It was about two weeks ago that 97.5 the Fanatic hosts Mike Missanelli and John Kincade engaged in a brief Twitter kerfluffle on the topic of Odubel Herrera and domestic violence.

Mike, as you know, is vehemently anti-Odubel, and believes the guy should never play for the Phillies again. Kincade lamented “selective fan morality” and pointed out that Brett Myers’ similar transgressions went largely unpunished.

As previously stated, Crossing Broad is a neutral party in foreign affairs, preferring to monitor radar blips from our installations in Geneva and Zurich. We are the Switzerland of Philadelphia sports media.

CB did not engage in the radio skirmish, but instead offered fair and balanced analysis, and pointed out the flaws in the hardline stance being taken by Missanelli and his co-hosts, Tyrone Johnson and Natalie Egenolf. Our investigation revealed a blatant disregard for nuance and a glaring omission of facts in the arguments being presented by Mr. Missanelli, Mr. Johnson, and Ms. Egenolf.

At the time, we also pointed out that Missanelli and Kincade exist on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Mike leans to the left, and now dabbles more frequently in socio-political issues on his show. Kincade is a Delco native but lived and worked in Atlanta for many years, and leans to the right in a way that would be seen as congruent with a large portion of Georgia residents. As a result, the two frequently find themselves on the opposite sides of the day’s issue.

Interestingly enough, Mike, who is a longtime Crossing Broad supporter, left open the door for a new RADIO WARS saga, saying this about the exchange on a recent show:

“The people have tried to make this a fight between me and John Kincade. I disagree 100% with his position to be permissive of (Odubel). So, that’s not gonna change. If you want to create some kind of war, that’s fine by me, because I’m good at war.”

This took place a few days before the NFL Draft, which just so happened to coincide with the “crossover” show the Fanatic does about once per year. This particular day, which admittedly is very entertaining, features the hosts from various time slots appearing on other shows, which resulted in Mike going on John’s program and vice versa. There were several references to “war,” but the interactions remained mostly cordial, and each side practiced what we would call “de-escalatory” measures while leaving the proverbial sinker floating on top of the water.

It was the equivalent of North Korea firing a missile harmlessly into the ocean. The world’s least-demonstrative saber rattling display.

The non-saga was pretty much dead, then this exchange took place over the weekend:

Now this is fascinating.

Here’s the left/right political/social divide popping up again, but regarding a different topic. Regarding COVID-19 and a return to normalcy.

If you watched the Phillies this weekend, you’re aware that Truist Park, in Cobb County, went to 100% capacity on Friday. Georgia has been one of the southern states moving similarly to Florida, with restrictions easing on a completely different timeline than what we’ve been experiencing up here in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

According to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, the state’s positivity rate is hovering around 4.7%, with Cobb County at 3.3% –

The CDC says Georgia has vaccinated 6.7 million people, which is in the bottom half of all 50 states when filtered by shots per 100,000 residents. Most of the southern states are behind the northeast and west coast in this area.

And as you know, the overall data is useless without being able to compare, between states, the amount of testing that’s being done. Georgia has a shade fewer than 11 million residents and has done about 7.4 million tests. For some context, New Jersey, Michigan, and North Carolina all have smaller populations but have done more tests, so you have to fully parse a shit ton of data to get a true understanding of how each state is approaching the pandemic.

We could sit here and look through the numbers forever, but that would require another 10 bazillion words.

The burgeoning and more fascinating rhetorical question goes something like this:

Are people clinging to COVID-19 protocols because of legitimate safety concerns? One of the accusations being leveled is that some people are using this arbitrary “return to normal” threshold as an opportunity to preach morality from the pulpit and chastise others as reckless. The politicization of mask wearing was already bad enough, but now as we exit this thing we’re getting another niche argument about whether it’s happening too quickly.

In Mike’s case, he’s 100% right that COVID is not “over.” Of course it’s not. We’re still vaccinating people and trying to be as thorough as possible to snuff this thing out like responsible adults who are looking out for our fellow people.

In John’s case, he’s making the argument that we have to move forward at some point, which is also correct. We’ve been stuck in our houses for more than a year and people are itchy to get back to life as they once knew it.

It’s hard to find fault with either side, which leaves us with the difficult task of locating the COVID sweet spot. If it’s still not safe to go 100% with no masks, then when will it be? And do people even want things to go back to normal? We should all want that, but when the divide seems to fall on partisan socio-political lines, all you can do is scratch your head and become frustrated.

We’ll take your phone calls after the break. 610-632-0975 is how you get in.

But first, a word from Joe Cordell, of the domestic litigation law firm, Cordell and Cordell: