Massive Gasoline Spill in North Carolina

Apparently, there was an absolutely gargantuan oil spill at the beginning of 2021, and it just did not get remotely the national coverage it deserved. Yet another example of corporate interests managing to fly below the radar while harming a practically incalculable number of people. More reporting on the story here.

Bonus Stories:
Two NYPD Cops Fired for Raping Teenager
Obviously, this is abhorrent. They raped a teenager who was a member of an NYPD community program for kids, and they are likely going to face zero accountability beyond losing their jobs. The NYPD report and many of the news headlines, including this NY Post one, refer to it as "sexual misconduct." Only after pressure did the NY Post change the first line of the article to use the word, "rape."

How the CIA Contributed to Vaccine Distrust in Pakistan
The CIA created a fake vaccine program as a part of their effort to locate and kill Osama Bin Laden. Those efforts are now part of why some Pakistanis don't trust the vaccine. This is why there need to be boundaries, even for espionage. Was killing one terrorist worth ruining a vaccine program that could save millions? No.

Pandemic Aid Programs Spur a Record Drop in Poverty
Here is another example of Democrats doing a good thing and failing to brag enough about that thing. It's also an example of the mainstream media largely glossing over such things. Thankfully, this story is finally gaining some traction. Even in this article, it takes 7 paragraphs for them to mention it was Democrats who did this, and they never even mention that Republicans fought it tooth and nail. Poor framing.

U.S. Wealth Grew by $19 Trillion During the Pandemic for the Rich
In news that will surprise no one, the "economy" is not one single thing. There are many economies, and they are not all recovering equally (just like was the case with the 2008 recession). Large companies and wealthy families are doing phenomenally well right now having more than covered whatever losses some of them suffered in 2020. Meanwhile, working class people are facing rising costs of living and very little benefit from the historic stock market highs.

Listen on Spotify. 

• WHAT WOULD YOU DO? | HONNE (feat. Pink Sweat$)
• Moonlight | Conor Albert (feat. Mac Ayers)
• GO (Detroit Swindle Remix) | Hablot Brown
• Take Me Away | Sinead Harnett (feat. EARTHGANG)
• Too Much Sun in LA | McClenney (feat. CHIKA)

Must Watch Show

What: Your Honor
Who: Bryan Cranston
Where: Showtime
Why: My friends reading this will text me "Sam, Your Honor is old at this point" but listen, I'm trying to share how much we all loved this show far and wide. Bryan Cranston stars as a NOLA judge whose idiot son gets himself into a big legal problem. I cannot emphasize the words idiot and big in that sentence enough. Adam, the son, is perhaps the single best worst character I've seen in a long time. Within the first 20 minutes of Episode 1, it's a constant cluster fuck of everything going wrong. And I loved it.

There are two things I think made my friends and I enjoy this show so much aside from the obvious that the actors are sensational. First, we hated damn near every character. It's one of those shows. I genuinely was never sure who I was rooting for in part because I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of their lives fall apart (with a few exceptions, of course). Second, the plot doesn't try to do too much. It's about murder and corruption and family and tragic characters, all of which aren't exactly new topics so they don't try to make it something it's not. I loved that for me as a viewer. Can't wait to watch the glorious dumpster fire I'm sure Season 2 will be.

Cost: You already know what I'm gonna say.

Re: Unvaccinated And Not By Choice

No matter where you are in this country, it is impossible to escape the conversations about vaccination rates, surging cases in low vaccination states, and the future of COVID safety protocols, which are likely to include vaccine passports and/or regular testing requirements. The topline information is quite straightforward: the vaccines are safe, they are effective, they are readily available, and Americans are more likely to turn them down than any similarly resourced nation on Earth. It is exactly the fact that this information is so clear to anyone paying attention to credible sources that the discourse is so upsetting – especially with mainstream news outlets publishing poorly framed articles and providing a platform for absurd anti-vax voices denying such information.

#1: The vaccines are safe. It does not matter how much people try to cherry pick statistics nor how much people want some sort of problem to exist, which is quite a twisted desire to have. There have been a tiny percentage of dangerously adverse reactions to the vaccine.

#2: The vaccines are effective. Even against the Delta variant, the vaccines almost entirely eliminate hospitalizations and deaths from COVID among those fully vaccinated. Again, there is not a shred of data to suggest otherwise.

#3: The vaccines are available and are free. Yet, we in this country, despite having the easiest access to vaccines (and different vaccine manufacturer options), have depressingly low vaccination rates relative to their widespread availability.

The anti-vaxxer movement in this country is disturbing on so many levels, but this is not actually about them. Truth be told, I really do not care about them… or rather I wish I did not have to care so much about them. Morally, I do not want anyone to die from COVID, but I would be lying if I feigned some level of deep sorrow for those who willfully ignore reality in the name of fake science or supposed individual freedom or any other right wing conspiracy theory. The avalanche of stories about people who turned down the vaccine expressing their regrets on their death beds to the medical staff they endangered with their stupidity does not evoke, for me, heartfelt sorrow. I mourn the loss of life, but I do not pity them or empathize with their experience.

Instead, my engagement with the anti-vax conversation positions me in a place of medium grade and ever-present rage. It is like a not so dull roar of frustration and anger. Why? Because there exists a large population – around 50 million according to the Census Bureau – of unvaccinated people who are not unvaccinated by choice. These are people who cannot get the vaccine and are among those most vulnerable to COVID. These people are children under the age of 12.

The vaccine is not yet approved for children that young. Imagine that – the expert scientists are not rushing the approval process and are making sure everything is safe before proceeding. Despite the ill-informed and too quick to judge headlines from the early days of the pandemic, children are not less susceptible to the disease. In fact, as vaccination rates go up, children become more and more susceptible as compared to the adult population, which is benefitting from the vaccine directly.

Again, not so coincidentally from the last More Than a Tweet issue about children, it is exactly the people who most rely on the responsible behavior of others and the least able to exert their own responsible efforts who are most hurt. And in this case, killed. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children constituted only 3% of COVID cases one year ago. Today, they account for over 20%. Without micro-herd immunity – geographically small areas of high vaccination rates that protect the small minority of people who remain unvaccinated – children are suffering and dying.

There is no silver lining. It is just horrific and wrong. And avoidable.

Instead of analyzing the entirety of the anti-vax psychopathy in this country, look no further than professional sports for a microcosm of the issue. On one hand, there is the WNBA. They are over 99% vaccinated and were among the first professional athletes to get vaccinated and launch PR campaigns to promote the vaccines. Furthermore, they continue to be denied the acclaim, pay, and credit they deserve. That applies not just to their action on public safety during COVID but also with respect to their basketball play, their activism, and their fight for fair pay unencumbered by sexist trash.

On the other hand, there is the NFL. Despite having access to the greatest healthcare in the entire world and nearly unlimited financial and cultural power, the league is only at 85% vaccination of at least one dose with a presumably lower figure for full vaccination. From the beginning of the pandemic, NFL players and coaches – from the stars to the nobodies – have been at the forefront of casting doubt on the vaccines and often participating in textbook anti-vax nonsense. Coaches have quit in the face of vaccination requirements. Players have asked for “more information” even after their teams brought in experts to coddle their idiocy.

Everything about the NFL and vaccines fills me with anger. These are the same people who like to fashion themselves pillars of their community and influential supporters of all the right causes, and they are contributing to children dying by their inaction and silence. It is nothing short of disgusting.

Think for a moment about how easy it would be for these players and coaches to make a difference in the other direction. Imagine if Tom Brady made a PSA about getting him and his family vaccinated. Imagine if Dak Prescott went to vaccination sites and signed autographs for people. Imagine if Nick Saban got his whole team vaccinated. We need not even go so far as to mandate the vaccines, which would encounter far less resistance if the football gods anointed them safe and effective, if public figures such as these would lend their voices to the fundamentals of public health.

Furthermore, these people would be lauded as national saviors even by doing the bare minimum to promote vaccination. They would get all kinds of praise that would hardly be deserved, but it adds to the mind-boggling frustration of their failure to do anything. Why not take this opportunity to do very little work and receive massive national praise? Imagine if even those who are vaccinated did as much as say so publicly in unison. Again, 85% of them have gotten at least one jab. Why are they so afraid to say so and take the platform away from the active anti-vaxxers?

Surely no one is surprised by this, but the juxtaposition of the pathetic actions of men with the courageous actions of women, especially Black women, is stark. The WNBA women have to fight for every ounce of respect they get and still find ways to use every resource at their disposal to help others. The NFL men wield immense power with relative ease, yet they make the problem worse or, most cowardly of all, refuse to even do anything at all.

Meanwhile, children suffer and die.

The analogies abound. This is exemplary of gender and power dynamics in our society. It is exemplary of how we treat children. It is emblematic of our suicidal obsession with pseudo-individualism. This triangle of children under 12, the WNBA, and the NFL tells us so much about our society. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix.

There is, though, clear action to be taken. Do not conflate scale for value. Just because you cannot bring the anti-vax movement to its knees does not mean you cannot do anything. If you can help even one person get the vaccine, you have done something admirable, difficult, and life-saving. It is far too easy to get caught up in the numbers of what is going wrong and forget how powerful you are to make something go right.

We all know people who have declined the vaccine. Reach out to them in the way you think is best – it will be different for everyone – and give it a try. Do it for the kids.


As always, be you be great.