Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
I’m going to offer a warning on today’s post – it’s likely to be controversial and unpopular. It is a much-debated – and much-maligned – topic, however, and worth scrutiny: The plight of white men in modern American society.
I know, especially given that this is Trans Awareness Week and also, as mentioned yesterday, Native American Heritage Month, among, I’m sure, other days, weeks, and months worthy of attention, you might be asking: Why spend any time on a group of people that, through history, have experienced so many benefits and inflicted so much pain on others?
Well, because like so many other matters in our modern world, this particular subject is very complicated.
It’s true that white privilege – especially for men – is alive and well. White individuals – again, most notably men – are still far more likely to get hired than their Black, Latino, Asian, and/or female counterparts, despite DEI initiatives that have only recently been under attack and dismantled as a result of Donald Trumps return to the White House. They are also generally paid higher wages for doing the same jobs.
At the same time, it is also true that white men in America are more likely to die by suicide than women or men in other racial and/or ethnic groups. They’re also more likely to have alcohol use disorders and, depending on their age, are at an elevated risk for opioid abuse.
Overall, men have a lower life expectancy than women, due to a host of biological, social, and behavioral factors – from being less likely to go to the doctor for routine checkups to being more likely to smoke, drink, and eat a poor diet. And, despite growing awareness about all these things, the longevity gap between men and women is steadily widening.
Meanwhile, enrollment by white men in college has stagnated or dropped altogether (depending on which stats you’re looking at), and overall, there are far more women than men attending institutions of higher education across the U.S. – women now make up between 58 to 60 percent of all college students. Once in college, women are more likely to graduate than men.
Why does this matter? Despite the debate over whether the increasing cost of obtaining a college degree is still worth it, a BA continues to be linked to lower unemployment rates and higher earnings over a lifetime of work compared to a high school diploma.
So, it might be more accurate (or at least more nuanced) to say that white male privilege is most alive and well for a certain CLASS of white men – those with money, though simply by being white, heterosexual, and able-bodied, some experts argue, men automatically have a leg up over women, members of the disability community, those who identify as LGBTQ+, and individuals of color, even in the absence of wealth.
I am running through all of this as a set-up to acknowledging that there are some who probably don’t think men – particularly white men – need a day of recognition, and yet, here we are at International Men’s Day.
The stated purpose of this day, according to its official website (see the aforementioned link) is to celebrate the “positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities”, “highlight positive role models” and “raise awareness of men’s well-being.”
I’ll just leave it at that and let you make your own decision about whether or not to observe.
Let’s move on to something less controversial – the weather. It’s hard to find fault with today’s forecast, which is not bad for this time of year. Skies will be partly cloudy, with no threat of precipitation, and temperatures will top out in the low-to-mid 40s.
In the headlines…
The Senate approved legislation forcing the Justice Department to release more information about the case it built against the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — acting hours after an overwhelming House vote to send the bill to President Trump’s desk.
The Senate acted by unanimous consent, which requires signoff from every senator but does not require them to take a roll call vote. Earlier in the day, the House passed the bill on a 427-1 vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he voted for the Epstein disclosure bill based on his hope that the Senate would make changes he’s been demanding. Senate Majority Leader John Thune shot that down.
Republicans are pushing ahead with an investigation into the activities of Epstein — even as legislation forcing the release of all Department of Justice files on the late sex offender appears to be heading to Trump for a signature.
Trump called for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked as he angrily lashed out at a reporter from the network who asked why he has not released files on Epstein, his former friend.
It was the second time in a week that Trump leveled a fierce insult at a woman who was covering him. On Air Force One on Friday, he cut off a reporter for Bloomberg News, Catherine Lucey, when she tried to ask why he had not yet released the Epstein files.
Harvard said that it has started a new investigation into ties that former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers and others at the university had with Epstein.
The House voted 209-214 last night against formally reprimanding Virgin Island Del. Stacey Plaskett for communicating with Epstein during a 2019 Oversight Committee hearing.
Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert yelled and wagged her finger at her colleagues after the Plaskett censure vote failed with the help of a handful of Republicans, which led to Democrats declining to pursue a censure of Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills.
Trump announced at the White House dinner honoring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he had signed a strategic defense agreement designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally.
“We’ve been really good friends for a long period of time,” Trump told reporters, cabinet officials and members of the Saudi delegation who had gathered there. “We’ve always been on the same side of every issue.”
While hosting bin Salman, Trump brushed off the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, saying, “Things happen.”
Former national security adviser John Bolton defended Trump’s remarks about the Saudi crown prince over the death of Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A federal judge ruled that Meta had not illegally stifled competition by buying Instagram and WhatsApp when they were start-ups. The judge’s opinion cited the rise of apps like TikTok and YouTube as evidence that Meta did not have a monopoly in social media.
The decision was a sweeping victory for the social media giant — and more broadly for Silicon Valley, which has relied on big companies’ acquisitions of smaller ones to fuel the innovation engine.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s numbers slipped modestly in the latest Siena poll, but she still leads her announced Republican challenger, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and maintains a commanding advantage over Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado among Democrats.
The Siena Research Institute’s latest poll showed incremental erosion for the governor on favorability and job approval with Stefanik — who announced her campaign earlier this month — gaining ground in a hypothetical general election.
New York will close a prison near the Canadian border and downsize another facility in western New York as staffing shortages continue to disrupt the state’s beleaguered correctional system.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed it would close Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Franklin County and part of the Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, forcing almost 300 workers to move to another premise.
The announcement quickly drew outrage from the corrections officers union, which called closing prisons “a short-sighted Band-Aid on a gaping wound.”
A federal judge has dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit filed against New York that sought to invalidate a state law and two executive orders that prohibit federal agents from arresting people for civil immigration violations at New York courthouses.
Health insurance enrollment for 2026 is underway on New York’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, and the state is encouraging residents to sign up, assuring them “quality health insurance” is available. But just how affordable is still up in the air.
The State University of New York system enrollment rose again this year, after it offered free college tuition to draw adults back to school. Overall, enrollment is up 3% this year, with about 11,000 more students than last fall.
Eight State Police members from the Buffalo area, including a sergeant and a lieutenant, were sent to Pittsburgh last month for a two-day assignment to staff the wake and funeral of the stepmother of an assistant deputy superintendent.
A federal judge has upheld a New York state law that largely bans immigration arrests at state and local courthouses, dismissing a Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging the rule.
Former top state aide Linda Sun lived large in a Long Island mansion with a Ferrari parked in the garage and Birkin handbag in her closet — all thanks to her alleged secret gig as a Chinese foreign agent, a court heard this week.
New York state officials and Wall Street executives are teaming up to avoid a federal takeover of New York City, hoping to make the case to President Trump that a surge in law enforcement would be bad for business.
Over the past several months, Hochul’s administration has been mapping out a way to protect New York from National Guard deployments and increased immigration enforcement that Trump has ordered for other U.S. cities.
The average price of pot has plummeted 17% since legalization in New York state, with a market ramp up that has boosted the availability of marijuana brands in more stores, industry officials said.
State Sen. Sean Ryan will leave the state Legislature in January after he was elected as the new mayor of Buffalo this month, but he’ll still be making calls to his colleagues because the city he’s been elected to lead is apparently in dire financial straits.
Hochul is reportedly teaming up with Wall Street executives in an effort to talk President Trump out of sending National Guard troops to New York City in the wake of socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory earlier this month.
Hohcul pledged to work with Mamdani, even where she doesn’t agree with him, calling the fallout from the New York City mayor’s race “hysteria.”
Mamdani is reportedly supporting a candidate for state Assembly linked to the Council on American-Islamic Relations — and who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple of people did.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan warned New Yorkers will see increased federal immigration enforcement ahead of Mamdani taking office.
Lefty California Rep. Ro Khanna has told The NY Post that Mamdani is too radical even for him on at least one major issue — his commie economics.
Progressive stalwart Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is pouring cold water on Councilman Chi Ossé’s recently filed primary bid to unseat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
US Air Force veteran Greg Hach, a Republican running to unseat Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, slammed the incumbent Democrat for proposing a federal tax hike on people making over $400,000.
Eric Adams has spent his final weeks as New York City’s mayor flying around the world on the taxpayers’ dime — as he admits he’s hunting for a jet-setting new gig with first-class benefits.
In the 48 days between Oct. 6, when he landed in Albania, and Sunday, when he is scheduled to return to New York, Adams will have spent roughly 27 percent of his time thousands of miles away from the city he governs.
Sleek new designs for future city sidewalk sheds were unveiled by Mayor Adams yesterday, and the improved versions are so drastic, you may not be able to tell they’re temporary structures.
Officials have unveiled six new designs, in the biggest reimagining of the city’s ubiquitous sidewalk sheds in decades. The new options take up less space, allow in more light and air, and eliminate the X-shaped bars that make pedestrians feel caged.
A disgraced ex-aide to Adams cried yesterday as he dodged prison time after defrauding taxpayers in a straw-donor campaign scheme.
Trustees of the financially struggling Maimonides Hospital, located in heavily orthodox Jewish south Brooklyn, filed a lawsuit early this week to stop a government takeover of the 80-year-old medical facility.
An NYPD sergeant pretended to be an executive with federal immigration authorities and told a family to report to an ICE facility in the city, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.
School bus horror stories continue to emerge ahead of a key Panel for Educational Policy vote today on a contract extension for companies responsible for transporting many of the 150,000 New York City students who rely on yellow buses.
For at least five days, a blind Ecuadorean man who was arrested this month in New York City by U.S. immigration authorities was held in isolation at a county jail, locked in his cell for 24 hours a day and deprived of his cane. This week, he was released.
Video recorded inside the Oneida County Correctional Facility shows nurses and corrections officers crowding into an infirmary cell after a minutes-long delay, criticizing faulty equipment and cracking jokes as they administer CPR to an inmate dying on the floor.
Across upstate New York, hundreds of would-be Americans have been left in limbo after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indefinitely canceled ceremonies in at least seven counties, according to county clerks who spoke with the Times Union.
Henry Johnson Charter School is exploring the purchase of two former College of Saint Rose buildings – the former science building at 993 Madison Ave., and Albertus Hall at 432 Western Ave.
A former Hoosick Falls police leader facing allegations that he used local emergency medical service squad funds for personal use turned himself in to State Police yesterday afternoon.
Joshua Sabo, North Greenbush Democratic Committee leader, said he would offer to resign based on the election results and “what happened” with Jason Hamlin, a highway superintendent candidate whose old sex crime conviction came to light in October.
Lawyers for families of the 20 victims of the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie have reached an agreement to take a videotaped deposition of Nauman Hussain from prison.
The Allman Betts Band, a byproduct of a lifelong friendship between sons of The Allman Brothers Band legends, will headline the city’s New Year’s Eve festivities.
Town of Schodack officials have signed off on plans to transfer the 1777 Columbia Turnpike property to local morticians Caitlin and Terry Mooney for $400,000.
The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee narrowly voted to preserve its leadership that oversaw city Democrats’ bruising defeats on Election Day.
Short-term rental hosts in Albany County will be required to register their properties and pay the county’s hotel occupancy tax under a proposed new law.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
