Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Dorothea Lange’s Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps
AOC called the kiddie prisons “concentration camps”, and Trumpets chose to insist ‘ours aren’t as bad as Hitler’s’ rather than admit and correct their latest stain on America. Of course this wasn’t America’s first flirtation with cultural corralling. Dorothea Lange was contracted by the US Government to document the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans in 1942. Her pictures were impounded until the war’s end and stayed largely unseen until 2006. We were of course struck by the similarities to today’s abominations, but even more so by the differences… Lange’s photos show families detained together and an attempt to make the detention as gentle as possible, niceties totally absent today.
43%
What is 43%? It’s Trump’s average job approval rating since 2018, but that’s just coincidence. It’s also the current percentage of Americans in favor of an impeachment inquiry. That’s a national number; 76% of Dems and even 6% of Reps favor impeachment (also 17% of ‘conservatives’). Support for impeachment is growing toward a tipping point, but if it isn’t growing fast enough as Nero fiddles and the Dems dither, remember this… when the Senate began Watergate hearings in 1973, only 19% supportted impeachment. An when the blow-dried tumor says he’s “too popular to impeach” remember that Nixon started his 2nd term with a 67% approval rating while Trump’s was 51% at it’s highest. Sleep well!
Pledge drives are agonizing, but their inside story is amazing
We like to imagine that the Tom Dwyer audience is filled with Public Radio fans, and if so there’s one thing we all have in common… hatred of the Pledge Drive. You know who else hates it? Public Radio. America’s public radio networks have always presented themselves as solid, reliable, neutral sources of information; well above the fray of common commercial radio. But as governmental funding has waned they’ve been forced to depend more heavily on corporate donors and other sources and all the dirt they bring. “Pledge” is an inside look at the universe of public radio funding and the palace intrigue, financial arm twisting, over-modulated egos and passive-aggressive meltdowns that go with it.
The Stonewall Riots
The LGBTQ rights movement has been making amazing progress in recent years. Granted, it’s slow, geographically spotty, and under constant threat, but it’s progress. The fight for gay rights has been waged for centuries by individuals, but in America the organized LGBTQ movement began at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and it seemed a good time to look back at the the ‘shot heard round the world’ for the gay rights movement. We’ve all heard the name, but do we know the history? Here’s a great chance to learn…
