7.5.24 Newsletter

A New Venture, The Royal Appointment, and 6 People I'm Mad At

Hello!

I have returned from an eventful trip to Cape Cod. Therapy could not have fully prepared me, and yet, it was completely necessary and a little bit healing. You can read that here.

Royal Corner

The Rrrrrroyal Appointment

I thought I was going to be able to do a quick Royal Appointment this week, but this one requires additional research.

Yeah, it’s a doozy.

I will be covering this and the way the British media continues to cover Prince Harry’s battle with the U.K. press next week. I guess we knew eventually the Royal Editor would pivot back to H&M newsletters, especially when it deals with a perceived attack on their profession.

Pop Culture

Dancing For the Devil Documentary

When Amye Archer of Little Miss Recap asked me if I wanted to discuss a documentary about the dangers of social media, lack of social safety nets for young people in the gig economy AND cults, I said, sign me right up.

Dancing For the Devil, a new limited series from Netflix, explores the world of dancers trying to make it in L.A., who end up living in—and being managed by—a cult. Amye and I had an absolutely fabulous convo. It was meaty, but also had plenty of levity. Give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of projects…

I Have a New Venture!

One of the things we announced on said pod. was that Amye and I have a new, very low-key, no stress, definitely not another job, project called Obsessables with Meredith & Amye.

We’ll be delivering monthly video/podcast episodes on specific moments in culture that we can’t stop thinking about. We re-released our first episode, a deep dive on the song Silver Springs, but more specifically, the band Fleetwood Mac (the Christine, John, Mick, Stevie, and Lindsey line up). While you’re there, sign up so you don’t miss July’s episode, which is all about Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to JFK. It’s gonna be good.

Have a Great Weekend to Everyone Except…

The conservative majority on the SCOTUS who decided giving a President the power to do whatever the fuck they want as long as it’s an “official act” is cool and not at all tyrannical. Which naturally meant Joe Biden’s team sent a fundraising email about Presidents not being Kings and respecting the ideals our country was founded on.

KEWL. Sounds fab. Would love to see it, but now I’m at the point where I’m not sure a principled stance is going to make a difference if we do not have a democracy to protect. I am not being hyperbolic in the least. Checks and balances between the three branches is a cornerstone in American Democracy. The Supreme Court is undoing that and will have the power to strip power and the final say on the interpretation of our laws for decades to come if nothing changes (IE: Expanding the courts, big structural changes). The court is politicized. Working across the aisle in Congress, particularly the Senate, is a death sentence for a politician’s reelection campaign.

I agree that Presidents are not Kings. I too would like a functioning democracy. But I’d also like to have a democracy to save.

I’m basically feeling like Katie Maloney in this Vanderpump Rules gif:

The Supreme Court is certainly choking the U.S. legal system and they don’t care. It’s never been about patriotism or preserving the ideals our nation was founded upon. It’s about creating a country that abides by Christian rules—which is a blatant contradiction with the founding of our country that any 7th grader taking a basic U.S. Government class could tell you.

I decided to revisit George Washington’s Farewell Speech yesterday. We spend a lot of time celebrating independence and not enough time on what it actually took to ensure we had a government to protect (Not to mention independence was declared on land that wasn’t the colonists to take). Despite calls for a 3rd term, Washington declined for several reasons. In his speech he warned about the love of power—dangerous to a democracy—which is why we need checks and balances. He wrote:

‘One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.”

We’ve seen a lot of that in Supreme Court decisions over the past few years. Plus, misinformation from media and politicians that has normalized a coup during what has historically been a time of peaceful transfer of power and a convicted felon running for the highest office.

It’s bad and it’s everyone’s problem. There are larger structural issues and the problem of money in politics that effects everyone on the political spectrum, but I am getting off that soap box for now!

Anyway, I hope Justice Alito’s wife had her Jan 6th flags stolen and someone ate a bad hotdog. (If you don’t know about the flag dispute, it’s worth a quick search. Wild stuff)

Have a wonderful weekend.

-Meredith

(what would you have done?) quote the Monsters book quotes

-Meredith