Four items lead the news this Independence Day.
First off, the news that Sha’Carri Richardson, one of the most talented U.S. sprinters, cannot compete in the Olympics because she tested positive for cannabis is outrageous. Whoever heard of someone doing something *faster* while under the influence of pot?
My brother-in-law was once stopped by the cops for driving too slowly while stoned, but in those days there was no test for detecting marijuana use. His case was hardly unique. So IMHO it's more likely that cannabis would slow Ms. Richardson down, not speed her up.
I say "Let her run!"
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Second, how many people recognize the name Ed McBroom? He's a straight-talking dairy farmer from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan who as an elected state senator, vowed to get to the bottom of whether the 2020 election was stolen by Biden with massive voter fraud.
Accordingly, he directed the Oversight Committee he chaired to embark on an exhaustive 8-month inquiry into the integrity of Michigan's electoral system.
Their conclusion was there had been no fraud whatsoever. Absolutely none. The election system worked fine and Biden's win in the state was fair and square.
What was McBroom's reward?
Trump immediately denounced his report as a "cover-up" and him personally, publishing his phone number. He urged his fanatical supporters to go after McBroom. As the threats started to pour in against him and his family, McBroom spoke with a writer from the Atlantic about the people attacking him for the report, some of whom he knows personally.
“These are good people, (but) they’re being lied to, and they’re believing the lies,” he said. “And it’s really dangerous.”
In my book Ed McBroom, the conservative Republican, is an American patriot and hero.
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Third on today's list: The links to a large portion of the content published on the web the past quarter-century are broken -- either the content has been removed, the links are no longer compatible with today's software, or the overall decay of the web has swept them into the dustbin of history.
Many web pages have been permanently deleted by periodic house-cleaning by the content's host.
One study indicates that fully 50 percent of the links cited by the Supreme Court in its decisions since 1996 no longer work. Another study indicates that 75 percent of the links in scientific articles are similarly dead.
As we've become almost completely dependent on digital copies of documents to conduct our affairs and stay informed, this vulnerability to losing our access to history is deeply disturbing.
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Finally fourth-up this Fourth of July: Bloomberg's essay celebrating revisionist histories of America.
History certainly needs rigorous fact-checking, we can all agree on that. New facts are always being discovered; some of them suggest far different interpretations of events than the conventional wisdom of the day holds to be true.
For example, recently I cited how the memoirs of Mexican soldiers and observers of the battle at the Alamo indicate a far different scenario than the Walt Disney fantasy of a heroic band led by Davy Crockett sold to us at kids.
Ignorance is a far greater danger than over-compensation such as the current "cancel culture" with its foolish excesses. Because as the Bloomberg essay points out, even basic truths remain unknown to many modern day Americans:
"According to one recent survey, 63 percent of the American public is not aware that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Ten percent had not heard of the Holocaust at all."
One of those ignorant souls was Marjorie Taylor Greene until she visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. Her apology afterward gave me a sliver of hope that even the most ignorant people in our country are not necessarily beyond hope if we can just get them the help they need.
Here was the headline on CNN after her outing: "Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizes for 'offensive' Holocaust comparison after visiting Holocaust museum."
And that, friends, is my Independence Day message.
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THE HEADLINES:
1. The doping rules that cost Sha’Carri Richardson have a debated, political history -- Few believe marijuana boosts athletic performance, especially in sports such as track. So why does it remain on the list of banned substances? (WP)
2. The Senator Who Decided to Tell the Truth -- A Michigan Republican spent eight months searching for evidence of election fraud, but all he found was lies. (Atlantic)
3. The Internet Is Rotting -- Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone. (Atlantic)
4. America the Beautiful, Revised Version -- On this Fourth of July, America should celebrate its revisionist history. (Bloomberg)
* As Afghan Forces Crumble, an Air of Unreality Grips the Capital -- With the Taliban advancing and U.S. troops leaving, President Ashraf Ghani and his aides have become increasingly insular, and Kabul is slipping into shock. (NYT)
* Biden’s cold response to Afghanistan’s collapse will have far-reaching consequences (Editorial Board/WP)
* 'What was the point?' Afghans rue decades of war as U.S. quits Bagram (Reuters)
* Afghan pullout has US spies reorienting in terrorism fight (AP)
* They Didn’t Expect to Retire Early. The Pandemic Changed Their Plans. -- After years in which Americans worked later in life, the latest economic disruption has driven many out of the work force prematurely. (NYT)
* Europe in vaccination race against COVID-19′s delta variant (AP)
* Pay goes up as employers eye smaller pool of workers (WP)
* Student-Loan Holders Get Piecemeal Relief -- Congress and the White House so far appear unwilling to take sweeping actions to cancel student debt. (WSJ)
* Trump Is Said to Have Called Arizona Official After Election Loss -- Donald Trump tried to reach the top Republican in metropolitan Phoenix as his allies were trying to overturn the state’s 2020 results, according to the official, who said he did not pick up the calls. (NYT)
* Climate change has already gotten deadly. Scientists say it will get worse. (WP)
* Potential for Significant Wildfires Is Above Normal for a Growing Share of the U.S. (WSJ)
* Western Canada lightning strikes up tenfold, stoking fires (Reuters)
* After early successes in its campaign against the coronavirus, the White House starts to run into the limits of its power (WP)
* The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination -- The U.S. used to be a country of invention and change. Today, our politics are sclerotic, our civic culture is in crisis, and our dreams are small. What happened? (NYT)
* FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riot (WP)
* Rioters accused of erasing content from social media, phones (AP)
* The Data Behind Baseball’s Stickiest Problem-- MLB began cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances to improve their grip on the ball. The game changed dramatically. (WSJ)
* Africa’s Last Absolute Monarchy Convulsed by Mass Protests -- Eswatini, the former Swaziland, has been ruled by high-living kings since its independence in 1968. Its impoverished citizens say they’ve had enough. (NYT)
* Indonesia caught between surge and slow vaccine rollout (AP)
* Delta Variant Fuels Missouri’s Covid-19 Uptick -- Public-health experts say the increase is a warning sign of what may happen this summer in other areas of the U.S. with low vaccination rates. (WSJ)
* Las Vegas is bouncing back, but the virus is on the rise too (AP)
* A Mystery Illness Is Killing Mid-Atlantic Songbirds -- Wildlife officials are asking people not to feed birds or provide bird baths amid dozens of reports of mysterious songbird deaths. (NPR)
* We’re excited to announce the first stamp rendered by Indingenous artist Rico Worl, highlighting an important story to the Native people of the PNW Coast. (U.S. Postal Service)
*Could AI Keep People ‘Alive’ After Death? -- Experts are exploring ways artificial intelligence might confer a kind of digital immortality, preserving the personalities of the departed in virtual form and then allowing them to evolve. (WSJ)
* Family Spends Relaxing Weekend Destroying Outdoors (The Onion)
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"America the Beautiful"
Sung by Ray Charles
Songwriters: Katherine Bates / Alexander Courage / Samuel Ward
In liberating strife
Who more than self, their country loved
And mercy more than life
'Til all success be nobleness
And every gain divined
We used to sing it something like this, listen here
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain
America, sweet America
You know, God done shed his grace on thee
He crowned thy good, yes he did, in brotherhood
From sea to shining sea
(America, America, God shed his grace on thee)
America, I love you America, you see
My God he done shed his grace on thee
And you oughta love him for it
'Cause he, he, he, he crowned thy good
He told me he would, with brotherhood
(From sea to shining Sea)
Oh Lord, oh Lord, I thank you Lord
(Shining sea)
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