(Links to items in the post are provided at the end of it. If you would rather see them in the body of the post, please let us know.)
Photos from the olden days of California exile have been speaking to us lately. This one seems poignant now and did then too, for different reasons.
If your browser accepts enhanced links, you’ll be taken to the Long Covid section of this report on the botched handling of the Covid pandemic worldwide from the British medical journal, The Lancet.1
The report is extensive, thorough, somewhat technical, and in a way somewhat upbeat, as it provides a comprehensive framework for doing better in the future with regard to both medical responses and communication with the public.
A 19-year-old chess grandmaster is accused of cheating in a match with the world number one-ranked player by using … oh, never mind. Read the story if you want; we’re not spelling it out. Suffice to say that if true, new ground will have been broken.2
We’re a little glum about labor strife in some of our favorite countries, but labor standing for themselves anywhere is good. The decision to postpone strikes in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death seems more than a bit ironic, but one can understand the PR concerns. We would have loved seeing the U.S. closed due to strikes during the Reagan funeral extravaganza.
Teachers continue strikes over pay and workload across Europe as court bans nurses’ strike in Finland; UK unions including RMT, CWU, Unite, RCN, PCS cancel strikes because of queen’s death as attacks on living conditions continue; unions intervene with sellout deal to end Putco bus drivers’ wildcat strike in South Africa; Nigerian aviation workers ground flights to protest strike ban.3
Out on the cutting edge of the stupidity debate, Jonathan Haidt had a long piece in the May issue of The Atlantic titled “WHY THE PAST 10 YEARS OF AMERICAN LIFE HAVE BEEN UNIQUELY STUPID.” The piece is long, and sparsely but intriguingly illustrated by Nicolás Ortega. We read the whole thing at the time of publication, but confess to having only skimmed it this time, mostly to look at the illustrations. Haidt blames the stupidity pandemic on social media, and describes endless examples.4
Marxist theorist Richard Seymour wrote a 2020 review of “The Social Dilemma,” the Netflix documentary about Facebook specifically and social media generally. Anticipating Haidt’s piece, Seymour’s is titled “No, Social Media Isn’t Destroying Civilization.”5
Netflix’s The Social Dilemma tells a horror story about how social media is creating political extremism and driving children into depression and addiction. But it never even hints that these ills have causes outside of our use of Facebook and Snapchat — and the possibility that what we see on these platforms portrays the reality of a sick society.
Haidt figures briefly in Seymour’s review, as a “social psychologist and centrist scold” who puts cart before horse in diagnosing the evils of social media, which evils Seymour acknowledges, but as above.
“It took more than 28 years,” says Will Bunch, “but now we finally know the ultimate destination of the TV news trucks that followed O.J.’s white Bronco when it veered onto the 405 that unforgettable June night. Their route stopped on Donald Trump’s tarmac for interminable live shots in 2016 before somehow crossing the pond and transforming into 2022′s Griefmobile.”6
Bunch notes that the broadcast networks broke into programming to carry the new monarch’s inaugural speech after having declined to do the same with Biden’s speech warning of American autocracy.
We noted a number of vitriolic racists and fascists on twitter mourning the loss of civility heralded by the queen’s death. Noted phrenologist Andrew “Bell Curve” Sullivan confessed to sobbing every time he tried to pen the requisite elegiac obituary. Stephen “Lying Nazi Homunculus” Miller chimed in on the civility front as well, later musing about the difficulties that might befall a monarchy which married outside the bloodlines of its subjects.
The press are not dead, but they stink like it.
Out on the edge no longer are the Sweden Democrats, a recently sanitized Fascist party now the second-largest in the Swedish parliament and a not-so-silent partner in the new right-wing governing coalition there, which is unendingly sad.7
Katie Holmes has “edgy new bangs,” about which someone was paid to write a story. “Crucially,” we learn, “the bangs are also styled with product.”8
A doctor decided to fuck with a close friend and withhold some important medication for nearly a week because our friend neglected to schedule an appointment soon enough to avoid running out. We called the clinic today and managed to bypass the recalcitrant doctor and find one who would oblige.
We believe the words “subjected to unnecessary distress” were key; just a few minutes ago we delivered a 90-day supply. We’re feeling like the bee’s knees here at headquarters. It’s good to do good.
(We long for new music recommendations. If you have some, one, many, please leave them in comments. Musical contributors to this post include The Peterson Brothers, “The Peterson Brothers;” The Monkees, “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd;” Richard Lloyd, “The Countdown;” and Joanne Shaw Taylor, “The Blues Album.”)
The New York Post story about cheating accusations leveled at a young chess grandmaster.
The World Socialist Web Site has a rundown on strikes and strife just about everywhere.
❤️ The press are not dead, but they stink like it. ❤️
My son/wife/friend wanted to know what I was listening to and I copied my "on repeat" spotify playlist. FWIW: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KOTzFT14S5iSfymrjBrhc?si=cfe967de248d4fa3
It feels like the world right now is Hannah Arendt's nightmare. It's very validating to read your commentary.