September 8, 2020

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Summer Snippets

Curtis Flowers was finally able to remove his ankle monitor and call himself free, as the Mississippi Attorney General dismissed all charges against him this week. Flowers endured 23 years on death row and six trials for the 1996 murders of four people, a crime for which he always maintained his innocence. Flowers was effectively stalked by a Mississippi prosecutor who held extreme racial biases; Flowers’s appeal went all the way to the US Supreme Court which found that the prosecutor had violated Flowers’s rights to a fair trial by intentionally removing black jurors. (The DA is white, and Flowers is black.) While one staple of the US Justice system is that you can’t be tried more than once for the same crime, that only happens when you are found innocent. Flowers’s first three convictions were overturned on appeal, the next two landed in hung juries, and the final conviction was overturned this week. For more background on the failure of the justice system, Flowers’s story is told in great detail by the podcast In the Dark, which also helped to provide evidence for his appeals.

COVID has brought to light the over-retailing of the US. Many malls have been struggling in light of the pandemic, and several anchor department stores have also gone out of business. Macy’s is reportedly looking to leave large malls and expand to smaller locations — Macy’s had over 800 locations within the US but announced plans to close 125 at the height of the pandemic. On the flip side, the struggling department stores have opened a window for IKEA, who is buying up malls in an effort to gain a foothold in centrally located urban areas. This week IKEA purchased the 6X6 mall in San Fransisco, and they have their eyes set on Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

We came across this tidbit today, and we thought it was worth a share and a laugh. Remember ABBA? The Swedish pop group known for such hits as Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia? ABBA was also famous for wearing outlandish costumes including sequined hotpants and overly fringed bellbottoms. Well, ABBA actually wore these outrageous costumes (not just for the performance aspect) but because in Sweden costumes could only be expensed for tax purposes if they could not possibly be worn on the street. So thank the Swedish authorities for popularizing-thigh high platform heels.

ABBA isn’t the only band to get a break from the government. Now, Korean pop bands are also being written into a proposed bill. A South Korean politician has proposed a bill which would exempt both K-Pop and esports stars from mandatory military service. If the stars are deemed “an outstanding person in the field of popular culture and arts,” they will be able to delay their service for up to two years. Military service is normally required in South Korea for men between the ages of 19-28 and for 1.5-3 years of service. In the past, musicians and Olympic athletes have been granted exemptions. Several members of BTS are coming up on their 28th birthdays — apparently the K-Pop stans are waiting on this bill with baited breath.

This weekend finally saw some new movies hitting screens in the US. Tenet, the highly anticipated thriller from Christopher Nolan, earned a modest $20M at the box office in the US, although it has earned close to $150M globally. (Prior to the pandemic, the film would have earned around $50M opening weekend.) Chalk this up to the fact that many major cities still haven’t re-opened theaters, and if they are open, they are seating at 50% capacity. Disney also debuted Mulan on its streaming service for an additional, premium fee. While Disney hasn’t released details on sales, the Disney+ app saw a 68% rise in downloads. The film however is garnering some controversy — the lead actress apparently supports the Hong Kong police and their suppression of democratic protestors; parts of the movie were filmed in the Xinjiang province which is home to some of the worst human rights abuses; and in the credits, Disney actually thanks the security forces and propaganda departments of the CCP. We’ll keep crossing our fingers for IMAX to go drive-in.

We usually leave chatter about the weather when we have nothing else to say, but the weather in the US is going bonkers. Check out the forecast for Denver: record heat this weekend with a high of 101 followed up by an expected snowstorm on Tuesday. California is seeing record heat (with Woodland Hills near Los Angeles reporting 121 degrees), accompanied by fires. (Fire marshals have determined that one California fire was started by a gender reveal party.) Two new tropical storms have formed in the Atlantic Ocean, and Rene is the earliest “R” storm on record. Since it is 2020, we’ll expect frogs and volcanoes soon.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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