OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and want you to be happy.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Holds Emergency Press Conference To Announce He Is Taking 3 More Months Maternity Leave.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the morning after a tragic cargo ship accident and bridge collapse in Baltimore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called an emergency press conference to announce he is taking three more months of maternity leave.

“It has come to my attention that the twin babies I purchased at the baby store require more undivided attention,” said Buttigieg. “I will be taking some much-needed time off to care for my children, and that is in no way related to the tragic bridge collapse that apparently happened somewhere. Right now, I need to be a mother to my children. Please respect my family’s privacy during this time.”

It’s satire (for now), but back in what passes for reality in 2024, after the bridge collapse, AP is taking up one of Buttigieg’s pet causes — all those pesky racist roads: AP Gives Us a Biography of ‘Controversial Figure’ Francis Scott Key.

 

YOU WILL NEVER FIND A MORE WRETCHED HIVE OF SCUM AND VILLAINY: There are no good guys at NBC.

[Ronna] McDaniel’s hiring simply could not stand with the elite of MSNBC like Chuck Todd, Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace (all former political operatives) as they issued on-air apologies over NBC management to hire someone so closely attuned to a political party they don’t belong to.

Jen Psaki would like a word. While she was sitting White House press secretary, she signed a lucrative on-air contributor deal with MSNBC, NBC News and NBC’s Peacock streaming service. It was unprecedented — a sitting White House press secretary taking questions from her contractual colleagues was a clear violation of ethical conduct between a supposedly independent press and the White House they are meant to be covering.

There was no hand-wringing. There was no public uproar. There were no on-air apologies or brow beatings. Jen Psaki was welcomed at NBC with open arms — and zero hint of hypocrisy.

Likewise, MSNBC played a major part in rehabbing the reputation of controversial race-baiter Al Sharpton, even rewarding him with own show to host. Once again, not a peep.

By Monday, the zone had been flooded with commentary from others at the cool kids’ media table. Self-appointed media finger-wagger Margaret Sullivan caterwauled over at the Guardian, writing, “Can NBC News recover from its damaging decision to hire Ronna McDaniel?” She went on to say that. “Hiring McDaniel — a powerful election denialist who joined then president Donald Trump in pressuring voting officials not to certify the 2020 election — was like putting a standing chyron on the NBC Nightly News: ‘Lying is rewarded here.’”

If election denial is the new on-air standard at NBC, then a lot of people should be fearing for their jobs, including Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid and others.

Indeed:

Both sides’ lawyers stand to make a killing, however: “McDaniel is seeking legal representation as her termination is imminent, adds the report.”

UPDATE: Great moments in gaslighting:

Because if there’s one thing that NBC News has long been known for, it’s their “deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints.” But then, to paraphrase President Reagan, sometimes the left hand doesn’t always know what the far left hand is up to.

AND NOW FOR SOME GOOD EDUCATION NEWS: Classical ed — seen as ‘a white child’s education’ — is thriving in the Bronx.

Are the liberal arts conservative?, asks Emma Green in a New Yorker story about the revival of “classical education.” A growing number of classical-ed charter and private schools are offering “a traditional liberal-arts education, often focusing on the Western canon and the study of citizenship.”

Unlike many traditional public schools, “classical schools prize memory work, asking students to internalize math formulas and recite poems,” she writes.

Reading lists aren’t trendy. “One New York City public-high-school reading list includes graphic novels, Michelle Obama’s memoir, and a coming-of-age book about identity featuring characters named Aristotle and Dante,” writes Green. “In classical schools, high-school students read Aristotle and Dante.”

At Brilla, a charter-school network in the South Bronx, the middle school is calm and phone free, she writes.

“Classical education is often seen as a white child’s education,” says Stephanie Saroki de Garcia, who co-founded Brilla using the slogan: “This is what the elite get.”

Yet Brilla, located in the poorest neighborhood of the Bronx, is filled with English Learners from Central America and West Africa, writes Green. Nearly 90 percent of students come from lower-income black and Hispanic families.

Brilla students attend a daily character class, “where they talk about how to live out the different virtues reflected in the texts they read,” she writes. Most classical schools emphasize ethics, not just academics.

More like this, please:

AND THE PRESTIGIOUS ASHURBANIPAL AWARD GOES TO… Abigail Shrier’s “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.” Check out my latest ERI post to see why Shrier’s follow-up to Irreversible Damage is the most important book of the year.

I ALMOST NEVER EAT AT MICKEY D’S, BUT THIS MAKES ME HAPPY. WHY? Perhaps I just enjoy a poke in the eye of the nanny state. But JustTheNews is reporting that:

“Popular fast-food chain McDonald’s is going to start selling Krispy Kreme donuts as part of a new partnership. Both companies told CNN earlier this week that three different types of donuts will start being sold at McDonald’s starting later this year.”

Fat and sugar. Is there anything it can’t do?

BOOKMARK THIS FOR LATER. IT MIGHT PROVE RELEVANT AS THE FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BRIDGE INVESTIGATION GETS GOING:

HMM: Baltimore Port: What impact will bridge collapse have on shipping? “It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert Lars Jensen. The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2 million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.”

Plus, here’s a thread on the impact: