Hello All:
The summer of 2025 is now into it's second half, as August has crept up on us. Here in NY, there were massive storms on Thursday afternoon, and it was cloudy on Friday morning, but the heat and humidity broke and Friday Evening and Saturday afternoon were real nice days. Hopefully that keeps up.
Anyway, onto what's been going on...
Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle Jeans
ADVERTISING- American Eagle Controversy
Do I consider myself woke? I dunno.
I mean, I'm sure there are folks out there who read this blog or see my social media posts and say "You are absolutely woke." And they mean it in the most unflattering way possible.
That's fine. What people like that think of me are the least of my issues.
I try to consider all points of view. I try to avoid saying things that offend people. I'm not always successful, but I rarely go out to purposefully offend someone. Chances are, the folks who I do offend are those who consider me, well, woke.
The point of my rambling on here is that though I try not to offend anyone, I'm kind of at a loss with this whole Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Jeans story.
This was in a column in the Times on Friday
an American Eagle campaign for jeans that makes a pun on the notion that Ms. Sweeney won the genetic lottery. The ad, which quickly took off online, set off controversy when some social media users felt it veered uncomfortably close to promotion of eugenics and the glorification of whiteness. It has also been decried for its sexually suggestive nature and for catering to the “male gaze.”
Let's take the second part of that first..."catering to the male gaze" I mean, hiring attractive people to sell product has been going on since the Garden of Eden. The serpent hired a naked Eve to sell fruit to Adam. And it cuts both ways. Good looking dudes are in a shitload of commercials. To me that what makes the world go-around.
Then there is the more controversial issue of the promotion of eugenics and the glorification of whiteness.
So full disclosure: I had to go on-line and look up exactly what the hell eugenics was. Per dictionary.com
The study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable. Developed largely by Sir Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, eugenics was increasingly discredited as unscientific and racially biased during the 20th century, especially after the adoption of its doctrines by the Nazis in order to justify their treatment of Jews, disabled people, and other minority groups.
OK so in the ad, Sweeney, who lets call her what she is, very good looking, talks about her genes in referencing the jeans she is selling (get it?) It's a play on words.
I really don't believe for a minute that American Eagle or Sydney Sweeney was trying to invoke Nazism with this ad campaign. I think American Eagle hired someone who, as the Times article also points out sells everything from ice cream, to face cream, to men's soap, to (FFS) soap that was made from her own bathwater. You want to investigate something? Look into what kind of sick bastard would purchase someone's used bathwater.* Sydney Sweeney was looking to make more $$$.
It's possible I'm missing something here. And I'm always willing to stand corrected. A few years back, Mike Francesa described someone as Oriental, and got into trouble for that. As much as I like to pick on the Sports Pope, I really didn't see what the fuss was all about, until I had it explained to me by good friend and top notch journalist David K. Li that oriental is fine to describe rugs and jewelry, but a bit outdated to describe Asian people.
So yeah, I'm willing to hear counterpoints on this one. From where I'm sitting this is just another case of folks having too much time on their hands.
POLITICS- RIP CBP.
While people were getting their knickers in a twist over blue jeans (seewhatididthere?) Two things that were a lot more alarming happened this week.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that they will shut down early next year, due in large part to Congress voting to cut $500 million in funding. While Sesame Street and All Things Considered will continue to broadcast, they may not reach people in rural areas who don't have access to high speed internet.
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) took to X this week to say..
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced today that it will be closing down by the end of the year following the passage of a rescissions package earlier this month. My team and I are still figuring out what this announcement will mean for Alaska Public Media, but rest assured that I will not back down when it comes to public broadcasting. When I return home this month, I will spend time with public broadcasters across the state to assess their needs and chart a path forward. The programming and emergency alerts these stations provide to communities throughout Alaska are vital, and I won’t give up until they receive the support they need.
Thanks Lisa. You know how you could have made sure they had what they needed? By not voting to defund them.
Can't make it up.
Then if that wasn't ridiculous enough. Captain Orange, after receiving the news that the job market was not nearly as robust as he was telling us it was, fired the head of Labor Statistics.
Per NBC News.com
(Trump) attacked Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS. He claimed that the country's jobs reports "are being produced by Biden appointee" and ordered his administration to terminate her.
It's not quite killing the messenger, but it's damn close.
From the same article..
He intensified his attack in a later post, writing: "In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad." He didn't cite any evidence for his claim.
Know why he didn't cite any evidence for his claim? Because he didn't have any.
None of this surprises me, this is what dictators do. What never ceases to amaze me is that people who claim to love freedom and government transparency are totally cool with this.
I swear, there are people out there who are going to lose their jobs, and will still say the economy is booming because this creep is telling them it is, and has also hired a sock puppet as his BLS Commissioner who will back him up with false numbers.
Sad.
A couple of quick notes about the shooting in Midtown last Monday.....
1) I won't get into the whole debate about people owning semi-automatic rifles, I've talked till I'm blue in the face about that. If you think it's cool that a man had over 800 rounds of ammunition at his disposal as was reported, I don't know what to tell you. What I had a hard time wrapping my head around was the fact that this sick f-cker walked right into a building on Park Avenue at 6:30 on a hot summer night in NYC and from the surveillance pictures they showed on the news, nobody seemed to noticed till it was too late. But you know what, I worked not too far from there for about 5 years, and the more I thought about it, it's plausible.
On a night like that, I was either looking to get back to Queens as soon as possible, or I was heading out for a libation. Now, perhaps the world was going to hell in a handbasket back in the late 90's/early 2000's like it is now, but in NY, it's easy to be oblivious to everything, even if there are billboards all over the place pleading for us to just do the complete opposite.
2) It is always a heartbreak when a NYPD officer gets killed, the fact that this hero died while working a second job as a security guard makes this all the more sad. I don't know what his situation was, maybe he was doing ok financially and was looking for extra cash. But the thought that he needed a second job after protecting our streets, I mean, we all do what we have to do to support our families. But I will say this loud and clear... As woke or as liberal as you may think I am, I will not ever support defunding the police. I hope that Officer Islam didn't die in part because he was having trouble making ends meet.
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I'm glad both the Mets and Yankees bolstered their bullpens at the trade deadline. In the Mets case, they got two really good relievers in Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley. Helsley in particular has been one of the best closers in baseball the last 5 years. He has struggled this year, but hopefully a change of scenery will do him some good. Rogers, who has a quirky sidearmed underhand delivery reminiscent of Dan Quisenberry, has pitched to a 1.80 ERA, and wasn't even thought to be on the block. The Mets also picked up center fielder Cedric Mullins, which is good because we could have a bullpen of lock down closers, it won't matter if the team doesn't get back to hitting, which they haven't done nearly enough of since Memorial Day.
The Yanks got themselves three relivers who have struggled at certain points this season, but also have real good upside. David Bednar has been lights out lately after struggling early in the season. They also picked up a solid third baseman in Ryan McMahon and an old favorite of mine, Ahmed Rosario, who the Mets dealt to Cleveland for Francisco Lindor a few years back.
Grading trade deadline deals when they happen is silly. In 2021, the Mets traded for Javier Baez. Many folks gave that deal a high grade. Baez, while here in Flushing, gave a thumbs down to the fans, bolted after the season to sign with the Tigers, and BTW, the guy we dealt for him, Pete Crow-Armstrong, is contending for NL MVP.
I'm sorry we don't have more good news to write about this week.
Our season finale will either be next week or the week after.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*My birthday's on Tuesday if you were looking for ideas (just sayin)
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