🌞 Prime time – June 10 2022

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00 am ET. 

The Lead: Jan 6th Committee on Prime Time Television 

credit: deadline

Ratings are not in yet for the prime-time broadcast of the January 6 hearings but if Twitter is any indication, people are talking. 

Pence, Ivanka, Bill Barr, Proud Boys and Liz Cheney are all trending. Cheney led the event by laying out her argument about President Trump and playing video testimony from people around President Trump at the time, including Ivanka Trump. 

The video of Ivanka showed her saying that she accepted the results of the election even as then President Trump encouraged protestors to fight against the results. It’s not particularly damning but Ivanka is usually an attention-getter. 

Cheney read an account of someone telling then-President Trump that Vice President Pence would be hanged by the rioting mob and Trump responded saying that he “deserves it.” 

Congressional members were tearful as video was played of aggressive Capitol rioters out for blood. Video was blared on theater screens. 

Is this productive? It is certainly upsetting. People died and the heavily-edited video is harrowing. Is it a publicity stunt? Does Congress need sympathy for being under attack at a time when American children are not safe in schools and Supreme Court Justices are being targeted for assassination?  

Congress decided to air these in prime-time and the media agreed, all except Fox news. I appreciate the take of Chris Wallace who pointed out on CNN that this production is “a bad look both for the committee and the mainstream media to seem that they are hand in glove with each other.” 

Food Shortages > Pandemic

credit: getty

Could food shortages be just as deadly as a pandemic? Yes. And a global health leader is warning that this may be a reality as global economies reach the brink. 

Peter Sands is the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. You would think that guy would only focus on those diseases, he is acutely focus on food shortages that he thinks will be “just as deadly.” 

"Food shortages work in two ways,” Sands told Reuters. “One is you have the tragedy of people actually starving to death. But second is you have the fact that often much larger numbers of people are poorly nourished, and that makes them more vulnerable to existing diseases," he said.

In essence, he further says that wealthy nations do not work to solve problems until they are a problem and forget about old problems. But now everything is a problem due to the pandemic, global conflict, sanctions, supply chain and trade wars. This is creating an each-to-their-own economy where the poorest nations will starve first. 

Sands is trying to raise awareness about a global fund to prevent this from happening but so far the fund has only raised about one-third of its target goal. 

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Looking The Other Way

credit: ndtv.com

The Justice Department has opened an investigation of the state of Louisiana for what it calls a “pattern-or-practice” of beating up Black men and looking the other way when it is reported. 

The Justice Department claims that there are dozens of incidents of current and former troopers beat up Black men and their superiors ignored the incidents, concealed evidence, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens sound low to me. 

This comes after an Associated Press investigation found that a man named Ronald Greene was dragged onto a rural road and severely beaten and no one has been disciplined for it. Greene died from the incident. 

But what can the Justice Department do about it? Suppose the investigation shows enough evidence of wrongdoing. In that case, it can litigate against the state and seek new laws which could prevent these things from happening and hold people accountable if it does. 

News By The Numbers

credit: getty

£100 pounds. That is the average cost to fill up a tank of gas in the UK because gas prices suck there too. 

$600. That is the minimum amount of money you are now required to report on your taxes from sales on PayPal, Venmo, eBay and Airbnb, according to new IRS rules. 

59 cents. That is how much Popeyes will sell their signature chicken for this month to honor the chain’s 50th anniversary. 

62.5 cents per mile. That is the new rate that the IRS will use to write off gas expenses. The previous rate was 58.5 cents but, you know, inflation and high gas prices. 

Messages From Deep Space

credit: taco bell

Is someone trying to send us a cosmic message? Researchers are trying to figure out what caused a powerful burst of radio waves emanating from a dwarf galaxy about 3 billion light-years away. 

On Wednesday, researchers said that they picked up a fast radio burst, or FRB that is different from the ones they have seen before. Previously noticed FRBs blink on and off but this one repeats but kind of stays on in between bursts. 

Could it be a supernova? Could it be a younger FRB? Could it be Bizarro World? You decide! 

What's Trending?

credit: getty

Diet Coke is trending because of this sad Tweet. 

Rebel Wilson is trending because she announced that she is in love with a woman. 

Penn Station is trending after New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that she is soliciting proposals to renovate the iconic but ugly and depressing commuter hub.