Navigating Through the Horrible News in the World Right Now; Your Power Trip Recaps–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Oct. 9, 2023

Indy Digest: Oct. 9, 2023

As I was editing Matt King’s Saturday Power Trip recap yesterday, a version of this Associated Press story came across my news feed. Here’s an excerpt, from an updated version of the story:

The open-air Tribe of Nova music festival will go down in Israeli history as the worst civilian massacre in the country’s history, with at least 260 dead and a still undetermined number taken hostage. Dozens of Hamas militants who had blown through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza opened fire on about 3,500 young Israelis who had come together for a joyous night of electronic music to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Some attendees were drunk or high on drugs, magnifying their confusion and terror.

I started to read the piece … and then I stopped. The details were too awful for me to handle.

What’s happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank right now is horrifying. The same goes for what’s been taking place in Ukraine. And there’s no sign that things will get any better in any of these places, anytime soon.

I’ve heard from a fair number of people that they simply can’t handle the news anymore. The pandemic, Jan. 6, Trump’s calls for violence, homelessness, division and strife, war, and now more war—it’s all too much. It’s much easier, and healthier psychologically, to ignore all this news, and just focus on what’s happening in their own lives, these people tell me.

If you can’t bring yourself to read the aforementioned story, or any of the other coverage of the horrors taking place in Israel and the Palestinian territories right now, I don’t blame you at all. Really. That may be the correct decision But … that’s not me. As a journalist, I feel a duty to fully understand the world, so after I finished the edit and took a break, I went back and read the piece.

I am not sure that was the right decision.

A little later, I made myself a Manhattan and sat down with the hubby to watch the Great British Baking Show, in an effort to remind myself there’s good in the world. It didn’t really work. Instead, I kept thinking of how lucky I was to be in a safe, comfortable place—and I said a silent prayer for the many, many human beings that aren’t so lucky.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• A history professor, writing for The Conversation, says today’s holiday should serve as a reminder of the wrongs done during U.S. colonialization: “In 2021, the Biden administration declared the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. I am a scholar of Colonial-Indigenous relations and think that officially recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day —and, more broadly, Native Americans’ history and survival—is important. Yet, Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day should also serve as a reminder of the violent past endured by Indigenous communities in North America. This past—complete with settlers’ brutal tactics of violence—is often ignored in the U.S. … Warfare often targeted Native American women and children and was often encouraged through scalp bounties—meaning people or local governments offering money in exchange for a Native American’s scalp.”

• Yet more chain-store pharmacists are walking off the job. The Washington Post reports: “Thousands of Walgreens pharmacy staff across the country are walking off work this week, alleging that poor working conditions are putting employees and patients at risk. The walkout could impact hundreds of stores starting Monday and going through Wednesday, an organizer of the effort told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the company. … Pharmacists, technicians and support staff claim that increased demands on understaffed teams—such as administering vaccines while battling hundreds of backlogged prescriptions—have become untenable and are impeding their ability to do their jobs responsibly. ‘When you’re a pharmacist, a missed letter or a number that’s wrong in a prescription could kill somebody,’ the organizer said.”

• Also from The Washington Post (which, interestingly, is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) comes this headline: “Amazon’s Alexa has been claiming the 2020 election was stolen.” Yes, really. Some details: “Asked about fraud in the race—in which Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump with 306 electoral college votes—the popular voice assistant said it was ‘stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,’ citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives. The 2020 races were ‘notorious for many incidents of irregularities and indications pointing to electoral fraud taking place in major metro centers,’ according to Alexa, referencing Substack, a subscription newsletter service. Alexa contended that Trump won Pennsylvania, citing ‘an Alexa answers contributor.’ Multiple investigations into the 2020 election have revealed no evidence of fraud, and Trump faces federal criminal charges connected to his efforts to overturn the election. Yet Alexa disseminates misinformation about the race, even as parent company Amazon promotes the tool as a reliable election news source to more than 70 million estimated users. Amazon declined to explain why its voice assistant draws 2020 election answers from unvetted sources.” BIG yikes.

• CNN reports that a new study indicates that people using Wegovy, Ozempic and similar drugs for weight loss may be at a higher risk of digestive issues: “The study found risks of these events happening to individual patients appears to be rare—about 1% of people taking Ozempic were diagnosed with stomach paralysis, for example. But demand for the drugs has exploded, with tens of millions now taking them worldwide. Researchers say even rare risks like these may amount to hundreds of thousands of new cases. ‘When you have millions of people using these drugs, you know, a 1% risk still translates to many people who may experience these events,’ said lead study author Dr. Mahyar Etminan, an epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia.”

• Our partners at Calmatters took a look at a whole lot of bills that have fallen victim to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto pen—including one veto that made me particularly cranky: “The governor’s office put out a big batch of nearly 150 actions on Saturday, a second one on Sunday of about 130 and a third one late Sunday night of about 190 more. That unusual volume for a weekend means he still has some 260 bills to go. And he may have run out of ink in his veto pen this weekend: He blocked 143, or 30%. The reasons he cited touched on a few common themes: The bills were unnecessary, or they went too far on policy too fast. Or they could cost the state lots of money—a common rationale governors use for bills they don’t like. In several veto messages, he repeated language about covering a $30 billion budget deficit without cutting major programs ‘relied on by millions of Californians.’ He added that the Legislature ‘sent me bills outside of this budget process’ that ‘would add nearly $19 billion of unaccounted costs.’ (Vetoes included) a measure to establish an ombudsperson who investigates whether denials of public records requests comply with state law.”

• And finally … because I think we all need a lighter story right now, here’s a New York Times piece on a fascinating new game called GeoGuessr: “An unremarkable stretch of highway and trees, as seen on Google Maps’ Street View, appeared on the screen. It could have been anywhere from Tasmania to Texas. ‘This is going to be south Philippines, somewhere on this road down here,’ Trevor Rainbolt said instantly, clicking on a location on a map of the world that was less than 11 miles from the spot. … Mr. Rainbolt has become the face of a fast-growing community of geography fanatics who play a game called GeoGuessr. The premise is simple: As you stare at a computer or phone, you’re plopped down somewhere in the world in Google Street View and must guess, as quickly as you can, exactly where you are. You can click to travel down roads and through cities, scanning for distinguishable landmarks or language. The closer you guess, the more points you score.” Sure, why not?

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