Losing My Perspicacity December 17, 2024

Everyone (still) hates Michael Vick; Tech billionaires are ruining everything, especially tech; The LA Times owner continues to suck; Welp, I was wrong about that guy; and The High Note.

Author

Julie DiCaro
December 17, 2024

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!

Are you in the holiday spirit this year? Normally, I love the holidays, but I’ll be honest, it’s been a tough sell this year. We just put our tree and holiday decorations up last weekend, and have received a grand total of one Xmas card, when normally we have dozens by this time (not that I’ve sent any out, either). So I’ve come to one of two conclusions: 1) Either all our friends and family have decided they hate us and have cut us out of the holiday card list, or 2) I’m not alone in not feeling it this year.

Thanksgiving being so late didn’t help, for sure. As we were bidding farewell to our Turkey Day guests, the people across the street were outside stringing up their Xmas lights. It was still Thanksgiving! I know many people go for the holiday decor the minute Thanksgiving is over, but I prefer to have somewhat of a buffer — a week or 10 days between Thanksgiving and the start of the Xmas/Solstice/New Year’s season.

But what’s really casting a pall over the whole season is the November election and the steady stream of bad news that’s infiltrated our lives. Donald Trump somehow wins the Presidency and proceeds to nominate the worst people in his party for key cabinet positions, Elon Musk mistakenly believes he’s some kind of bizarre co-President; and we’re all looking on in horror as one billionaire/media outlet after the other rolls over and bends the knee to Trump in advance. It’s the worst-case scenario, and no amount of tinsel or fir tree branches can paper over the stink. And there’s been another school shooting. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I can’t wait to get to January, though that comes with its own fresh horrors.

I’m in desperate need of some holiday cheer (as I’m writing this, my Bears are playing my husband’s Vikings, and that’s sure to be a beatdown for the ages), and I’d love to hear what you’re doing to bring some light and hope to this holiday season.

A couple of reminders: I’ve got a piece coming out today for Dame Magazine, and I’d be so grateful if you would share it and help it get some traction. In this dog-eat-dog freelance market, every little bit of engagement helps! Second, there won’t be an LMP on Thursday because I’ll be retrieving my youngest from college, and 10 hours in the car generally requires that I go to sleep as soon as I get home. Apologies.

Today: Everyone (still) hates Michael Vick; Tech billionaires are ruining everything, including tech; The LA Times owner continues to suck; A new feature I’m calling “Welp, I was wrong about that guy;” and The High Note.

Here we go.

Everyone (still) hates Michael Vick

That pearl-clutching and screeching you heard online today was a specific segment of the sports fandom finding out that former NFL QB Michael Vick might get the Sacramento State (or Norfolk State) head coaching job.

Former NFL star and Virginia Tech legend Michal Vick told The Virginian-Pilot that he has formally interviewed with Norfolk State for its vacant head coaching job. Vick has had conversations with Norfolk State president Javaune Adams-Gaston and athletic director Melody Webb. According to Vick, Norfolk State was first to reach out. He also noted that he expects a final decision, either way, "soon." 

Sacramento State has also discussed hiring Vick as its next head coach, according to ESPN. Andy Thompson, Sacramento State's former defensive coordinator, resigned after two seasons and joined former Hornets coach Troy Taylor's staff at Stanford as associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator. 

Either move would represent Vick's first coaching opportunity at the collegiate level. 

"I know how to lead and I know what it takes." Vick told The Virginian-Pilot.

As you no doubt recall, Vick served 18 months in prison for financing a dog-fighting operation and is loathed by dog lovers (and probably dogs, as well) everywhere.

Before I go further, let me say this: Yes, the allegations against Vick were horrific. It is impossible to overstate the cruelty of what Vick did. I grew up in a house with parents who bred Bedlington Terriers, and I’ve loved four rescue dogs and three rescue kitties in my adult life. My Jacktese (Jack Russell/Maltese mix, who was found wandering the streets of Louisville) is curled up against my side while I’m writing tonight. My Rhodesian Ridgeback (broken and withdrawn when we met her at the shelter but who now has zero problems letting you know her opinion on anything) is snuggled up in front of a roaring fire. I love dogs. I like them better than people, actually. And I do not deem them lesser beings simply because they have fur and can’t sing back at me.

All of that said, Michael Vick has actually done the work that so many men accused of violence in pro sports have not done. Why are we picking on the one guy who has taken concrete steps to redeem himself?

Vick served more time in prison than I’ve ever seen an NFL player serve for harming a human being. While he was in prison, Vick reached out to animal welfare groups to open up a dialogue about how he could do better going forward. He’s spoken out about animal cruelty and taken responsibility for his actions. He’s opened up about being exposed to dog fighting as a small child, explaining that he accepted it as normal. He’s spoken publicly about the harm he caused and animal cruelty, particularly to children, and endorsed a national bill that prohibits the possession and training of fighting animals, going so far as to appear before a House Committee to support the bill that eventually became law.

I’m not here to argue that Vick has done enough or has redeemed himself. I think that’s an individual decision. What I can say is that, with the exception of Ray Rice (who really had no choice once the video of him knocking his fiancée out was leaked), not a single pro athlete accused of SA or domestic abuse of a human being has done anything close to what Vick has done to make up for his behavior. If Trevor Bauer or Ben Roethlisberger or Marcell Ozuna or Tyreek Hill were up for a head coaching gig at a small school, there wouldn’t be nearly as big of an outcry from the fandom.

It says something about our culture that we can’t forgive a man for harming animals, but we forgive men every day for abusing women. Worse, a significant portion of society refuses to acknowledge that it happens. That’s not to say that human lives are more valuable (I’d argue that most dogs do more good on this planet than many people), but it certainly speaks to how our society views women and children.

Tech bros are ruining everything — including tech

I’ve shared pieces from Ed Zitron’s newsletter — Where’s Your Ed At? — before. At a time when my chosen industry is in shambles (primarily due to galaxy-brained morons who believe everything should be for-profit), I appreciate his regularly rage-y takes on tech in general and AI specifically. Today’s newsletter was no exception.

Here’s his argument that nearly all tech is terrible these days:

The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products. 

To be clear, I don’t believe that this gradual enshittification is part of some grand, Machiavellian long game by the tech companies, but rather the product of multiple consecutive decisions made in response to short-term financial needs. Even if it was, the result would be the same — people wouldn’t notice how bad things have gotten until it’s too late, or they might just assume that tech has always sucked, or they’re just personally incapable of using the tools that are increasingly fundamental to living in a modern world. 

You are the victim of a con — one so pernicious that you’ve likely tuned it out despite the fact it’s part of almost every part of your life. It hurts everybody you know in different ways, and it hurts people more based on their socioeconomic status. It pokes and prods and twists millions of little parts of your life, and it’s everywhere, so you have to ignore it, because complaining about it feels futile, like complaining about the weather. 

What a banger. I read this piece about two hours before I came across a story explaining that TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is larger than that of Greece. Yes, Greece — the country.

The problem is that all of these tech bro billionaires treat their giant corporations the same way they treat media outlets — something that they can strip down over and over again in the name of chasing profits until what’s left is a pale imitation of what we were promised or what the product initially was. If you need an example, just check out X, which not only got rid of the name and the Fail Whale, but just about every feature that made the site enjoyable. Anything good about X is now behind a paywall, and the more Elon Musk makes X for pay, the more money he loses.

As of October, X’s valuation was down 80 percent since Musk took over.

Can we stop calling these guys “geniuses” yet?

Speaking of geniuses…

The owner of the LA Times is in way over his head.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, has announced plans to incorporate an artificial intelligence-powered “bias meter” into the newspaper’s coverage.

Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, made the comments on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is soon joining the LA Times editorial board.

The proposed move is the latest controversy to rock the newspaper which has suffered a wave of resignations and layoffs under Soon-Shiong’s ownership. Most recently, Soon-Shiong blocked the paper from endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris in last month’s presidential election, sparking outrage from many staff.

The “bias meter”, Soon-Shiong said, will be integrated into articles so that “somebody could understand, as they read it, that the source of the article has some level of bias”.

Why do these guys have so much faith in tech and so little in other people?

Meanwhile, Soon-Shiong has also said he’ll sell the paper if it’s not profitable. And therein lies the problem.

Some things are just not meant to be for-profit. I know that’s a controversial opinion these days, and would no doubt lead to me being declared “a communist” on social media. But on the heels of reporting on Trump’s intention to privatize the post office, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the post office, healthcare, and journalism should not be “for profit” enterprises. The goal, instead, should be to break even, keep the industry growing, and pay their employees a living wage.

Is anyone out there not interested in making billions these days?

Welp, I was wrong about that guy

A few days ago, I posted a video of CNN’s Clarissa Ward helping a Syrian man out of one of Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prisons. I even put it in The High Note, because I found the entire thing so uplifting.

Turns out, that guy might be kind of a dick.

UPDATED: CNN‘s Clarissa Ward said that a man identified in her report as a prisoner under the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad, the deposed dictator, was in fact an intelligence officer.

“We can confirm the real identity of the man from our story last Wednesday as Salama Mohammed Salama,” Ward wrote on X.

***

But on Sunday, the site Verify-Sy raised questions about the report, suggesting that he was in fact Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as Abu Hamza, a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence.  “According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer,” Verify-Sy reported. “This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources.” The site included photos from the CNN report and Salameh in military uniform.

CNN said today that it obtained a photo that showed the man’s real identity. The network reported that local residents of Homs identified the man as Salama, and that “he was known for running the Air Force Intelligence Directorate’s checkpoints in the city and accused him of having a reputation for extortion and harassment.”

(emphasis added)

Oh.

The High Note

Did I share this already? Well, I’m going to share it again.

Just as Always Sunny got me through the COVID lockdown, Bob’s Burgers is getting me through the election's aftermath. My favorite episode, hands down, is Sit Me Baby One More Time, and the tiny tot who kicks people in the tinkle-dink.

Perhaps the single funniest episode of anything I’ve ever seen.

Survive and advance today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

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