The Memphis Flyer podcast is back after a little New Year’s hiatus. In this episode, Chris McCoy and Alex Greene talk about the legacy of Sam Moore, and the season 2 premiere of Severance.
The items proposed for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s special session, scheduled to start next week, carry a price tag of nearly $917 million, with his school voucher plan alone costing $424 million in its first year.
The session is set to only cover three major issues: Lee’s school vouchers, relief for Hurricane Helene victims in East Tennessee, and readying the state to conform to President Donald Trump’s immigration plan, which could include mass deportations.
A proposed law to pay for all of it (called an appropriations bill) has been filed in the Tennessee General Assembly ahead of the session to start Monday. Check it out here:
Here’s a basic breakdown of the costs from the bill:
Education Freedom Scholarships (aka the school voucher plan)
• $225.8 million every year
• $198.4 million just this year
• Total: $424.2 million
Hurricane Helene response:
• $210 million for the Hurricane Helene fund and the Governor’s Response and Recovery Fund
• $240 million for TEMA disaster relief grants
• $20 million to rebuild Hampton High School in Carter County
• $6.2 million for affected schools in Tourism Development Zones
• $17 million for incentives for school systems to get more than half of their schools to get an “A” letter grade
The spending bill does not propose spending any money (yet) on Trump’s immigration enforcement plan.
Also interesting is that the bill pays for the special session itself. But no price tag was flashed on that one. Instead, it vaguely covers the whole thing.
“In addition to any other funds appropriated by the provisions of this act, there is appropriated a sum sufficient to the General Assembly for the sole purpose of payment of any lawful expenses, including, but not limited to, staffing, per diem, travel, and other expenses, of the First Extraordinary Session of the One Hundred Fourteenth General Assembly,” reads the bill.
So, Tennesseans are footing the bill for legislators to return to Nashville (travel), eat and drink while they are there (per diem), pay their staff members to help them, and pay for any other “lawful” expense lawmakers may have while conducting Lee’s business.
The Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (MIM) is adding steak to its competition list with a top prize of $3,000.
MIM announced the addition of the Steak Cookout Competition Thursday morning. It’s a partnership with the Steak Cookout Association and a first for MIM.
“For 47 years now, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest teams have continued to bring excitement and immense competition during the Memphis in May International Festival celebration,” said Mack Weaver, MIM president and CEO. “We are thrilled to partner with the Steak Cookoff Association (SCA) to expand opportunities for our teams to earn more cash and notoriety.”
The total purse for the steak contest is $6,000. The prize money is broken down like this:
• 1st place – $3,000
• 2nd place – $1,500
• 3rd place – $1,000
• 4th place – $500
Winners also earn an automatic entry into the Steak Cookoff Association World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas.
“It’s long been a goal of ours to have an SCA Cookoff at Memphis in May,” said SCA founder Ken Phillips. “The cooks and judges are very excited about the opportunity. I look forward to a long and successful collaboration.”
The Steak Cookoff Competition will take place during the Memphis in May International Festival on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at Liberty Park. Cost for teams to compete is $150.
The slew of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in office has prompted organizations like OUTMemphis to be proactive, and to prepare their communities for the challenges ahead.
Today, OUTMemphis Executive Director Molly Quinn, held a virtual press conference to give “quick information” about the services the organization is offering for extra support to those affected by the orders.
“The new presidential administration has issued several executive orders upon inauguration, including new discriminatory and ill-planned guidance around sex and gender identity,” Quinn said. “We anticipated this as a national LGBTQ+ movement. We’re working very closely with our national and local partners to understand the exact impact — and in what way, and what order — on transgender and nonbinary people in the Mid-South.”
On January 20th, Trump signed a number of orders that tackle topics such as immigration, American citizenship, and more. These orders will adversely affect members of minority populations, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Among these orders is one that states “sex” refers to an “immutable biological classification as either male or female.”
“‘Sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity,’” the order said. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality, and the following definitions shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy.”
Tennessee already has regulations and restrictions on the state level that are similar to the ones Trump has imposed federally. Last summer, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that residents in Tennessee would not be allowed to change the gender on their birth certificate.
Court documents said “there is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex.” OUTMemphis officials said they are already offering services to help individuals navigate this, as it can be a barrier to accessing social services.
Quinn also said this executive order could immediately impact federal sex-segregated spaces, such as prisons. This would cause transgender women to be transferred to a men’s prison, and transgender men to be transferred to a women’s prison.
The executive order also prohibits federal funds from being used to promote “gender ideology.” This is one of the things Quinn said her and her team are monitoring closely.
“OUTMemphis as an organization benefits from federal programs,” Quinn explained. “We deliver federal dollars for HIV prevention and care, mental health, and housing for youth and adults in the community. All of those programs are based on the idea that LGBTQ people are a protected class with regards to social services.”
OUTMemphis said their immediate focus is their legal clinics and financial resources regarding identification and family rights. They are also looking to expand support systems for minors and teens.
“I think we all know and we all understand the broad spectrum of poor climate for the welfare of young people in our state,” Quinn said. “We have bathroom bans, bad school policy, bad foster policies. We have harmful healthcare policies, and the new federal attacks and stigmatization of transgender people will be particularly harmful to minors and adolescence who are coping with so much.”
Quinn also mentioned that new DEI regulations may also significantly impact organizations like OUTMemphis, as they have benefited from several policy initiatives.
While these orders may be the signal of what’s to come, OUTMemphis said they’re prepared to help individuals access social programs and resources.
“The fight that we have in front of us feels very new, but it truly isn’t,” Quinn said. “We already know how to prepare for Trump. We already know how to prepare for a more hateful state legislature, another wave of corporate bullies, of removing DEI culture within our capitalist systems. This is part of what we’ve done for a very long time.”
Buoyed by President Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, Tennessee’s governor is proposing to fund an immigration enforcement bureau that could take on deportation authority to remove people from the country.
In a proclamation calling a special session to start January 27, Governor Bill Lee detailed creation of a central immigration agency with enforcement powers and a closer relationship with U.S. courts, and possible use of state courts, to remove undocumented people. Lee’s plan establishes a fund to pay for the agency, but he has not given a cost estimate.
Under current law, federal authorities handle immigration law, in some instances working with local law enforcement. But this move would give the state wider latitude to enforce those laws, especially in conjunction with a federal court dealing with immigrants accused of “terrorism.”
The state’s attempt to do the federal government’s bidding sets a dangerous precedent for all of us and our constitutional rights.
– Lisa Sherman Luna, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Tuesday state and local processes are handled separately from federal immigration matters.
“The state’s attempt to do the federal government’s bidding sets a dangerous precedent for all of us and our constitutional rights,” Sherman Luna said.
Lt. Governor Randy McNally said Tuesday even though no bill has been filed, he supports including immigration in the governor’s call for a special session.
“President Trump has made clear he intends to reverse the Biden illegal immigration invasion immediately,” McNally said. He added that undocumented immigrants with felonies and criminal records need to be removed quickly.
Lee has confirmed he would activate the National Guard to take on Trump’s plan to deport “criminals” without citizenship status. Trump, though, has mentioned removing up to 18 million people without documentation and revoking birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to people born in the country regardless of their parents’ immigration status, as well as children born abroad to U.S. citizens. Twenty-two states filed suit Monday to stop his effort to end birthright citizenship.
Trump declared a national emergency for the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, the day of his inauguration, enabling him to deploy armed forces such as National Guard troops, set up more barriers, complete a wall, and allow for unmanned air surveillance. Tennessee has sent its troops to the border multiple times already.
The order also allows the Insurrection Act of 1807 to be invoked, granting the president authority to use troops against Americans involved in civil disorder or rebellion.
A separate executive order he signed Monday stopped some legal forms of immigration, including humanitarian parole for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and ended the use of an app for migrants to make appointments with asylum officers.
Under Lee’s plan, in addition to establishing an immigration agency, the state would have the ability to penalize local government officials that adopt sanctuary city policies. Sanctuary city policies, which limit the sharing of information with federal authorities, are illegal in Tennessee.
The proclamation also calls for revising state-issued IDs to determine a person’s immigration status for voting rights and government services. Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) is sponsoring a measure requiring financial institutions to check the immigration status of anyone attempting to send money out of the country.
The immigration enforcement plan will be considered during the special session at the same time lawmakers take up the governor’s private-school voucher plan, Hurricane Helene relief for eight East Tennessee counties and establishment of the Tennessee Transportation Financing Authority to help deliver public-private road construction projects. The state is working on a toll lane along I-24 from Nashville to Murfreesboro as part of an act the legislature approved in 2023.
Several immigration-related bills are sponsored, including one by Senator Shane Reeves (R-Murfreesboro) that requires the Department of Safety and Homeland Security to study the enforcement of federal immigration laws, detentions and removals, as well as state investigations and immigrant-related challenges and progress.
Another measure by Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) requires law enforcement agencies to communicate with federal officials about the immigration status for people arrested for a criminal offense.
A bill by state Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) requires financial institutions to verify the immigration status of a person sending funds outside the United States.
State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) is sponsoring a bill that would exempt undocumented immigrant students who otherwise would be reported by local authorities to federal immigration officials for deportation. A law passed in 2024 requires local law enforcement to tell federal immigration agents the immigration status for anyone arrested for a criminal offense.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
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Marie Feagins was fired Tuesday as superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, setting the district back to where it has been repeatedly in recent years: searching for leadership.
A bitterly divided school board voted 6-3 to oust Feagins less than 10 months into her tenure, approving a resolution that cited allegations of professional misconduct and poor leadership.
Feagins, a former Detroit school administrator hired by a previous board to lead Tennessee’s largest school district after a prolonged and problem-plagued search, vehemently denied any wrongdoing. She described herself as a target of “false accusations and political maneuvering.”
Board chair Joyce Dorse Coleman introduced the resolution to fire Feagins and was joined in voting “yes” by members Stephanie Love, Natalie McKinney, Sable Otey, Towanna Murphy, and Keith Williams. Michelle McKissack, Tamarques Porter, and Amber Huett-Garcia voted no.
The board voted to name Roderick Richmond, a longtime district administrator now serving as the district’s transformation officer, as interim superintendent.
Feagins declined to answer questions from Chalkbeat as she departed the meeting, instead offering her congratulations to Richmond.
In a statement issued later Tuesday night through a public relations firm, Dorse Coleman said Feagins “has not demonstrated the transformational leadership that is critical to the success” of the Memphis district.
“At this pivotal moment, we need a transformational leader who will collaborate effectively with the Board and respect governance protocols, keeping students at the center of every decision,” she said.
The board will hold a news conference at noon Thursday at the district’s central office, the statement said.
After a tense and at times chaotic special meeting Tuesday night, the board approved a resolution Dorse Coleman first introduced Dec. 17 to fire Feagins. The resolution claims that Feagins:
Feagins’ hiring was supposed to bring stability and rebuild trust after a turbulent 18-month superintendent search, and as the district navigated serious academic and financial challenges, including possible school closures. Instead, months of simmering tension between Feagins and the majority of board members led to a hasty divorce with potentially significant ramifications.
If the decision amounts to a firing for cause the board would avoid paying Feagins in severance — it was estimated at $487,500 as of last month — but potentially open itself up to other costs if Feagins pursues legal action. Feagins began work last April on a four-year contract that was to pay her $325,000 annually.
Lawmakers concerned about the prospect of Feagins being fired also were poised to take action.
State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), chairman of a House education committee, has floated reintroducing legislation he drafted last year that would give the state the power to appoint up to six new members to the nine-member Memphis board. White on Tuesday wrote a letter to the school board urging members to retain Feagins. Another lawmaker, state Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), has already filed a bill that would create a process for recalling school board members.
Huett-Garcia and community members who spoke during Tuesday’s public comment period raised the specter of greater state intervention to warn board members against voting to fire Feagins.
More than two-dozen speakers — including teachers, alumni, and community organizers — lined up during public comment to support Feagins and criticize the attempt to oust her.
Among them was state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), who drew national attention in 2023 after Republicans expelled him from office over his participation in a disruption at the state capitol. Pearson, who was quickly reappointed and then reelected to office, called the process targeting Feagins unfair and urged the board to “slow down.”
Pearson used sharper language in an interview with Chalkbeat, calling the process “horrendous.”
“I got expelled in an unjust and unfair way,” he said. “I know what it looks like and that’s what’s happening now.”
The meeting grew heated when the board’s outside counsel, Robert Spence, said his review found the allegations against Feagins were true. McKissack interjected, accusing Spence of acting like he was in a courtroom giving “Perry Mason editorializing.” Dorse Coleman threatened to “clear the room” repeatedly as audience members booed and heckled.
When the room quieted, Spence said Feagins violated her contract and deviated from board policy, and that she exhibited a pattern of untruthful statements. The board then voted to release Spence’s lengthy report to the public, although it was not released immediately.
Before voting to terminate Feagins’ contract, the board rejected a counterproposal from board member Huett-Garcia to keep Feagins and attempt to repair her relationship with the board. Under that resolution, Feagins would have had to provide monthly updates to the board, and board members would have been required to complete board governance training.
Even the superintendent’s most vocal board supporters said Feagins bore some responsibility for the deterioration of her relationship with the board since she started.
Still, McKissack pleaded with her colleagues to listen to community members and adopt the counterproposal to retain Feagins, which she described as fair and balanced.
“We can hit the reset button on all of this,” she said. “We absolutely can do this together.”
It was clear last month that at least five board members were inclined to sever ties with Feagins. But Dorse Coleman hit pause, casting the deciding vote on a proposal to delay the discussion until this month to allow for more deliberation and a response from Feagins.
During a board committee meeting last week, Feagins shared a point-by-point response to the allegations against her. She said some school board members presented misleading and false information, calling the effort to fire her “politically motivated” and vowing not to resign.
Board member McKinney leveled additional allegations at the committee meeting, accusing Feagins of “a pattern of failed leadership” and citing graduation issues, inadequate staffing, and cutting student support systems.
That prompted McKissack to say some of her peers were “hell-bent” on dismissing Feagins, and Huett-Garcia said McKinney was “crossing the line of governance.”
When it came time to finally vote on the resolution to fire Feagins at Tuesday’s special meeting, the discussion was more procedural than emotional. The board members in favor of ousting her did not make speeches explaining their vote. The roll call was taken, and the votes were tallied.
“The resolution was adopted,” Dorse Coleman said. “Thank you.”
A different board took a markedly different approach in parting ways with Joris Ray, who resigned in August 2022 in the midst of a board-ordered outside investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies. That board approved an agreement that gave Ray a severance package equivalent to 18 months’ salary — about $480,000. The agreement also ended the investigation into Ray before any findings were made public.
District administrator Toni Williams then took over as interim superintendent. She went back and forth on applying for the job on a permanent basis, and ultimately withdrew from consideration. The district restarted its national search in June 2023, after the board agreed on a fresh set of job qualifications and criteria. That eventually led to Feagins’ hiring.
Feagins lasted just 110 days in the role, or less than one-fifth as long as Williams served as interim superintendent.
Before coming to Memphis, Feagins was an official in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which, by contrast, has experienced a long period of leadership stability under Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
Vitti, who was hired in 2017 as the district emerged from state control, received a second contract extension in March that will keep him in the post until 2028 and make him one of the longest-serving leaders in district history. He said at the time that working with the board on a succession plan would be one of his top objectives.
One of Feagins’ harshest critics in recent weeks has been board member McKinney, who unseated then-board Chair Althea Greene as District 2’s representative in the August 2024 school board election after campaigning as an advocate of leadership change. She signaled in her campaign that she would emphasize communication and community involvement, telling Chalkbeat: “Family and community engagement must be meaningful, genuine, inclusive, and responsive to truly support our students.”
Memphians are “tired of watching their students graduate but not be prepared for postsecondary opportunities,” McKinney said on election night. “At some point we have to decide who will be responsible for this. If things haven’t worked under that leadership, it’s time to try something new.”
McKinney was one of four newly elected board members last year. But Feagins’ board opposition included a mix of veteran and new board members: Dorse Coleman, Williams, and Love joined with McKinney and two other newcomers, Murphy and Otey. The other newly elected board member, Porter in District 4, sided with Feagins, along with McKissack and Huett-Garcia.
As the meeting room emptied Tuesday night, Overton High School Spanish teacher Noah Nordstrom said he felt shocked, heartbroken, and betrayed by the vote to fire Feagins.
Nordstrom, 26, said he fears ripple effects in classrooms, with teachers returning to a feeling of low motivation that was prevalent before the superintendent position was filled.
“For the last year under Dr. Feagins there’s been this new hope, this new sense of motivation, like our district is going somewhere,” Nordstrom said. “And now it feels like we’re going back.”
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Memphis on the internet.
One More
This image of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid was just too good not to share. Memphis Memes 901 titled it “the beautiful, snow-capped mountains of Tennessee.”
Records Request
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy fulfilled a “burdensome” records request from state Sen. Brent Taylor recently. Taylor, of course, is seeking Mulroy’s ouster from the job during the legislative session this year.
The request included 4,000 documents, 16,000 pages, six boxes, and more than 150 staff hours to complete, Mulroy said. “Things like this are a distraction from the real work that our office has to do. But we will fully cooperate with legislators.”
GIF Level
Reddit user Melodic-Frosting-443 took the Memphis-Shelby County Schools situation to GIF level with a photo of the board surrounding Marie Feagins, overlaid with Stealers Wheel lyrics, “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right …” (You could see it above. But we’re not The Daily Prophet.)
The presidential inauguration in the Capitol rotunda on Monday marked the return to power of the most controversial and scandal-plagued president in American history. It felt a little like when the second plane hit the tower on 9/11 — the moment when we knew it wasn’t an accident.
Monday was also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and here in Memphis — the city where Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 — the celebration of his life takes on a special significance. The NBA’s annual MLK Day celebration featured the Memphis Grizzlies hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the National Civil Rights Museum held a day of events called “Community Over Chaos,” which seemed a most fitting theme.
But before it fades into history, buried by the noisy deluge of Trump drama, I want to take note of former President Biden’s farewell address of last week. As might be expected, he cited the achievements of his administration — the record job-creation numbers, the long-desired ceasefire in the Middle East, the strengthening of NATO, and the ongoing resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine — but his real purpose in his speech seemed to be to deliver a warning, to address, as he said, “some things that give me great concern.”
Citing President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation, in which he warned the country about the dangers posed by the “military industrial complex,” Biden decried the rise of a new threat, one he called the “tech industrial complex.”
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power,” Biden warned. “The free press is crumbling. Errors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.” No errors detected.
The tech industrial complex was on full display in the Rotunda on Monday, including Sundar Pichai (Google), Tim Cook (Apple), Jeff Bezos (Amazon, The Washington Post), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta, Facebook, Instagram, Threads), and Elon Musk (X, Tesla, Starlink, xAI).
Never have so few had so much unbridled power to influence public opinion and so much money to invest in doing so. And it doesn’t help that they’re supplicating themselves (and giving millions of dollars) to the new president to curry his favor. It’s called obeying in advance, and it’s worrisome stuff. Journalism is in danger of being put out of business by “content providers” that have no ethical qualms about ignoring the truth in favor of whatever makes a profit — or makes the president happy.
CNN, ABC, and even MSNBC have also made at least token moves to ameliorate relations with the new administration. CNN buried Trump critic Jim Acosta in a late-night slot. ABC settled a libel lawsuit with Trump that it easily would have won in court. Facebook eliminated fact-checkers. Companies are getting rid of diversity hiring programs. Macho (“masculine energy”) is all the rage among the tech bros. Women’s healthcare rights continue to be eroded in red states.
Biden called it “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people,” and cited the consequences “if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” What Biden was describing is an oligarchy. Merriam-Webster (remember dictionaries?) defines it as “a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”
Can there be any doubt that an oligarchy of extreme wealth, power, and influence is moving into power in the United States, one that threatens our democracy and our basic rights and freedoms?
Democracy depends upon the will of the people, and if the people are misinformed, disinformed, or uninformed, they can be manipulated. As we well know, public opinion — and elections — can turn on well-funded, broadly circulated lies and propaganda.
Our social media platforms are already permeated by disinformation, mostly via bots that skillfully imitate real people and overwhelm legitimate content by their sheer numbers. Artificial intelligence is now upping that deception to previously unknown heights. Biden called AI “the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time.”
The former president concluded by saying to his fellow Americans, “It’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keepers of the flame.” That doesn’t feel like malarkey, folks.
Surely, you’ve heard of Joseph Stalin, the controversial leader of the Soviet Union, but have you ever heard of Alexei Dikiy or Felix Dadaev? These are the two characters, based on real people, in Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin, a play following the lives of the two actors who are preparing for the riskiest roles of their careers: Stalin’s body doubles.
“Dianne Nora, who’s the playwright, has taken very interesting historical facts, which is the fact of Joseph Stalin’s body doubles during World War II, and created this entire world of what could have been — the training that one of those body doubles ended up experiencing,” says Savannah Miller, director of Playhouse on the Square’s NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition that Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin won. The NewWorks competition allows six plays to be entered and examined by judges, but only two can be selected as the winners. (The other winner of this season was Coco Queens, which was performed last summer.)
Of Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin, Miller says, “It speaks to our current moment, with a new and old president coming into office. It speaks to critically evaluating our world leaders and what they are asking you to do. In this case, in Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin, they’re asking you to put your life on the line and you need to know exactly what you’re standing up for.”
The play, directed by Tony Isbell, encourages audiences to be more aware of what occurred in the past and how it affected people — not to mention how the past can easily become the present. “I hope that it makes them question a little bit more the world around them. And I hope ultimately that it just starts a dialogue. I think it’s a very, very timely piece,” says Miller.
The production is 90 minutes with no intermission, and it will run from this week until the week of the 26th. For more information about this newest production and Playhouse’s upcoming season as well as where to purchase tickets, visit playhouseonthesquare.org/season-2024—2025.
Six Men Dressed Like Stalin, TheatreWorks@TheSQuare, 2085 Monroe, through January 26th, Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., $25/general admissions, $20/senior citizens, military, and first responders, $15/children under 18.
As I write these words, on January 16, 2025, Mr. Donald Trump is still President-elect, though he’s certainly acting as though he’s already been inaugurated. Thanks to the peculiar time traveling magic of print periodicals, President Trump will have been in office for at least three days before you read these words, such as they are. (Look, I’m not any more excited to write about the guy than you are to read about him, but news is news.)
Despite a compelling farewell address (more on that below) from the 46th president of the United States, the absurdity machine is already winding up here in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term in office, as a casual glance at recent headlines attests.
“Trump Taps Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Hollywood ‘Ambassadors’,” from The New York Times. Makes sense. At 69, 78, and 86, respectively, those venerable gentlemen surely have their collective finger on the pulse of the generation. When I think about connecting with Gen Z, my mind immediately goes to the co-star of 1972’s Deliverance and prominent right-wing nutjob Jon Voight. With Los Angeles devastated by historic and tragic winter Palisades fires, Trump’s move shows he still has all his old tricks, ready to go. It’s performative, backwards, and it toes the line between casual cruelty and cluelessness. We are off to a great start indeed.
Worse than Trump’s sycophantic set of Hollywood “Ambassadors” are the rich and empathy-deficient tech titans lining up to pull the president’s strings. In his farewell address, Biden warned of this oligarchy of the super-rich and the influence they wield, particularly through technology, and I agree with almost everything he said — save one minor detail. Biden warned that this tyranny of tech bros is on its way; I say it’s already here. I worry our nation will be as successful ousting the tech-industrial complex as we have with the military-industrial complex President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of in his farewell address in 1961.
Trump is notoriously susceptible to flattery. His own former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, already admitted as much in an interview in 2024, not that we needed an expert on security to attest to that fact. With Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Facebook and Instagram are letting their fact-checkers go, it will be that much easier to suck up to the new president. He really did have the biggest inauguration crowd of all time — and no one is allowed to prove otherwise!
Jokes aside, if abandoning fact-checking wasn’t Zuckerberg’s way of saying, “standing by, dear leader,” I’m not nearly as well-versed in the speech patterns of near-human replicants. All those hours watching Blade Runner on repeat and Star Trek: Next Generation on reruns really were wasted, I guess.
Social media — and the tech industry in general — are criminally under-regulated. Well, that is to say, their actions aren’t technically crimes, because there aren’t really any regulations. But it should be a crime. Unfortunately, a loosening of tech’s stranglehold on U.S. policy seems increasingly unlikely. Between Trump’s burgeoning friendship with the AI Axis of Evil — the aforementioned Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, the grifter who bought Twitter, renamed it X, and is now poised to poison Memphis’ water — and an aging and out-of-touch legislative branch who don’t see the harm in a little social media, it seems to me that the tech-industrial complex keeping Biden up at night have already set up shop.
Though I’m sending this missive from a presidency in the past, I sincerely doubt that all hope is lost already, on Thursday, January 23, 2024. You can fire the fact-checkers, but you can’t burn all the facts everywhere. That doesn’t mean that the coalition of the mean and greedy little minds won’t try. It just means to remember that everyone (including yours truly!) has bias, that book burning is never the last move in someone’s playbook, and that libraries are a truly radical and wonderful place.
Anyway, at least I’m sure I’ll get a good laugh out of the “article” my uncle shares on Facebook as proof that the Mississippi is supposed to be on fire, actually, and annual ice storms can’t be climate change, because it’s global warming, not global icing, dummy.
Jesse Davis is a former Flyer staffer; he writes a monthly Books feature for Memphis Magazine. His opinions, such as they are, were minding their own business in Memphis on January 6, 2021. Were yours?