Midrange Weekly April 5
Your Weekly Round Up On What’s Got The Midrange Staff’s Attention
Midrange Staff @midrangeyvr
Welcome back to Midrange Weekly and oh wow has this been a hell of a week for those of us in Vancouver. Restaurants and bars are shut down. Many hospitality workers are once again out of work and the disorienting deja vu recalling the early days of the pandemic is pretty overwhelming right now. It seems like in the waning days of the month, March 2020 has gotten its revenge; many of us will never trust this time of year again. Momentum behind the proposal to get rid of March all together and replace it with an all new month- let’s say Smarch- has to be picking up by now. On a more shamelessly opportunistic note, we have a donate page now, and we know that between the shut downs and post CERB tax season upon us everyone must be feeling flush with cash right now. Anyways, let’s see what else happened this week.
Matt Gaetz Is The Definition Of How Not To Handle Anything
Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz began his insertion into this week’s new cycle with rumours that he may be considering a pre-emptive retirement from Congress for the (apparently) greener pastures of a position at far right wing bastion Newsmaxx. Politicians making the eventual migration from government to government punditry is not that out of the ordinary, although it was somewhat odd considering how early into his congressional career Gaetz is, and considering his obnoxious zealotry and allegiance to all things Trump, that career by all metrics appeared to be ascendant. The second news story that involved Gaetz this week, and came fresh on the heels of the Newsmaxx rumour may have something to do with why he is all the sudden looking to get the fuck out of dodge. The New York Times dropped a bombshell story that Gaetz is under investigation by the Department of Justice for child sex trafficking. Big yikes.
To those of us not familiar with Matt Gaetz, that must be nice. Allow me to disabuse you from the blissful ignorance of one of America’s most loathsome idiots. While only a congressperson for a few years now, Gaetz quickly gained a reputation for being one of the most Trumpian blowhards in the GOP. He is perhaps the most enthusiastic Trump defender and ass kisser out there. Before he was eagerly spreading Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen, he was spreading lies in bizarrely dramatic ways about the Coronavirus being overhyped. Before that even, he was oafishly barging into a sealed congressional chamber during Trump’s first impeachment, under ridiculous pretences. That’s super illegal! Gaetz of course didn’t suffer any repercussions, which makes sense as one look at him and you’ll see the text book definition of a smug white boy grin belonging to a person ensconced in privilege and has never faced any real consequences in his life. In other words, he’s a bit of a shit head.
Gaetz is no stranger to, let’s say unorthodox relationships with people younger than him. Last year, when faced with scrutiny for his persistently racist demagogy he revealed that he in fact had an adopted adult male son from Cuba, and therefore could not possibly be labelled as racist. Putting aside the weirdly exploitive ‘gotcha’ style theatricality of this reveal, there were a lot of other unanswered questions. Where did this kid come from? Gaetz never mentioned him as his son before. Photos of the person in question mentioning him merely as a congressional intern were floating around previously- was he already Gaetz’ adopted son then? If so, was that part not worth a mention? Gaetz said he has ‘long considered him my son’, but no formal adoption seems to have taken place. What, if any relationship does the boy have with his paternal family back in Cuba? This is all very weird, but certainly not illegal.
The same absolutely cannot be said for the current allegations surrounding Gaetz. That he had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl, and that he paid for her flights to visit him, which violate a number of federal child trafficking laws and carry serious prison time under conviction. It’s important to note that these are allegations only at this point, and he is only under investigation- so far not facing indictment. Gaetz is well within his right to defend himself from such serious accusations as he sees fit and as best he can. Unfortunately for him, being the aforementioned shit head he is, he’s done an astoundingly bad job of that.
There’s a lot to break down in the short time since this story dropped and the myriad ways Gaetz has mishandled it. Shortly after the NYT story was published, Gaetz went on a twitter tirade alleging this is all a vast conspiracy committed by the DOJ on multiple levels to smear and discredit him. Let’s unpack that a little. Firstly, former AG Bill Barr opened this investigation; the guy who Trump loyalists were positive for months and months was getting ready to drop the hammer on his liberal opponents. Barr’s clear obsequiousness to Trump doesn’t play well into Gaetz’ narrative of the DOJ being out to get him. Gaetz further- and here’s where it gets weird- went on to attest that that a former DOJ employee was attempting to extort him for 25 million to make the investigation and ensuing coverage go away- all part of a bizarre plan to rescue an American hostage from Iran. In fact, Gaetz and his father, he claims, had been working with the FBI to thwart this person, with his father even wearing a wire in conversations with the individual. Gaetz’ father has actually said that part is true- wild! This in itself opens up several cans of worms for Gaetz. If there is in fact an ongoing FBI investigation, for Gaetz to publically reveal that will almost certain put him in further legal jeopardy. Also if a person is wearing a wire in a still yet to be concluded investigation, don’t say that part out loud dummy! Most importantly, the fact that a person may be extorting Gaetz over the investigation of child trafficking does not in anyway absolve him from or delegitimize the DOJ investigation of such felonious conduct. Both things can be true at once so how is this in anyway a proper defence?
Things got even weirder when Gaetz had an on air meltdown on perpetually confused person, Tucker Carlson’s show- although if there was ever a situation to warrant Carlson’s grimace of befuddled consternation, it was this interview. Firstly, Gaetz of course denied any interactions he had with a minor. But then he went on to confirm all of the conduct he is alleged to have done- pay for flights, hotel rooms, stuff he innocuously describes as being generous. If he admits to all of that and the only question that remains is the age of the person subject to the investigation, and that person does end up being confirmed to have been a minor at the time, Gaetz has royally screwed himself on public record. He also fiercely denied any allegations that there were pictures of himself with child prostitutes. That’s certainly the kind of thing you would want to deny, except that information had not been made public in the NYT story. He just willingly volunteered more potentially discrediting information about himself. Gaetz mentioned again the alleged FBI sting operation that went into motion in the last couple of weeks to entrap his would be extorters, but the DOJ investigation into his conduct has been going on for months, dating back to 2020; so that once again neutralizes any value in his extortion defence. After trying to equivocate his conduct with other prominent conservatives, such as Carlson himself by bizarrely sharing an anecdote in which he claims they dined with Carlson’s wife and a vaguely described companion of Gaetz, even Carlson and his soft ball questions couldn’t help. Carlson straight up threw Gaetz under the bus by saying he had no memory of such a dinner, or any idea what he was talking about in general. Carlson described the exchange as one of his weirdest interviews ever that cleared nothing up. For once I agree with Carlson.
Gaetz again bizarrely implicates Tucker Carlson in his own personal peccadillo, then says, "providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime" pic.twitter.com/wD0hUmwGGN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
The external optics in which this investigation is occurring also looks precipitously bad for Gaetz. An associate of Gaetz, Joel Greenberg is the subject of multiple weird as hell indictments, not the least of which also just happens to be child sex trafficking. That the two have been photographed together recently is sufficed to say, a very bad look for Gaetz right now. Furthermore this has brought about renewed scrutiny onto Gaetz for being the sole person in congress among either party to vote NO on new legislation that would reinforce existing- you guessed it- child trafficking laws. When asked why he was the only person to vote no, his response was a rote, clichéd tantrum about federal bureaucracy and states rights. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy was recently asked to weigh in on the NO vote from Gaetz and he showed no interest in defending him. Not a good sign.
If you told me 2 days ago that Matt Gaetz would be retiring early because he has sex with minors and trafficks them across state lines, I would believe you right away.
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) March 30, 2021
One could point to once again how conservative puritanical values are nothing more than a performative veil to hide their own unethical and illegal conduct, but that’s been done to death. What’s interesting here is that finally, finally, we have a modern scandal involving a politician that relates tangentially to things like sex trafficking and pedophilia- just like the Qanon prognosticators swore was rampant in the upper echelons of government! They finally got someone! This is the kind of horrific conduct that they swore Trump and, yes that’s right Bill Barr, were going to root out and excise from American governance. The only problem is Qanon were positive it was the democrats doing this. Now that there is apparently credible evidence of this kind of crime being committed not just by a republican, but one of the most Trumpian republicans out there, they are oddly quiet. It’s almost as if Qanon was never really a coherent gestalt of ideological and world views, but delusional fan fiction in which they sought to enact their grievance based, faux evangelical, white supremacy on anyone bored or dumb enough to listen to them. Maybe! Anyways, Matt Gaetz is having a bad week and I assure you that’s hilarious. -Tristan
To conservatives trying to "gotcha" me for saying I'm not being a "tolerant liberal" when it comes to M*tt G*etz, just know that I've never been tolerant. I'm a petty bitch who absolutely DANCES at the thought of my enemies suffering and I wish nothing but ill upon him.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) March 31, 2021
Ben Shapiro Is Back On His Usual Bullshit
Just a quick little hit here, as my last rant on Matt Gaetz goes on and on a bit. Professional annoyed person Ben Shapiro weighed in this week on the recently passed draconian election laws in Georgia. Shapiro, being less of a republican true believer and more intrinsically hostile to anything liberal for, some reason, mocked and parodied criticism of the bill with his typical vehemence. Part of Shapiro’s rhetorical shtick is to speak in a breathless and agitated sputter, as if to signal his unmitigated indignation and contempt, or just to prevent any hypothetical debater from getting a word in edge wise. In realty, no one wants to debate or even be in the same room as Shapiro. Of course he has made a career- a cottage industry even- around imagining hypotheticals that aren’t actually happening and then getting really, really upset by them, so maybe he’s just practicing.
Shapiro postured himself as he always does as a perturbed but no less rational voice of reason and intellect, and thusly attempted to dismantle the arguments against voter suppression laws. When he glanced over the various dictates of the law that would reduce access to voting in some neighbourhoods, thusly expanding the lines to what voting centers are available to prohibitively expansive extents, Shapiro scoffed dismissively at the notion. He even had a snappy analogy to articulate his condescending analysis- that long voter lines isn’t voter suppression any more than a long line at for a ride at Disney Land is ride suppression. You can watch the clip here (good luck).
Ben Shapiro: "Voter suppression doesn't involve long lines, any more than long lines at Disneyland are ride suppression" pic.twitter.com/c1ewUqenre
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 31, 2021
He sure seems confident in his appraisal! Shapiro’s argument doesn’t last very long once you subject it to even the slightest scrutiny however. A common rhetorical trick among the disingenuous and litigious types is to create false equivalencies, and oh wow is this ever. Shapiro suggests that waiting in line to vote and waiting in line to go on a ride are similar and thus comparable. Let’s think about that a little. Have you ever been to an amusement park and looked at the line for a ride and said it was too long and fuck it? Maybe you just didn’t have enough time at the amusement park and you wanted to spend your time seeing other attractions and going on other rides. You might have to just skip that one. Now imagine it’s a long line up to vote, and instead of a day at Disney Land it’s a life you have to live. Kids to pick up or drop off, errands that need to be run, groceries that need to be bought today because you work every other day. You just don’t know how you can fit waiting in a line that long line with the rest of your day. But instead of not going on a ride, you don’t vote.
Let’s add some granularity to this hypothetical. Imagine that in some counties or towns, there is only one amusement park with the one ride. Everyone in that county has to get in the same line to go on it. Now imagine that in another county- one that is more affluent and white- there are multiple amusement parks all with the same ride. Despite the two counties having similar populations, the latter has access to multiple variants of the same ride, thus no one iteration is likely to have as long a line. Imagine how much more quickly you could get though that line. Now recall that places like Disney Land and its facsimiles offer passes that you pay for that let you skip the line. An increased access to wealth and resources makes it easier to access a ride quickly. Now imagine again that it’s voting we are talking about.
Finally whatever access you can or can’t get to going on a ride, it’s a ride. No country, certainly not America, owes anyone a roller coaster (although they are nice!). Voting is a constitutional right. America owes its citizens reasonable access to vote. It owes them an adequately developed infrastructure to ensure access to voting is sufficient. If Disney Land changes its polices to actively make it harder to go on rides, than that would be a dick move but nothing more. If laws are changed that create similar deterrents to voting, we are bordering on constitutional violations. By casually comparing the two ideas, Shapiro is tacitly dismissing the vital and fundamental importance of the right to vote. That sounds about right coming from him. -Tristan
The Corduroy Restaurant Saga Isn’t Shocking
This past Friday and Saturday the owner of Corduroy restaurant in Kitsilano defied BC public health orders and opened for indoor dining. The response, unsurprisingly, was an eventual full closure mandate by the police and PHO.
From CTVNewsVancouver:
Corduroy restaurant has been ordered to shut down, say police.
The restaurant served customers indoors, on both Friday and Saturday, in contravention of the province’s COVID-19 restriction banning indoor dining.
Vancouver police say they visited Corduroy restaurant on Saturday evening, along with provincial health officers.
In a video posted to social media, the restaurant could be seen serving customers indoors on Friday evening. The owner appears in the video, talking with customers and breaking social distancing while not wearing a mask.
Let’s just say I’m not shocked by this. It was bound to happen that a restaurant or several (Gusto in Olympic Village opened for indoor dining on Friday) would disobey the PHO. In such a fashion? Probably not. But it happened and the owner of Corduroy ought to have known the repercussions of her decision, even if she felt desperate or justified to have done what she did.
Corduroy has been around for a long time. It has a known following. They should rebound from this. If she’d been smart about her protest to open, she’d have kept things quiet. No selfies or videos allowed. It’s as if she wanted the attention or didn’t care what type of reaction she’d elicit. It really doesn’t matter now.
But this incident does highlight a glaring issue we have in our society over how this pandemic has been handled. Some agree with health officials, while others are skeptics or just plain don’t believe. How we treat those who don’t “fall in line” so to speak says a lot about why there’s been so much polarization in our society this past decade. By making them feel ashamed, stupid or ignorant only inflames their will to push on. Listening to them, letting them feel heard, even if we believe what they are saying is wrong or confused, shows that their opinions matter. In doing so, real communication can be had. Possibly even some solutions.
“Unfortunately, the term “identity politics” has been weaponized. It is most often used by speakers to describe politics as practiced by members of historically marginalized groups. If you’re black and you’re worried about police brutality, that’s identity politics. If you’re a woman and you’re worried about the male-female pay gap, that’s identity politics. But if you’re a rural gun owner decrying universal background checks as tyranny, or a billionaire CEO complaining that high tax rates demonize success, or a Christian insisting on Nativity scenes in public squares — well, that just good, old fashioned politics. With a quick sleight of hand, identity becomes something that only marginalized groups have.
The term “identity politics,” in this usage, obscures rather than illuminates; it’s used to diminish and discredit the concerns of the weaker groups by making them look self-interested, special pleading in order to clear the agenda for the concerns of stronger groups, which are framed as more rational, proper topics for political debate. But in wielding identity as a blade, we have lost it as a lens, blinding ourselves in a bid for political advantage. WE are left searching in vaid for what we refuse to allow ourselves to see.”
— Ezra Klein, Why We’re Polarized
I’m partially in favour of harsh penalties, as my editor from Scout has vehemently called for. I say partially because I’m not sure a penalty is the correct thing to do. It will be a painful lesson if they lose their business licenses for sure. But will this punishment cause them to change how they feel? No, I don’t believe it will. Sadly, it will probably do the opposite of what we hope it will do and just polarize them even more than they are now. At that point, how we fix things is something I’m not sure we can do.
- Jamie
FLUX FIVE
This Week:
The Radio Department “Pet Grief” 2006 Pet Grief
Funkadelic ”Can You Get To That” 1971 Maggot Brain
Digable Planets “Black Ego” 1994 Blowout Comb
Summer Camp “Better Off Without You” 2011 Welcome To Condale
Sugar Candy Mountain “Windows” 2016 666
Enjoy! - Mick
Things From The Internet We Liked
The True Story Of The Titanic
Forget the Justice League Snyder Cut, this is the revamped version of a film we want to see!
Passenger on the Titanic: pic.twitter.com/WFkr9a6G57
— Colin Rourke (@ballin_rourke) March 26, 2021
This has to be the coolest photo you’ll see all week
What first seems like some wild colour correction is actually a composite patchwork of a day long time lapse of a single spot in the sky, very cleverly partitioned along the telephone pole wires. Heckin cool.
"different times in the same place"
— Truleono (@Chewnano) March 29, 2021
taken by Alex Hyner 📸 pic.twitter.com/MbMVp6AE4f
We Fear Sex Times At Spring Break High May Be A Real Film
Twitter comedian Chris Thorburn documents the exquisite minefield of awkwardness that comes from revisiting whatever kind of humour was ascendant in our teenage years. It does not go well.
watching a film from 2004 pic.twitter.com/DV1NkkbCpK
— Chris Thorburn (@CBThorburn) April 1, 2021