How’s everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
In case you didn’t notice…this past Tuesday, April 11, was Liberation Day.
Liberation from the federal national emergency declaration that came as a result of Covid Hysteria in the spring of 2020.
By the stroke of a pen, President Biden signed a bill ending the emergency.
Free at last…free at last!
Well, not really.
There are semantics involved, which I won’t get bogged down in here.
(A quick aside…the “public health emergency” remains in tact. The Biden Administration claims a dismissal of that emergency would “create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system.” Apparently we have to wait until May 11 to receive an all clear from the Phantom Virus. You can read all about the political rub-a-tug in Politico.)
All of this, of course, is farcical nonsense.
Not at all farcical, but shameful, is the continued non-accountability from the Biden Administration and public health and education officials for the damage done as a result of their Covid-induced policies.
They will say we had no choice. That we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We had to react to the information we had at the time. That’s what leaders do.
And we did it! We overcame a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic!
One often-recited platitude: the experience should renew our faith in the resilience of the American people and there’s nothing to gain by assessing the collateral damage of decision-making during a time of “unprecedented crisis.”
Pay no mind, they are saying, to the two years of school lost for thousands and thousands of American children. Or the shuttled businesses, or the workers fired over non-compliance to forced vaccinations, a shot proven to not prevent infection.
Just shut up and stop bitching about masks and mandates, they defiantly say.
Lives were saved, people stayed safe. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
We don’t need to explain a damn thing.
Can’t we just celebrate the end of The Emergency?
Liberation Day!!!
Here’s the full context of the vapid White House press release signed Monday:
On Monday, April 10, 2023, the President signed into law:
H.J.Res. 7, which terminates the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s it. Just like all the other termination policy bills the president signs on any given day (can we get some chocolate chip ice cream in here, for Christ’s sake? All this bill signing has inflamed my carpel tunnel!)
It’s pretty clear they have no interest in examining the results of decisions made in the wake of the "COVID-19 National Emergency” over three years ago.
The sneaky way they ended the “emergency” is proof of that.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. Why Don’t More of Chicago’s Youngest Voters Vote?
Chicago’s recent mayoral election saw a low-to-moderate voter turnout––38.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots––although that number is higher than that of any municipal election since 2000. But what about the 18-24 age group, the voting bloc labeled “game-changers” before previous elections? They, for the most part, couldn’t be bothered. According to this article from the Sun-Times, in the first round of mayoral candidate voting Feb. 28, just 3.2 percent of ballots cast were by 18-24 year olds. Nationally, though, voting by Gen Zers is up and more young people voted in the April 4 run off than in the primary. There are more Gen Z candidates running for office than ever––Chicago featured 10 candidates for municipal office 30 years or younger––but as of yet, age-adjacent candidates hasn’t translated to more voting. In one quote from the article: “If they think they don’t have a say in what goes on in...local politics, why would they want to be active? Why would they care?”
2. Abortion Is A Big Vote-Loser For Republicans.
Recent polling on GOP 2024 presidential candidates has Donald Trump way ahead of challengers Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley (Haley has actually said she’s running, DeSantis has not.) But one issue likely bogging down all Republican candidates in future elections (Trump being the exception because, well, he’s Trump) is abortion. There is a disconnect between what Republicans politicians are lobbying for––more restrictive abortion laws––and what voters want––looser legislation. This is posing a problem for candidates whom if they want the dollar bills flowing in, must appease the strident pro-life big money donors An excellent piece here from Unheard that argues how for conservative Republican candidates, being a hardline pro-lifer (DeSantis) is not sound political strategy.
3. An Alabama Kidnapping That’s Stranger Than Fiction.
A pair of criminals take a wealthy Birmingham, Ala. businessman for a ride. The criminals’ motive? What else? Cash. This is an astonishing, minute-by-minute piece of narrative storytelling enhanced by the writer’s use of real-time dialogue, snatched from a SnoreLab recording. One of the best crime stories I’ve read this year and it’s from a magazine called Garden & Gun.
4. Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama.
For the millions of viewers of the hit HBO show “Succession” (count this author as one of them) the linkage to the storylines to that of the Murdoch Family was always implied. After reading this terrific piece from Vanity Fair, its now abundantly clear: “Succession” writers have a direct line to the Murdoch’s. So much of events in the life of patriarch Rupert Murdoch mirror those of “Succession” patriarch Logan Roy. And the children battling it out for who gets the lion’s share of the company? Connor, Kendall, Shiv and Roman Roy––characters on the show––are written as amalgams of Murdoch’s six kids. How’s this real life nugget from the VF article––as part of the divorce settlement for Murdoch’s latest ex-wife, Jerry Hall, she “was forbidden to speak with any writer from “Succession.” That’s gotta be a first in the history of divorces.
5. Baseball’s Pitch Clock Rule A Blow To Beer Sales.
Beer is a big seller for baseball clubs, with estimates ranging from $2 million to $8 million worth of beer sold per stadium (at $18 now for a pint of IPA, those numbers may be on the low side.) Traditionally, ballparks keep selling booze until the middle of the seventh inning, but Major League Baseball’s off-season rules changes (which are awesome, BTW) have made games shorter to the tune of around 25 minutes per game this season so far. With brisker games comes earlier seventh-inning stretches and that means that your typical ballpark could be missing out on $280,000 to $1.1 million worth of sales over the course of the season, according to this piece from Good Bear Hunting. Already four teams—the Diamondbacks, Rangers, Twins and Brewers—are pushing booze sales back into the eighth inning. As a summer baseball consumer, I’m all in on the shorter game/less time for beer trade off. With the insanity of the beverage prices, consuming a few road pops on the way to the game is prudent financial practice.
6. Another Reminder Why We Love Kid Rock.
Rocker/rapper Kid Rock shot up a bunch of Bud Lights in a random field. By now, we all probably know the context (if not, read here.) There’s something truly American about watching someone fire a gun into a stack of beer cans. The fact it’s Kid Rock doing the shooting while thrusting a double shot of left-fingered barrels into the camera? Makes me what to shotgun a beer (preferably a Keystone or Busch), find the biggest speakers I can get my hands on and blast “Rock n Roll Jesus” to the high heavens.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com