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.
A Tale of Two GOP Election Frauds
Less appetite — and opportunity — to serve as fake Trump electors in 2024 (The Washington Post)
SUMMARY: Republican Party activist Ken Carroll thought he was doing the right thing when he agreed to cast an electoral college vote for Donald Trump at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020.
But he wouldn’t do it again.
“Knowing what I know now? No,” Carroll said. “But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don’t have at the time of an event.”
Carroll was one of 84 Republican presidential electors who convened to cast votes for Trump in 2020 across seven states where Joe Biden had been declared the certified winner. And he is among the electors in six of those states who have become embroiled in criminal investigations of their actions — saddled with legal bills and in some cases facing criminal charges. Carroll says he never again wants to be involved with a criminal investigation.
In the past few months, 25 of those 84 electors have been charged with felonies, such as forgery, false statements and filing false documents. Ten more have agreed as part of a lawsuit settlement to not serve as electors in any election in which Trump is on the ballot. And 13 others in Georgia have been labeled “unindicted co-conspirators.”
MY TAKE: As Republicans continue their national campaign to marginalize voters of color, students, and seniors—all under their false claims of election fraud—they have yet to admit that they committed one the most pervasive election fraud scams in modern history. Members of the Republican Party deliberately chose to lie, cheat, and use forged papers to subvert the will of the American people. How is that not a main talking point during this election? Especially when the person behind the fraud is the current GOP front-runner.
One GOP consultant claimed the prosecution of those who sought to undermine democracy would discourage Republican activists from participating in the election process. That’s some tortured logic: It would only discourage people from breaking the election laws. Why would insisting that they participate only in legal ways discourage them?
I’ve had my disagreements with presidential nominees before, but never in my lifetime has there been a clearer case of an openly corrupt, intellectually challenged, and admitted dictator. Never before have I seen so many Americans enthusiastically embrace someone who so arrogantly proclaims anti-American values.
Casey DeSantis encourages Republicans nationwide to vote in Iowa caucus (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Casey DeSantis, the wife of Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, has upset party officials in Iowa by urging her husband’s supporters from around the US to “descend” on the state and illegally take part in next month’s caucuses.
The former television news reporter, who has become the Florida governor’s chief supporter on the campaign trail, made the faux-pas during an appearance with him on Fox News on Friday, in which she wrongly stated it was legal for out-of-state residents to participate.
“We’re asking all of these moms and grandmoms to come from wherever it might be, North Carolina, South Carolina and to descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus,” she said, citing a Mamas for DeSantis coalition of 1.1 million mothers and grandmothers she said was influential in Florida during his 2022 re-election.
“You do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus. So moms and grandmas are going to be able to come and be a part and let their voice be heard and support Ron.”
Unfortunately for Ron DeSantis, who has made clamping down on perceived election fraud a central plank of his second term in the Florida governor’s mansion, they cannot. Iowa law, as the state’s Republican party was forced to point out in a tweet, restricts caucus voting to legal residents of the state with photo ID, and Iowa students living out of state who can choose where they register.
MY TAKE: Two things bother me about this story. First, Casey DeSantis is a former journalist, current wife of a governor and presidential candidate, and potential First Lady. That she encouraged voter fraud might have been an error, but the fact that she didn’t know the law yet went ahead and made the statement anyway to millions of people showed a serious level of incompetence. Why wouldn’t she check the facts first? And why didn’t Ron DeSantis, who was with her at the time, know the facts? Two people who want to occupy the White House told non-residents to flood the state to illegally participate in the caucus.
Second, I find her attempt to appeal to “moms and grandmoms” to do her bidding smarmy and duplicitous. The implication—as with Mamas for DeSantis—is that a group of moms and grandmoms is imbued with some sort of spiritual virtue based on having children that transcend logic and therefore can’t be questioned. Those Mamas for DeSantis helped dumb down their children’s education, made their children more susceptible to long-term disease, and allowed the justice system to be weakened. They may be moms and grandmoms—just not good ones.
Kareem’s Video Break
No one with a pet they love can deny the healing power of that relationship. Thirty seconds of love with a pet can improve your mood for hours. The expression of contentment on the horse’s face will stay with me for a long time.
Fa la la la la roughly means SHARE.
Dumb Stuff Billionaires Said This Week
Billion-Dollar Startup FabFitFun Faces Revolt Over Pro-Musk Ad (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: FabFitFun sells subscription boxes filled with products befitting its cutesy name: a cable knit headband, matcha gummies, eyelash serum, a bedazzled handbag. Valued at roughly $1 billion, according to Crunchbase, the company has scaled with the discipline of a tech startup while seeking to project a soft, playful energy to its customers.
So it was curious this week that the firm decided to launch a new advertisement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at a time when many brands have stepped away.
“Happy Holidays!” read the post. “FabFitFun is pledging an additional $100k of X advertising in support of its free speech ideals.” The ad promised new users a mystery gift worth at least $300 if they used an Elon Musk-inspired promo code: “GoFuckYourself.”
Musk used the same phrase in late November while publicly deriding advertisers that had paused spending on the platform.
FabFitFun’s customers did not appreciate the callback. Swarms of them began canceling their subscriptions and flooding a company forum with angry messages.
“Wow, who are the fucking idiots running this company who think showing public support for Musk and his alt-right FrEe sPeEcH moaning is a winning tactic to appeal to their primarily Gen Z and Millennial female customer base?” read one highly upvoted comment on FabFitFun’s Reddit page.
In a statement on Thursday, cofounders Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens, Michael Broukhim, and Daniel Broukhim apologized.
“Clearly, this was a mistake—a poorly thought out attempt to participate in a viral moment through a marketing test—and for that we take ownership and responsibility….The content and tone of the ad was out of place and out of character and is not representative of who we are as a brand.”
MY TAKE: The apology, like so many these days, is disingenuous. They claim that this was just a tongue-in-cheek attempt to go viral and is not reflective of their true character. That’s just not true.
Even if they were just trying to be funny—yet lack any sense of humor to see how unfunny this is—the ad is still an endorsement of Musk’s refusal to accept any responsibility for his public antisemitism. By endorsing Musk’s pushback to accusations of antisemitism, FabFitFun is also endorsing Musk’s antisemitism. They had to know this or they’d be complete idiots. They just hoped it would go viral among the right-wingers that dominate social media.
Although their statement claims the ad, “is not representative of who we are as a brand,” FabFitFun’s co-CEO Michael Broukhim has proven otherwise. He posted on X referring to Musk as “singular as a leader in our world.” He did this after Musk visited Israel, which supports my “complete idiots” theory that they support Israel but unknowingly ended up also supporting antisemitism.
Also, Broukhim likes to rant about the “evils of the trans movement,” including that it “preys on impressionable youth.” Of course, these delusional opinions can easily be refuted with facts and evidence, both of which are missing from his screeds.
FabFitFun wanted to go viral. So be it. Now let’s help them go out of business.
Why a White Billionaire Slammed Harvard’s First Black President as a So-Called Diversity Hire (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, student-led pro-Palestine protests on U.S. college campuses have been accused of spreading antisemitism and threats to Jewish students, and a number of pro-Palestinian voices and organizations have been silenced or shut down.
As a result, university leaders are being asked about what they’re doing to protect both Jewish and Muslim students. Those are rightful questions and more needs to be done to ensure student safety and sense of belonging.
However, Dr. Claudine Gay—Harvard University’s first Black president in its 368-year history—is facing a more sinister challenge. Look no further than the billionaire Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman’s recent post on X, in which he claims to have “heard from someone with firsthand knowledge that the Harvard president search committee would not consider a candidate that didn’t meet the university’s DEI requirement.”
He went further, arguing that race, gender, and sexual orientation are “not the right approach” for identifying the most qualified leaders for prestigious universities. And in a grotesque case of concern-trolling, Ackman added, “it is also not good for those awarded the office of president who find themselves in a role that they would likely not have obtained were it not for a fat finger on the scale.” (Ackman and those that share his mindset would like for you to believe that in 368 years there wasn’t one qualified Black candidate that could lead Harvard.)
MY TAKE: Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman is good at making money. I’m good at making baskets. Neither one of us is qualified to select the president of Harvard University. Sure, Ackman has a BA and MBA from Harvard, but just because I attended UCLA doesn’t mean I have special insights into the requirements for being president.
Here’s what I do know: Accusing Harvard’s first Black president of being hired only because she was Black is a pretty racist statement. Being Black might have been a consideration in her being hired, but that in no way diminishes her other qualifications. For example, let’s say I ran a hospital in which all the doctors were White and I needed to hire another doctor. I looked at three candidates, two White and one Black. All are equally qualified. I might then take into consideration that many of our patients are non-White and might feel more comfortable with a Black physician (several studies back this up). Did I hire him because he was Black? Yup, but only because he also met all other qualifications, and having a Black doctor would make us a better hospital.
The enrolled undergraduate and graduate student population of Harvard University is 34% White with the 66% majority of students non-White. Yet, Harvard has never had a Black president before. Coincidence?
So, what’s Ackman’s beef? Well, he heard from someone else that the search committee wanted to hire someone to change the White Wall of presidents. First, he’s formed his opinion based on gossip. Second, even if that was their choice, he’s offered no evidence that she wasn’t as qualified as any other candidate.
Ackman’s real problem with her is that he didn’t like the answers she (and two other university presidents) gave at a congressional hearing when questioned by Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose interrogation technique was akin to asking, “Are you still beating your wife? Yes or no.” I’ll get into the specifics of that story at a later time, but for right now, the question Ackman raised was about Dr. Gay being hired in the first place. He demeaned her with the usual racist rant that she was hired because she was Black. Based on his inability to use logic, perhaps he should return his Harvard diplomas.
Kareem’s Movie Masterpiece Vault
The Third Man (1949)
Haven’t heard of The Third Man? Well, I can tell you unequivocally that it is one of the best movies ever made. I’m not alone in that lofty assessment. It appears on many international lists of Best Movies. Many of its famous scenes—especially the chase through the sewers of Vienna—have been copied in countless other movies. The movie was directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene, one of the most famous writers in the world.
Don’t let the colorful poster above fool you. This movie is in black and white and may be the best atmospheric example of film noir ever made. It also uses a zither for its soundtrack, which adds a jagged edge to the suspense.
The story follows naive American pulp writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) who arrives in post-WWII Vienna for a job with his old school chum Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to discover Lime is dead. He bungles around looking for answers, falls in love with Lime’s grieving girlfriend, and discovers layers of corruption and betrayal he’d never imagined.
One of the most famous—and copied—scenes occurs after Lime unsuccessfully tries to recruit Martins to the evil side by referring to people as nothing more than tiny dots to be eliminated if there’s profit. When Martins refuses on moral grounds, Lime scoffs and says:
You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and blood-shed; but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!
Welles added those lines himself because they needed a quick speech for timing. He later acknowledged the idea came from another source and that the cuckoo clock came from Germany, not Switzerland. But the speech remains brilliant. Also, the ending is in my top three movie endings.
It is a tribute to the movie’s complex characterization of Harry Lime, and Welles’ charmingly evil performance, that after the movie’s release, Harry Lime became so popular that Welles did a radio drama, The Lives of Harry Lime, as a prequel. A television series followed starring Michael Rennie as Harry Lime that lasted five seasons. Never before has a movie villain been so popular that audiences couldn’t get enough of him.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Laufey: “Misty”
Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey credits Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday as her jazz influences and Taylor Swift as her pop influence. At only 24, she has made a name for herself for her jazz-pop infusion and we are all better off for it. She is an accomplished pianist and cellist who has been hailed for revitalizing jazz for the mainstream audience.
I picked this video for its simplicity—a woman, a piano, a song—and because “Misty” is a jazz standard written by the incomparable jazz icon Erroll Garner. The moody love song already has been immortalized by Ella Fitzgerald and Johnny Mathis, but now we have Laufey's equally enchanting version. Her voice is like a cool stream swiftly flowing, sometimes playfully bumping rocks or branches, then moving on. Once you’ve listened to her sing, you will want to hear more.
Kareem, I heard you broke your hip. I am really sorry to hear that. I know how sore you will be as I broke my proximal femur last year. The Doctors fix you, but the physical therapists heal you.... Stay positive and get better soon. We are all pulling for you.
I love that despite your pain you focused on sending a positive message out to Manhattan Transfer. You are truly a model to follow. Feel better and keep enlightening us.
From start to finish, one of your best columns. You call out hypocrisy, stupidity, ignorance in so many of our would-be leaders, and, in the case of the billionaire Harvard alum, it was time someone had the courage to call out his remarks about Dr. Gay for just what they were _ racist. Add to that a very moving video (I too can't get that horse's expression out of my mind), a great scene from a great, underappreciated film and a beautiful new interpretation of a classic song. This ought to win you another LA Press Club Award. To all this let me also add my deepest regrets about your recent injury and my wish for a speedy and full recovery. You're a great human being, Kareem, and as others here have already said, we need you and your insight now more than ever.