Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Cost of Apathy

 

I don’t care what the scientists say; hydrogen is not the most common element in the universe. Neither is helium.

It’s irony.

After all, what darker humor than to bestow the ultimate gift, life, only to saddled it with the ultimate bill, death? Black holes are nature’s knock-knock joke.

And she recently pranked the Tulsa World.

Nearly four years ago, the World, a 115-year old newspaper and an institution in the Sooner state, put this political cartoon above its editorial on who it was endorsing in the upcoming 2016  presidential election.

Its endorsement? No one.

Gary McCoy cartoon

This was its headline: Tulsa World Editorial endorsement: For president? None of the above

Since 1940, the Tulsa World has consistently endorsed the Republican nominee for president,” the column began. “But we’re not willing to do that this time. Neither are we willing to endorse the Democratic candidate or any other candidate.”

What an utter abdication of the only rule and role of media: to help people make informed decisions. What is media’s reason for being if not that service?

Instead, the World became an avatar for the Country; too cynical about the process to bother trying. Pardon the fury at brethren on this issue, but those assholes should have at least found the best independent candidate, or write-in candidate, or even written in one itself. Nominate a fucking dog. The point is, do something. If you won’t, how can you expect others to?

Here was the astounding fortune cookie wisdom that ended the “editorial”: “We encourage all voters to participate in the election and to follow their consciences in making the best choice from the least acceptable list of candidates for president in modern times. We won’t be endorsing any of them.

You go ahead and march, the story essentially said. But leave us out of it. The World acted like an average American: disinterested until it’s at the doorstep.

Well, it’s knocking now, particularly for Republicans. After not taking a stand on the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, the World must now take a stand on a Donald Trump rally.

We don’t know why he chose Tulsa,” the World editorial board wrote this week, “but we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city.

Come on, dispshits. You know exactly why he chose Tulsa — and it’s not just because it coincides with the 99th anniversary of the slaughter of 300 black people there, though you can bet that’s one of the primary reasons. Mt Zion Baptist church burns after being torched by white mobs during the 1921 Tulsa massacre.

But it’s also because of the Tulsa populace, which loves to make America great again. It’s because of the thousands that will chant the great leader’s name — after they’ve signed a waiver pledging they won’t sue him if they contract COVID. That a real prerequisite of the rally.

Mike Pence falsely claims coronavirus cases in Oklahoma are on the ...

And it’s because you, the World, did not speak up when you had the chance. So don’t be surprised when your pleas fall of deaf ears. Nor when Darwin thins the herd. Mother Nature is not only sarcastic; she punishes those who aren’t clever.

Looks like the universe punked you, Oklahoma. Twice, actually. You decided to ignore the coming plague, and now you’ve noticed a lesion on your face.

Get it?

 

BLM: The Magic Trick

Here’s a magic trick to show kids or families/friends with a youthful streak. The names come from babynames.com, which highlighted the names of black lives cut short by violence. Consider the trick a silent nod to all.

The trick:

Think of any number on a clock.
Look at the clock pictured above and find your number.
Find the number OPPOSITE your number.
Subtract the smaller number from the larger.
That is your magic number.
Now look up the name next to your magic number.
That is your magic name…

 

…You thought of Michael Brown.

 

The Great News Blackout

Blade Runner 2049 Review | Movie - Empire

There’s a terrific contrivance in Blade Runner 2049. The 2017 Blade Runner sequel posits that there was an epic blackout of electricity in 2022 that made it impossible to tell human beings from their synthetic counterparts, Replicants.

What a prescient notion.

For today, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, we experienced a tragic, heretofore unnoticed, blackout across the news landscape.

Only the day before, a Republican-run Supreme Court voted 6-3 (a near-unanimous vote in today’s politically bipolar times) that the 1964 Civil Rights Act extends to gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. On top of that, Trump’s first appointee to the court, Neil Gorsuch, wrote the majority opinion.

When the news broke, it thundered and properly shook homes in all news neighborhoods, from print to TV to online. It was at least a 7.0 Richter scale rumbler, and was properly compared to the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights victories of the 1960’s.

So why the hell did we not treat it that way the next day?

After reading about the news yesterday afternoon, I immediately tuned to the 24/7s. There, from CNN to FOX to MSNBC, I found nothing but protest and pandemic news. Some to applaud mask-wearers and sign-holders, some to condemn them.

On the late-night circuit, the ruling took a backseat to the shows’ cold-open toppers: Trump geezer-stepping down the ramp at West Point. Trump defends cautious walk down ramp, which raised questions ...

This isn’t to say that those stories aren’t news. Both pandemic and protest deserve front-page coverage. The New York Times noted that Trump’s physical frailty, from his arm spasms to slurred words to geriatric gait, could be personal trouble for the president and political trouble for his party.

But take a look at the picture atop this post. It’s a screenshot of the Apple News feed from this morning recapping the most important events of the day. A next day.

You will find nothing there about the ruling.

If what happened yesterday was the tectonic shift all outlets claimed, how could that news not merit remaining a top-of-the-fold, lead-the-newscast, editor’s-pick story today? Did we cover passage of the Civil Rights Act with the same short-term memory?

I pray not, and I suspect not.1964 Civil Rights Act Fast Facts - CNN

I get the demands on news that it be clock-current in coverage. We will once think it quaint that we got our news on parchment a day after an event. Now we want a full-blown analysis of the game we just watched waiting for us by the time we get to our phone or computer.

But there is a darker truth about the way we covered the ruling — and news writ large. We largely ignored it because it was good news (at least for those who agreed with the ruling, which is likely a vast majority, given the judicial panel speaking).

That truth becomes undeniably clear when you think of how this story could have been written today. Where are the pieces on joyous reactions of Americans who finally feel recognized? Where’s the story on a worker relieved that she won’t be fired for joining her gay softball team? Those would make for fine TV/online/print/social media articles.

There are also complex news stories to pursue. On Friday, for instance, the Trump Administration finalized erasing Obama-era transgender civil rights protections in health care. The Times noted that Friday’s ruling meant that the Department of Health and Human Services no longer had to recognize gender identity as an avenue for sex discrimination in health care.

Given their leanings, you’d think CNN and MSNBC, at the very least, would be all over this troubling news for the administration, particularly with a presidential election a few months away. Or that FOX would be lamenting the snowflaking of a Supreme Court it once considered it’s literal Trump card. Gorsuch was supposed to be a puppet. Is this dissent in the cult? Neil Gorsuch: 'Do you really want me to rule the country ...

Speaking of the Supremes: What does this mean for civil rights, which will inevitably be in the Court’s cross hairs, given the tumult that has followed the George Floyd death and ascending Black Lives Matter movement.

Maybe these stories are being aired. But I need prospector’s luck finding them.

You’d think the story would have gotten more traction simply because it is a new beat in the two-note symphony that has become news.

Perhaps part of the problem was that the initial stories mislead readers. The truth is that the ruling is not on a scale of the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights breakthroughs because it involves fewer people.

It’s important news, to be sure. But it should be put in context, which is that the LGBTQ ruling may have been as big as its predecessor, but the monster wave was in a smaller ocean. Maybe even a lake superior.

This is how news became a Labrador puppy, blindly leaping to get out from under the blanket we call Fake News.

That news, too, should be put in context. We know the cliche If it bleeds, it leads.

The truth is it doesn’t lead. It drowns.