Burke: Gotta watch ‘em all; the long list of news to track
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 10, 2023
By Tom Burke / Herald columnist
Is your head spinning? Are you being inundated with news and information you don’t have time to even process? Do you know Who’s on first; What’s on second; or if I Don’t Know is covering third?
Is that what’s troubling you, bunky?
Well, I don’t blame you.
Because unlike Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on first” routine, it’s not the players’ names stumping you; it’s there’s Just. So. Much. Stuff. and tracking it all seems overwhelming, even without trying to separate facts from half-truths, from outright lies, to conspiracy theories.
So, to provide you, gentle reader, with a street-level check of important current events, and then a focus on some of the more critical issues, consider tracking this stuff:
• Covid; it’s still here and still killing people.
• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich arrested in Russia for “spying.”
• LBGTQ rights.
• Jim Jordan and his bogus and failing Congressional hearings.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., saying the U.S. should “divorce” into red and blue states, essentially echoing Jefferson Davis’s 1860 call for Southern secession.
• Asian/Indian subcontinent heat waves.
• Artificial intelligence (AI).
• Electric vehicles and the grid.
• Relaxed child labor laws in Iowa and Arkansas.
• The Christian rRight’s make-the-U.S.-a-theocracy campaign.
• Death threats targeting election workers, and …
Tthere’s more, so much more; (i.e. will Sweden join NATO?, Israel’s battle for democracy; India’s battle for democracy; China trade, spying, imports, and Taiwan).
But for now let’s identify some Trumpy stuff and whether any man is above the law; judging Donld Trump’s behavior in the harsh light of a courtroom; and figuring whether he is fit to ever hold the nuclear codes as president again.
• Trump indicted by Alvin Bragg in New York City and investigated by Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Leticia James, all the while the Department of Justice’s Jack Smith is investigating him for classified documents; mail fraud; and attempted election theft.
• Trump’s E. Jean Carrol trial has gone to the jury while Westchester, New York District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah and James look at fraud at his Seven Springs estate.
Then there’s the debt ceiling reauthorization which offers consequences ranging from “just” a constitutional crisis up through a world-wide financial crash and calamity unprecedented in modern history. So keep your eye on:
• Congress, and if it fails to pass a higher limit to account for money already spent (not to OK new spending) the U.S. could be in default by early June.
• Right-wing House Republican zealots who will never agree to raising the debt ceiling without deep spending cuts and undoing Biden-era initiatives (cutting non-defense spending by 22 percent, meaning gutting veteran benefits and more).
• Biden and the Democratss who will never agree to those cuts and won’t allow the debt ceiling to be part of a budget discussion, and
• The so-called Republican “moderates” who might craft a short-term deal with Democrats and then fight a pitched budget battle over the summer.
Ukraine, of course, remains on the mandatory watch list.
• The massive loss of Russian troops,
• Leaked military and other documents.
• Russian disinformation spread on Fox News.
• The coming Ukrainian spring offensive.
And keep your eye on the potential demise of democracy in Florida as the Gov. Ron DeSantis follies continue versus Disney, education, women’s rights, “Don’t Say Gay,” his absences during south Florida flooding, the state’s homeowner’s insurance crisis, his attack on trans rights and drag queen story times, and book banning.
Watch stories about:
• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s finances, omissions and his wife’s unreported income as they’re critical to Supreme Court legitimacy; and
• The whole assault rifle issue including the Second Amendment and the Kansas City, Mo., shooting of Ralph Yarl for ringing a doorbell, the upstate New Tork killing of Kaylin Gillis for driving up the wrong driveway, five killed and eight wounded in a Louisville, Ky., bank, the death of six at a Nashville Christian school, the Dadeville, Ala., killing of four at a Sweet 16 party, the “wrong car” shooting of cheerleader Payton Washington in Texas, and nine more dead at a Texas mall at the hands of a reported white supremacist.
And track:
• Climate change, global warming and sea level rise.
• Virulent anti-Semitism.
• Doctors shunning states with abortion bans.
• Fox News’ lying and paying $787.5 million ‘cause it did.
Plus state and local issues including:
• Education funding and local school deficits.
• Homelessness.
• Snake River dams and salmon.
• Anti-Semitic vandalism.
• Tech industry layoffs.
• The aging state ferry fleet, and
• The BIG ONE.
Burke, you’re kidding, right?
All this stuff? I’m really supposed to follow all of it? Plus real life; like everything at home and with family?
Yeah.
Because it really, really matters. It affects your life, your pocketbook, your voting and the future of your children and grandchildren.
Unfortunately, it all comes at us in a furious charge; on TV, online, on the radio, in the mail, and in the newspapers, magazines and by word-of-mouth. And finding trusted sources of information is both a challenge and, today, a political statement.
So, for me, it’s the New York Times, the Washington Post, Seattle Times, the Associated Press web site, and the Daily Herald; watching the BBC; and, with a grain or two of salt, MSNBC (especially Lawrence O’Donnell and Nicole Wallace).
I’d like to think there’s an easy way to accommodate all this. Maybe just pull the covers over our heads and tune everything out?
Alas, no, that won’t work. Stuff happens.
So, we just do the best we can. Keep on truckin’.
Slava Ukraini.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
