Spilling Tea Via Op-Ed, And Other 2019 Trends I Can Get Behind.
I’m sitting in my kitchen right now. It’s 5:45 am as I start writing, as I do everyday(ish). As the month of May progresses, the mornings get lighter and the city starts waking up on my schedule. There’s a wee song bird sitting on a power line, awake before his avian brethren, warbling his tiny feathered heart out to Hayes Valley at large as fog cradles office towers and apartment buildings behind city hall. Other than this jaunty winged fellow, it’s relatively quiet as the neighborhood wakes up. And I know this town is expensive and difficult and really east to hate. But I love it. And I love my mornings in this kitchen, writing about 2019’s absurdity for you, dear reader and friend.
So let’s get to the internet, shall we?
Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes came out swinging this morning in a coordinated press effort and New York Times op-ed to tell the world that It’s Time to Break Up Facebook. And lest you think this is a dry business opinion focused on monopolies and competition, Hughes goes straight to the top, stating that while he loves Mark Zuckerberg as a person, “…it’s his very humanity that makes his unchecked power so problematic.” Hughes points out that Zuckerberg’s influence is greater than most heads of state, as brands in the Facebook family of products are used by billions of people everyday. Hughes goes so far as to say “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American.” And that’s just the tip of the 6000+ word iceberg, which I am just now getting into with a notebook and a pen, because that’s the sort of person I am.
And speaking of longtime friends getting into it over op-ed pages, three Kennedy cousins got together in POLITICO to say RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines. In the midst of the largest measles outbreaks since we, you know, THE U.S. THOUGHT WE ERADICATED THE DISEASE BACK IN THE AUGHTS, these family members are calling on Robert Kennedy Jr. to stop helping the spread of “dangerous misinformation over social media.” They state that he is “complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.,” while reminding us of their family’s historic dedication to public health, including JFK’s signing of the Vaccination Assistance Act in 1962, and Ted Kennedy’s fights to reauthorize it. In case you were wondering, yes, I am all for awkward family dinner parties in the name of modern medicine preventing communicable disease.
Headline I didn’t think I’d read, ever: Shhhhh, Big Dairy Is in Bed With Almond Milk.
And finally, friend of the Missive My Mum (who shared the RFK piece above) also sent me an article about a Rattlesnake captured after it fell from grate into University of Lethbridge office. Exactly why, you may ask? Because she likes to keep it lively, my Mum does. And also, I imagine, because she knows it will remind me of the much-fabled story of my 70s-era grandfather straight up killing a rattlesnake with a 6-iron because said snake jumped up on the putting green in front of my grandmother. But don’t worry, this rattler got off easy. The snake was captured by Lethbridge’s “Snake Man” (who is enjoying a helluva media lap with this one,) and released back in the wild.
You’re all delightful. Be kind to each other.
Amy