Musk's Latest Moral Meltdown & A Tale of Two GOP Election Frauds
Company Tries to Go Viral Licking Musk's Boots, White Billionaire Degrades Harvard's Black President as Being Diversity Hire, My Movie Masterpiece Vault Opens to "The Third Man," Laufey Sings "Misty"
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Robert Frost lays down more wisdom about how the choices we make define who we are. It’s not about the road we take, but why we take it.
Musk Unbans Alex Jones Making X Even Slimier: The man who got his followers to threaten the lives of parents whose children had been murdered is back, thanks to Elon Musk.
GOP Fake Electors on Trial: During the 2020 election, a bunch of Republicans tried to pervert the election results through lies, forgery, and fake documents. All in support of the man who still rails against election fraud.
Casey DeSantis Urges Election Fraud in Iowa: DeSantis told people from other states to flood Iowa to take part in their caucus, even though that’s illegal election fraud.
FabFitFun Tries to Go Viral by Endorsing Musk’s Antisemitism: Thankfully, it backfired.
Billionaire Degrades Harvard President as Diversity Hire: Another billionaire thinks that money makes him immune to logic and buys him a permit to be racist.
Kareem’s Video Break: This is why we love pets so much.
Kareem’s Movie Masterpiece Vault: The Third Man is one of the best movies ever made. They still give tours in Vienna following the movie’s plot. And there’s a The Third Man museum. Here’s why all the fuss.
Laufey Plays “Misty” for Us: Her fusion of jazz and pop will make you misty.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
Yes, I know that I used a Frost quote a couple of weeks ago, but that poem led me to think about this poem, so here we are with one of America’s most beloved—and misunderstood—poems. People have been getting it wrong for decades.
The narrator of the poem comes to a fork in which there are two possible roads (“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”). He stands there awhile trying to decide which road to take, finally choosing the road that “was grassy and wanted wear.” For many readers, this has been interpreted as a celebration of having the courage to take the less conventional path in life. To dare to boldly go where others fear to tread. (I combined OG Star Trek’s mission statement “to boldly go where no man has gone before” with “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” from Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Criticism.” That is how you take the road less traveled, folks.)
However, Frost is not congratulating people for picking a harder but more satisfying path. In fact, he’s saying the opposite. He tells us the “passing there/Had worn them really about the same” and that both roads had the same amount of untrodden leaves at their entrance. He then says that he’ll keep the other road for another day, but realizes “how way leads on to way” he’ll probably never be back. Every path leads to a series of more forked roads.
Here’s the kicker: The lines before the above quote are
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
He’s telling us the story of his choice now, but imagines he will be telling it differently in the future (“I shall be telling this”). That’s why he tells the story with a sigh, not a triumphant smile. He’s not smug about the road taken, but wistful about the road not taken. He’s not unhappy with the choice he’s made, just curious about the choice he didn’t make.
And therein lies our dilemma: We have to make so many gnarly choices in life, most of them without enough information or time. Each choice defines who we are, not because of the outcome of that choice, but because of the criteria we base that choice on. If I lend my car to a friend and they get in a serious car crash, I still did the right thing. If I start a business I’m passionate about and have thoroughly researched and it fails leaving me broke, I still did the right thing. Coach Wooden was fond of quoting Ben Franklin’s famous maxim: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Yet, despite constantly preparing, you can still lose. It reminds me of Michael Jordan’s famous quote: “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
But success isn’t about winning championships or making money, it’s about being happy with who you are. And who you are isn’t based on the outcome of choices—good or bad—but the reasons you made those choices.
It doesn’t matter which choice the narrator made, only that they chose based on who they were at the time. That’s what makes the difference, not the path itself. In the end, the road not taken would be the same as the road taken because of the person on that road.
Elon Musk Unbans Alex Jones From X—Who Immediately Reposts Andrew Tate (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Elon Musk on Saturday unbanned the X account belonging to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, ending his five-year exile from the platform over his repeated violations of its terms of service.
Jones celebrated the occasion with a repost of a post by Andrew Tate, a conservative kickboxer facing human trafficking and rape charges in Romania. Tate encouraged his followers to celebrate Jones’ return to X, writing: “To show respect to Alex Jones for his triumphant return and to show respect to Elon being a hero—tell a globalist to get fucked today... Were [sic] so back.”
The decision marked a stunning about-face for Musk, who just last year balked at the idea of unbanning the now-bankrupt provocateur, citing the lies he propagated about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
“My firstborn child died in my arms,” Musk tweeted at the time (Musk’s first wife disputed his claim). “I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”
Jones infamously falsely characterized the shooting as a “false flag” and maligned the parents of shooting victims. Later, when they took him to court, he admitted his statements were false and was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the families of the victims. He and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy and the families have yet to see even a fraction of the money they are owed.
…Musk in turn issued a poll on X Saturday, asking users to weigh in on Jones’ reinstatement. Seventy percent of X accounts that participated in the poll voted to unban Jones, enough to overturn the five-year-old ban.
MY TAKE: The devolution of Elon Musk from clownish gadfly to social criminal has been troubling. He started by standing outside Democracy’s house yelling “Yo momma” insults. Sure, it was childish and petulant nonsense, but mostly harmless. Then he stole our car when he took over Twitter and used it for antisemitic rants and to punish journalists. Sad and disturbing, but he still had time to pull up from his pedal-to-the-metal crash into absurdity. Now he’s splashing gasoline on our porch while smoking a cigar. He’s become a cultural arsonist, a churlish and self-destructive child willing to take everyone else down with him. “Let it all burn!” he cackles as the flames climb up his pant legs.
Jones was banned for good reason: He’s a liar whose lies had horrific consequences. When he told his millions of listeners (not the most rational audience) that the Sandy Hook Massacre was fake, they came after the grieving parents with relentless death threats. He knew he was broadcasting lies and that he was bringing even more suffering to parents whose children had been murdered, as he admitted during his trial, but that was how he made his money. Now, Musk has brought him back.
This is not a free speech issue. X is a private company that has the right to allow anyone to say almost anything. But most companies with this kind of social power also accept the responsibility to prevent hate speech, threats of violence, and known liars and con people.
Musk’s poll is a devious sleight-of-hand trick to justify his inexcusable actions. He knew the outcome before he posted it. As he knows, most of those followers who would respond to his polls are right-leaning without much understanding of the nuances of free speech. Musk has already proven over and over again that he is not a free-speech absolutist, banning and blocking those who disagree or criticize him. This is just another example of his insincerity and incompetence as he spirals toward moral insanity. Now he’s sloshing gasoline for fellow pyromaniac Alex Jones. Their common target? Truth.