Meta is Swahili for rotten

Last week Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, lost about $250 billion dollars, or 26 % of its market value, which was the largest one-day drop for a U.S. company in history.  I loved it.

Kara Swisher, the host of the podcast “Sway,” said this about Facebook, founded just 18 years ago:  

Privacy violations, foreign interference, harmful impacts on teenage girls, data breaches, voluminous disinformation and misinformation, and the hosting of citizens charged with seditious conspiracy have made the company into the singular villain of this digital age.  

Swisher’s article was published in the Feb. 6, 2022, issue of the New York Times, p. SR9. 

Snake oil salesman visits Lehighton, PA

 Mehmet Oz visited Lehighton earlier this week.  According to the report in the Times News, Oz

opposed COVID school closures and vaccine mandates,

supported the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat COVID, 

said China was responsible for COVID, and 

opposed gun safety legislation.

Oz said he would win, unless there was fraud.  That’s how it works.  He wins:  fair election.  He loses:  fraud.

Any Supervisor in Towamensing Township is far more qualified to be a U.S. Senator than Oz.  Nonetheless, people at the rally were quoted as liking him.  The head of the Carbon County Republican Party actually introduced this guy.  Hard to fathom.

More Republican definitions

 As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, the Republican Party last week officially declared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “legitimate political discourse.”  You may not have heard that the Party’s Committee on Nomenclature also redefined a number of other occasions.  

The Boston Massacre is now officially “The Boston Snowball Fight.”  The Normandy Landing will now be known as “A Day at the Beach.”  The attack on Pearl Harbor has been renamed “The Pearl Harbor Fireworks Display.”  The proposal to redefine “War” as “Peace” has been put on hold for now.

The world is going to hell in a handbasket

 Today’s New York Times had these headlines:

“Ottawa Protest Stirs Far Right Around World.”  That one was about truck drivers protesting the requirement that when they cross borders, they must show evidence of vaccination.  I assume that most of them were American truck drivers, but they have become an inspiration for stupid people around the globe.

“Justices Restore Vote Map Said To Dilute Rights.”  That was the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld an Alabama congressional district gerrymander on a 5-4 vote.

“India Leaders Do Little as Calls for Genocide of Muslims Intensify.”  India, like the U.S., was founded as a secular nation.  Now Hindu nationalists are calling for the murder of millions.  P.M. Modi is largely responsible for this outbreak of hatred.

Oh, yeah, there was another page one story about the head of N.Y. shelters admitting birbery.

It does get depressing.

Supreme Court statistics

 Some Republicans are upset because Biden said he would appoint a black woman to the Court.  They said he is ignoring possible appointees who aren’t black, and this is just “affirmative action.”

Since its beginning in 1789 a total of 115 justices have served on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Of those, 108 have been white men.  And how many have been black women?  Zero.  Nada.  Not a single one.  It’s time.

Incidentally, one black justice, Clarence Thomas, was appointed after Thurgood Marshall’s seat became vacant.  Thomas was not appointed because of his qualifications.  

Note:  Tomorrow I am taking my computer into Double Click in Bethlehem for a “tune up,” unless the roads are icy.  I won’t get it back until sometime next week, so this blog will be on hiatus.

Paying for COVID funerals

 “State lags in FEMA payments for funerals” read a headline in today’s Morning Call.  FEMA reimburses up to $9000 for each COVID-related funeral service.  Nothing in the article suggested that the families of un-vaccinated victims would be denied payment.  

So my tax money is going to pay for funerals of people who decided they didn’t need to take the step that might have prevented them from dying.  That’s like paying for the funeral service of someone who had diabetes but refused to take his or her insulin medication.  That makes no sense to me.

Trump is boring

Television shows come and go.  Even the most popular series start to seem frayed around the edges after a few years.  The characters have the same shtick, funny the first six or seven times, but then audience tanks and the show is cancelled.  

Sometimes the characters come back for a special reunion.  Not too long ago “Friends” did one of those shows.  I didn’t watch it.  Did you?

So it is with Trump.  We’ve seen the rallies.  We’ve seen the Maga hats and  heard the attacks.  It’s not even yesterday, it’s last year.  Let’s go Brandon.  Wow.  Clever.  

Polling shows a major drop in support for Trump among Republicans.  No wonder.  They are getting bored.