GOP Congressman Wants to Nuke Gaza & Shakira Claims Sons, 9 and 11, "Emasculated" by "Barbie"
Black Woman Gets 5 Years in Prison While White Man Gets Community Service for Same Crime, Mike Johnson Doesn't Understand Jesus, Fox News Lies About Easter Eggs, Lucas & Arthur Jussen Play Schubert
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: A common phrase reveals more than you might think.
Texas appeals court overturns voter fraud conviction for woman on probation: Black woman sentenced to five years in prison for mistakenly voting while on probation.
GOP official who claimed 2020 election was stolen voted illegally 9 times, judge rules: White man gets what amounts to a stern talking to for voting illegally 9 times.
‘My sons hated it’ … Shakira says Barbie film is ‘emasculating’: Shakira gets pretty much everything wrong in her comments about her sons and the movie.
Kareem’s Video Break: A little girl gives some tough love to a suitor.
Fox News Runs Wild With Two Very Dumb Easter Outrages: The man who is third in line to be President of the United States just humiliated himself over Easter eggs—and lack of knowledge about his religion.
Congressman rebuked for call to bomb Gaza ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima’: Why do Americans keep electing the dumbest kid in the classroom?
Lucas & Arthur Jussen Play Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor: This is my first classical piece to share, but I’m sure you’ll see why I still remember it after 36 years.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
You don’t know me!
Common phrase
In movies and TV dramas, there’s often a moment in a heated argument about taking moral responsibility when one of the people screams at the other with spittle flying, “You don’t know me!” (Variations include: “You don’t know where I come from!” “You don’t know what I’ve been through!” “You don’t know what I’m capable of!”) Then they run out of the room in an indignant huff. That’s a convenient way to end an argument for writers, but also for real people who are trying to grab the moral high ground by accusing the other of willful ignorance and insensitivity.
Before you think of using that phrase in a disagreement, give it some thought. It may not have the meaning or effect you think it does.
What people mean by “You don’t know me” is that they have a troubled past that the other person doesn’t know about. I try not to make assumptions about people having lived charmed or conflict-free lives because I am constantly surprised to discover the terrible things that people I know have suffered through. Yet, as sympathetic as I may be, that troubled past does not excuse whatever they say or do. Nor does it give them increased moral authority. While one’s past does provide context for a person’s actions, it’s not an exemption from logical arguments.
The other meaning of “You don’t know me” is that the person saying it is admitting that they sometimes have dark thoughts that surprise or even scare them. They don’t know themselves, so how can they be known by others? The implied meaning is “You don’t know what I’m capable of doing.” True, we don’t know what other people—or even ourselves—are capable of given the right incentives or pressures. Terrible things that may shock and disgust us. Comedian Larry Miller once observed, “If [women] knew what [men] were really thinking, they'd never stop slapping us.” Fair enough. But having dark thoughts doesn’t give credence to one’s argument.
Taking both those meanings into consideration, people are not as mysterious or unfathomable as they imagine themselves to be. We all want to think of ourselves as complex and layered, a puzzle box too complicated to unlock. To be easily deciphered makes us feel less valuable, less unique—just less.
Here’s my take: On the most basic level, we are interchangeable, sharing all the same daily anxieties and hopes with people who lived a thousand years ago. That’s good news. To be known by others is not like having your soul stolen by the camera. It’s not being diminished but being freed. It’s understanding each other’s needs and frailties, and therefore being more accepting and forgiving.
I’m relieved if you know me. Every time I write a Substack newsletter, I try to let you know me better. When I read your comments, I feel like I know you better. What I know is that the effort we make to know each other is one of humanity’s best traits.
A Take of Two Types of Justice
Texas appeals court overturns voter fraud conviction for woman on probation (AP News)
SUMMARY: A Texas appeals court has overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year prison term for casting an illegal provisional ballot.
Crystal Mason did not know that being on probation for a previous felony conviction left her ineligible to vote in 2016, the Second District Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ruled on Thursday.
Appearing near tears at times, Mason said during a Friday news conference that it has been a long seven years since the voting charge. “I’ve been out for six years on an appeal bond, one foot in one foot out, not knowing if I was going back to prison,” Mason said.
“When I got the news ... I was just overwhelmed in joy, it’s been a long journey,” Mason said. “I cried and hollered when I got the news.”
Prosecutors maintained that Mason read and signed an affidavit accompanying the provisional ballot affirming that she had “fully completed” her sentence if convicted of a felony.
Justice Wade Birdwell wrote that having read these words on the affidavit didn’t prove Mason knowingly cast the provisional ballot illegally.
“Even if she had read them, they are not sufficient ... to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew that being on supervised release after having served her entire federal sentence of incarceration made her ineligible to vote by casting a provisional ballot,” the decision said.
GOP official who claimed 2020 election was stolen voted illegally 9 times, judge rules (The Washington Post)
SUMMARY: A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week.
Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded.
Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years’ probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times — once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting.
Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was “not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.” He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.
According to court documents, Pritchard testified that he thought his felony sentence had ended in 1999.
MY TAKE: These two cases may not be exactly the same, but they are close enough to reveal a stark difference in how the legal system demonstrates systemic racism. Texas Republicans wanted to scare Black people away from voting because they tend to vote Democratic, so they went after this Black woman with all their might: Five years in prison for casting an illegal provisional ballot, not knowing what she was doing was illegal. (Meanwhile, Texas’ attorney general just struck a deal on security fraud charges to avoid prosecution by paying almost $300,000 in restitution, completing 100 hours of community service, and taking 15 hours of legal ethics classes. Yes, legal ethics classes.)
Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. No threat of five years of imprisonment.
Richard Pryor used to do a comedy routine about justice for Black people in which he said: “You go down [to the courthouse] lookin’ for justice, that’s what you find: just us.” The U.S. Supreme Court recently abandoned 30,000 Black voters who’d been gerrymandered into voicelessness in South Carolina.
Again, our judicial system’s effectiveness depends on earning public trust. When we see an old White man receive a finger-wagging for his crime while a younger Black woman receives five years, we know there’s something more than the pursuit of justice at work. While her conviction was overturned, it should never have happened in the first place. We are then forced to ask why the district attorney would want to spend so much time, money, and resources pursuing this particular case. The answer: Even though her conviction was overturned, the message of intimidation was still clear. The threat is still real.
Equal justice under the law. Is that asking for too much?
This Week in Misguided Celebrity Statements
Because celebrities’ voices are amplified all over the world—and influence the young and vulnerable—they have a responsibility to be reasonable in their opinions. Unfortunately, many don’t believe in that responsibility so they just blather.
‘My sons hated it’ … Shakira says Barbie film is ‘emasculating’ (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: In an unlikely dissension from what has become a critical and commercial consensus, Colombian musician Shakira has said that the Barbie movie is “emasculating” and suggested that it “rob[s] men of their possibility to be men”.
In an interview with Allure magazine that focused on the “she-wolf feminism” behind her work, Shakira said she had watched the Greta Gerwig-directed satire and said: “My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent.”
She added: “I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity. I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well. We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost.”
Shakira’s views on Barbie, which has so far grossed $1.4bn at the worldwide box office, have been endorsed by a number of conservative commentators, including Piers Morgan, who posted a message on social media saying: “Hurrah for @shakira – finally, a high-profile woman prepared to stand up for men being men.”
MY TAKE: Shakira is massively popular and with that popularity comes social influence. In 2017, Fortune named her as one of the “World's Greatest Leaders.” She’s been hailed for her ability to discuss education with world leaders. The Independent said she is “living proof that pop and politics mix” and that her popularity allows her to have “the ears of the global political elite.” She’s tremendously accomplished and a generous philanthropist.
But her pop culture comments are way off base.
Let’s start with the obvious: her sons are 9 and 11, much too young to feel “emasculated” (Definition: “deprived of his male role or masculinity”) by a frothy movie like Barbie. What Shakira means is that Barbie makes them question the meaning of masculinity as taught to them by Shakira. Or that she reacted negatively to the movie, and being young kids who love their mother, agreed with her. Her view of masculinity is the traditional “to protect and provide,” though she doesn’t require a man to do either.
She says, “I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men.” Clearly, it’s the movie’s questioning of traditional roles that threatens Shakira. Her boys are merely reacting to the discomfort of confronting the difference between what their mom teaches them and what they see in the movie.
Pop culture often pretends to empower women through hyped words, but its actions can say the opposite. Our society is rampant with sexism and misogyny, and parts of pop culture unwittingly help fuel it. There’s nothing wrong with dancing on stage in skimpy outfits while being sexually overt—as Shakira does. But I would argue that the message of doing so prioritizes a woman’s sexuality over all other traits, which is the opposite of empowerment. It sends a message that a woman’s most important characteristic is physical appeal. Of course, Shakira would argue that her talent as a songwriter, performer, and philanthropist is also being featured. True, but no one’s looking at her in her tight outfit as she dances around the stage and thinking, “Now, that’s an entrepreneur.” As long as we keep promoting physical attractiveness as a woman’s most valuable asset, we diminish her.
Barbie’s point is that traditional roles of men and women can be confining and oppressive to both. Men and women are free to choose traditional roles if that’s their preference, but they can also acknowledge that such roles may not be everyone else’s choice. Teaching her young sons about the various possible paths that define masculinity beyond the simplistic “provide and protect” might be much more beneficial to them in the long run.
Kareem’s Video Break
Apparently, little boys have to learn the hard way that proposals of marriage may not have the reaction they hoped for. This adorable little girl explains why.
I’m thinking of putting her in charge of getting new subscriptions.
This Week in Media Manipulation and Misinformation
The effectiveness of misinformation is that it relies on the gullibility of the audience in not questioning what they’re told. And, if what they’re told is proven false, the misinformers feel confident their audience never read or saw those reports.
Fox News Runs Wild With Two Very Dumb Easter Outrages (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: What is Fox News outraged about now?
In the latest instance of the conservative cable giant whipping its audience into a frenzy over culture war outrages, Fox News stars have been fuming that the Biden administration is sticking a “thumb in the face” of Christians by merely acknowledging Transgender Day of Visibility and “banning” religious symbols on Easter eggs at the White House.
Like many of the right-wing outrage-industrial complex’s concocted grievances, these claims fall apart upon closer examination. That hasn’t stopped Fox News, however, from running wild with assertions that President Joe Biden is trying to destroy one of Christianity’s holiest days.
“For years, we have been having a campaign to put Christ back into Christmas,” Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen groused on Monday. “Under Joe Biden, we have to put Christ back into Easter, too.”
Just ahead of the Easter weekend, the White House issued nearly a dozen proclamations that included recognition for Cesar Chavez Day, Month of the Military Child, National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. The administration also proclaimed Sunday to be Transgender Day of Visibility, a day of awareness that was established in 2009 and has been held annually on March 31.
Of course, Easter Sunday happened to fall on March 31 this year. Even though the two days overlapped purely out of coincidence, Republicans took the opportunity to seize upon the proclamation as proof that Biden was insulting Catholics and evangelicals by supposedly ignoring Easter to celebrate trans awareness.
House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that the “American people are taking note” that the president “betrayed the central tenet of Easter,” while Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said it was “appalling and insulting” that the Biden White House “formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’” (The former president, meanwhile, spent his Easter Sunday firing off dozens of unhinged social-media posts raging about his legal costs—all after hawking $60 “God Bless the USA” Bibles.)
While the White House was busy pushing back on the “dishonest” criticism of the president’s transgender proclamation, conservatives also got worked up over a flyer inviting children of National Guard members to enter the White House’s egg decoration contest. The flyer noted that submissions “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements,” prompting a slew of conservative outlets—including Fox News—to run headlines blaring that the White House had “banned” religious designs in this year’s contest.
The American Egg Board, a group that helps facilitate the White House Easter Egg Roll, eventually noted that “the guideline language referenced in recent news reports has consistently applied to the board since its founding, across administrations.” Indeed, the restrictions first took effect in 1978 during the Carter administration and have been in place since—including throughout Trump’s term in office.
MY TAKE: A quick round-up of Fox’s deliberate misinformation:
The administration proclaimed support on Transgender Day of Visibility. It didn’t create the day, which was started in 2009 by activist Rachel Crandall Crocker because the only other well-known day focused on transgenders was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which mourned murdered transgender people. This year it just happened to fall on Easter. The only thing Biden did was acknowledge the day.
“Under Joe Biden, we have to put Christ back into Easter, too.” I’ve read the Bible and the Jesus I read about, the guy who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5, 6, 7), would probably have been supportive of a Transgender Day of Visibility that acknowledges marginalized people who he’d see as created by God and therefore worthy of love. Following Jesus’ teachings here would be putting “Christ back into Easter.” Therefore, it’s House Speaker Mike Johnson and his ilk who have, in his own words, “betrayed the central tenet of Easter…”
It’s not surprising that they’d get it wrong, considering that only 11% of Americans have read the entire Bible, even though 65% of Americans claim to be Christians. That’s the problem with relying on others to tell you what the Bible says—they only tell you what they think it means. Like a game of telephone.
Conservatives were outraged that the children’s Easter egg decorating contest prohibited religious symbols. First, I have to take a moment to express my amusement at adults getting outraged over a children’s activity that has nothing whatsoever to do with the meaning of Easter. No child finds a chocolate egg and thinks, “Wow, Christ was resurrected.” More importantly—as I’ve had to point out so many times in the past with politicians—before going public with these mob-rousing statements, why not check their facts? They have a whole staff who can do it for them. Because they aren’t interested in truth, just mob-stirring for political gain. That lack of responsibility for getting facts straight should disqualify them from being elected by clear-thinking voters.
At least The Daily Caller, upon learning that the policy against religious symbols on eggs dated back to President Carter and had been active during Trump’s administration, retracted their article accusing Biden of banning children from decorating with religious symbols.
These people sure ended up with egg on their faces. Will that stop their crusade to pump out as much bile and misinformation as possible? Nope.
Congressman rebuked for call to bomb Gaza ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima’ (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Rather than provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, the US should ensure it is subjected to nuclear bombing the way that “Nagasaki and Hiroshima” were at the end of the second world war, a Republican congressman said in shocking remarks that were recorded recently at a gathering with a relatively small group of his constituents.
The comments by US House representative Tim Walberg of Michigan drew condemnation from progressive political quarters, including from some who expressed disbelief that a former Christian pastor would advocate for what they called the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
“A sitting US rep in a secret town hall feels comfortable musing privately about genocide,” said a user on Twitter/X who circulated video of Walberg’s comments late Friday. A reply to that comment read: “Exactly what Jesus would do, right?”
In a statement Sunday, Walberg argued that the media had misreported his comments and set him up to be misinterpreted. Yet he said he was unapologetic about his belief that Israel should win “as swiftly as possible”.
…“In a shortened clip, I used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible,” Walberg said in part in a statement that did not address how to avoid killing civilians with nuclear bombs.
MY TAKE: Hey, Michigan, look who you elected last time. You gave him 198,020 votes (62.4%). Now he wants to nuke the Gaza Strip and kill over two million civilians because he wants the war over “as swiftly as possible.” We all want it over, but not at any cost. We also want to save as many lives as possible and perhaps try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Winning isn’t the only goal here.
Would he really bomb Gaza if he had the power? Probably not. He was probably just flexing his manliness while talking to supporters, whom he assumed would appreciate his tough-guy aggressiveness. But what nails him as a buffoonish politician is the graceless way in which he tried to backtrack. Blaming the press is the default setting for less intelligent politicians. He could have just admitted he was being brashly hyperbolic and apologized for his insensitivity. Except that you need courage to do that.
FYI: Last November, Walberg voted to censure Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress for using the phrase “From the river to the sea,” which can be interpreted as a call for the elimination of Israel, which Tlaib denied was her intention. Walberg justified his vote by saying he “will not support the right to call for a violent genocide.” Isn’t it calling for genocide to state in public you want to nuke Gaza? Where’s his censure? Oh, right, he’s male and Christian so nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Walberg is up for reelection this November. Perhaps the Michigan people will not be so generous with their votes this time.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Schubert: Fantasie in F Minor - Lucas & Arthur Jussen
As the announcer used to say on the old Outer Limits show: “Do not attempt to adjust the picture.” You may think you’ve accidentally clicked on a link that took you out of my Substack and into someone else’s. Nope. I have a deep fondness and respect for classical music. My father was a cop, but he was also a trained musician who studied at Juilliard. He may have preferred jazz, but he also knew his way around a sonata.
I first was introduced to this classical piece in 1988 while watching Madame Sousatzka, in which Shirley MacLaine plays a highly demanding piano teacher for gifted students. This song floated off the screen, lifted me out of my theater seat, and carried me off to the land where music is the only language spoken and I felt fluent.
The pianists featured in this video are two Dutch brothers (not twins) who have been playing together since they were children. The passion of their play adds an intensity to the music that is electric. Prepare to be transported.
With regard to this;
"... the restrictions first took effect in 1978 during the Carter administration and have been in place since—including throughout Trump’s term in office."
President Carter was arguably the most sincerely devout Christian POTUS in recent modern history, yet his beliefs never prevented him from honoring and following the Constitution's mandates.
HMMMMMM.... kinda makes you think about the difference between genuine and performative religiosity, doesn't it?
My home state of Michigan provides plenty of embarrassing and objectionable GOP leaders such as Walberg--and the state rep. who recently told his social media followers that buses at the Detroit airport "just loaded up with illegal invaders" when, in fact, it was college basketball teams arriving to play in the NCAA tournament. Fortunately, they can currently gain election only in specific districts as statewide voting by the people of Michigan as a whole has kept impressive and productive leaders in office--Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Peters, and AG Dana Nessel and Sec of State Jocelyn Benson--all Dems. How do we open the eyes of those voters in Walberg-type districts dominated by FOX News viewers? That is a central problem we face in Michigan and across the country.