Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming. (Max Fisher for the NYT.)

 

The truth is out of vogue, it seems.

With factories producing streams

of falsehoods for a tidy sum,

and workers stir the vilest scum

to mold opinions that will cause

humanity to show its claws.

No one knows the final price

of this booming cyber-vice.

Men have eyes for only wealth,

and so they work in techno-stealth

to rain deceit upon the globe

like acid precip's deadly robe.

Yet truth cannot be hid for long;

it sings an everlasting song

that rises over all the smut

of discord and foul scuttlebutt.

And those who deal in wholesale lies

will find they've won a tinsel prize.

Meanwhile guard the light within

and laugh at all the foolish din!

The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online. (Sheera Frenkel, for the NYT.)

 

Joseph Mercola, an osteopath,

doesn't know bupkis but he can do math.

Misinformation is his stock in trade;

he's pulling in money with his masquerade.

Facebook and Twitter have posted his trash

and viewers seem willing to give him their cash.

No vaccination! he endlessly posts.

They're unnecessary, he constantly boasts.

Eat plenty of yogurt, and mattresses shun,

and this, he does claim, is how health will be won.

A quack with some letters right after his name

is often believed by the mentally lame;

they lap up his products at prices immense

and show all the world how they lack common sense.

How sad that a market will always exist

for mountebank promises that turn to mist!

Montana’s Famed Trout Under Threat as Drought Intensifies. (Jim Robbins for the NYT.)

 

If I were a trout in Montana

I would not be shouting hosanna.

The streams are too low

and warming up so

I'd feel like a rotten banana.

Tokyo Olympics Open to a Sea of Empty Seats. (Motoko Rich for the NYT.)

 

The Olympic Stadium shows

Mr. and Mrs. Rows;

an old circus term

that made troupers squirm --

meaning the bank would foreclose.

Coast-to-coast heat dome to deliver sweltering weather next week. (Mathew Cappucci for the WaPo.)

 

Do you know this man? He is wanted in ten states, and

not wanted in a dozen others.

The devil thought he'd take a peek

at the Midwest for a week.

It was stuffy down in hell,

so he'd cool off for a spell.

But when he stopped off in Des Moines

he roasted like a tenderloin.

Seeking comfort, he did jaunt

over to Shelburne Vermont.

There beneath the blazing sun

he baked up like a sally lunn.

Fleeing such enormous heat,

he headed to the Rockies' feet.

In Denver he turned into ash;

in Salt Lake he picked up heat rash.

He fled to Portland for a respite;

he was getting pretty desperate.

But the city held no charm --

it was like a four alarm.

"Back to hell I go!" said he.

"At least my office has a.c.!"

Businesses condemned Georgia’s voting law, then gave thousands to its backers. (Isaac Stanley-Becker, for the WaPo.)

 

Corporations like to be

thought full of integrity.

Corp'rate funding is the club

they use all bad things to drub.

In their mighty righteousness

they are careful with largesse.

Yet, when viewed at closer range,

their donations can seem strange.

Sometimes they will help finance

demagogues and their shrill rants.

Legislators who betray

common sense have their payday

from the likes of Comcast Inc. --

keeping pograms in the pink.

Thus the bizness hypocrite

sins while quoting holy writ;

keeping both sides satisfied

with profits always magnified.

Southern California cities rebel against new mask mandate, hinting at delta variant drama to come. (Erica Werner for the WaPo.)

 

Americans are tough as nails,

but we refuse to put on veils.

No matter what the bigwigs say

the nude face is now here to stay.

Delta, schmelta -- no big deal.

It seems as trite as glockenspiel.

The more the politicians whine

the more the people take a shine

to freedom from restraints and masks

and turn to more important tasks --

like picture shows, or baseball games

and cooking wienies over flames.

We'll not be masked again, I trow --

we seek a lethal status quo!

Bras in the parks, skivvies on Fifth Avenue: Is this the logical endpoint of increasingly blurred distinctions between public and private? (Guy Trebay for the NYT)

 

(to the tune 'Home on the Range.)

Oh, give me a home

where the nudists don't roam;

where the underwear stays quite unseen.

Where never is viewed

scanty clothing so lewd

that Hugh Hefner would call it obscene.

Bare, bare in the street --

where I'm seeing bold bosom and seat;

this summer the crowd

thinks full frontal's allowed

and my brain cannot hit the 'delete.'

Is ‘Loki’ a True Marvel Variant? Or Just a Fun Experiment? (Maya Phillips for the NYT)

 

I do not know for whom I speak

(unless it is the dentured clique)

but we are tired of the look

and the feel of comic book

on the big screen and TV --

what are daredevils to me?

I am old and still and staid;

I want no blood, but marmalade!

Something sweet and sour, too;

intelligent -- not ballyhoo.

But all I get are flying twerps

who must perform like Wyatt Earps.

Advertisers please take note;

my Kindle is the antidote!

Rogue oysters threaten to disrupt Tokyo Olympics, after officials shelled out $1 million for repairs. (Jennifer Hassan, for the WaPo.)

 

"What, me hurry?"

The walrus and the carpenter are needed right away

to clean up all the oysters clogging up ol' Tokyo Bay.

The sailing and the swimming and the floating are in peril,

as oysters that are roguish become vicious and quite feral.

Olympic water contests have been halted to consider

will they risk the athletes or give in to failure bitter.

Those darn Pacific oysters glue themselves to all debris

that floats upon the waters to a terrible degree.

They could sink an iceberg or a coal barge or a ferry;

they can't be served with lemon cuz they ain't too sanitary.

(I hope that this fiasco doesn't lead to hari kari.)