just proves that these people are crooks, they were always crooks and everyone knew they were crooks. They never even pretended to be anything else.

60 million Americans voted affirmatively for a criminal cabal to run our country. And they might do it again, just to own the libs. That’s pretty damn sad.

That’s all I have for now, friends. The guys and I will be missing the live production of Rent to record the show tonight but you should really watch it to fill the empty hours before our new podcast drops!