During our last time going out to lunch before the pandemic, my dad (who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust and spent years living in the Polish forest and fighting the Nazis) expressed his dismay that Americans weren’t taking the threat to our country seriously enough. I suggested that while most Americans were concerned, they didn’t see the Trump era as being that ominous because they assumed the kinds of things that happened in his life could never happen here. My dad stopped walking, looked at me, and asked, "You think vhen I vas a kid any of us thought it could happen there?" He wouldn't have been the least bit surprised by last night's Al Smith Catholic charity dinner. The annual event usually features a night of good humor led by the presidential candidates from each party. It used to be a nice tradition. This year, for obvious reasons, Kamala Harris declined to attend (she sent a video instead). But the show went on. All the wealthy power-players got dressed up in their tuxes, went to the dinner, and giggled or groaned at the jokes of a treacherous, felonious, Putin-loving monster, who repeatedly tried to overthrow an election, led a violent insurrection on our Capitol, and is described by his own top general as "fascist to the core." The evening's hosts and attendees went on with their version of the norms even though the keynote speaker had blown up America’s. The event was a metaphor for the way so much of our society—from power-hungry billionaires to both-sidesing journalists—has normalized a unique threat to our democracy. If my dad had been around to see this pathetic dinner theater, he would have looked over at me and said, "You thought it couldn’t happen here? This is exactly what it look likes." 2Ya'll Making a DifferenceThis week, I asked our NextDraft community to come together to help Kamala win North Carolina. A great friend of mine from North Carolina has been singing the praises of a group called Mecklenburg Democrats. They have built an amazing organization working to squeeze every last vote out of their Dem heavy region. I said I'd match whatever you gave up to $5000. Ya'll blew past that initial goal. And then you kept going. And going. In two days, we've raised more than $53,000 to help get out the blue vote in North Carolina. Amazing. 3Wire Less"Just a few years back, he could dead lift 660 pounds. After an injury while training to be a professional dirt-bike rider, he opened a motorcycle shop just north of Buffalo. When he wasn’t working, he would cleanse his mind through rigorous meditation. In 2019, he began getting sick. And then sicker. Brain fog. Memory issues. Difficulty focusing. Depression. Anxiety. Fatigue. Brandon was pretty sure he knew why: the cell tower a quarter-mile behind his shop and all the electromagnetic radiation it produces, that cellphones produce, that WiFi routers produce, that Bluetooth produces, that the whole damn world produces. He thought about the invisible waves that zip through our airspace — maybe they pollute our bodies, somehow? In summer 2023, when his ears began to leak what looked like bloody fluid, Brandon noticed there were new rows of panels on the cell tower. He would head to more rural areas for a bit and feel better. Not good, but better. He would return to civilization and feel worse." So, like a few dozen people before him, Brandon moved to where the signal isn't. WaPo (Gift Article): This town has no cell service, so the ‘electrosensitive’ have made it home. (In my family, we have a different definition of being electrosensitive. If our highspeed WiFi signal is decreased by even a single bar, all of us freak and start blaming each other...) 4Weekend WhatsWhat to Watch: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen star in Alfonso Cuaron's AppleTV series Disclaimer. Very, very good so far. 5Extra, ExtraIf, And, or But: "It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the death of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. It creates the possibility not only of ending the Gaza war, returning Israeli hostages and bringing relief to the people of Gaza. It creates the possibility for the biggest step toward a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians since Oslo, as well as normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia — which means pretty much the entire Muslim world. It’s that big. But, but, but." I'm not as optimistic as Tom Friedman. But we can hope. NYT(Gift Article): How the Biden Team Plans to Build Peace From Sinwar’s Death. An here's an excellent piece from David Remnick who brings Sinwar's death back full circle to the Israeli doctor who saved him. The New Yorker: The Killing of Yahya Sinwar. Here's the latest from CNN. 6Feel Good FridayAlert: We have a sure thing Feel Good Friday item. Check out Cabel Sasser's excellent and uplifting presentation at the XOXO Festival. Trust me. Read my 📕, Please Scream Inside Your Heart, or grab a 👕 in the Store. |