The Point: Mixed signals
Billie Eilish performs at the Austin City Limits Festival at Zilker Park on Oct. 2, 2021 in Austin, Texas. Credit: Getty Images/Rich Fury
- Billie Eilish is the latest big name to decide to bring a tour to UBS Arena at Belmont Park. The latest big name to decide to bring a tour to Nassau Coliseum is … well … there isn’t any.
- Carlos Beltran will be a broadcaster on 36 New York Yankees games this season. Perhaps they should cue Beltran when it’s his turn to speak by banging on a garbage can.
- Musicians Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren joined Neil Young in demanding Spotify remove their music to protest the platform continuing to host podcaster Joe Rogan, a notorious purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation. That’s great, but until someone with as much heft as Rogan joins the protest it’s not going anywhere.
- Former President Donald Trump says that if he runs and is elected again as president, he will pardon the Jan. 6 rioters. Now there’s a campaign rallying cry — for Democrats.
- Congressional Republicans have not decided whether they will offer a positive agenda in the 2022 campaign. Which might seem sad, but politics is one area where nothing can beat something.
- UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia would not send 100,000 troops to the Ukraine border if it didn’t intend to use them. Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands, the Western world’s scrambling in response, and Monday’s debate at the UN, it’s clear the troops are already being used.
- After an investigation into Downing Street parties held during times of rigid coronavirus restrictions in Britain found the 16 parties should not have been allowed to take place, embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, "I know what the issue is. It’s whether this government can be trusted to deliver. And I say, Mr. Speaker, yes we can be trusted." To deliver parties, perhaps, but what else?
- Who ever thought Tom Brady’s career would end on a busted play?
By Michael Dobie
Michael Dobie is a retired member of the Newsday editorial board.
