There is still time to change people's minds about the president
We are one short week until election day in America; here's how you can do it
Sree’s Sunday Note newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague). This photo was taken this weekend in Central Park. NYC is not the ghost town with rioters everywhere that Trump has been describing (that’s just one of his 25,000+ lies while in office).
Scroll down for Read Something; Watch Something; and a weekly tech tip from Robert S. Anthony (@newyorkbob).
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There is still time to change the minds of your Trump-leaning friends and relatives before election day — focus on Covid19.
The two presidential debates didn't really show us anything new. Joe Biden came off as a person who is just fundamentally decent — which, of course, he is. The president also met expectations — he lied repeatedly, made outrageous claims about the "accomplishments" of his administration, and, most importantly, he refused to acknowledge the depth of the effects of the Covid19 pandemic.
Ultimately, it may (and should!) cost him the presidency.
I'm personally still shocked that the president has the level of support he has, but there are holes in that support, especially on the margins, and the administration's embarrassingly poor response to the pandemic is almost certainly the reason. Just one from election day, it's also the issue that can change the minds of people in your orbit who are still clinging on to Trumpism.
Republicans and those who lean Republican overwhelmingly say the US has done what it could to control the outbreak, but, according to Pew Research, 30% think we could have done more. 30% is a big number. In other polling, Pew found that 48% of Republicans think the administration gets the facts right about Covid19 most of the time. Again, that number is sadly and astonishingly high, but it no doubt concerns the president's reelection campaign a lot.
We are about to reach 250,000 Covid19 deaths in the US, and the evidence is clear: It did not have to be this way:
Use this to change minds. Keep at it.
I would also encourage you to listen to the episode of "Pivot" in the Listen to Something section below. So many Republicans are wedded to the narrative of low corporate taxes equaling economic growth equaling a booming economy. But, the fact the stock market and S&P are booming while the economy (and society) crumbles around us should give us pause, not optimism.
Workers are more productive than ever, their bosses are richer than ever, and their wages have essentially been in decline for the last 40 years:
It’s possible to turn one dollar of capital into two in a matter of minutes (or even seconds). But turning one dollar per hour into two dollars per hour takes years, if not decades — and it’s only gotten harder to do the latter. Given our poor pandemic response, this will only be exacerbated.
The Covid19 pandemic has made this all more stark — now we see it. We see who has to go to work every day, circumstances be damned. We see who is undervalued. We see those who have enriched themselves exponentially over the course of the last year especially.
Joe Biden is not a cure-all, and let's face it, becoming president in January 2021 in America is not going to be easy. But, there can be little doubt that a Biden-Harris administration would be much more capable in its response to the pandemic, and certainly more thoughtful about how to get the economy going again in a way that benefits more people than just those with a few million is diversified stock options sitting around for a rainy day.
- Sree (an expanded version of this ran in my biweekly election series for MoneyControl).
Read Something
You’ve no doubt seen some version of the “why can’t we be more rational like Sweden has been?” takes. They’ve been wrong since they started, and this is a very good piece by Andrew Ewing and Kelly Bjorklund on just how bad the pandemic has been for Sweden.
Tech Tips from @NewYorkBob: Smartphone for Young Users Distances Itself from Social Media
Each week, veteran tech journalist Robert S. Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him on @newyorkbob.
Whether they’re taking classes virtually or actually in school, it’s easy for young students to get distracted — especially if there’s a smartphone nearby. It’s way too easy for them to get lost in a game or a long social-media thread when they should be focused on their teachers or computer screens.
The Gabb Z2 smartphone from Gabb Wireless adds to the educational experience by subtraction: It lacks Internet access, social-media apps, games or app-store access. It is what it is: A distraction-free smartphone with the look and feel of a conventional smartphone.
Instead of Android apps, which can't be installed, the $100 unit has 14 proprietary, kid-friendly apps, including music, video, voice recorder, calendar, calculator, contact, photo editor and alarm clock apps to go along with its standard calling and texting features.
Also missing from the Gabb Z2 are parental controls—since there’s nothing that needs to be configured to protect young users from the dark corners of the Internet and social media.
The Gabb Z2, made by ZTE, has a 5.45-inch touchscreen, 5MP front and 8MP rear cameras, an FM radio, a headphone jack and support for Bluetooth wireless devices.
A fingerprint reader makes it easy for young users to unlock their phones without passwords and an upcoming free update will add GPS location support, thus making it possible to track down lost phones.
Monthly service plans are $20 (unlimited talk and text) or $25 (adds group and image texting) and don’t require contracts.
Watch Something
The people at Axios know a thing or two about email as a platform for journalism. If you’re interested in how Axios does what they do, and how email remains such a powerful delivery platform for digital journalism, watch Muck Rack CEO Greg Galant discuss “The Rise of Journalist Newsletters” with Sara Fischer, media reporter and author of the Axios Media Trends newsletter. Also, very proud of my Digimentors team for producing this with Muck Rack!
Listen to Something
Chances are that you’re already listening to “Pivot” at least semi-regularly. But the latest episode is very smart from top-to-bottom. Particularly interesting is the discussion about sharing companies like AirBnB potentially giving some sort of stock award to hosts. It’s wrapped in a wider discussion about capital, labor, and the broader economy that is worth your time. Listen here or on all major podcast platforms.
Odds & Ends
🗞 The Sunday #NYTReadalong is five years old! This week, we interviewed Amy Padnani, an editor on the obituaries desk for The New York Times - she created the amazing Overlooked series for the obits desk.
The Readalong is followed Sundays 11 am-noon ET by a new medical show I’m co-executive producing with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, M.D. (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, M.D. (@MarinaKurian), called She’s On Call (watch live or later).
The Sunday #NYTReadalong is sponsored by Muck Rack and Strategy Focused Group. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
🎧 Every Saturday, I host a call-in show on WBAI 99.5FM (@wbai) - "Coping with Covid19" - focused on being helpful, hopeful, and focusing on the pandemic's effects on society’s most vulnerable. Listen live Saturdays from 12-2pm EST, or later. And, of course, call in or tweet questions for us using the #wbaisree hashtag! Listen to a recent episode here!
📺 A reminder to watch my Daily Global Show. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn something every time. We’ve had 230+ shows and 420 guests - and 1m+ viewers. Check out the archive and please subscribe to my YouTube channel. And/or sign up for my WhatsApp alerts list (it’s not your typical WhatsApp group, just a text when I’m live!). We are in partnership with Scroll.in, one of India’s best news and culture websites.
Recent highlights:
Sapphire, whose novel became Oscar-winning “Precious” (she’s newly on Twitter!)
Dr. Keiji Fukuda of HKU, former pandemics expert at WHO & CDC
👀 Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let us know! Let’s collaborate!
Terrific, as always. Thank you.