Dec 19
2022
Monday Morning Read
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I cringed while watching the Bills game a week ago Sunday after Jets quarterback Mike White was returned to the game after suffering an injury that sent him to the hospital that night and is keeping him sidelined this week. It was the latest example of the NFL treating its players like disposable commodities. Other examples this season include the concussion fiasco involving Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the Bills and Dolphins playing in a brutal heat and humidity that sent many players to the sidelines with cramps. I could cite more examples, but you get the picture.
Then there’s the off-field shenanigans, the latest being the conclusion by Congressional investigators that Dan Snider, owner of the Washington franchise, is responsible for a toxic workplace for women that the NFL attempted to help him cover up.
Reported The New York Times:
The Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder, aided by N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, suppressed evidence that Snyder and team executives sexually harassed women who worked at the team over two decades, according to the results of a yearlong inquiry by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
We’ve been told that one reason to build a new stadium for the Bills is because the NFL is such an exclusive club. It’s also an organization that tolerates — indeed, covers up -— for the likes of Dan Snider. One whose owners include men who patronize prostitutes (Robert Kraft) and keep people on their payroll who take up-skirt photos of their daughters (Jerry Jones). To say nothing of blackballing Colin Kaepernick while welcoming back serial sex abuser Deshaun Watson.
Some club.
Ulysees Wingo, who represents the Masten District in the Common Council, persuaded his colleagues last month to approve a resolution to support the Buffalo school district adopting staggered starting times to alleviate transportation problems. Wingo said the move was supported by the Buffalo Teachers Federation. Problem was, it wasn’t. Council members should have been able to figure that out, as the BTF membership rejected the proposal in October.
Wingo, like the rest of his colleagues, is up for re-election next year. India Walton is said to be considering a run for Wingo’s seat. She carried the Masten District in last year’s mayor’s race.
Ken Kruly has packed a lot of information into his latest Politics and Other Stuff, including speculation that Stefan Mychajliw might be angling for the appointment to replace Joe Lorigo on the Erie County Legislature.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49. The Washington Post last week published Cartel Rx, a series that documented what went wrong.
On the labor front, the Poynter Institute writes about the growing willingness of journalists to strike, and a local TV station in Pittsburgh reports on the co-owner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trying to shoo away a labor organizer by whacking him with a bag of hamburgers. Meanwhile, the publisher of The Washington Post managed to make a bad situation worse by refusing to answer questions from his staff after announcing layoffs.
Elon Musk banned Twitter journalists whose work angered him, then had second thoughts in the face of blowback. Prior to that, comedian Dave Chappelle tried to do Musk a favor by inviting him on stage during one of his performances. Fans booed him off. Also of note, a story in The Atlantic that proclaimed Musk a ”right wing activist.”
Two polls last week, published by USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, found that Republican voters prefer Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump. Lest you find comfort in this, consider what the Florida governor is saying and doing. He’s an even darker version of Trump, without the crazy. Elsewhere, Politico wrote about a potential candidate who could provide GOP voters an alternative.
The New York Times published a special section Sunday detailed what a mess the Russian military is and why Putin’s army has struggled against Ukraine troops.
ProPublica published an investigation into Zero Units — Afghans trained, equipped and sometimes joined by American soldiers — who terrorized and killed civilians.
Cubans are fleeing their homeland in record numbers. More than “the 1980 Mariel boat lift and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis combined,” reports The New York Times.
