Oakland's $500 Monthly Checks to (Some) Poor People, Will COVID "Mask Addiction" Linger, The Brutal Human Toll of the 2022 World Cup (The Five for 03/25/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five…a 2x/weekly newsletter about the stories that matter.
Before we begin:
There are now 2 million podcasts on Apple’s network, although only 39% of those are active. 5k+ new podcasts are added every day. And a whopping 86% of all podcasts on Apple are true crime shows. (Hat Tip: Chris Spangle).
A Southwest Airlines pilot didn’t realize his mic button was stuck when he went on a profanity filled tirade against the city of San Francisco while landing the plane. If you need a reminder to be mindful of the tech in the room in the remote work/Zoom/smart devices era, this is a good warning.
Rather than cover Georgia’s Election overhaul, I’m going to point you over to allsides.com, which has a recap of the left, center and right wing takes on the story. (If something good already exists, no reason for me to rework it…there’s plenty of other news to cover).
Speaking of better coverage than I can provide…maybe the best way to dive into the stuck cargo ship in the Suez Canal is just to skim through this list of memes.
And now, let’s get into the news.
[one]
Oakland, CA will start paying some poor families $500 per month, with no strings attached.
The Oakland Resilient Families program has so far raised $6.75 million from private donors including Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropy group. To be eligible, people must have at least one child under 18 and income at or below 50% of the area median income — about $59,000 per year for a family of three.
Half the spots are reserved for people who earn below 138% of the federal poverty level, or about $30,000 per year for a family of three. Participants will be randomly selected from a pool of applicants who meet the eligibility requirements.
Oakland’s project is significant because it is one of the largest efforts in the U.S. so far, targeting up to 600 families. And it is the first program to limit participation strictly to Black, Indigenous and people of color communities.
The reason: White households in Oakland on average make about three times as much annually than black households, according to the Oakland Equity Index. It’s also a nod to the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the political movement that was founded in Oakland in the 1960s.
Quick observations:
A) As a companion to the story of Evanston, IL passing reparations in the last issue of the Five, this is interesting. One of the great things about federalism (the sharing of power between local, state and federal bodies) is the ability to test ideas. If you think you have a good idea…run for your city council or county board, get some folks on your side and go for it.
B) Stockton, CA tried this same experiment with 125 residents. Participation in full time employment went from 28-40% during the experiment. Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs lost his re-election bid (possibly due to the experiment), but the whole thing did go on to inspire Andrew Yang’s bid for President. (If you don’t remember Yang speaking about this, or Yang…that’s because his mic was cut off during the primary debates).
C) I don’t think the reasoning holds up for excluding white families on the basis that “the average white family” makes three times as much in Oakland. That’s what being poor means…you’re below the statistical median for income.
D) I’m not sure how the program lines up with the legacy of the Black Panthers, as I didn’t find any history of the group working with other minority communities. A quick Wikipedia scan* did, however inform me that the BPP did run their own schools for a short time (interesting) and party leaders also traveled to North Korea to conspire how to bring down the U.S. (not so great). In any event, I don’t see any connection between a guaranteed income experiment in Oakland and the city’s history with the Black Panther Party.
*I also didn’t know the BPP clashed, violently, with US Organization, a rival (but similar) group in the Bay area. I also didn’t know former FBI agent Mont Wesley Swearingen publicly accused the Bureau of illegally conspiring against Fred Hampton, a BPP leader who was killed in an FBI raid in Chicago. I always find more topics in history that I’m interested in than I’ll ever have time to fully explore.
[two]
I skipped covering immigration in the last issue, because hot button issues often result on hastily-published-then-corrected work from even the largest media outlets.
Conditions at the border are horrid, particularly for minors. But the U.S. is still (at least one of) the best place to immigrate to, as far as guaranteed human rights go.
The Middle Eastern nation of Qatar will host the World Cup in 2022, which requires a massive construction push to build a whopping eight stadiums that each seat 40,000-80,000 fans, which has mainly been carried out by immigrant day laborers, which includes a sizable group who entered illegally.
The cost in human lives has become horrific.
More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal.
The findings, compiled from government sources, mean an average of 12 migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when the streets of Doha were filled with ecstatic crowds celebrating Qatar’s victory.
Data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011–2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers, between 2010 and 2020.
The death toll is so high, in part, because immigrant workers have so few rights in Qatar. There seems to be little to no repercussions for the companies sacrificing human life to stay on schedule for the World Cup opening.
The U.S. is imperfect, but our laws at least strive for virtue, even when the system fails to work perfectly.
Before we turn too much hate against our homeland, it’s always worth a look at the world for a wider perspective.
St. Louis SC, the new MLS soccer club in my current hometown, will debut in 2023. I’m hoping to learn more about the beautiful game…but I’m unsure if I’ll be able to watch the 2022 World Cup.
Because the only difference between ancient Rome’s Colosseum and Qatar’s Lusail Soccer Stadium is that the former killed minorities for the city’s entertainment, while the latter killed minorities to build the infrastructure to bring entertainment to the city.
[three]
A Gallup poll found that Americans overestimate by as much as 10x the chances of being hospitalized with COVID.
The Foundation for Economic Education reports:
The obvious question is why Americans are so wildly misinformed about the true risks of COVID-19.
One possibility is that Americans are receiving information that is skewing their sense of reality, and research confirms this hypothesis.
Studies have shown that US media in particular created a climate of fear by publishing a deluge of negative news in 2020. One Ivy League-led study found that 91 percent of US stories in major media were negative in tone (compared to just 54 percent in non-US media)—even when the virus was in retreat and positive results were being achieved.
'Those who overestimate risks to young people or hold an exaggerated sense of risk upon infection are more likely to favor closing schools, restaurants, and other businesses,' the authors note.
“The negativity of the U.S. major media is notable even in areas with positive scientific developments including school re-openings and vaccine trials,” researchers noted. “Stories of increasing COVID-19 cases outnumber stories of decreasing cases by a factor of 5.5 even during periods when new cases are declining.”
From the beginning of this, I haven’t felt a lot of personal apprehension at the idea of getting COVID. Every day, I walk around with the possibility of analphalaxis (closing of the throat) from an allergy to nuts, which has a much higher death rate without medical treatment than COVID.
That’s not downplaying the losses that Americans have felt from the pandemic. I can probably name a dozen or more people in my network who have died of COVID in the last year.
Tragically, I can also name two individuals in my network who committed suicide during lockdown. As the vaccine rolls out and cases fall, the question of when Americans will resume regular life looms large.
The Straights Times recently reported on “mask addiction” in Japan, a nation that’s long embraced masks to prevent seasonal allergies and spread disease.
But if you stay in Japan long enough, you would realise that the Japanese love affair with the surgical masks goes beyond health and hygiene - to the realm of psychology and even pathology.
While many wear the mask as a defence against allergens, some use it as a cover-up, a shield against social situations that trigger anxiety.
Figures attest to a phenomenon some have termed "mask dependency": Mask production rose 20 per cent year on year in 2015, to a record high of 4.9 billion pieces, according to latest data from the Japan Hygiene Products Industry Association.
We’re quickly getting to the point where the most vulnerable among us will be vaccinated, and a mass rollout of the vaccine should hit the U.S. in less than two months.
But many businesses, nonprofits, cities and states are holding to COVID restrictions for an indeterminate amount of time even as the danger fades into the memories of a rather terrible year.
The question is, why?
I work really hard to cover stories with more nuance than simply playing the “because of the mainstream media” card…but this interaction, captured on CSPAN yesterday between Senator Ted Cruz and a reporter could help explain the continued COVID hysteria, even as cases fall, hospitalizations are low and the vaccine rolls out to more people every day.
REPORTER: “Would you mind putting on a mask for us?”
CRUZ: “Yeah, when I’m talking to the TV camera, I’m not going to wear a mask. All of us have been immunized.”
REPORTER: “It’d make us feel better.”
CRUZ: “You’re welcome to step away if you’d like. CDC guidance is what we’re following.”
The evidence on just how effective non N-95 masks may still be somewhat inconclusive, but I was (reluctantly) willing to wear one when there was a chance it could decrease the odds that I would unknowingly spreading COVID in the event I was an asymptomatic carrier.
I will not wear a mask for one second to make anyone “feel better.”
[four]
It might be fair to add your local cineplex to the things that COVID killed in 2020…although there’s at least (some) evidence that trend may be reversing.
WarnerMedia executives have been adamant about the company’s controversial HBO Max hybrid release model being for 2021 releases only, and that will be the case as far as Regal Cinemas is concerned. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. and Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld have struck a deal to return Warner Bros. releases to theaters only in 2022 thanks to a new 45-day window plan. Under the current 2021 strategy, Warner Bros. opens movies in theaters on the same day they begin streaming exclusively on HBO Max for 31 days.
Regal locations will re-open in the U.S. for the first time in six months in limited capacity starting April 2 to accommodate Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which will stick to the studio’s current 2021 release plan of playing in theaters and HBO Max at the same time. More Regal locations will open April 16 to screen the studio’s “Mortal Kombat” day and date with streaming. The 45-day exclusive theatrical window for Warner Bros. films at Regal Cinemas begins in 2022.
I’m split on this one. While some of the best experiences of my life are being engrossed in a two hour story in a way at the local movie theater…the reality is that (really big) TV’s are cheaper every day, and now the consumer is used to paying for multiple streaming services.
Sure, comic book flicks and monster movies are going to look better on your local theater’s giant screen, but it’s a lot tougher to make that argument for drama or animated features. Comedy and horror may still have a foothold, as the “crowd experience” makes those more fun at your neighborhood AMC than at home.
The question is…in the post COVID world, how many people will want the movie theater experience when they can get the same entertainment at home just six weeks later? If many theaters requires masks (even for the vaccinated), how many customers will that turn away?
Part of me wants to argue that movie theaters are an American institution that will be around forever, but I’m sure people forty years ago thought the same thing about drive in theaters.
In the short term, theaters may be heavily dependent on eye-popping visuals* to draw younger crowds back to fill seats.
*In the case of the upcoming video-game-to-big-screen adaptation Mortal Kombat, “eye popping” may be literal.
[five]
Let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Actor/philosopher/philosophical Lincoln driver Mathew McConaughay is reportedly in negotiations to reprise his breakout role as Jake Brigance from the 1996 film A Time to Kill. The first movie focused on McConaughay defending a black man who had murdered two white men as revenge for raping a 10 year old girl, which was in turn based on the John Grisham novel of the same name. The sequel, which is set to air as a 10 episode miniseries on HBO, would follow the same lawyer character as he defends a 16 year old boy accused of murdering a local deputy.
Former Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi published a must-read article on his Substack today on the death of humor. If you’re going to click on one link from this email today, make it that one.
Netflix was able to stick original TV out of the gate, but has had a much harder time finding footing with standalone movies, which tend to move the needle to “made for basic cable” on the quality meter. The sci-fi thriller Stowaway features a pretty stellar cast (led by Anna Kendrick Daniel Dae Kim) looks like the kind of “wrestle with the deeper questions drama” that the streaming giant may be throwing out as Awards season bait.
With apologies if you’re reading this outside this Midwest and/or will never travel to Chicago…but for the rest of us, the famed Old Joliet Prison, which can be seen in the cult comedy Blues Brothers and Fox’s inmate drama Prison Break, is open for tours from April-October just outside of Chicago. The castle like structure was built in 1850 and operated until 2002. During operation, Old Joliet Prison housed 1920’s kidnapper/murderer duo Nathan Leopould and Richard Loub, 1930’s bank robber Baby Face Nelson (a partner of John Dillenger) and 1970’s serial killer/professional clown John Wayne Gacy.
Quick takes on sports. It’s the 20th anniversary of MLB pitcher accidentally blowing up a bird with a fastball. Tomorrow night’s UFC 260 card will be headlined by Francis Ngannou, who’s life story is worth a deep dive. A native of Cameroon, Francis started working in mines at 10, and saved all his money to move to France to become a boxer. The plane ticket was the last of Ngannou’s money, so he slept in a park after arriving in Paris.
Quick takes on music: The new Taylor Swift/Maren Morris single is pretty solid, as is Kelsea Ballerini’s reworking of “Half of My Hometown” with Kenny Chesney. The foot stomping Gabriel Price & Friends The Boxes Humans Made EP arrives just in time for windows down season. CCM crossover artist Lauren Daigle has another one of those worship songs that also will work as a pop song on late night TV. Finally, Carrie Underwood released an album of Christian Hymns entitled My Savior, which includes a rendition of “How Great Thou Art,” which was written by my third great uncle, William Batchelder Bradbury, in 1862.
[Epilogue]
Perhaps the best short bio you could read on Kevin Mahoney, the Boulder officer who was killed responding to Monday’s mass shooting. Mahoney loved the outdoors and his widow told the local NBC affiliate the best way to honor his legacy would be “to take a hike. Maybe pick up some trash along the way.”
Until the next one,
-sth