The Daily Escape:
Cascade River Valley, North Cascades, WA – September 2023 photo via WanderWashington
Given how often the Republicans in the House shoot themselves in the foot, Santa better bring them Kevlar shoes. This cartoon expresses the problem perfectly:
The room where it never happens:
NY Magazine has an article about Biden’s weirdest White House habits. What struck Wrongo was this:
“While you might think the addition of a cat would make the White House feel more like a home, it seems that hasn’t solved the problem. In January 2023 the president revealed that his new cat Willow is adding to his discomfort.
“Willow may walk in here any time now. She has no limits” Biden said. “You think I’m kidding, I’m not. Especially in the middle of the night when she climbs up and lays on top of my head.”
No wonder Biden seems to have less hair. In Wrongo’s experience, dogs will cuddle but would never sleep on your head…although maybe nose to nose. NY Mag must be starved for real content. On to cartoons.
Florida redefines slavery’s harm:
White guy’s thickest whitewash now available in Florida:
RFK jr isn’t on the same planet that his father walked:
GOP helps RFK jr in tearing down Camelot and building SCAMALOT:
This Fall’s new TV hit:
GOP persists in its Trumpy love:
The WaPo has an excellent briefing on Biden’s new border policy. If you’ve wondered why there’s no longer mass chaos at the southern border since Title 42 was lifted, it’s because the Biden administration has completely transformed how migrants, asylum-seekers, and those who enter illegally are treated.
You have to apply to enter the US legally by making an appointment using an app. It can take up to six weeks to get the appointment, but once you do, you are interviewed, photographed, and released to a social service agency that helps migrants, or a relative or sponsor who has registered with the feds. (Plus the app uses GPS to track your movements.) You then wait for your application for asylum to be processed and your claim adjudicated.
If you enter illegally, you are sent to a massive tent city to be fed and given necessities. You get your health checked out. And then you are sent back over the border with instructions on how to apply legally via the app.
The two processes illustrate the extent to which the Biden administration has transformed the way asylum seekers and migrants are processed along the southern border. As a result, illegal crossings have dropped by close to 70% since early May. Yes, 43,000 asylum-seekers get into the US every month. But until Congressional Republicans agree to a sensible immigration policy, controlling the influx in this manner seems to be the best alternative. On to cartoons.
What the GOP cares about:
We won’t fight climate change, so you’ll have to:
The GOP’s latest tangent:
The GOP decides the FBI is liberal:
It’s ironic that the GOP wants to defund the FBI which has always been a Republican bastion. And if the Elephant wants help with his minor surgery, Wrongo’s happy to assist. It’s doubtful that the FBI is about to start prosecuting illegal corporate activities with the same eagerness they showed when chasing after BLM and Occupy Wall Street.
Trump’s latest delay tactic:
Hollywood’s on strike:
You’ve all heard about Zuckerberg’s Meta taking on Musk’s Twitter. Meta’s product is called Threads. It’s a simple app that looks almost exactly like Twitter. Because it is linked to users’ Instagram accounts, it was immediately adopted by about 50 million people who have posted on the platform some 95 million times. It’s become the most rapidly downloaded app of all time.
That also eclipsed several other Twitter wanna-be’s like BlueSky (which has a million users), Mastodon (10+ million), Post, and Notes, all of which have been up and running for a few months but together, haven’t reached Threads’ 50+million users.
What Threads’ place in the social mediaverse will look like is anybody’s guess. But there are things we know right now, with certainty:
Wrongo joined Threads to see what the fuss is all about. It does look a lot like Twitter, and at the moment has a wild west feel. From Kyle Tharp:
“The social internet is in the midst of a massive upheaval right now, and no one really knows how it’s going to impact our politics next year. Americans’ social media diets are becoming more distributed and less trackable….I obviously think the internet will still have a major role to play next year, but predicting the future is harder than ever.”
If Threads has staying power, it will present both new opportunities and challenges for Meta. Facebook has been withdrawing its investments in news and politics over the past few years, which included killing its news partnerships division and deprioritizing political content in users’ Facebook feeds.
If Meta is going to become the online place for news consumption and political debate, it will face the same questions that Twitter and Facebook had to face: How will it handle content moderation and the spread of false or misleading content? How will fact-checking work on the platform? How much money is Meta willing to spend on that, especially after cutting those same investments in policy and integrity at Facebook? Will they allow political ads? On to cartoons.
Will Twitter unravel?
We’re melting:
Supremes add to their must carry rules:
Supremes have redefined their branch of government:
They’ve also redefined property ownership:
The Supremes say they’re ending racism:
We’re back from our Alaska vacation. It was extended two extra days in Seattle courtesy of United Airlines, who cancelled our flight, along with thousands of others. To add to United’s bad press, its CEO, Scott Kirby took a private plane out of New York while so many of his customers were grabbing hotel rooms they didn’t want, instead of sleeping in their own beds.
Wrongo promised more photos from Alaska:
June 2023 iPhone photo by Wrongo
This iceberg broke off from the Shakes Glacier, which is located in the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness of the Tongass National Forest. It stood about 20’ above the waterline. Since about 10% of a berg is above water, about 220’ of this bad boy was underwater in Shakes Lake which is about 800′ deep. We rode in a jetboat about 25 miles from Wrangell, Alaska to see it.
This week’s cartoons are about the recent decisions by the Supreme Court. SCOTUS released opinions in three big cases, the affirmative action case, the student loan forgiveness case, and the anti-LGBT+ case. Wrongo hasn’t had time to read them carefully, but the dissents by Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson made it clear that these decisions suck.
These cases show us a few things: First, that the concept of “standing” before the court means only what the Supremes say it means. Previously, It was about where the parties in a lawsuit “stand” in relation to each other. Back in the recent past, a party had to prove they had standing before a court considers the merits of a case. But:
“From the first page to the last, today’s opinion departs from the demands of judicial restraint…At the behest of a party that has suffered no injury, the majority decides a contested public policy issue properly belonging to the politically accountable branches and the people they represent.”
Second, we’ve learned that the 14th Amendment, which was originally written to insure that Black people had Constitutional rights, no longer applies to them. Now that the Conservative majority on the Court has ended racism, maybe we’ll get a new holiday to celebrate!
Third, this is what happens when a third of America doesn’t vote. In 2016, we were told to elect Hillary because of the Supreme Court, but America didn’t like the “mean” lady, and Trump was elected. Despite what you thought about her, this growing list of Supreme Court decisions that so many people disagree with are a direct result of that loss.
There are two kinds of freedom: Freedom to, and freedom from. But your freedom isn’t supposed to hurt anybody else. And historically when it did, we enacted laws curtailing that behavior, but no longer. Now, we’re out there all on our own.
Society is moving backwards. Wrongo grew up in the 1960s, those good old days when politicians and the courts strived to promote equality. Now society’s divided. Its coarser, and much less equal. “It’s on you to bootstrap your way to the top” is what the Supreme Court is telling us. We’re born and after that, you’re on your own. However your life plays out, it’s your fault. On to cartoons.
No ladder required:
SCOTUS suggestion for getting ahead:
A case of blind justice:
Blinded by the White:
Some of the Supremes’ action is definitely affirmative:
OTOH, the Supremes overruled the independent legislature theory:
Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or DEI, are intended to address inequities against historically marginalized groups and individuals who are working within an organization. DEI are three closely linked values that work together to be supportive of different groups of individuals, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations.
DEI has recently come under fire. It’s at the center of some political battles being waged by Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis. Several Red states are considering or have passed legislation targeting DEI in public institutions. Texas passed a bill with a rider banning the use of state funds for DEI programs in universities and colleges. A similar bill to ban spending on DEI in public universities has been advanced in Iowa.
But Chick-fil-A? The same Chick-fil-A that’s given millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ hate groups? The Chick-fil-A that conservatives circled the wagons around a few years ago after liberals criticized the owners for being haters?
They’re taking MAGA fire for creating a DEI policy and hiring someone to oversee the program. MAGA suddenly realized that Chick-fil-A had gone woke! But their program has been around since 2020. On to cartoons.
Nobody is safe:
Signs are everywhere:
MAGA says ya can’t help trans kids:
Our PolyCrisis government:
It’s a very old game, but Trump’s surrounded:
The Sacklers win:
Victory lap for Biden:
(There won’t be a Monday Wake Up column this week. Wrongo will return on Wednesday, May 31.)
Memorial Day, Arlington National Cemetery – 2013 photo by William Coyle
Monday will be Memorial Day, when we honor the sacrifice of those who died fighting in America’s wars. We mourn those we knew, and we pause briefly to remember those we never knew. The American public’s job is to say, “thank you for your service”. Saying it has become a reflex, like “bless you” when someone sneezes. Our default position is to thank, but not to think. For most of us, America’s foreign wars are a kind of elevator music. Always present, but we barely notice it.
Maybe we watch our town’s parade, or shop at the mall. There’s likely to be a cookout. It isn’t about love of country. It’s about sad Facebook emojis, Memorial Day mattress sales, and burgers on Monday. On to cartoons.
The old man remembers the soldier:
RIP Tina Turner:
More:
Requiring a clean Debt Ceiling dies as Biden negotiates with Freedom Caucus:
A handy reminder:
Top negotiators for Biden and Speaker McCarthy resumed talks Friday evening after the Republicans said the negotiations had to go on a “pause”. Roll Call reports that:
“After a nearly daylong setback, White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti, White House budget director Shalanda Young, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., and House Financial Services Chairman Patrick T. McHenry, R-N.C., resumed talks at the Capitol shortly after 6 p.m.”
Time is running out for Congress to raise the debt ceiling. If not, the consequences are stark. Keeping the lines of communication open and giving away the store are two different things entirely. On to cartoons.
McCarthy’s toll booth:
The North Carolina legislature overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill imposing a ten-week abortion ban. Will this ensure Democratic victory in North Carolina in 2024?
Texas has sued the Biden administration 29 times in a Texas Federal District Court. Now after banning mifepristone, Texas judges have new careers:
Durham’s report:
Disney’s Bob Iger asks DeSantis: “Does Florida want our jobs and taxes or not?” This is a severe kick in the balls:
Wrongo’s old enough to have seen Jim Brown play in Yankee Stadium against the NY Giants:
Trump’s one note:
The Daily Escape:
Scarlet Tanager, Manomet Observatory, MA – May 2023 photo by Ken Grille Photography
Today, Wrongo is going to be a grumpy old mossback. It rarely suits his politics or his outlook on life, but the WaPo is reporting that automakers are removing AM radio from their new models:
“Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated.”
More:
“Now, although 82 million Americans still listen to AM stations each month, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, the AM audience has been aging for decades. Ford says its data, pulled from internet-connected vehicles, shows that less than 5% of in-car listening is to AM stations.”
Wrongo remembers car radios before FM, and long before SiriusXM, listening to Wolfman Jack at night, beaming his show from the US–Mexico border. Or hearing Alan Freed talk about the “submarine races” in NYC. Later, living in London, he would listen to pirate radio instead of the BBC.
At night, rotating the AM dial to bring in stations like KDKA in Pittsburgh or WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia was an art. It required that you avoid the interference of other stations or the snap and crackle of lightning. While driving in the car, the AM signal could also be corrupted by the hum of overhead power lines.
Now that less-than-ideal experience will soon be only a memory. But as always in America, there’s a political argument to be made about AM radio leaving a few high priced cars. More from WaPo:
“The removal of AM radio from cars — where about half of AM listening takes place — has sparked bipartisan protests. Some Democrats are fighting to save stations that often are the only live source of local information during extreme weather, as well as outlets that target immigrant audiences. Some Republicans…claim the elimination of AM radio is aimed at diminishing the reach of conservative talk radio, an AM mainstay….Eight of the country’s 10 most popular radio talk shows are conservative.”
But the auto makers aren’t abolishing AM radio; they’re just not offering it in their new cars. AM will persist on the dial in most of America.
As usual, the issue in America is profits. Eliminating AM is all about the numbers. From WaPo:
“Of the $11 billion in advertising revenue that radio pulled in last year, about $2 billion came into AM stations, according to BIA Advisory Services, which conducts research for broadcasters. And some of the country’s most lucrative radio stations are still on AM, mostly all-news or news and talk stations in big cities such as New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles.”
BIA Advisory says that about 40% of AM stations have news, talk or sports formats; 11% are oriented to specific ethnic groups; and another 11% have a religious format. About a third of AM outlets play music, including Mexican and Spanish music. But they also report that the AM audience is getting smaller and older. The in-car streaming technology has grown exponentially, as has the trend away from music and toward podcasts and other spoken-word formats.
WaPo also quotes Pierre Bouvard from Cumulus Media, which owns more than 400 (mostly AM) stations:
“Radio is still the soundtrack of the American worker….It’s what people listen to on the way to work. And Ford owners are massive users of AM radio — 1 out of 5 AM listeners are Ford owners, so Ford is missing something here.”
But people can stream AM broadcasts into their cars if they must have AM programming.
The demographics of in-car listening aren’t fully understood. A new study by Edison Research found that young people often prefer AM and FM broadcast radio because it’s free. Edison says that overall, AM and FM radio still account for 60% of all in-car listening. SiriusXM satellite radio makes up 16%, followed by drivers’ own music from their phones at 7%, with podcasts and music videos at 4% each.
If this makes a difference to you, several manufacturers including Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Jaguar Land Rover, said they have no plans to eliminate AM.
Time to wake up America! Nobody is shutting down AM radio stations! If you need AM in your new car, you’ll just have to shop for a car that offers it. Wrongo has nostalgia for the old days of AM radio, but the one AM station he listens to in the car can easily be streamed through Apple Air Play.
Let’s not create another faux cultural war issue over whether your new Tesla must have an AM dial. To help you wake up listen to Meatloaf performing “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” with Ellen Foley. It’s from his 1977 album “Bat out of Hell”:
Props to Mike and Marie S. who did the absolutely best karaoke version of this tune!
(The Monday Wake Up Call will be published on Tuesday this week.)
America has been waiting for more than a year for the Federal Reserve to get control over inflation. In that time, they’ve jacked up interest rates to over 5%. A year ago, raising rates that high seemed unthinkable, but here we are. Wages have also risen.
There was some damage: A few horribly managed banks collapsed. A couple of auto dealer-lender chains that specialized in selling overpriced used cars to subprime customers collapsed. And there were some fiascos in commercial real estate.
All of that has led the Fed to indicate that there could be a “soft landing” for our economy. But with the latest jobs growth numbers, maybe the Fed will have to keep circling the airport. In April, 253,000 jobs were created. There are now a record 155.7 million payroll jobs. Over the past 3 months on average, 222,000 jobs were created per month. So is a soft landing ahead?
Please raise your seat tables to the upright position and pass your trash to the attendant. On to cartoons.
Coronations aren’t just for the Brits:
(Wrongo watched the coronation of King Charles III yesterday. Seventy years ago, he also watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on a 9″ black & white Philco television. Yesterday’s was on a 55” Samsung.)
The reality about the GOP:
What to expect after the GOP talks with Biden about the Debt Ceiling:
Proud Boys found guilty, but who pulled the strings?
Kremlin complains:
Justice Thomas needs to be taller to take the ride:
Time to buy more cards:
