It’s ‘Pay Attention to Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Day
So Much News, So Little Time
Today –Tuesday, October 3– is one of those days where my daily survey of sources left me feeling like I’d been trying to drink (polluted) water from a firehouse.
Rather than pick one topic and zero in on it, I’m going to share a bunch of items that caught my eye and tag them with a bit of analysis rather than an excerpt.
San Diego
***
Political Consultants Caught Working For & Against Same Candidate Via La Prensa
This is a much bigger story than the headline (which is technically accurate) suggests. One of the disadvantages of one party rule (Democrats in San Diego) is the attractiveness of corruption as a means of acquiring power.
In this era where democracy itself has become a debatable question, it seems some local Democrats have chosen to play loosy-goosy with the manner in which candidates are chosen AND how elected officials behave once in office.
How Republican of the so-called Grassroots Resource, an entity existing to assist candidates that appears to be intervening in intra party contests. Of course there’s money involved. And in the instances cited in La Prensa’s investigation, the very MAGA-like techniques of inferring racism and slandering a candidate are at play.
It’s not like the stench of these practices hasn’t been noticed before. When an entity creates multiple party clubs that all happen to meet at the same time in the same place to endorse the same people in competitive contests you have to wonder when a related entity puts its thumb on the scale. Again.
The last thing the Democratic Party (which I understand is a big tent locally) needs to do is to hand ammunition to assholes.
***
San Diego Gears Up to Deal Water Across the West Via Voice of San Diego
Local right wing media, like KUSI, likes to make a big deal over the cost of water in San Diego. Other than continually inferring that what we pay (and the price is going up) is the fault of Democrats on the City Council, they don’t really have solutions.
You can’t undo history, San Diego made a deal three decades back to ensure a healthy water supply; backing out means lawsuits galore (which will eventually cost us all) and perhaps a water shortage (if the flow gets cut.) We are, after all, living in a desert environment–most of the time.
In order to keep us hydrated, the region will have to spend money. Unless these objectors are willing to live in an area where homeowners have water trucked in to fill their cisterns, paying more is just a fact of life.
If you’d like to be more informed on the subject, Voice of San Diego’s Politifest (this weekend) will feature a panel including: Adel Hagekhalil, general manager and CEO, Metropolitan Water District, Dan Denham, general manager, San Diego County Water Authority, Tina Shields, water department manager, Imperial Irrigation District, & Michael Cohen, senior associate, Pacific Institute
***
Midway Rising scraps hotel and middle-income homes from sports arena project Via the Union-Tribune
Rising interest rates and an infrastructure problem are responsible for changes in a proposal currently being evaluated to remake the 48 acre strip mall wasteland also known as the Midway District.
The good news is that the promised 2,000 affordable housing units remain in the proposal. Some city council members are unhappy based on the perception that the billionaires financing the project should be willing to throw money away.
I think that what San Diegans should be worried about is the possibility that the cost of financing might cause the whole project to be canceled.
***
Media
***
Social media traffic to top news sites craters Via Axios
The graphic below tells the story of a trend affecting more than just major news sites. It started back in 2014 when Facebook decided that only big brand news sites got more visibility.
Online news purveyors can no longer count on love from Facebook and Xitter as the 2024 elections approach. Of course, the absence of sometimes higher quality content won’t create a vacuum. Everybody and their mother, plus assorted foreign powers, is ready and willing to throw money to get their message seen on social media. And since nobody at the corporate level of those platforms cares anymore about truth or consequences, get ready for a stream of sewage like you’ve never seen before…only the best sewage… some people say they've never seen such fabulous sewage…
***
The One Media Conspiracy Theory That's True Via How Things Work by Hamilton Nolan
This is mostly a (well written) Substack post critical of (primarily) cable news outlets using the revolving door of politics to recruit poorly qualified news hosts whose primary redeeming value is access to insiders. Seemingly everybody does it, and in the legacy dead tree media the revolving door exists between elitist universities and columnists.
A quote, because he says it better than I can:
They are products made by and for people whose entire lives have been defined by their ability to ascend America’s cultural ladder. This is their biggest failing, and the cause of their worst blind spots, which are significant. These types of publications also navigate the demands of access journalism with varying levels of success, always in danger of becoming too cozy with the other elite power centers they are covering. At the same time, these are big institutions that employ more good reporters than any other institutions in this country and have the resources to produce a quantity of useful journalism that nowhere else does. They are flawed, they are elitist, and they are vital. All of these things are true.
Nolan says all these things in the name of the thousands of reporters capable of telling a story without being constrained by both-sides-ing it, and analyzing a situation with the big picture in mind.
***
Trump Just Threw A Middle-Of-The-Night Tantrum Over Late Shows Mocking Him Via HuffPost
His victimhood knows no bounds. Poor lil’ Donnie, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
***
Finally
***
Should People with Hidden Safety Phones Turn Them Off During Oct. 4 Emergency Alert System Test? Via Snopes
Although the warning as it appears on social media has the aroma of various fake calls to action and warnings from the tinfoil hat set, your cellphone really is going to make a weird noise at 11:20 pacific time on Wednesday, October 4.
FEMA will be testing the Emergency Broadcast System. Remember those public service messages from your transistor radio? Yep, it’s one of those.
In addition to the weird noise - to be heard on every switched on phone within the range of a cell tower – we’ll also be getting a text saying if this had been a real alert…blah, blah, blah
IMPORTANT– For people in vulnerable positions that need to have hidden phones, TURN YOUR PHONE OFF.
Anybody wanna bet how many elected officials don’t see the message applying to their burner phones?
Love this: "Anybody wanna bet how many elected officials don’t see the message applying to their burner phones?"
I was driving home on I-8 at 11:20 when the test happened. Found myself wondering how many of the drivers in nearby cars knew what it was.