TN Approves Death Penalty for Child Rapists, State Dept Sabotaging American Media? North Korea and Russia Team Up (The Five for 06/18/24)
Plus, Los Angeles to ban cell phones in school? Gen X worries about retirement.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
With apologies, this is a heavy one that’s got all the hits:
nuclear war
economic collapse
governmental sabatoge of the free press
cell phones banned in schools
Wait, that last one is only bad if you’re 13 years old, and is actually a good thing.
Let’s dive into the news. For happier times, subscribe for free email delivery…the Friday Culture & Commentary issues are always happier.
[one]
In the latest news surrounding “don’t worry, we definitely won’t head into nuclear/world war,” Russia and North Korea are buddying up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea for supporting his actions in Ukraine and said their countries will cooperate closely to overcome U.S.-led sanctions as he headed to Pyongyang on Tuesday for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Putin’s comments appeared in an op-ed piece in North Korean state media hours before his expected arrival for a visit through Wednesday as the countries deepen their alignment in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with Washington.
In the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the streets were decorated with Putin’s portraits and Russian flags. A banner hung on a building said: “We warmly welcome the President of the Russian Federation.”
Putin, who will be making his first trip to North Korea in 24 years, said he highly appreciates its firm support of his military action in Ukraine. He said the countries would continue to “resolutely oppose” what he described as Western ambitions “to hinder the establishment of a multipolar world order based on justice, mutual respect for sovereignty, considering each other’s interests.”
Well, if we get nuked, at least everybody being dead will fix inflation…
[two]
Brace yourself…I’m about to say something positive about California.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board will vote Tuesday on a proposal to ban students from using cell phones during the school day.
The proposed ban aims to support students’ well-being and mental health, according to the LAUSD board meeting agenda.
“Research indicates that excessive cell phone use impacts adolescents mental health and well-being and is associated with increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues, feelings of aggression, and suicidal thoughts,” board members supporting the ban wrote.
In addition, “Research indicates that limiting cell phone usage and social media access during the school day increases academic performance and has positive effects on student mental health,” the proponents said.
Across the country, 72% of high school teachers said cell phone distraction “is a major problem in the classroom,” according to a report last week by the Pew Research Center.
California’s state legislature passed a law in 2019 allowing – but not requiring – school districts to limit student smartphone use at school.
A new bill making its way through the California legislature goes further. If passed, the measure would require limiting or banning cell phone use by students in the public schools statewide by July 1, 2026, according to the most recent version of the bill.
Slow. Clap.
For more on this, please go read my favorite nonfiction book of 2024 so far, which comes in two different covers for some reason. I’m not linking to Amazon, in hopes you might support your local bookstore.
[three]
Tennessee will be executing child rapists. Maybe. There’s a huge catch.
From U.S. News & World Report:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has approved legislation allowing the death penalty in child rape convictions, a change the Republican-controlled Statehouse championed amid concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court has banned capital punishment in such cases.
Lee, a Republican, quietly signed off on the legislation last week without issuing a statement.
The new Tennessee law, which goes into effect July 1, authorizes the state to pursue capital punishment when an adult is convicted of aggravated rape of a child. Those convicted could be sentenced to death, imprisonment for life without possibility of parole, or imprisonment for life.
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis enacted a similar bill nearly a year ago. A few months after being enacted, Florida prosecutors in Lake County announced in December that they were pursuing the death penalty for a man accused of committing sexual battery of a minor under the age of twelve. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the case is considered the first to be pursued under the new law.
Meanwhile, Idaho's GOP-controlled House approved similar legislation earlier this year, but the proposal eventually stalled in the similarly Republican-dominated Senate.
While many supporters of Tennessee's version have conceded that even though the Volunteer State previously allowed convicted child rapists to face the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately nullified that law with its 2008 decision deeming it unconstitutional to use capital punishment in child sexual battery cases.
However, they hope the conservative-controlled Supreme Court will reverse that ruling — pointing to the decades long effort that it took to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide but was eventually overruled in 2022.
In other words, this is purely symbolic unless something happens at the federal level.
[four]
A new report alleges taxpayer money is being used to censor American media via foreign sources.
The State Department has refused to tell even Congress about how it spent taxpayer money on firms that rate the credibility of domestic news outlets, which have been used to dissuade companies from doing business with conservative media.
That forced the House Small Business Committee to resort to serving the State Department with a subpoena last week demanding records of payments by the Global Engagement Center, The Washington Examiner reported.
The subpoena asked for all GEC grant recipients and sub-recipients, and specifically mentioned NewsGuard, the Global Disinformation Index, the Atlantic Council, Park Capital Investment Group, and Poynter Institute, which runs Politifact.
It also seeks more information about a document called 2023.02.14 GEC-GDI-BLACKLIST.docx, according to the subpoena, which was published by The Examiner.
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, committee chairman Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) wrote to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that “The House Committee on Small Business is investigating the U.S. government’s censorship-by-proxy and revenue interference of American small businesses because of their lawful speech.”
The fact that this story isn’t bigger is…well, one of the primary reasons The Five exists as a publication.
Chilling…and almost completely ignored by the media overall, even though they’re being victimized. One possible reason is the media fear further reprecussions from the State Department…
[five]
Finally, Gen Xer’s are worried about retirement…for good reason.
The oldest members of Generation X are turning 59 1/2 this month, the earliest age when workers can start withdrawing retirement assets without a penalty. But many Gen Xers are far from prepared for their golden years, with almost half saying it would take a "miracle" for them to be able to retire, according to a new Natixis study.
Gen X — people born between 1965 and 1980 — is the first generation of U.S. workers to come of age with 401(k) plans as their primary retirement vehicle after employers largely shifted away from traditional pensions in the 1980s. But the 401(k) puts the onus squarely on the shoulders of participants to figure out how much to save, how to invest and how to withdraw their money in retirement — a do-it-yourself approach that noted retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci has described as flimsy.
That's left Gen Xers largely on their own to plan for retirement, and many are woefully underprepared, not only in the amount of assets they have squirreled away but in their comprehension of key financial information, according to Natixis, an investment bank. The average retirement savings of Gen X households is about $150,000 — far from the roughly $1.5 million that Americans say they need to retire comfortably.
What Gen X has in common with Jan Brady
Gen X "is the Jan Brady of generations," overlooked while the larger baby boomer and millennial generations grab more attention, noted Dave Goodsell, executive director of the Natixis Center for Investor Insight. "They were the kids left alone after school, and they are kind of on their own in retirement too."
About 1 in 5 Gen Xers worry they won't be able to afford to step back from work even if they were able to save $1 million for retirement, the study found. And about one-quarter is concerned a shortage of savings will force them to return to work after they retire.
Other recent studies have also found that Gen X is in dire shape for retirement, with the National Institute on Retirement Security finding earlier this year that the typical Gen X household with a private retirement plan has $40,000 in savings. About 40% of the group hasn't saved a penny for their retirement, that study found.
Until the next one,
-sth