Megyn Kelly Hates on the Black National Anthem Being Sung at Super Bowl & FL GOP Pol Wants to Execute and Display Bodies of Climate Change Protestors
MTG Claims She Can Smell Bullshit--Except Her Own, A Monument to Honor Wrongfully Imprisoned Japanese Americans Finally Gets All the Names Right, Two Book Recommendations, The Chi-Lites Sing "Oh Girl"
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: A few lines from Philip Larkin’s poem “Days” make me ponder the tyranny and freedom of each day.
Trump-Loving Pol Wants to Execute Climate Change Protesters: He wants to hang the protestors and display their bodies to the public. You know, the way England did when we revolted against them for their harsh treatment of colonists.
Marjorie Taylor Greene claims ‘bullshit’ as expert says Covid vaccine saved 14m lives: Does the national IQ average drop every time she says something?
Megyn Kelly, the Woman Who Defended Blackface, said Black National Anthem 'Does Not Belong at Super Bowl': Oh, Megyn, the struggle to remain relevant is taking its toll. We get that you’ve chosen not to learn any lessons from your past racism. Congrats.
A monument honors Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II by listing every name: Please don’t skip this homage to the 125,000 wrongfully imprisoned Japanese Americans. This is especially relevant today after the revelation that Trump wants to build internment camps for migrants.
What I’m Reading Now: Two highly recommended books: Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, and Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity, a riveting graphic novel.
Kareem’s Video Break: This is a little boy you wish you could talk to every day. He is the elixir of pure enthusiasm and joy.
The Chi-Lites sing “Oh Girl”: You’ll be dazzled by the outfits and amused by the dance moves, but you will be lifted by their sweet seventies soul sound.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
What are days for?Days are where we live.They come, they wake usTime and time over.They are to be happy in:Where can we live but days?
excerpt from “Days” by Philip Larkin
“Days are where we live” is one of the simplest yet most profound lines I’ve ever read. It is zen-like in its stark obviousness but has dark depths to plummet for those willing to dive. It is at once a lament as well as a joyful embrace.
Let’s start with the lament. Days are how we divide our lives, like prisoners carving each line on the cell wall to mark the passing. The day confines us and sometimes defines us with our to-do lists and harried running around. “Where did the time go?” we complain after a particularly productive day or even a non-productive day, because days can’t tell the difference. They don’t care what you do.
But we are vividly aware that days are finite coins to be spent wisely if we only knew what wisely entailed. One day we will reach into the pocket and come up empty of days.
Yet, there is joy in that as well. When we can force ourselves to remember the value of days, we tend to make them more precious, and more fulfilling. No, we can’t watch the sunset and sunrise every day to celebrate life because that too will become rote, another box on the to-do list. Plus, we have stuff that needs to get done to support ourselves, our families, and our communities. Kipling’s “If you can fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run” is fine when you’re trying to motivate yourself from slothfulness. But the reality is that sometimes you get farther when you don’t run.
The key, I believe, is to find joy in specific moments of the day rather than to make the whole day a desperate attempt at forced happiness. Every day there should be at least two things you do that you look forward to doing. Doing them brings you such satisfaction that you forget you’re trapped inside a day that is on pace to leave you behind to join all the others in your trail. Each day that passes without you doing something that brings you joy—playing an album, reading a book, going for a walk, talking to a friend—is a day to lament.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth says, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow/Creeps in this petty pace from day to day…” Ain’t that the truth? But that petty pace need not grind us down, it can also lift us up. On the other hand, Scarlett O’Hara reminds us that despite her loss of everything she cared about, “After all, tomorrow is another day.” You know what to do.
This Week in Dumb Things Said by Politicians & Celebrities
The past week or so has produced a bumper crop of stupid. This would seem like a parody site if what they said wasn’t actually true. So, instead of laughing at the parody, we must shake our heads at the state of politics knowing that two of these people were actually elected and one is still a cultural icon for far-right nonsense. The level of disassociation from reality that these people must go through daily just to live with themselves has to be overwhelming. Otherwise, they would withdraw from the public in shame. But it takes self-awareness to feel shame.
Trump-Loving Pol Wants to Execute Climate Change Protesters (Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: The “magenta pink” powdered tempera paint scattered by two climate change activists on Wednesday posed no threat as it fell upon the helium-filled glass encasements that protect the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill or Rights on display in the rotunda at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The two vandals, identified in court papers as Donald Zepeda and Jackson Green, were arrested for destruction of federal government property, though the only significant damage was to the plans of the tourists who were turned away when the rotunda was closed for cleaning.
But that did not stop a Republican party official who is among Donald Trump’s most passionate supporters from calling for the protesters’ immediate execution.
“Hang them—and then display their lifeless bodies as a warning to others,” Anthony Sabatini, a congressional candidate and the GOP chair in Lake County, Florida, declared on X.
…Sabatini actually told The Daily Beast on Thursday that capital punishment should apply to anybody who even attempts to destroy “an original founding document.”
“I think any sane, self-respecting country would assign the death penalty to a crime like that,” he said...
MY TAKE: I wish irony brought me more joy than it does because Sabatini wouldn’t be able to comprehend the irony that he cares more about the physical documents than the contents of the documents. Those founding documents lay out the blueprints for a people whose self-respect is built upon fair and just laws that reject the kind of overly harsh penalties that inspired the Revolutionary War. History has taught us over and over again that a government that delivers unjust punishments (and likes to display the carcasses of their executed) creates the rebels that inevitably overthrow that government.
Sabatini wants to sound tough, but instead, he sounds uninformed, unpatriotic, and illogical. Not surprisingly, he’s part of Florida’s GOP.
Marjorie Taylor Greene claims ‘bullshit’ as expert says Covid vaccine saved 14m lives (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Responding to an expert’s statement that “about 3.2 million” American lives have been saved by vaccines against Covid, with “over 14 million lives” saved globally, the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene said: “I’m not a doctor, but I have a PhD in recognising bullshit when I hear it.”
On Capitol Hill on Thursday, Greene attended a hearing staged by the House oversight select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic.
The expert Greene responded to, Dr Peter Marks, the director of biologics evaluation and research at the Food and Drug Administration, also described how at the height of the pandemic in the US, “about 3,300 [people], about a World Trade Center disaster a day”, were dying of Covid-19, contributing to a death toll of more than 1.1m.
Marks later apologised to viewers, after Greene claimed children should not be given Covid vaccines.
…Speaking after Marks answered questions from the Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, Greene first dismissed the doctor’s comments as “bullshit”.
Then she used her allotted five minutes to deliver rambling remarks about “all kinds of injuries, miscarriages, heart attacks, myocarditis, permanent disability, neurological problems” that she said had arisen from “people being forced to take vaccines”.
MY TAKE: Again, Greene isn’t the main problem here, it’s that she represents the loopy kind of politician that we have allowed to infect Congress. Our mistake is in thinking that because she’s so ridiculous that she’s also harmless. Not so. She’s like the innocuous player on Survivor who never wins a challenge and isn’t smart enough to devise a game plan, so no one votes them out. Then, when all the good players are gone, they end up winning.
Her line, “I’m not a doctor, but I have a PhD in recognizing bullshit when I hear it,” reminds me of the old TV commercial in which an actor says, “I'm not a doctor but I play one on TV,” then recommends Vicks cough drops. Her self-proclaimed expertise at seeing lies doesn’t extend to her own distortions.
On Wednesday, a study was released showing that the Covid death toll was probably 16% higher than previously thought (“Covid death toll in US likely 16% higher than official tally, study says”). That’s 176,000 additional deaths. And that ain’t bullshit.
Greene could be dispatched easily if anyone made her present evidence to back up her claims about COVID and then just went through them and systematically showed how they are inaccurate. It’s what any teacher should do with an obnoxious student. Certainly, Greene needs to be schooled.
Megyn Kelly, the Woman Who Defended Blackface, said Black National Anthem 'Does Not Belong at Super Bowl' (The Root)
SUMMARY: Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News personality who was fired from NBC in 2018 for defending Blackface, chose to once again display her racism by complaining about the “Black National Anthem” being played before Super Bowl LVIII.
Andra Day gave a stunning rendition of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” before the game started on Sunday. That’s when Kelly went to X/Twitter to share her frustration with not only the performance but the fact that the anthem was sung at all.
“The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl,” she wrote on X. “We already have a National Anthem and it includes EVERYONE.” It didn’t take long for Kelly to get dragged to hell online, with media powerhouses like Roland Martin and Jemele Hill chiming in on her blatant ignorance and disrespect.
MY TAKE: A quick reminder that Kelly got fired by NBC for promoting blackface for kids at Halloween. She also claimed that Jesus was White and rejected Black Santas saying: “For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white.” FYI: Santa is traced to St. Nicholas who was Turkish and Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew, most likely with dark skin. But Kelly’s reality is based on TV shows and Coca-Cola ads.
The question here is what is Kelly defending with her comments? Her outrage would only be justified if there was some sort of measurable damage done by singing “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” Instead, viewers were treated to the magnificent voice of Andra Day. Singing the song calls attention to a marginalized group that, as we can see from some of the other stories in today’s newsletter, is still facing deeply rooted prejudice. The song also acknowledges that almost 70% of NFL players are Black. For me, having both anthems sung together is about contrasting the original promise of the country with the reality of where we are today so we can see where we have to go to live up to that promise.
Kareem’s Video Break
They say there are no small parts, just small actors. That makes this little boy a giant among thespians. I wish I could be as enthusiastic as he is about the small things in life. He makes me want to try to be.
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A monument honors Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II by listing every name (AP News)
SUMMARY: …On Feb. 19, 1942, following the attack by Imperial Japan on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry to WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry who were considered potentially dangerous.
From the extreme heat of the Gila River center in Arizona, to the biting winters of Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Japanese Americans were forced into hastily built barracks, with no insulation or privacy, and surrounded by barbed wire. They shared bathrooms and mess halls, and families of up to eight were squeezed into 20-by-25 foot (6-by-7.5 meter) rooms. Armed U.S. soldiers in guard towers ensured nobody tried to flee.
Approximately two-thirds of the detainees were American citizens.
When the 75 holding facilities on U.S. soil closed in 1946, the government published Final Accountability Rosters listing the name, sex, date of birth and marital status of the Japanese Americans held at the 10 largest facilities. There was no clear consensus of who or how many had been detained nationwide.
Duncan Ryūken Williams, the director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at the University of Southern California, knew those rosters were incomplete and riddled with errors, so he and a team of researchers took on the mammoth task of identifying all the detainees and honoring them with a three-part monument called “Irei: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration.”
MY TAKE: I often wonder when writing “My Take” about a particular subject whether people will actually read the piece or skip over it when they see the headline out of lack of interest. This is one of those subjects I fear people will skip because it is such a shameful part of America’s history that no one wants to be reminded of it. I sympathize. No one wants accusatory fingers pointed at them, especially for something they personally find abhorrent and had no part in. I didn’t steal the land from Native Americans. I didn’t enslave Chinese immigrants to work on the railroad.
Yet, as an American, if I’m going to feel pride about the accomplishments and glory of our past, I must share in the weight of our ignoble deeds as well. This isn’t about self-flagellation and blame, it’s about using history as a guidebook for our future. We made mistakes, but what has made America great is its ability to learn from them and progress. Even though that progress is not always linear but rather a two steps forward and one-step-back configuration.
I have never been able to understand how the country was talked into building concentration camps to imprison 125,000 Japanese Americans, 75% of whom were American citizens. Forget for a moment the lack of humanity of such an action. The lack of logic is equally stupefying. There was no solid reason, no concrete evidence, to conclude that this would make the country safer. It was an opportunity to exert our anger and frustration based on ethnicity. If we went to war with England would we imprison people of English descent? Not a chance.
These American citizens, many born in this country, had their constitutional rights stripped while they were forced to live in squalid conditions rampant with disease and other health concerns. When I ponder how the citizens of Germany could be okay with the rounding up and slaughter of six million Jews, it seems impossible. I feel the same way when I think about these camps. At the same time, my spirits are lifted when I think about the dedication of those who thought it was important to chronicle each name that we might honor them.
We must never forget what sins we are capable of so that we don’t ever repeat them. If we were capable of locking up 125,000 men, women, and children for being of one ethnicity, it’s easier to justify doing so again to another group. This is especially important with the recent news that if Trump is elected, he intends to build more detention camps for migrants (“Trump and allies planning militarized mass deportations, detention camps”) which “current and former officials warn could be impractical and dangerous.”
What I’m Reading Now
Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me) Third Edition: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
I highly recommend this very accessible and informative exploration of people’s drive to make bad decisions and then justify them so they can make more bad decisions. I guarantee you will recognize yourself—as I certainly saw my flaws. But the authors’ clear and entertaining style, as well as their convincing analysis, will make you take a harder look at yourself and make corrections. I liked it so much that I’m going to read it again.
Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity written by Kami Garcia
This crime graphic novel is visually unlike anything you’ve ever seen—containing some amazing and creative illustrative art. The story focuses on Dr. Harley Quinn, a forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler, as she helps the police search for The Joker, who is terrorizing Gotham with a series of bizarre murders. It’s basically a police procedural but with background stories detailing both The Joker and Quinn’s horrific upbringings. Quinn has no intention of turning Joker into the police but rather killing him for murdering her friend. Joker is eager to return the favor. Highly suspenseful.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
The Chi-Lites: “Oh Girl”
I mean, just look at those outrageous outfits and you know why they were so cool. The Chi-Lites were high schoolers when they formed in Chicago in 1959. But they went on through the sixties and seventies to produce 11 Top Ten R&B hits as well as 21 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Chart.
I struggled between featuring “Have You Seen Her” or “Oh Girl” until I remembered that I could always come back and highlight them again in the future. “Oh Girl” was their only #1 single. When they first walk onto the stage, you’ll notice the gaudy clothes, the elegant mustaches, and the beautiful fros, and you’ll smile at their whimsical dance moves. But those voices, the harmonies, and high notes—man, they are the epitome of seventies SOUL.
BINGO!
One more: Kareem, are you okay with the medical expenses from your fall and surgery? If not, I'm certain many people on the forum would gladly assist you. Just ask. Oh! I also picked up some of the John Wooden stamps today - they're pretty big for stamps. The postal clerk said "you kind of look like him" to me. I thought...oh geez!