Category: News

  • Election Delay? No, Trump is Trying to Distract You

    So, Trump wants to delay the election? I mean, that’s what he tweeted and, seems to me, that’s what everyone has been talking about for two days, right? But, he doesn’t have the authority to do that, and the Constitution won’t allow it, as there are specific dates which Congress and the President must be sworn in on. There is no way to change the election date.

    Trump is up to his old tricks of trying to distract, and change the conversation.

    If we are all talking about changing the election, then we aren’t talking about the huge drop in GDP. We aren’t talking about people about to lose their extra unemployment benefits. We aren’t talking about up to 30 million people facing eviction. We aren’t talking about Federal agents in the streets of Portland. We aren’t talking about BLM. We aren’t talking about Covid-19’s rising infection and death rates. And especially, we aren’t talking about John Lewis, a true American hero, who fought for justice, equality, and voting rights.

    There is so much going wrong, that we need to be focus and working for solutions.

    Don’t fall for the distraction.

     

  • Hydroxychloroquine News Story

    Hydroxychloroquine News Story

    It was just heartbreaking to see. I went on Facebook, and I saw that a good friend of mine from college had posted a pro hydroxychloroquine news story. There was no comment left, or request that we should, “read the article, and keep an open mind,” or any other phrase of have some sort of civil debate about this topic. Through they had left not a word of whether they believed hydroxychloroquine worked or not, it just broke my heart to see.

    Broke my heart because it caused me to fear the worst about them.  This was a person I went to college with, who I would describe as a person of above average intelligence, huge amount of compassion, determination, and not a person I would describe as easily fooled. This is also a person who would describe themselves as conservative, and a Christian, but in no way closed minded to people who are different from them.

    It broke my heart because it made me feel like they drank to Kool-Aid.

    I have friends that are 100% pro-Trump, and to them, there is nothing that he can do wrong. I know people who claim to be libertarians that will argue that you can’t force anyone to do anything, even if it would benefit the world. But these people have always been like that, so when they post Trump stuff, or argue that they will never wear a mask, it fits within their proclivity.

    It broke my heart because it means my old college friend has changed, and chosen to go down this path. They are choosing to believe something that has been proved not to work.

  • I’m More Excited About British Football Than American Football

    I’m More Excited About British Football Than American Football

    Yup, I can hear my friends and family back in Texas shitting a brick right now. Being that football in Texas is a well-documented religion and industry unto itself, they would be dumbfounded that someone who grew up under Friday Night Lights, would somehow become all hipster and start liking soccer. It’s true, and then I would correct them and say, “You know it’s called football all over the world.”

    Yes, it’s true. I found myself more excited about the Premier League starting up again in Britain than I have been for baseball coming back or the basketball bubble. I haven’t cared about hockey since the Dallas Stars won the cup, and I do respect MLS, but I haven’t been able to get behind the NY Red Bulls (Too Corporate) or NYCFC as they are partly owned by Manchester City, and more about that later. American Football feels like they well screw it up like baseball. My true feeling is that American sports team owners don’t care about their players, and are just trying to throw them out in the mix, to grab what money they can. Baseball clearly hasn’t thought it through, as the 12+ Marlin players contracting Covid in the last 48 hours proves.

    I do want sports back, if nothing more than to have something to nap through on a Sunday afternoon, and also to have something to talk to people about. Nothing gets settled in sports discussions, but they sure are fun and do help give you an insight on the person arguing that Charles Barkley was the most revolutionary player in the NBA, period. (Feel free to comment on that.)

    It was fun for the past few weeks following my team in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, as they fought for a 6th place finish which qualified them for the Europa League. As I follow the Spurs, I have adopted a dislike for all teams from Manchester, and loath Arsenal. And there is something also about how the Premier League took the virus seriously, especially player health. On the week of July 13th, 2,208 players and staff were tested and zero were found positive. In fact, from May 7th to July 19th, only 20 positive test results came back. They all did what they had to do to have a safe end of the season.

    I don’t think America will be able to say the same.

  • Just a Little Tone Deaf

    Just a Little Tone Deaf

    I live in New York, and I read The New York Times. None of this should come as a shock to any of you, as I am sure you have noticed I refer to many stories from The Times. I support what they do as a newspaper still trying to inform the populace, and for holding people in power accountable.

    And now and then The Times fucks up.

    Case in point, “Turning a Second Home Into a Primary Home,” written by Julie Satow for the NY Times Real Estate section, which was published online on 7/24/20, and then in print on 7/26/20. If you can’t guess from the title, it’s about people making their vacation homes outside of NYC into their primary addresses, and with the exception of Newburgh, NY (which isn’t a bad place, just not super wealthy trendy) all of the people profiled are living in rather exclusive places.

    From where I sit, I’m watching people in my neighborhood of NYC move out, and also know a few people who are behind on rent. The $600 a week Covid unemployment payment ran out on 7/26, and evictions are about to start up again soon for most people, so it really struck me as odd that The Times thought it was a good idea to celebrate people who are doing fine. (I don’t fault the people profiled for being successful; they earned it.) Who is this story helping?

    I know I’m not alone in this thought. Just read the comments on the story, and you will see that most people agree that this is the wrong time to be talking about “discovering” the joys of a home you only saw 7 weeks out of the year.

  • What is Up with Texas?

    What is Up with Texas?

    I used to get that question often when I first moved to NYC. I grew up in Texas, and when people would eventually find out I was from the Lone Star state, I would get asked, “Hey, what is up with Texas?” This was in 2006, the waning days of George W. Bush, and my adopted home state had an amazing reputation of crazy and gun crazy on top of that. (Luckily, Florida has seemed to taken on the mantel away from Texas in the last several years.)

    Today, The New York Times ran this story, “Red vs, Red in Texas, With Republicans Battle One Another After Mask Order,” and the title pretty much encapsulates what in now going on there. It even caused me to ask, what is up with Texas? It reminded me of this story The New Yorker put out a week ago, “How Texas Republicans Politized the Coronavirus Pandemic,” which goes into detail on how state Republicans were fighting each other to have a convention in Houston in the middle of an outbreak of Covid-19.

    My 77-year-old father, and  my brothers with their families are still in Texas, and I can only imagine that the anxiety and worry I have for them is the same thing they all had for us in March in New York. The difference is that at least the City and state of New York were committed to fighting Covid. Not that they did a perfect job, but at least everyone was aiming for the same goal. In Texas, it just seems like the state leaders are running around in a hurricane of chaos they have created under the guise of personal freedom.

    When people used to ask me that questions about Texas way back in the good old days of ‘Merica, I would tell them that growing up in Texas, there was a strong through line of independence balanced with respect. It seems to me that Texas conservatives have perverted this idea, and now it’s costing people their lives.