(Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
It’s a good day to be a generalist as the UN is holding its annual assembly of general matters. Generally, it very much so matters that this meeting is held, however, last year it was postponed due to the global pandemic. Some attendees such as Brazilian health minister Marcelo Queiroga might argue that it should have been postponed this year as well. Others might have wanted to avoid the event because it was just a plain ol’ bummer of a time. Sure, the complimentary champagne as guests entered was nice, but the subject matter was like, whoa, pretty harsh, man.
(Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made very clear the severity of the problems that we, as a world, face. In a quote that is not insignificantly jarring, he said, “We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.” As an editorial note; I’m typically a one-crises-at-a-time type guy, but hey, I guess what you get is what you get.
As if that wasn’t enough, the UN will have to face all of these crises with a reduced budget. *sigh* If only there was enough money and gumption in the world to solve these problems.
OTHER NEWS AND NOTES
In an interview on PBS NewsHour, Bill Gates said that he used to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein because he had access to donors that Gates did not. They say that money can’t buy happiness. It apparently also can’t buy not hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, a 3,500-year-old artifact, is headed back to Iraq after being acquired by the far-right knitting shop Hobby Lobby in 2014. On the return of the artifact, one Hobby Lobby executive said, “we used to view the stealing of culture and history of other civilizations as a hobby, but more and more recently, it just feels like a job.”
Hobby Lobby, a safe haven for yarn and apocalyptic christianity alike, is no stranger to controversy.
Lexie Alford, at the age of 21, became the youngest person ever to set foot in every country in the world. In related news, get a load of this try-hard.
The fourth season of Dear White People is shaking things up this year by having musical episodes. We had a desperately-trying-to-be-cool-and-hanging-on-to-his-already-vanished-youth white guy review one of the musical episodes, and here’s what he had to say about it. He said, “this episode slaps.”
Bipartisan talks of police reform have stopped as Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC) along with Representative Karen Bass (D-Calif.) could not come to an agreement on anything whatsoever. According to inside sources, Booker and Bass were of the opinion that police should not be allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with no fear of consequence. Tim Scott, however, pushed back with the argument that instead of adding accountability to policing, we shouldn’t do anything at all. Further talks stalled when Scott offered the compromise of how about we do the thing I want to do and call it a compromise.
California is running out of water. When asked about the situation and the challenges ahead for Californians, director of the state Department of Water Resources Karla Nemeth said, “the challenge is there is no water.” I know what you’re thinking; wow, this lady sure is a catastrophist when she’s thirsty.
It’s officially fall, which means that millions of people are going to silently judge millions of other people, just this time it’ll be about pumpkins.