As we head into the final weekend of June, I don’t think it’s too soon to believe that this month will be remembered as “naive, simplistic and superficial.” The Dow and the NASDAQ soared without any fundamental reasons to do so; many states “reopened for business” while here we are on June 26 with yesterday being a RECORD day for new coronavirus cases ( > 40,000).
Oh, and the chief of… wait, let me see with whom this dude is affiliated again…checking… oh, yes, the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL says that actual positive Covid-19 cases are likely TEN TIMES the number that have been diagnosed. Or more than 20 million.
All that plus sports commissioners blustering with confidence that their sports will be reopening soon (“full speed into that iceberg, lads!”).
It’s been quite the jejune June.
Kung Flu Pander
A spot-on editorial by Paul Krugman highlighting how America overall is not to blame for the coronavirus, but rather gung-ho blinders-on Republicans who just looked at the coronavirus as if it were Al Qaeda or climate change and thought that a red baseball cap would be enough to overcome it.
Krugman’s most blistering sentence(s):
It’s not that the right is averse to fearmongering. But it doesn’t want you to fear impersonal threats that require an effective policy response, not to mention inconveniences like wearing face masks; it wants you to be afraid of people you can hate — people of a different race or supercilious liberals.
Eggs-Actly.
And now, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the right and Fox News is still clinging to its stupidity. It’s a lesson for all: they will NEVER yield in their stubborn refusal to acknowledge the world has changed. Ever. Even to the death.
Will The Sh*t Ever Hit The Fan?
In brief, Yes.
Airlines and banks and travel industry and the hospitality industry and the food service industry and Wall Street analysts and ESPECIALLY CNBC are blithely going about their business telling us how good of a sun tan we’re able to get now that the ozone layer has been destroyed. Or encouraging us to hunt for sea shells now that the tide just went out 500 feet. There’s a reason the tide is out 500 feet, however.
A tsunami is coming.
Right this minute, if I had the means and the smarts and was someone like Michael Lewis, I’d be doing the deepest of dives into the artificial propping up of the stock market. I guess even I could use stock phrases such as “cheap money” and “the Fed” and “stimulus packages,” but I’m not sophisticated enough to know how they all work.
What I do know, from watching enough Kurt Russell Disney films as a lad, is that The Computer is Wearing Tennis Shoes. In short, something unnatural is taking place to prop up the stock market. Something probably unethical and perhaps even illegal. And we’ve seen enough to know that in the end the market will come crashing down, the rich folks who engineered it will say that nobody was able to foresee it, Lewis will have his bestseller and eventually an Oscar-nominated picture, and the little guy will end up footing the bill.
I’ve lived a few blocks from this statue for decades and I probably never even gave it a second thought. So is that on me? I’ve never bothered much to explore the inspiration behind it (and I could probably stand to read a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, come to think of it).
Here’s what I’m waiting for, though. What happens when enough people become upset about George Washington having owned dozens of slaves (whom I believe, he set free upon his death)? I mean, when that statue gets toppled, it’s going to create a clamor.
And if this is on your front lawn, you may see some up-close toppling soon.
We have been doing that here, Chuck, for a couple months now. I’ll go further: He’s America’s all-time most prolific mass (not mask) murderer.
Here’s the piece of information inside that blew (Blow, blew) me away:
During the height of the crisis, some states experienced a shortage of ventilators to treat gravely ill patients. Trump claimed that the Obama administration had left no ventilators in the national stockpile, that there were “empty cupboards.” In truth, his own administration confirmed a few days ago that 16,660 ventilators were available for use when Trump took office and in March, and outrageously the Trump administration had distributed only 10,760 of them as of Tuesday.
Manhattan Transfer Of Droplets
The New York City Marathon? Canceled.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame game, the traditional kickoff to the NFL’s (exhibition) season? Canceled.
Major League Baseball’s 60-game season? Not canceled. Yet. But for just how far will Rob Manfred drive Susan’s parents to the Hamptons before stopping the car?
On Saturday, Kansas State, in what will be a harbinger for the 2020 college football season, shut down its program for the time being. The Wildcats had no coronavirus cases when it welcomed players back to campus in the beginning of June, but by last week it had 14. And so they closed shop in Manhattan.
Is any other sports team or league so arrogant are willfully ignorant about what is happening around us (37,000 NEW cases nationwide yesterday) to think that it won’t also happen to them?
Again, we’re not claiming COVID-19 is a killer among top-tier athletes. Almost certainly not. But is that even the point? And if the virus can infiltrate a relatively remote place like Manhattan, Kans., that quickly, how do you think it’s going to do in Orlando or in MLB cities? C’mon, man.
Check Your Privilege, ESPN
So you go to ESPN’s homepage and you see the headline for a video that shows the face of Chris Fowler. The headline reads, “Fowler: We Need To Be A Part Of The Movement And Not Get Caught In The Moment.”
Click on the video. You’ll find that in a video that is 2:58 in duration, Fowler does not speak until the 2:29 mark. Everyone who talks before him (Maria Taylor, Clinton Yates, Louis Roddick) is African-American. But ESPN.com teases its readers by touting what Fowler said.
Now that’s funny.
By the way, we totally agree with what Fowler says (and with Yates and Riddick, too), but we’ll take it a step further. And I doubt anyone at ESPN would ever say this: Sure, the murder of George Floyd was the spark. But what’s helped sustain this prolonged period of protest and racial activism are two other factors:
The utter absence of sports on the landscape (one of the many things I’m thankful about in terms of no sports) and
A horrendous president, and those who support him, who are so nakedly proud of their ignorance and cruelty that it forces you to sit up and take notice.
If we had a moderate president, or even a progressive one, people might not be out in the streets effecting change. You can actually thank the wickedness of Donald Trump (pepper-spraying and rubber-billeting peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park, for example) for helping to accelerate this movement.
One last word on the video. Maria Taylor cited an MLK, Jr. , quote from 1963 about “white moderates” being the impediment to social change (um, nope; moderates are not worse than the Klan; we get your point, but it’s a lazy straw man) and then segues immediately into introducing Fowler. Which is an implication that he’s the problem. She tried to walk it back but the damage was done. And of course Fowler is going to be gracious in this moment but he’s a very smart dude and one who does not take slights well (who does?). Don’t think he didn’t notice that.
Churchill Downer
You’d expect a sports event held in Mitch McConnell’s state to be expert at gas lighting the public. Taking a page directly from Donald Trump’s coronavirus playbook, the president of Churchill Downs, Kevin Flanery, said, “We will take all necessary steps to protect the health and safety of all who attend and participate in the Derby,” which will be held on September 5.
Flanery “will take all necessary steps to protect the health and safety of all who attend” except mandate that attendees wear masks. That’s like a student declaring that he will do everything possible to get an “A” in the class except study.
It’s truly incredible how stupid MAGA leaders think we all are. But they do know how stupid their lemmings are. And these quotes are for them. Oh, well. Can’t wait for this statement or event to be abridged.
In Phoenix this weekend, people waited in their vehicles up to THIRTEEN hours to be tested for the coronavirus as the temperature soared above 105 degrees (if you own stock in Freon, YOU WIN!). Meanwhile, yesterday the state of Arizona set record-highs for:
•New cases of Covid-19 reported (3,591)
•Daily hospitalizations ( > 2,000)
•Inpatient beds occupied (2,136)
•ICU beds in use
•Ventilators in use
Also, 42 Arizonans died of Covid-19 yesterday.
None of the above, of course, were the TOP story in this morning’s Arizona Republic. The top story was “3 Takeaways From President Donald Trump’s Visit To Yuma And Phoenix.” Well, at least they know who their subscriber base (and that word fits here) is.
An aside: Are you, like me, astounded at how rapidly the health care complex is able to tabulate the data for Covid-19 deaths, cases, etc. It’s almost like they have a data base handy.
Anyway, yes, Donald Trump flew all the way to Arizona yesterday, where it was a refreshing 109 degrees, just so he could have an audience of 3,000-plus true believers at the Dream City Church in north Phoenix. As one of those cable news hosts (who only wears black or navy blue) pointed out last night, there have been two large gatherings indoors of more than 3,000 Americans since the pandemic struck, and both of them have been…. Trump rallies.
As bad as things are in Arizona right now in terms of Covid-19 cases, they’re about to take a quantum leap in the next three weeks. Enjoy your summer.
You Can’t Stay Home Again (But Maybe You Should?)
As one of our readers pointed out the other day, it’s difficult to brace for the “second wave” when the first wave is still climbing. Record numbers of new coronavirus cases in Arizona and Texas yesterday. California and Florida are on the upswing. California, Texas and Florida are the top three most-populous states in the Union and Arizona is 14th.
So, kind of a big deal.
There were 35,000 new cases recorded yesterday, the third-highest total since the pandemic began.
In any other nation, with any other president, someone would look at those figures and think, Well, if we had a lockdown before we should definitely have a lockdown now. Except that Trump and Barr/Kudlow/Mnuchin/Mitch are in full Costanza-taking-Susan’s-parents-to-his-Hamptons-house mode now. There’s no going back (“Two solariums?”).
You wanna get nuts? LET’S GET NUTS!
Say It Ain’t So, Ron
Retired porn star Ron Jeremy (yes, that face belongs to a porn star) has been arrested on charges of having sexually assaulted four women. The 67 year-old nudie thespian apparently trolled the Sunset Strip looking for victims which, let’s face it, is a more intriguing plot than 98% of porn films. It isn’t easy seeing our heroes crumble before our eyes.
Op-Ed Bonanza
The top three editorials in The New York Times this morning took me aback. It’s as if someone had stolen my top three talking points from the group texts I engage in with my high school buddies (a.k.a. “The Gang”) and college pals (a nameless but wickedly funny crew). Did you ever see that episode of Cheers where Cliff Clavin appears on Jeopardy! and it serendipitously seems as if all of the categories were ideally tailored to him? That’s how I felt this morning.
The middle editorial doesn’t strike a chord with me as much as the first and third. As a recent enlistee in the “Essential Workerforce,” I’m frankly gobsmacked at how paltry my after-tax paycheck is. If I weren’t a Phyllis freeloader, I don’t know how I’d make it, even working a 40-hour week.
These are real jobs with real adults doing them, and no one is arguing that they (I) should earn what a trained worker makes, but when you earn little more than what someone sitting on their ass collecting an unemployment check “earns,” there’s something wrong with the system at both ends.
One of my wealthy high school pals always waves this away with, “Oh, they need more training” as if that will magically happen. No. Top-end earners need to stop making $40 to $50 million a year at a company they didn’t even create while most of their work force scrapes past paycheck to paycheck.
As an MIT economist (that’s one of those smarty pants schools) is quoted as saying in the final Op-Ed, “Low-wage workers are doing really badly and this will destroy our society.”
I’ve been saying this for years. Because it’s true.
Necromancing The Stone
Finally saw Uncut Gems (on Netflix) the other night and “Wow.” Never mind the plot or whether or not you cheer for our protagonist, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), this film does what films rarely do: it makes you feel the world in which the characters inhabit.
I’ve worked most of my career within two blocks of where Ratner’s little jewelry shop is set (on Diamond Row, 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues) and the movie main lines the feeling of claustrophobia, of manic stress, of nonstop chaos and whatever the opposite of peace and quiet are. If ever there were a film that made you feel what it’s like to transfer from the crosstown shuttle train (S) to the uptown 2/3 lines at rush hour, for an entire 134 minutes, this is it.
The reason is Sandler (and the script, by the Safdie brothers, Benny and Josh, who also directed; and Ronald Bronstein). As one reviewer noted, it feels as if the entire film that Ratner is having two conversations at once. Or that if he is talking to someone, he’s checking on someone or something else. He is NEVER present. And one of the reasons this works so well is because that’s what it’s like to be a degenerate gambler. You’re always thinking about the gam that is in play, or the game you just lost that you need to make up for by doubling down on the next piece of action. It’s unremitting.
There’s a sense, particularly in the latter half of the film, that if Ratner can just catch this next big break he’ll have solved all of his problems. But as soon as he does, a new hurdle appears. And often it’s Howard who’s placing that hurdle in front of himself. If you’ve seen the movie, in the final 15 minutes or so, you know exactly what I mean.
One more thing: the performances, some by non-actors, are terrific. The man who works in the pawn shop who takes Howard’s rings as collateral. That’s as authentic a New York character as you’ll ever seen in any film. I doubt he’s an actor, but he nails it (I think his name is Ronald Greenberg. The henchman-muscle guy, Phil (William Keith Richards) is perfect. LaKeith Stanfield, as Demany, Howard’s hustler and also nemesis, is perfect (I worked with a bookie who is exactly this guy). The lonely billionaire who’s a cartoon figure that shows up at the end? Nailed that, too. Even Kevin Garnett (as himself) and Mike Francesa (as a restaurateur/bookie) are ideal.
I served tables of guys who looked like this at the Steakateria all the time. The Steakateria, by the way, is the backdrop for the scene in which Howard is tossed into the fountain pool
I’m not sure if Uncut Gems was enjoyable. It was entertaining. It was pure stress, a turbulent flight, a rumbling roar of the 2 train between 72nd and 42d where you’re squished between humanity and it feels as if the train is about to jump the tracks. But I have not seen a more authentic film, that isn’t a documentary, in years. Bully to the Safdie brothers and Sandler and everyone involved for that.
p.s. If you want to see another film that captures New York City and the stress that people seem to treat as a drug, see The Boiler Room (from 2000). Don’t see The Wolf of Wall Street (which is mostly garbage).
Donald Trump returns home from the Tulsa 6,200 rally looking like someone on his way back from the bachelor bro weekend in Vegas.
It’s funny that people are meme’ing this as Trump’s “Walk of Shame” because shame is the one feeling this man has never felt. But as David Graham writes in The Atlantic, this looked like the night Trump stopped trying.
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