Two Antithetical, Converging Philosophies

How do you say "if you don't love it, leave it" in left?  Lawyer Sunny Hostin tells us how in this excerpt from "The View":

You know, this country seems to be one of the only countries in the world that is so proud of being neolingual and not being able to communicate in more than one language. And the fact of the matter is, in about twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be the majority in this country. So if you don't understand Spanish,, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course.

🚨WATCH: Sunny Hostin tells viewers that if they wanted to understand Bad Bunny they should have learned spanish.

SUNNY: "Maybe start taking a duolingo course." 🤡

So let me get this straight — telling immigrants to learn English, the most widely spoken language in America, is… pic.twitter.com/esdkvQEAde

— Brandon Tatum (@TheOfficerTatum) February 11, 2026

One of the significant things in this remark initially escaped my attention, as it did the tweeter. Hostin says that in approximately twenty years, multi-ethnic people will be a majority in the USA.  Then she recommends individuals learn Spanish. However, in what may be the most recent estimate, the researcher refers  (emphasis mine) to "the growth in Multicultural populations in the U.S." There not only are more Latinos residing in the USA than in past years, but more immigrants from Africa and Asia and tribal populations remain. Relatively few in those groups speak Spanish. 

Nonetheless, the thrust of Hostin's statement is the warning that if  "you don't understand Spanish, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course."  The condescending reference to "little" and "start taking" may be unintentional. However, the implication is obvious and intentional: if you don't know Spanish, you won't belong here. If you don't love it (as it will be), just leave.

Perhaps Hostin has learned from the right. In  this tweet featured in my last post, lawyer and ex-Fox News talk show host Megyn Kelly remarks

So we have to keep the Super Bowl, which is a quintessential american event. Football, that kind of football, is ours. They cal it American football. And the halftime show and everything around it needs to stay quintessentially Amrican- not Spanish, not Muslim, not anything other than good old-fashion American apple pie. There should be a meat loaf, maybe some fried chicken, and an English-speaking performance. That's what the Super Bowl should be.

Food is a relatively superficial marker of nationalism but I can play the game as well as does Kelly. Meatloaf is, according to Wikipedia, "a traditional Slovak,German, Czech, Nordic, and Flemish dish." Fried chicken also originaed from abroad, perhaps from Scotland. And "good old-fashion American apple pie,"  according to Rossi Anastopoulo (and who would know more about food than a Rossi Anastopoulo?) originated in England, 'where it developed from culinary influences from France, the Netherlands, and even the Ottoman Empire. In fact, apple trees weren’t even native to North America until the Europeans arrived."

They all came from abroad and then were adapted to the taste of Americans. And that's the point. These dishes did not have to originate in North America. They were brought here, were adopted by Americans, and became what we think of as American. 

Bad Bunny was born in Puerto Rico and thus is a natural-born American. (He is eligible to become President once of age; please, spare me.) But you get the point: he was not born in any of the 50 states and speak a language foreign to most of us born in the USA.  But that does not disqualify him from being accepted by Americans, especially those who speak Spanish, are young (rap music), and were born outside of the continental USA.

It goes to the question of what is "American" which, to Megyn Kelly, evidently excludes non-English speaking peoples and Muslims. 

It is a mistake easily made, and not only by ethnocentric conservatives. Sunny Hostin, whose perspective is not the majority on the left, but not uncommon either, says you better learn Spanish.  In her utopian future, no one in her country may be uni-lingual unless Spanish is the only language they know. 

Kelly and Co. believe that a Super Bowl halftime show in Spanish is not "quintessentially American." Hostin and Co. believe that because, sometime in the not-distant future, "multi-ethnic people" outnumber non-Hispanic whites, everyone not white (which includes many people whose first language is neither English nor Spanish) must learn Spanish. 

Megyn Kelly argues that the halftime show of a game which is broadcast to the USA entirely in English (elsewhere, no doubt translated) should be in English, not Spanish. It is not even the championship game itself which must be in English, but the accessory to the game. And as far as we know and very likely, it will not become a habit.

Both groups believe that there can be one America, one in which everyone conforms to the majority (Kelly) or to a minority (Hostin). They both believe in the sadly enduring myth of the USA as a melting pot. Toss everyone into the cauldron and everyone becomes the same, Everyone must know English- or everyone must know Spanish.

The USA is not a melting pot. It never has been one, though we like telling ourselves it is. Kelly is representative of a narrow-minded conservatism while Hostin represents only a liberalism which, if seen clearly, is quite illiberal. 

If the NFL chooses periodically to slap English-speaking Americans in the face because it envisions a global, rather than a US-centered, market, it is entitled. If in 2046 or thereabouts many of us choose to continue to speak only one language, we will be entitled to do so. We will survive either- or both- because various and varied subcultures can exist side-by-side with individuals choosing to adopt- or shun- any portion they wish.  Ours need not be a society of forced homogenization but of a colorful tapestry.

Kelly on the Bunny

Megyn Kelly starts out by making one valid point... then goes off the rails.

Megyn Kelly just shouting “FOOTBALL IS OURS” at Piers Morgan about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show is the perfect example of this moment in time. Put it in a time capsule and send it out into space. pic.twitter.com/oTuiwI9xBR

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) February 9, 2026

In the excerpt presented in this tweet, Kelly is seen arguing

I'm sorry, Piers, but to get up there and perform the whole, the whole show in Spanish is a middle finger to the rest of America. Who gives a damn that we have 40-40 million Spanish speakers in the United States. We have 310 million who don't speak a lick of Spanish.

Of course, it's a "middle finger to the rest of America"; a middle finger to the portion of the USA, the vast majority of the country, which does not speak English. Take a point away from Kelly for referring to her (and my) country as "America" instead of the United States of America, which is ironic given "though the United States of America is colloquially referred to as just 'America,' Bad Bunny reminded the audience- and perhaps some U.S. politicians- that America is the entire western hemisphere, as he named [sic] checked dozens of countries as the show concluded."

If Mr. Bunny has thus impelled some prominent Americans to refer to our country, properly, as the "United States of America" (or USA), he will have performed an important service.  If so, it will be- again- ironic that it was effected by an awful rabbit who rarely uses his real name, Benito Antonio Martiniez Ocasio. (Fat chance of that happening, though.)

Kelly continues by making a point which is demonstrably inaccurate as she contends (and yes, Megyn, we all caught the Spanish accent you inelegantly tried with "Latinos")

This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country, not for the Latinos, not for one small group, but for the country, not for one small group, but for the country. We don't need a black national anthem...

As we would have responded as children on the playground decades ago, "who says?" Is there a stature, rule, or even guideline which states that the halftime show of the Super Bowl is to be "a unifying event for the country?"  Spoiler alert: no.

Open your eyes, woman! Most Americans already have decided that they are, or are not, fans of the NFL. Among the tens of millions of Americans for whom Spanish is their first language, there are many who have not seriously considered professional football. If they weren't going to watch the game otherwise, most surely would check out this guy singing in Spanish- and the others, because of the countroversy engendered.

But the NFL has an even greater motivation for turning the halftime show over to an internationally popular, Spanish-speaking rapper. The 2025 season which concluded Sunday included six international games, one each in Dublin, Berlin, and Madrid, and three in London.  In 2026, there will be one game each played in Paris, Munich, Melbourne, Rio, Madrid, Mexico City, and three again in London. The NFL wants to market itself everywhere it can be profitable, and that includes the Spanish-speaking world. The billions keep piling up and the league, and Commissioner Roger Goodell, don't care whose face gets slapped. Capitalism, baby! (To her credit, Ms. Kelly seems never to have embraced the term "populist.")

The interview continued with Kelly getting something iwith immensely important implications legally and objectively incorrect. Piers Morgan asked her "O.K., what is the national language- officially- the national language of the United States of America?" 

The guest replied "I mean, English and there have been-" To that, Morgan countered "No, no. Hang on.You don't have one. You don't have one. The truth is you don't have an official language."

Well done, Piers! (Exclamation Point Day.)  Morgan is correct. It turns out that- notwithstanding the President's effort- apparently somewhat successful- to muddy the waters, the Executive Order signed by Donald Trump merely applies to the executive branch, and then only in limited fashion. As explained here

On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14224, “Designating English as the Official Language of The United States,” which, as the name suggests, declares English as the official language of the U.S. The executive order also revokes Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Executive Order (EO) 13166 required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to improve access to their services for those with limited English proficiency (LEP). To comply with EO 13166, federal agencies released various resources and guidance on how entities should achieve better access to their services. Those guidance documents were key resources on standards, best practices, and technical assistance that helped government agencies comply with the executive order

The Trump administration’s EO 14224 lifts those requirements — meaning that federal agencies and recipients of federal funding are no longer required to implement plans to ensure that LEP individuals can access their services. EO 14224 requires the U.S. Attorney General to withdraw policy guidance documents that were previously issued under EO 13166 and provide “updated guidance” that takes into account EO 14224….

The Trump administration’s Executive Order 14224 is not statutory. As an executive order, it does not have the power to change existing federal laws and statutes. The order’s authority does not extend beyond the executive branch and is technically limited to telling federal agencies how to implement a statute. To declare English as the official language of the U.S., Congress would have to approve legislation establishing an official language and the president would have to sign it.

Though the NFL did give a middle finger to most of the country, in so doing the league was not thinking of brown or white, but of green. Further, the NFL does not owe Americans a "unifying" halftime show or even any halftime show at all. And there is no official language in the USA.

Nonetheless, Kelly's strident criticism does raise an issue which is critical and which, while below the radar, should be provocative. How important, if at all, is it that a national (also international, obviously) event which draws the attention of well over 100 million Americans be unifying?  That may be considered in the next post which, thankfully, would not be as long as this one.

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On a Positive Note, It's What He Believes

During the War of 1812, Master Commandant Oliver Perry wrote to Major General William Henry Harrison "we have met the enemy and they are ours."

One hundred fifty-eight years later, cartoonist Walt Kelley adapted the line to Earth Day and wrote "we have met the enemy and it is us."

Fifty-four years later, we have found the perfect Republican and he kicks for a living. The New York Times notes that, in his graduation speech at Benedictine College, devout Catholic and Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison

Butker encouraged men to be “unapologetic in your masculinity,” referenced “the deadly sins” of homosexuality, and criticized Catholic priests for deriving “their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners.” In attempting to drive home his point, Mr. Butker invoked lyrics from Ms. Swift’s song “Bejeweled” without mentioning her or Mr. Kelce by name.

While nether Catholic nor pro-life and one of  the few liberals who is not pro-Pope Francis, I largely agree with this guy who in his bio describes himself in that way. However, here we are:
 

Truth? What truth did Butker say in his speech? No mention of Jesus of Nazareth, No mention of the Gospels, No mention of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; No encouragement to help the poor, to stand with the least of brothers and sisters. I could go on. Very troubling. https://t.co/XdMJk2xqVw

— CatholicProgr (@CatholicProg) May 17, 2024

But Butker is motivated by more than an apparent longing for a pre-Vatican II world.  According to the Times piece

Despite his stance on women in the workplace, his mother, Elizabeth Keller Butker, has a distinguished career. She is a medical physicist in the department of radiation oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Pretty impressive that is, and very likely a (justifiably) well-paid position held by a woman Butker has expressed great admiration for. Also

In the speech, Mr. Butker encouraged men to be “unapologetic in your masculinity,” referenced “the deadly sins” of homosexuality, and criticized Catholic priests for deriving “their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners.” In attempting to drive home his point, Mr. Butker invoked lyrics from Ms. Swift’s song “Bejeweled” without mentioning her or Mr. Kelce by name.

“This undue familiarity will prove to be problematic every time,” Mr. Butker said, “because as my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’”

He may not know that "familiarity breeds contempt" dates at least to 1851 but unless unusually unaware, the kicker with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering knows that the phrase has been in fairly common usage for generations.

I have little doubt he would not have any problem, either, with the continued employment of Fox News' Laura Ingraham, The never-married Ingraham, mother of adopted children, wanted Trump critic LeBron James to "shut up and dribble" but praised Butker's remarks. 

Ingraham, a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, is paid approximately $15 million annually to be a primetime Fox News host. In this case, politics does not make strange bedfellows; Ingraham is a woman of wealth who is beloved by millions of (misguided) followers.. Butker's mother seems to be a very well-accomplished professional; Taylor Swift, phenomenally popular and rich.

They're the good ones, in this worldview. Old-fashioned, traditional Catholic morality, stripped of concern for the poor and suffering, is the ideal. Comfortable that where there is a lot of money to be made, values can be compromised, Harrison Butker is today's nearly perfect Republican.

 

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Two National Anthems?

If you thought The Star Spangled Banner is the National Anthem, the NFL wants to abuse you of the notion: As The Hill explains

The performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at Sunday’s Super Bowl marks the first time the Black National Anthem has been performed on-field at the NFL’s championship game.

Actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph belted out the song prior to kickoff on Sunday.

“It is no coincidence that I will be singing the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing at the Super Bowl on the same date it was first publicly performed 123 years ago (February 12, 1900),” the “Abbott Elementary” star wrote on Twitter prior to her performance.

“Happy Black History Month,” Ralph added

The historic performance was the first time the song has been performed in an official capacity on a Super Bowl game field. Two years ago, Alicia Keys first performed the ballad during a pre-recorded Super Bowl broadcast. In 2022, singer Mary Mary gave a performance of the song from outside of the Super Bowl stadium in Inglewood, Calif., notes Billboard.

The anthem, written by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, rose to prominence during the Civil Rights Movement when it was commonly used as a “rallying cry,” notes the NAACP.

The song was performed on Sunday prior to the National Anthem, which was sung by country star Chris Stapleton.

The Black National Anthem, superior lyrically and musically to The Star Spangled Banner, is not The national anthem  And it .would more appropriately be called the Negro National Anthem as Time magazine implied upon noting

Before long, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” would become, in Perry’s words, “a universal signifier of Black identity.” It was sung at church services, civic organization meetings, pageants and graduations; it anchored Emancipation Day and Negro History Week celebrations and daily school rituals.

“I sang the Negro National Anthem when I was hungry,” Congresswoman Maxine Waters wrote in Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem, edited by Julian Bond and Sondra Kathryn Wilson. “I sang the Negro National Anthem when my tooth was hurting because of an exposed cavity—I sang the Negro National Anthem when I did not know there was a future for a little black girl with twelve sisters and brothers.”

Demonstrating that wokeism and hyper-nationalism do mix, the National Football League can promote the Pentagon in a pretentious flyover by the US Navy featuring an all-female cast of pilots. It has the same right to feature Lift Every Voice and Sing, even in the same context as the Star Spangled Banner.

But as this corporate decision exemplifies, legal is not always wise.  The Black National Anthem, the Negro National Anthem, or the African-American National Anthem (the song is not a response to the experience of Jamaicans or Haitians in the USA) is not a national anthem. It is no mere semantics to note that there is no nation of Black, neither here nor on any continent; the song applies to a people, not a nation.  Similarly, there could not be a Protestant or Catholic national anthem, nor a woman's or men's national anthem.

The song was sung immediately before, and juxtaposed, with the Star-Spangled Banner. Yet, it is not akin to the USA's national anthem, nor to the national anthem of Canada, played adjacent to The Star Spangled Banner at some National Hockey League games.

The purpose of any nation's national anthem is to offer a unifying message, one meant to unite individuals of all ethnic and economic backgrounds- in this case, to bring together all Americans as Americans. It shouldn't be left to the likes of Lauren Boebert, of all people, to point out the obvious: "America has only one NATIONAL ANTHEM" (emphasis hers). If a stopped clock can be right twice a day, Representative Boebert can be right at least once a year.

There is not, cannot, and should not be any white national anthem, Italian-American national anthem, Norwegian-American national anthem, or Black National Anthem. However imperfect a vehicle The Star Spangled Banner is to unite Americans. it is presently the one and only national anthem in the United States of America.  Live with it.

 

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Disparity

Fourteen months ago, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Women's Center explained

a term coined by the late PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill, refers to the mainstream media’s seeming fascination with covering missing or endangered white women, and its seeming disinterest in cases involving missing people of color... 

Zach Sommers, a lawyer specializing in race, crime, and media coverage, did an entire study on this phenomenon, and he believes it’s influenced by money. “Sommers speculates that there’s also the economic calculus of news coverage to consider: in skewing this type of coverage toward white women, news outlets might be deciding that missing white women are worth more in terms of eyeballs and ad revenue.”

I'm not sure whether by "people of color" the author is referring to black; black and Latino;  black, Latino, and Pacific Islander; black, Latino, Pacific Islander, American Indian/indigenous people; or whatever combination thereof. We get into trouble when when assuming that each of these groups is the same or even has the same interests.

Nonetheless, there obviously is more media coverage when a white, rather than black, woman goes missing and UMKC Women's Center, rather than assuming racism is to blame, correctly noted that profit should be considered a possible motive. Consider that

An online fundraiser started by the Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin registered more than $4 million in donations just hours after the NFL star suffered cardiac arrest during a game on Monday....

As condolences for Hamlin poured in from across the sports world, fans also showed their support by pouring millions of dollars into a charity that Hamlin started in 2020, shortly before he was picked in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft.

That's quite an impressive response, especially compared to the relatively muted response following a horrible shooting four days later

This is Abby Zwerner.

She is the teacher who police say was intentionally shot by her 6-year-old student Friday during an “altercation” in the classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va.

City’s mayor says Zwerner is stable at the hospital.

🙏🏼 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wKhrIyuL94

— Josh Breslow (@JoshBreslowTV) January 9, 2023

The Fox News broadcaster in Orlando, Florida deserves credit for tweeting the name and picture of the little-known victim of a shooting. There are many differences between Abby Zwerner and Damar Hamlin, but a few similarities, the most obvious that both were taken to the hospital and were identified as being in critical condition.

Americans everywhere are being implored to offer "thoughts and prayers" for Damar Hamlin. There has been no such intervention for Abby Zwerner. Surely, one reason is that the hit on Hamlin and his collapse a moment later were televised, which millions of people watched live and millions more viewed on social media.

The Hamlin incident was particularly frightening because he suffered cardiac arrest, which strikes hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, almost always fatally. That's far more than who are struck by bullets- even in Louisiana, Alaska, Missouri, and other Republican states- and cardiac arrest typically occurs without warning. People can relate to this tragic event- which, unlike a shooting, is solely a tragedy and not a crime.

Moreover, Hamlin is a football player and people admire professional athletes, justifiably insofar as it is motivated by a recognition that they can do what you and I (and probably everyone we know) cannot do. However, they also are worshipped, which is never a good thing, whomever they may be. Americans are free to worship the God or gods of their choice (or none at all) but should venerate no one else.

Yet, there is a more important lesson to be taken in all this. They're not the same color.

That is obvious, and probably plays no role in the far greater attention paid to Hamlin. Yet, the UMKC Women's Center quotes the late Gwen Ifill citing the media's "seeming disinterest in cases involving missing people of color.” 

We should have realized that factors other than race per se very likely play a greater role in the disparity in missing persons cases. They probably do also in other incidents which pierce and penetrate the nation's conscience. Now, thoughts and prayers pile up from people who assiduously avoid prayer while millions of dollars are sent to a foundation virtually no one cared about ten days ago. Abby Zwerner, though, remains a relatively unknown and little-recognized figure and that is a stain on our national culture.

 

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Clearly and Obviously, Not Legitimate

This person's Twitter description reads in part "not affiliated with the NFL." No kidding.

Welcome to the NFL, where neither of these are apparently pass interference pic.twitter.com/Zhb3m7Bb5G

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) December 19, 2022

These calls may have determined the outcome of the two games. In the one below, if the official had made the accurate call, the New England Patriots would have won the game in overtime. Instead, the Las Vegas Raiders tied it (with the fairly routine extra point) and won the game in overtime in arguably the most stupid play in NFL history.

I would have posted this YouTube video below but it is "unavailable" because "this video contains content from NFL, who has blocked it from play on this website or any application." Good thinking. Therefore, this will have to do:

TOUCHDOWN KEENAN COLE SR!!!
RAIDERS TIE THE GAME AT 24!!!
🔵🔴 🏴‍☠️#NEvsLV#ForeverNE #RaiderNationpic.twitter.com/jEoI7lYhu6

— Sportskeeda Pro Football (@SKProFootball) December 19, 2022

In which the spokesperson deserves an “A” for effort

NFL senior Vice President of officiating Walt Anderson explained the call during a PFWA pool report conducted by ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

“We looked at every available angle and it was not clear and obvious that the foot was on the white,” Anderson said. “It was very tight, very close. There was no shot that we could see — we even enhanced and blew up the views that we had. There was nothing that was clear and obvious that his foot was touching the white.”

Anderson said that there wasn’t a “down the sideline view” available to review.

“Probably the best view was what we term a ‘high end zone’ view. TV gave us the most enhanced view that they had as well,” Anderson said. “We blew it up and I believe TV blew it up and there was nothing that was clear and obvious either way. Had the ruling on the field been incomplete, we would not have been able to change that either.”

Here it should be noted that according to broadcasters on National Football League game telecasts, the NFL reviews every touchdown. Given what I’ve witnessed the last few years, that claim objectively lacks veracity. The naked eye viewing the video of the Raiders’ tying touchdown clearly reveals that the receiver was out-of-bounds when he caught the football. Yet, somehow, with all its advanced technology, the official couldn’t see it definitively. Or so we're told.

There is a possibility that all such errors should be attributed to an NFL official making make a bad call (as is fairly routine), then finding insufficient evidence to reverse it. There is also, as I like to say in instances of similar probability, a chance it will snow tomorrow inMiami. Nine years ago, when professional athletics still maintained a modicum of integrity, five professional sports leagues filed suit against New Jersey's plan to institute Nevada-style sports gambling, assistant professor of sports law Ryan Rodenberg, explaining the distinction in law between spectator sports and entertainment/scripted events, wrote

Uncertainty of outcome is also the reason American sports fans should take a moment to pause when commercialized sports are juxtaposed with the Quiz Show Scandal from more than 50 years ago. The web of laws applicable to sports, such as the Sports Bribery Act of 1964, only prohibits gambling-related corruption. There is no federal law explicitly preventing the clandestine manipulation of sporting events to enhance suspense. This gap is problematic. As with certain televised quiz shows decades ago, the in-game action of sporting events can be contrived in profit-maximizing ways. The federal law passed in the wake of the Quiz Show Scandal does not explicitly include televised sports; it only forbids deception of the public in connection with contests of an "intellectual" nature. Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire are covered by the law. Football, basketball, and baseball are not…

Rodenberg continued

it is insufficient to act as though gambling-related game-fixing is the only threat in this regard. A non-gambling artifice bent on increasing suspense for the purpose of viewer engagement and advertisement effectiveness is equally dangerous. Academics have extensively researched the extent that uncertainty is important to ticket sales, at-home viewers, and sponsor marketing. Published empirical studies have found increased fan enjoyment during buzzer beaters, certain pecuniary biases among sports referees, and heightened advertiser brand effectiveness following close contests. Leagues, broadcasters, and marketing agencies are surely aware of such studies, all of which probably mirror their own in-house analyses. Accordingly, they have a strong incentive to be tempted to act insidiously absent any explicit prohibition.

"To be sure," he wrote "this concern is as of now hypothetical." It no longer is.

 

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The Irony Of It Alll

Michele Tafoya, who has quit NBC Sports to work on the gubernatorial campaign of a culturally conservative, underdog candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota, remarks

My son’s first best friend was a little African-American boy. They were inseparable. Get to a certain age they start having what’s called an affinity group, which means you go for lunch and pizza with people who look like you … At kids in school, there is a big, big focus on the color of your skin and my children … Why are we even teaching that the color of the skin matters? Because to me, what matters is your character and your values. …

The growing trend toward racial segregation should be disturbing. However, Tafoya then confirms the adage "let a Republican talk long enough and she will make no sense." She comments

Michele Tafoya says Colin Kaepeenick made a “business decision” and that’s why he’s not in the NFL. Oh this lady is trash https://t.co/8Ir94ef3gb

— 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) February 17, 2022

She's not trash- but the "business decision" wasn't a matter of choice.  TMZ reported last July that 

Colin Kaepernick is still not giving up on his dream of returning to the NFL ... saying he's still up at 5 AM and training 5 or 6 days a week in case a team finally calls.

The quarterback -- who hasn't played a down in the league since the 2016 season -- made the revelation in a recent interview with Ebony ... explaining he still has a goal of winning the Lombardi Trophy.

"I am still up at 5 a.m. training five, six days a week," Kaepernick said, "making sure I’m prepared to take a team to a Super Bowl again."

The 33-year-old last played for the 49ers on Jan. 1, 2017 in a loss to the Seahawks ... and never signed on with a team again after that.

Kap claimed repeatedly that he believed the league was blackballing him over the way he started kneeling demonstrations during pregame national anthems.

In fact, the QB sued the league a few years ago ... and the parties settled out of court. The NFL didn't publicly admit to blackballing Colin.

That's the way these things are commonly done. The defendant agrees to settle out of court on the condition it doesn't have to admit responsibility and the plaintiff's attorney, who wants a payday and to move on to other cases, persuades his/her client of the relative insignificance of the principle involved.

Chatting with Tucker Carlson, Tafoya pointed to "the most terrifying thing in the world to me right now that people are afraid to talk" while attributing Colin Kaepernick's absence from the National Football League to disinterest on his part.  Asked a moment earlier about her son's situation, Tafoya had remarked (seen at 5:02 of the video below) 

I don't care if I'm attacked. I really am not afraid of that and I guess I feel like so many people now are afraid of that and I guess I feel like so many people now are afraid, and I'm not. Listen, I know there are repercussions for whatever I say....

Tafoya might have said that Kaepernick was overrated (which I always believed he was), although it would be difficult to convince anyone he didn't deserve even a tryout in a league with such starting quarterbacks as Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, Tua Tagovailoa, and Davis Mills (Davis Mills?). Instead, she argued that a quarterback still working out four years after being blackballed, and whose stated goal is to win a Super Bowl, is insufficiently committed to the game.

It's very likely that she disagreed with the aims of the quarterback's protest, a legitimate albeit controversial, position. However, she won't acknowledge that. Instead, she boasts of being unafraid of going against the grain in expressing her political beliefs. It remains unknown whether she realizes that sacrificing career for principle quite neatly defines Colin Kaepernick.

 

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That Brady Boy

Besides being the winningest quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady, ex- (probably "ex") supporter of Donald Trump, knows how to deliver a great comedic line:

President Biden welcomed Super Bowl Champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the White House today. Tom Brady related to Biden by cracking a few jokes about election denial and the time he was called "Sleepy Tom." pic.twitter.com/8DSVwjM9Ha

— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) July 20, 2021

However, NBC News reported in January of 2019

Ace Davis, a fifth-grader at Millcreek Elementary School in Lexington, engineered a winning science fair project by answering the question that fans of 31 NFL teams already know the answer to: "Is Tom Brady a cheater?"

Davis and his family inflated footballs at various levels of pressure per square inch (PSI) and found that they threw them with greater accuracy at lower measures....

“The Patriots were found guilty of doctoring football [sic], thus losing $1,000,000 and future draft picks. Tom Brady is indeed a cheater,” Davis scrawled at the end of his three-panel science fair project, complete with graphs and charts.

Brady, the five-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the New England Patriots, was suspended for four games in the 2016 season after the league concluded he and team employees had arranged to use footballs at PSI levels below the NFL rules.

The accusations came after the Patriots' 45-7 victory in the AFC title game over Indianapolis in January 2015, when Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson intercepted a Brady pass and noticed the ball seemed underinflated.

That led to an NFL probe that uncovered two Patriots employees regularly discussing how Brady likes footballs to be underinflated so he can get a better grip and throw them more accurately.

Brady was nevertheless permitted to play in the Super Bowl, won by his New England Patriots. The "greatest of all time" quarterback was suspended for the first four games of the following season, three of them somehow won by the Patriots.

NBC added "the "Deflategate" scandal hasn't done much to sidetrack Brady's career."

Truer words may never have been spoken. Since then, Brady's teams, the Patriots and now the Buccaneers, have won two more Super Bowls, the latter one in part because, as we learned (then forgot) in June of 2020

Ignoring the recently issued advice of the NFL Players Association that its members discontinue private workouts because of “the increase in Covid-19 cases in certain states” — of which Florida is one — Brady and other members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were seen practicing together Tuesday morning.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a completely virtual offseason for NFL teams, which have had to conduct training sessions remotely. The Buccaneers began allowing their coaches to return to the team’s facility last week, but players are still ordered to stay away unless they are receiving medical treatment.

After ending his decorated, 20-year career with the New England Patriots in March, Brady signed as a free agent with the Bucs, replacing the turnover-prone Jameis Winston. As soon as Florida began lifting stay-at-home orders in May, he started organizing informal practices, at least some of which have been held at Tampa-area high school fields.

That was the case Tuesday, as the soon-to-be-43-year-old quarterback and other Tampa Bay players were spotted at Berkeley Preparatory School, which is about a 20-minute drive away from where Brady is renting a home from Derek Jeter.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Brady’s favorite pass-catcher while with the Patriots, new Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowksi, was also on hand, as was Pro Bowl wide receiver Chris Godwin and several other players who have been regulars at the practices. In fact, the newspaper reported, attendance Tuesday appeared to be swelled by the participation of some Tampa Bay defensive backs.

When asked for comment, an NFL spokesman pointed The Washington Post to a statement the league made in May: “Everyone associated with the NFL should follow the recommendations and guidelines of state and local authorities and medical experts, including the NFLPA.”

On Saturday, the NFLPA posted a message from its medical director, Thom Mayer, who said, “Please be advised that it is our consensus medical opinion that in light of the increase in COVID-19 cases in certain states that no players should be engaged in practicing together in private workouts. Our goal is to have all players and your families as healthy as possible in the coming months.

“We are working on the best mitigation procedures at team facilities for both training camps and the upcoming season, and believe that this is in the best interest of all players that we advise against any voluntary joint practices before training camp commences.”

This is the National Football League, consciously moving ever closer to full parity among all teams, in which any little advantage is likely to be decisive. Never stupid, Brady took advantage of the novel coronavirus in the most effective way possible and reaped the rewards.

The late, great Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher is credited with popularizing the expression "nice guys finish last." If that's valid, probably the ones without integrity finish first, and Tom Brady, winner of seven Super Bowls, demonstrates the wisdom of the phrase better than anyone.

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When Stereotyping Is Promoted

The New York Times reports

Now, Aunt Jemima has a new name: the Pearl Milling Company.

In an announcement on Tuesday by PepsiCo, which owns Aunt Jemima’s parent company Quaker Oats, the pancake-mix and syrup line formally began rebranding itself and moved one step closer to permanently abandoning its 131-year-old name.

The new name comes from the milling company in St. Joseph, Mo., that pioneered the self-rising pancake mix that became known as Aunt Jemima, according to PepsiCo, which said the rebranded products would arrive in stores in June.

The change has been in the works since last June after the killing of George Floyd catalyzed widespread protests over racial injustice and a nationwide reckoning over symbols of the Old South and their meaning. Several large food companies came under fire for using racial stereotypes, including Quaker Oats, which said it would drop the Aunt Jemima name, redesign its packaging and pledge $5 million to support the Black community.

"Several large food companies" indeed, but not insurance companies.  Given that arguably the most prominent of stereotypes about African-Americans is their dancing skill, GEICO seems not to have gotten (or maybe it has) the message:

The Aunt Jemima brand was a bad one, just as GEICO's dancing blacks fosters a stereotype, entertaining and pleasing whites from coast to coast. One has been removed, the other, not.

Double standards abound. Washington "Redskins" nickname was offensive and, under fire, ownership officially changed the team's name to "Football Team," at least until a permanent name is determined. (My personal favorite is "FT" because if the franchise continues its losing ways, the abbreviation could become embarrassing.) In this instance, it's the Kansas City Chiefs who haven't gotten the memo:

Of course, primary blame should fall not on the fans but rather on team ownership, which could put an end to this if it wished. However, they do not, and that's because there is little if any criticism of this disgraceful chant, popular at every Chiefs' home game.

It's not clear why. Perhaps it is because over the last six seasons, Washington's won-lost record is a cumulative -4 as the team has lost 4 more games in the regular season than it has won, with no playoff victories. Over the same period, Kansas City is an extraordinary combined +44, with one Super Bowl victory.  The Chiefs have delighted their fans, the Redskins have not, and attacking (however justifiably) a  losing team is much safer than criticism of a winning team. 

Or there may be an alternative factor, one owing to the parallel between Redskins-Chiefs and Aunt Jemima-GEICO. 

The Redskins image had existed for 88 years, Aunt Jemima for 131 years. That's a very long time. While the Chiefs' tomahawk chant has been in effect for decades, the GEICO commercial has played for far less than one year.  The insurance company could easily pull its commercial and the Kansas City franchise could issue an edict that anyone seen aping the chant would lose his or her season ticket privileges. Done.

Limited evidence indicates that if a practice was begun, or a symbol founded, in a less enlightened era when few people would have thought it offensive, it must now be expunged. But if in our more enlightened age the offensive practice or symbol emerges, it may continue. If this doesn't make sense to you, you're catching on.

 

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The Lives Which Really Matter

It's the dirty little secret of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The ringing declaration of the summer, continuing at lower volume still, is "black lives matter." Black lives should matter, the thinking goes, because white lives already matter.

This view is dangerously mistaken. The saga begins with Covid-19, ironic because the virus disproportionately affects blacks (and Latinos/hispanics) far more than whites. Atul Gawande explains

Many developed countries have met their testing needs, and ready access to speedy tests has been key to containing outbreaks and resuming social and economic activity. Whether you live in England or South Korea, scheduling is straightforward. No doctor’s order is required. Tests, where indicated, are free. And you typically get results within forty-eight hours.

In the USA, however

Appointments can take days, results days more. Most testing in the United States is done by four companies—Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, BioReference Laboratories, and Sonic Healthcare. Through early August, results routinely took four days or more, making the tests essentially useless. Times improved only when testing volumes declined, because many people gave up on getting tested. The vast majority of infected Americans, including those with symptoms, never get tested. And we have not even reached the fall, when flu season will hit and coronavirus-testing needs and demand are expected to rise substantially. As the saying goes, it’s as messed up as a pile of coat hangers.

This is not the way an exceptional country does things and

Further complicating matters, insurers don’t pay for testing that they don’t consider medically necessary. Yet testing people who don’t have symptoms will be important to getting covid-19 under control....Testing is the only way to know whether a person is potentially contagious and in need of isolation.

What Gawande terms "assurance testing" has been required under special circumstances by four states, at least three European countries, and hospitals in the USA. As he notes, it is required generally by the film and television industry but as he does not, in another industry: professional sports.

Professional athletes generally deserve their salaries because they a) possess unique skills; b) have very short careers; c) work for bosses- the owners- who make a tremendous amount of money from the labor of their employees, the players. In return, compared to the average American, they make a ton of money, in 2017 averaging $7.1 million in the National Basketball Association, $4 million in Major League Baseball, and $2.7 million in the National Football League.  (It is more now throughout the industry.)

So even in the NFL- and accounting for the median being lower than the mean- these guys earn a great deal.  That- and the extreme wealth of the owners and the league- is why professional athletes (and staff) are being tested as is  no one else, whether quarantined or not, health care worker, white or not. From August 30 to September 5, there were 8,349 players and team personnel were given a total of 44, 510 tests.

Approximately 70% of NFL players are black, far lower in MLB (in which there is a disproportionate number of Latinos) and higher in the NBA. Those tests were no less administered to black and and Latinos than to white non-hispanic, colleagues. 

And they are being tested constantly. Surely, it's not because the owners (who control the commissioner's office) are altruistic. It's also not primarily because of the market value of the individual players. In two (baseball and football) of the three (baseball, football, basketball) most popular sports in the USA, the players could take a hike, the owners would replace them, and the league would continue to be very popular, profitable, and successful.

Nevertheless, they are valuable commodities in each league and most are rich, some extraordinarily so. They are tested at rates otherwise unknown in this country- and beyond even advocated by Gawande- for anyone else. They are wealthy and make the bosses even wealthier. They are deemed valuable.

While the wealthy and near-wealthy of professional sports are being tested regularly and often, nearly all other Americans are not. They include the wealthy- but the vast majority of us are middle class, working class, or poor. We are of African, Caribbean, Latin, Pacific Island, Asian, indigenous, European, or other backgrounds.

Our lives are endangered, regardless of our ethnic background, race, or color, in part because of the inadequacies in testing Gawande outlines. In professional sports, a haven of the wealthy, extreme care is taken that lives are not put in danger. There is a moral in that story, but it's not that black lives matter, black lives should matter, or that white lives do matter. In this society in this age, the color that matters most is green.

 

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Preening And Killing

On a positive note, a June 10 press release indicated

The NFL is growing our social justice efforts through a 10-year total $250 million fund to combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans. The NFL and our clubs will continue to work collaboratively with NFL players to support programs to address criminal justice reform, police reforms, and economic and educational advancement. In addition to the financial commitment, we will continue to leverage the NFL Network and all of our media properties to place an increased emphasis on raising awareness and promoting education of social justice issues to our fans and help foster unity.

As we all know, money talks and "foolish, insolent talk" walks, and $250,000,000 is, well, $250 million dollars. It's peanuts for the National Football League but for the rest of us, and even a tiny portion of that would be a big boost for an organization hostile to the nuclear family.

Additionally, on Tuesday we learned

Each week, the NFL will feature the story of a victim of social or racial injustice or police brutality and tell that person’s story “in and around” the games, the league said.

That is potentially useful, though God is in the details and how that is handled will determine its value (or cost) to race relations. It is less consequential that

NFL end zones will be inscribed this season with two slogans: “It Takes All Of Us” on one end line, “End Racism” on the other.

As part of its social justice awareness initiatives, the NFL also will allow similar visuals on helmets and caps.

Previously announced were decals on the back of helmets, or patches on team caps, displaying names or phrases to honor victims of racism and/or police brutality.

Now, a T-shirt designed by NFL Players Association executive committee member Michael Thomas, a safety with the Houston Texans, can be worn in warmups. That T-shirt says: “Injustice against one of us is injustice against all of us,” in the front. The back says reads: “End racism.”

Players can choose either a name of a victim or one of four preferred phrases the NFL has approved: “Stop Hate”; “It Takes All Of Us”; “End Racism”; or “Black Lives Matter.’” The same choices are available for coaches and on-field officials.

Each week, the NFL will feature the story of a victim of social or racial injustice or police brutality and tell that person’s story “in and around” the games, the league said.

This is for show or, as we would call it 40 years ago when it was a thing (and before it was internalized), for self-actualization.  It will make the players, league owners, and fans alike feel good  and feelings are paramount.

The slogans in the end zones are curious, if predictable.  "End racism" is counter-productive. The goal of institutions in this matter should be to contribute to an end to discrimination or to institutional racism. The end-product of racism is discrimination and institutional racism; they should be rooted out. 

"Racism" is a feeling or an opinion held by a lot of people. And if the NFL isn't saying that you (if white),  being racist is the problem, a lot of white people will come away (and they will go away) believing they're being targeted for being racist.

And the NFL is saying that.  An NFL end zone is over 53 yards wide. There is enough room for "end discrimination" or "end institutional racism" but the institution of the NFL prefers "end racism."  It's you who are the problem.

Similarly, the NFL could include "vote"- as has the NBA- as one of its preferred phrases for the players. However, the owners are very wealthy individuals, most of whom likely believe a Republican government is good for their business, so that is out.

For that matter, the entire enterprise is one big con. If the National Football League wishes to exhibit responsible behavior and put its newly-found social conscience to work in a useful and potent matter, there is one option- and only one option- available.

The league begins its season on Thursday, September 10  and the first Sunday of play is to be September 13, 2020. If the Hippocratic Oath- "first, do no harm"- is to be applied to football, the course of action is obvious. Don't even start; do no play. It would, additionally, signal to the general public the seriousness of SARS-CoV-2, even persuading some to don maks 

Billions of dollars are at stake- as are lives.  But this novel coronavirus does seem to discriminate by race as minorities are being hit hardest (video from 4/20).. Someone should remind the NFL- and its players- that a whole lot of those lives saved would be black.

 

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Writing People Out Of America

almost missed @GOPLeader's July 4th message, which just wrote immigrants out of America. pic.twitter.com/LRwFPFcmQ1

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) July 6, 2020

That is a terrible message, although not for July 4. July 4 comes every year and always between July 3 and July 5. July 4 is a day for barbecues; Independence Day is an occasion to celebrate the unity of Americans, all Americans, as we proceed, by fits and spurts, with this American experiment.

With his tweet, Minority Leader McCarthy wrote one group out of this great experiment, an impulse becoming more popular as

Starting with the nationally televised regular-season opener between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 10, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem, will be performed before every Week 1 kickoff, before "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to a person familiar with ongoing discussions. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because plans have not yet been finalized and announced by NFL officials.

History should not be erased, and so it bears noting that "Lift Every Voice and Sing" never has been the "Black National Anthem."  . Written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, the song was proclaimed sometime before 1921 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (now, "NAACP") as the "Negro National Anthem." The experience of blacks whose descendants were slaves, chronicled by "Lift Every Voice and Sing," may differ dramatically from those who have recently emigrated from Africa, Jamaica, Haiti, or elsewhere.

That was when de facto and de jure segregation was the the lay of the land, a time of brazen discrimination and violence against "colored people," as they were then known (now, "people of color"). Though from 1960 through 1968, there were only three reported lynchings of blacks, in the nine-year period ending in 1920, 495 were reported lynched.

Times were different, and it's understandable that in or about 1920 a civil rights organization would believe that blacks had no choice but to resist identification with the United States of America.

Nonetheless, while cultural anthropologists may argue whether "black" is a race, ethnic group, and/or color, "black" never has been a nation- the root of "national." Therefore, there can be no black or Negro (as it was called since the NAACP got its hands on it) national anthem, though there could be a black or African-American anthem.

Though those may seem mere "details," therein God lies (as in "lays," not as in veracity). When a song or poem is identified as a "national anthem," the meaning is clear- it is a rallying point for, or intended to lift the spirits of, individuals of that nation. When that song appears immediately before (or after) the National Anthem, it clearly is being presented as an anthem for people of that country.  It is why, for instance that the Canadian national anthem is played back-to- back with the Star- Spangled Banner at many athletic events featuring a team from Canada and one from the USA.

An African-American conservative blogger argues Martin Luther "King always appealed to the American dream for all. He was a patriot and he never wanted blacks to deny or separate themselves from being American. I think claiming an anthem for ourselves as black people is doing just that."

If he isn't sufficiently credible, consider the opinion of an assistant professor of English at historically black Clark Atlanta University.  Timothy Askew, who says he loves the song and has studied it for over 20 years, maintains "To sing the 'black national anthem' suggests that black people are separatist and want to have their own nation. This means that everything Martin Luther King Jr. believed about being one nation gets thrown out the window."

Admittedly, it's possible to make too much of this move by the NFL. As noted by USA Today, its source indicates "after brainstorming with numerous players and the NFL Players Association, NFL officials also plan to honor victims of police brutality through elements such as helmet decals or jerseys." Thus, it may be simply a way for the NFL to sell merchandise, which raises the profile of its players and further enriches its owners, who employ Commissioner Roger Goodell and determine his professional fate.

African-Americans do not constitute another nation. As Askew appreciates, this is one nation and blacks are a part of this country.  They are a part as much as are immigrants, whom Kevin McCarthy wants to read out of this nation. Blacks also are a part of the fabric of this country and are so no matter how hard the National Football League, its players association, or David Duke portrays otherwise.

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Acting Badly, Looking Good

Victory? Oh, sure.

The Washington Redskins of the National Football League will be changing its name now that, as reported by The Washington Post

After years of resistance, the team said it was launching a thorough review of the name. It did not share any details of the process, but two people familiar with discussions between Snyder, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials that led to Friday’s announcement said the review is expected to result in a new team nickname and mascot.

“You know where this leads,” one of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They’re working on that process [of changing the name]. It will end with a new name. Dan has been listening to different people over the last number of weeks.”

The different people he has been listening to are not the multitudes of protesters of racial bias, native tribal members, nor the activists who for decades have been promoting a name change. Instead, on July 2

FedEx, a longtime sponsor and naming-rights holder of the team’s home stadium, issued a one sentence statement calling for a change. Fred Smith, the FedEx chief executive, is a minority owner of the Redskins.

That would be the same FedEx which is non-union and in which

workers who charge that their benefits are less than at rival UPS said the company has bombarded them with anti-union messages and forced them to attend anti-union meetings.

The Guardian obtained recordings of meetings that were mandatory and required workers to sign in, according to a FedEx employee, held at FedEx facilities in 2015 and 2016, where managers and union avoidance consultants lectured workers on unions as the Teamsters was attempting to organize FedEx drivers at several locations around the United States.

“It’s time to campaign. If you don’t want this third party coming in putting a wall between us, it’s time. Because when you campaign and tell them you don’t want them here, eventually it becomes loud and clear to them. You can do that,” said a FedEx human resources manager in a July 2016 captive audience meeting.

There is pressure coming from other socially conscious companies. And so

Larry Di Rita, Bank of America’s president for the Washington market, said: “As a partner and sponsor, we have encouraged the team to change the name and we welcome this announcement.”

Nonetheless, one owner of a small software company has explained that Bank of America

is now being sued by small businesses for shutting my and other small enterprises out of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan. The allegation is that BofA served large businesses first, on whom they could earn the most in fees per transaction.

After joining with others to bring the world economy nearly to a standstill earlier this century, Bank of America received a $45 billion bailout from the federal government and still

brought tens of thousands of Americans to foreclosure court using bogus, “robo-signed” evidence – a type of mass perjury that it helped pioneer. It hawked worthless mortgages to dozens of unions and state pension funds, draining them of hundreds of millions in value. And when it wasn’t ripping off workers and pensioners, it was helping to push insurance giants like AMBAC into bankruptcy by fraudulently inducing them to spend hundreds of millions insuring those same worthless mortgages.

The Post adds

As major corporate backers of the team, FedEx and PepsiCo tied their brands to that of the Redskins for years. In their respective statements acknowledging that they support a name-change, neither company used the word “Redskins."

How sensitive; or progressive; or "woke" the two of them are. PepsiCo, as we know, is a major player in the soft drink market, in which the easily absorbable sugar which is intrinsic to its product is arguably the most important contributor in the universe to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and liver disease, let alone obesity.

At the time the WaPo article was written, Nike had not yet issued a statement but had removed the Washington Redskins merchandise from its website.  In recent years, Nike has moved some of its production from  mainland China to other nations, especially Vietnam. However, it still owns facilities in China, whose dictatorial, murderous regime has been propped up by Nike and other American corporations which, when pressed, will demonstrate their sensitivity and compassion by demanding that ethnically insensitive nicknames change. 

Meanwhile, the exploitation of Chinese workers by a government engaged in destroying the culture of Uighurs, and with the most extensive deployment of internment camps since the Holocaust, will remain. The death of Americans still will be an integral part of the PepsiCo business model. BOA will continue to lead the way in cheating customers and small businesses. FedEx will continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on union avoidance consultants because the working conditions and benefits of its employees pale in importance to opportunistic public relations. 

And why not? It's 2020 and workers, consumers, small business, health care, and genocide cannot compare to being on the right side in the identity wars.

                                          HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY



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