How is everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
I was having a conversation recently with a high school graduate from the Class of 2021.
We were chit-chatting about an article I was working on. Separately, the subject of what he and his classmates lost that last year of high school came up through the course of the conversation.
“I wonder how different our lives would be if we’d been able to have a normal year,” he asked in a tone both pejorative and rhetorical.
“We’ll never know,” I said. “But there is a way to never forget.”
Then I proceeded to recommend an easy action any U.S. citizen 18 years of age can do (and in some states, can do at 17).
Register to vote.
And then go to the polls for primary and general elections.
A suggestion to all gift-giving relatives/friends of high school graduates: print off and slip this registration information inside the envelope and gift card.
Encourage the exercise of democracy.
Never forget.
Vote.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
We Are Not Raising Adults But Excellent Sheep.
Perfect lede article out of the Six intro. Another excellent guest essay from the Common Sense newsletter, the writer a former English professor at Yale and author of a book that foreshadowed much of what we are seeing on college campuses – and in corporate America – today. From the essay: “Excellent sheephood, like wokeness, is a species of conformity. As a friend who works at an elite private university recently remarked, if the kids who get into such schools are experts at anything, it is, as he put it, “hacking the meritocracy.” The process is imitative: You do what you see the adults you aspire to be like doing. If that means making woke-talk (on your college application; in class, so professors will like you), then that is what you do.” Sheepness is a derivative of livin’ the woke life.
Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Verdict. Can Heard Pay?
Couldn’t publish an edition of the Six without a Johnny Depp-Amber Heard article. A rare events that collides pop culture, politics and law, wrapped up into a daily reality TV show watched by millions. This past week, the trial concluded as Depp won a huge defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard, who accused him of domestic abuse. She now owes him about $10 million total. In spite of how corporate media tries to spin the verdict, as if they both lost (since Depp was ordered to pay $2 million to Heard for defamation), this win is huge for Depp and could force Heard into bankruptcy. Can she pay? What happens if she can’t? CBS News breaks it down.
Trial Diary: A Journalist Sits on a Baltimore Jury.
Another criminal justice article this week, albeit not at salacious as Depp-Heard. These are notes from a reporter on serving as a jury foreman in Baltimore. The charge is attempted murder. The intended victim, Chris Clanton, is famous locally for his television roles as a drug-gang enforcer in the great HBO-show The Wire and as a policeman in the current fantastic HBO show We Own This City. Clanton survived his real-life shooting and testifies in court. Bad call. "Five jurors didn’t find Clanton credible. Several noted that he was, after all, an actor." Compelling read from Pro Publica.
How to Rescue the World’s Biggest Cargo Ships.
When a ship weighing hundreds of thousands of tons runs aground, how do you free it? In brief: unload as much of its cargo as you can on to barges, use pumps and giant snorkels to suck out water from the ship's hold, fill the ballast tanks with air, then tow the ship to a salvage yard for repair. Worst-case scenario: cargo fire. You can only put this out by filling the ship full of water again. Sounds like an awesomely arduous task. BBC Digital with the back-breaking details.
What Most Alien Believers Think of the Government.
Results from a new survey shed some light on how Americans feel about extraterrestrial life. From Politico/Morning Consult, 62 percent of American voters believe in the existence of aliens, while 14 percent are unsure and 24 percent do not think life exists on other worlds. But the survey went further. It asked the 62 percent – pull no punches, be honest – do you you think the government concealed the existence of UFOs? Of those who believe extraterrestrials exist, 79 percent also think that yes, the government also covered up UFOs, which is good for just under half of American voters. Of all the deceptive actions by our government over the decades and centuries, UFO concealment should be far down the list. Meanwhile, a rewatch of Alien vs Predator would go a long way in calming everyone’s anxieties.
What the Marines Think of Pride Month.
One word to describe the barrage of “Pride” media this week: endure. The month has become more a virtue-signal exercise for corporate America than one celebrating the LBGTQ+ movement. Of all the images I saw on Twitter, this one from the U.S. Marines had me laughing out loud. Much respect for the crackbrained nature of the gesture.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.