GOP's Katie Britt's TV Lies Exploit Women & Some Jan. 6 Rioters had Guns
Jordan Peterson Doesn't Want Lives to Be Saved, Katie Porter’s "Rigged" Election Mistake, Dogs Can Smell Parkinson's, Guys Don't Read Novels, Harry Belafonte Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Coach Gregg Popovich tells us something important about living with disappointment.
Arrest of armed Jan. 6 rioter does new harm to GOP talking points: Republicans tried to spin the insurrection as a spontaneous act of patriotism. Think again.
Katie Britt defends sex trafficking story she falsely links to Biden presidency: With trembling voice, she deliberately lied about women so she could falsely blame Biden. Fake news.
Jordan Peterson Whines Over ‘Woke’ Report on Drop in Traffic Deaths: Peterson complains about a city that has zero traffic fatalities.
Katie Porter’s Ridiculous ‘Rigged’ Election Sour Grapes: Bad look to even use the word rigged.
Pet dogs smell Parkinson's disease with almost 90 percent accuracy: It’s like having a doctor in the family.
What Does It Take to Get a Guy to Read a Novel?: Most men don’t read fiction. They’re missing out on life-changing benefits.
Kareem’s Video Break: Panda bears on a slide. Nothing more needs to be said.
Harry Belafonte Sings “John Henry”: One of my favorite singers sings one of my favorite songs about one of my favorite folk heroes.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
The measure of who we are is how we react to something that doesn't go our way.
Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs head coach and five-time NBA champion.
Life is filled with moments that don’t go our way. Sometimes we crash and burn due to our own mistakes, and sometimes due to circumstances out of our control. Sometimes we psychologically manufacture social slights and torture ourselves with them. (“What did she mean by that?!?”) We wish for mental peace, yet life consists of daily conflicts that make it challenging. Basically, life is a series of annoying ear flicks.
Lately, I’ve been wondering how it is that a man my age still sometimes feels irritated at minor things that happen, from a rude driver cutting me off to an offhand comment from a friend that I may or may not be blowing out of proportion. After all, I know that most of these things don’t matter and have no real effect on my life. The rude driver is soon gone and I will arrive at my destination. The offhand comment, whether it had spiteful intent or was an innocent expression, will fade from my memory. Nothing of substance will have changed. And yet, the angry ferret in my gut keeps twisting.
The initial anger, sometimes even rage, that occurs happens beyond my control. I have come to accept that the uncomfortable reaction will occur regardless of the significance of the trigger, whether petty or important. The key for me is to acknowledge it early and place it into one of two categories: worthless or worthwhile. Worthless is when the Lakers blow a big lead and lose to a much lesser team. Or someone writes something negative about me that also happens to be untrue. Or the driver in front of me slows down at a yellow light so that I miss the light. These are the meaningless things that feel like a chunk of food caught in your teeth at a restaurant that you can’t politely dislodge.
The worthwhile anger is when I read about some political or social injustice perpetuated against people that causes vast suffering for no other reason than politicians’ greed and people’s indifference. I don’t even try to soothe that savage beast because I never want to become complacent, dispassionate, or compassionless about those things. I want that outrage to fuel me into action, whatever form that takes.
Sometimes, we can acknowledge our emotions without expressing them. If someone irritates us or we are disappointed by something that didn’t go our way, it’s better to treat the situation with grace than ire because when we look back on our ignoble behavior, we will then be adding shame to anger. But when someone commits truly heinous deeds that deliberately harm others, then stoking our outrage is how we overcome and banish them. And it’s how we make sure things don’t go their way.
This Week in Disinformation to the American Public
Arrest of armed Jan. 6 rioter does new harm to GOP talking points (MSNBC)
SUMMARY: For years, Republicans have tried to argue that Jan. 6 rioters were unarmed during the Capitol attack. The evidence to the contrary is now overwhelming.
About a month after the Jan. 6 attack, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson scoffed at those alarmed by the riot. “This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me,” the Wisconsin senator said. “I mean ‘armed,’ when you hear ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms?”
In the months and years that followed, GOP lawmakers such as Arizona’s Paul Gosar and Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene also questioned whether the insurrectionists had guns.
As recently as last week, Donald Trump himself used his social media platform to insist, while responding to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, “The so-called ‘Insurrectionists’ that he talks about had no guns. They only had a Rigged Election.”
Such rhetoric has long been foolish, but the GOP voices who’ve questioned whether the rioters were armed looked quite a bit worse late last week. NBC News reported on John Emanuel Banuelos, who allegedly fired two gunshots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and who was arrested by federal authorities on Friday.
…NBC News’ report added, “While numerous rioters were armed with guns on Jan. 6, none were known to have actually fired their weapons; Banuelos is the first to be charged with doing so.”
That distinction is relevant. Despite Republican talk about the rioters not being armed during the pro-Trump violence, the facts have been evident for quite some time.
MY TAKE: In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the government continually rewrote history books and “news” articles to reflect what they wanted the people to think rather than what actually happened:
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.
Six men were arrested on the day of the insurrection for having guns near the Capitol and another was arrested the next day. Those are only the ones they caught. The GOP’s attempt to characterize this attack as just a whimsical protest of peace-loving patriots is another attempt to rewrite history, Orwellian style.
Here are some facts: Within 36 hours, five people died (one was shot by the police, one died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes). Within seven months, four police officers who had been there died by suicide. Would any of them have died if not for the insurrection? In addition, 174 police officers were injured and damages exceeded $2.7 million.
Ironically, the attack occurred because of another misinformation campaign: That the election was stolen. However, the truth has since come out that Trump and every one of his cronies knew he’d lost the election and were trying to steal the election by strong-arming those in charge of running elections to “find” Trump more votes, pretend they were delegates with falsified credentials, or not certify the election.
An accurate account of history is necessary for a country to avoid the same mistakes it made in the past and to follow the path of what they’ve done right. These bold attempts to rewrite history—like the attempts to steal the election through bullying—reveal a vile corruption at the heart of politicians of the Republican Party. A contempt for and fear of history.
Katie Britt defends sex trafficking story she falsely links to Biden presidency (The Guardian)
Saturday Night Live spoof side-by-side with Sen. Britt’s speech.
SUMMARY: In her first interview since delivering her widely ridiculed rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, the Republican senator Katie Britt refused to apologize for invoking a story about child rape that she implied resulted from the president’s handling of the ongoing crisis at the southern US border – even though the abuse occurred years earlier in Mexico while her party controlled the White House.
Britt, 42, appeared on Fox News Sunday and denied hiding the fact that the rape and sex-trafficking case to which she referred had actually occurred during the presidency of George W Bush. She also made it a point to criticize what she called “the liberal media” for how they have covered her rebuttal to Biden’s speech on Thursday, which earned a parody on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.
“I very specifically said … I very clearly said I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12. So I didn’t say a teenager – I didn’t say a young woman,” Britt replied after being asked whether she intended to give the impression that the abuse occurred under the Biden administration’s watch. “[It was] a grown woman … trafficked when she was 12.”
Britt also said: “To me, it is disgusting to try to silence the voice of telling the story of what it is like to be sex-trafficked.”
The junior Alabama senator’s remarks to Fox News Sunday came after even her fellow Republicans pronounced her rejoinder on Thursday to Biden’s State of the Union speech – from the setting of a kitchen – “one of our biggest disasters”.
MY TAKE: There’s so much wrong with the GOP/Britt’s ridiculous rebuttal:
They decided to set Britt down in a drab kitchen because they thought that would appeal to men and women. Men would appreciate the woman acknowledging her place in the household as a nurturer and homemaker, and women would feel like Britt is addressing them as one humble homemaker (who is also a U.S. Senator tasked with making world-changing decisions) to another. Given that Republican legislators across the country have been passing laws to restrict women’s rights, this setting is appropriate to their overall view of women as basically minimum-wage kitchen workers.
Britt is a liar. She deliberately tried to imply that Biden and his policies were responsible for this woman’s suffering and that it occurred in the U.S., neither of which is true. Her rebuttal, in which she tries to squirm out of her previous statement, is as disingenuous as her original lies. Anyone watching Britt’s hammy performance knows exactly what she was implying.
Britt is an exploiter of women. She shamelessly used this horrific story of rape and abuse to further her political agenda. Karla Jacinto Romero, the woman featured in Britt’s story, told CNN’s Rafael Romo that she felt her story had been used for “political purposes.” “In fact I hardly ever cooperate with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image,” she said. “They only want a photo, and that to me is not fair.”
Britt said: “To me, it is disgusting to try to silence the voice of telling the story of what it is like to be sex-trafficked.” This is the clearest indicator that she is desperately flailing, trying to place blame on those who caught her in her lies. No one tried to silence her voice. In fact, Karla Jacinto Romero’s voice is being heard, broadcasted, and welcomed.
FYI: This is the sixth time in the last year she’s told this story to blame Biden (“Katie Britt Used Sex Trafficking Story Multiple Times This Year”). Any claims she just made a mistake is also a lie.
In their response to the State of the Union speech, Britt and the GOP have managed to insult the status of women, exploit sex trafficking for their own gains, and lie to the public about the facts to erroneously blame Biden. This is certainly the state of the Republican Party.
Kareem’s Video Break
If it’s wrong to find these playful baby pandas so delightful, then I don’t want to be right.
Come gather around people wherever you roam—and support this newsletter.
This Week in Adult-ish Whining
Jordan Peterson Whines Over ‘Woke’ Report on Drop in Traffic Deaths (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Right-wing pundit Jordan Peterson fumed over a report that traffic deaths in Hoboken, New Jersey, had decreased.
On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that since implementing “daylighting,” the removal of parking spaces near intersections seven years ago, the city had recorded zero traffic deaths.
The news incensed the conservative psychologist, and he took to X to slam the outlet for reporting the story. “You have become pathetic beyond comprehension @AP and the woke death will soon visit you,” he wrote.
To conservatives like Peterson, limiting parkings spaces is a dire infringement of individual liberties, and not worth the obvious benefit to public safety and human life.
Decrying the announcement that a city has become safer portrays a grim loss of perspective, not totally surprising from a culture warrior who recently displayed grave ignorance on Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who oversaw many of the city’s changes after he was elected in 2018, responded to the post on X. “Being triggered by safe streets and Hoboken’s zero traffic deaths in 7 years is certainly a mood,” he wrote.
MY TAKE: Jordan Peterson is a highly influential, best-selling author with academic credentials, but whose personal biases have nullified any ability for critical thinking. For years, he has been counseling young males on how to be men by using a mixture of irrelevant historical facts and religious meanderings designed to convince those unfamiliar with actual logic. Sadly, it worked.
This is just another example of undeserving people of influence abusing their power with sloppy thinking. For context, in 2021, about 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S., which was 10.5% more than the previous year. It was the highest number in 16 years. Yet, in Hoboken, NJ, there hasn’t been one traffic death in seven years. They achieved this by a technique called “daylighting,” which involves preventing cars from parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk to improve the sightline that protects pedestrians.
Ordinarily, most people would just scratch their heads at Peterson’s comment. But since he has 4.5 million X followers and 8.2 million Instagram followers, we have to monitor his irrational rages against what he considers “woke,” even if it’s just a traffic plan to save innocent lives. If that means being woke, count me in.
Katie Porter’s Ridiculous ‘Rigged’ Election Sour Grapes (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) didn’t get the memo. Fresh off of failing to qualify for the runoff election for U.S. Senate, Porter is claiming the election was rigged against her. (Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) will face off in a runoff election with Republican and former baseball star Steve Garvey for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s vacated seat.)
In a tweet that has evoked controversy, Porter complained that her campaign had to withstand “3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
And in a weak-sauce follow-up statement meant to clarify her tweet, Porter explained that “rigged” means “manipulated by dishonest means”—and that billionaires spending money to defeat her constitutes “dishonest means to manipulate an outcome.”
MY TAKE: I like Katie Porter and everything she’s tried to do in office. She’s smart and dedicated. But her reaction to losing the vote is disappointing. Let me point her to today’s quote: “The measure of who we are is how we react to something that doesn't go our way.”
She should be very aware in the current political climate of politicians promoting unfounded claims of voter fraud that any mention of dishonesty (“rigged”) in an election does serious harm to our electoral process. Maybe billionaires did help her opponents outspend her in political ads, but unless they did so in a way that breaks the law, there is nothing dishonest or rigged in doing so. Indeed, candidates who spend the most money usually win their elections, but that doesn’t mean fraud was involved. Sadly, money does sway people, which is a flaw in the way we teach children to think. But it’s not dishonest.
I disagree with her statement that “dishonest means to manipulate an outcome.” Every candidate tries to manipulate the outcome through their speeches, through where they campaign, and through seeking donations. What would make it dishonest would be if something was illegal or involved lying to the public. She has not proven that to be the case.
Pet dogs smell Parkinson's disease with almost 90 per cent accuracy (New Scientist)
SUMMARY: Pet dogs of various breeds can be trained to detect scents linked to Parkinson’s disease with nearly 90 per cent accuracy. With further research, this may be a relatively conclusive and inexpensive way of diagnosing the condition that enables earlier access to treatments.
MY TAKE: Studies have shown that dogs can sniff colon cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma simply by smelling skin, bodily fluids, or breath. Training takes about a year.
The doctor’s office of the future may involve the physician bringing a trained dog into the room to give you a good sniff before sending you off for blood tests. I know I wouldn’t mind having a fuzzy-faced physician’s assistant to bring some warmth to a doctor’s visit. But it also makes me wonder whether we can duplicate the dog’s smelling ability mechanically and thereby have a much cheaper, less intrusive means of diagnosing.
What Does It Take to Get a Guy to Read a Novel? (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Men don’t read fiction. Some of us do, of course. Some of us can’t stop. But when I became a novelist, I was surprised to learn that men account for just 20 percent of the fiction market. Most of my female friends read my first novel. Many of my male friends still intend to get around to it.
Theories abound regarding the “fiction gap.” Do men lean toward non-fiction because they’re hard-wired or societally encouraged to prefer “useful” material? Do they avoid fiction because it seems frivolous to spend so much time on made-up stories? Regardless of the reason, research is emerging about the benefits of fiction for men. I haven’t performed double-blind studies to prove my argument, but I’ll posit this: Men should read more fiction, because it makes one more empathetic, and empathy is useful.
MY TAKE: I noticed over the past few years that there are many more novels written by women in the bookstore than there were in the past. This is great news in that women’s voices are being heard and their stories are being told. This can only help their status in society. That is if men actually read those books. Studies indicate that those who read fiction that affects them emotionally are much more empathetic toward others.
I love TV and movies. But the experience of reading a novel is much more intimate. The slower pace means I have more time to think about what is happening, to delve deeper into the characters, and to care more about what is happening and why. It also allows me to think about my connections to other people.
Sigmund Freud wrote about how many of his theories were based on literature because it’s writers who practice psychology every time they observe people’s actions and dig into their motivations. If you want to understand humanity better, read novels. If you want to understand yourself better, read novels.
What I’m Watching—TV
Death and Other Details
I just finished watching this twisty mystery series starring Mandy Patinkin and it didn’t disappoint. Patinkin plays a Sherlockian detective trying to solve a series of deaths on an ocean liner in the classic Murder on the Orient Express style. But while the set-up is classic Agatha Christie, the story has some startling contortions that make this very suspenseful. The ending is delightfully surprising. I admit that I figured out who the mastermind was in the first scene the character was introduced. But there were still plenty of shockers.
The Tourist
In the first season, an Irishman wakes up in an Australian hospital with amnesia and spends the rest of the episodes encountering terrible people from his past to discover who he was. During it all, he becomes close with a local cop who is also on a journey of discovering who she is. I loved this season for its humor, wit, quirky characters, and suspense. Season 2 just started on Netflix and it’s just as entertaining as the first season. Now the local cop and the Irishman are in Ireland trying to discover his familial roots, only to become mixed up with feuding local gangsters. The show is funny but also dark, with strong suspense.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Harry Belafonte: “John Henry” (1959)
Harry Belafonte is one of my heroes. Not only is he one of the best singers ever, but he dedicated his life to fighting racism and war. Look at almost every civil rights march and you’ll see Belafonte right beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There are many different songs about the legendary Black folk hero John Henry, including ones recorded by Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, and The Charlie Daniels Band. The legend is that John Henry was a steel-driver on the railroad in the nineteenth century, which meant he hammered a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives when building tunnels. The story claims that when the railroad brought in a machine to do his work, John Henry challenged the machine operator to a contest. He defeated the steam drill only to die of a heart attack from exertion. Researchers believe the real John Henry died of silicosis, which is a lung disease from breathing in the dust from his work. Not as dramatic a death, but just as significant because it was still the job that killed him.
I’ve listened to this song from Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (1959) since I was a young boy. The story of John Henry taking on the steam drill always fascinated me, as did Don Quixote taking on the windmills he thought were giants. Both men were delusional to think that they could be triumphant in the long run, but what glorious delusion. Belafonte spent his life taking on the steam drill/windmills of racism and war, never to be ultimately triumphant, but to win enough to better people’s lives. He inspired me to do the same.
Another great newsletter. I’m still scratching my head how about the Hoboken story - triggered was definitely the right word. How this is “woke” (as if that’s a bad word), I’ll never understand.
My son used to read primarily non-fiction when he was younger, but somewhere along the line got into the sci fi and fantasy genres and reads a few books a week, still finding time for non-fiction. Maybe men need to try to find fiction genres that interest them, or maybe they haven’t tried? Me, I like everything, but give me a good mystery or historical fiction!
For whatever reason I had been wondering what books you ( Kareem) had been reading when this edition arrived with the bit on Guy's Don't Read Novels (and why they should). So, any thought about periodically (or aperiodically) commenting on a book you found interesting and worthwhile, like you do for films and music?