MAGA Boycotting Costco & Trump Insults MLK
December 16, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Are you living a life of bright originality or dim imitation?
Panel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns: It’s now national policy to put the health and lives of our children at risk just so the GOP can score political points with those ignorant of science.
National parks cut free entry for MLK Day, add Trump’s birthday: Trump’s birthday has just been declared more important than the end of slavery in this country. Yeah, live with that for a minute.
University of Alabama shutters Black, female student magazines: Using the DEI excuse, the school closed down voices that are vital to a university providing cultural education.
MAGA is boycotting Costco after retail giant sues Trump admin over “unlawfully collected tariffs”: The silliest of all boycotts just launched by people who want to pay more for goods while supporting illegal taxation.
Video Break: This is what granddads like me live for.
Trump Is Boosting MAGA X Accounts Operating Overseas: Much of Trump’s social media support comes from phony MAGA accounts originating in countries with right-wing dictators. Trump is okay with that.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: MAGA Foe Named World’s Top Artist: Bad Bunny’s selection to play the Super Bowl has irked conservatives because it proves they are being left behind by pop culture.
Magical Moments in Sports: In the 2012 London Olympics, a 27-year-old record was broken.
Tony Bennett & Count Basie Perform “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”: A jazz classic performed by two jazz masters.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
Herman Melville
At first, this quote might seem like it’s just advice about art from one of the greatest writers of all time. After all, Melville had made a career as a bestselling novelist imitating the adventure stories that were popular at the time. He was at the top of his career when he suddenly decided to scrap the pages he’d already written of Moby-Dick and begin again with the most original and ambitious novel of his life. Filled with poetic writing, metaphoric philosophy, religious motifs and more, it was the greatest achievement of his life and became one of the most heralded works of literature in history. It was also a huge commercial flop that destroyed his career.
What would you have done? Written the book as he did, or write it the way he originally planned, as just another adventure story that undoubtedly would have been a success?
That’s really the same question we face daily about authoring our own lives. Do we make choices that are based on our own examination of life, or do we simply adopt beliefs and take actions that are what others want us to do? Are we defined by our originality or by our complacency? Over 80% of teens claim to have the same religious beliefs as their parents. However, only 56% of teens who come from a household in which one parent is affiliated with a religion and the other doesn’t identify as holding the same religion. The same is true in politics. Around 80-90% of children have the same political party affiliation as their parents. Most have never even considered other opinions.
Are these kids original thinkers weighing all options, studying different points of view, examining evidence? Or are they pale imitations of their parents, embracing beliefs because that is how they are assured the love of their parents and community, rather than being shunned for disagreeing?
Economist and diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith put it another way: “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” From a young age we are rewarded with agreeing with the status quo and punished for voicing opposition. Dissent brings isolation, marginalization, ridicule, and sometimes violence. But it also brings a stronger sense of self, an identity that is one’s own, rather than the concoction of others. Sadly, those under the influence of cultural brainwashing don’t know they are part of the hive mind.
Originality of thought always brings judgment. That is too much of a burden for many. The Trump administration is the manifestation of imitation with a hatred for original thinking. Unfortunately, they have chosen to imitate a time in America when we were at the height of racism, misogyny, war mongering, and fear of change. These simple-minded bullies are a cautionary tale about what happens when we choose to wrap ourselves in the confining Snuggly of tradition and parental approval instead of thinking for ourselves. Rather than an individual, they are like an outline of a body in a crime scene.
