Bad Bunny Steals Super Bowl. Jimmy Lai’s Draconian Sentence. Radicalness of Anti-ICE Protests. Why College Grads Can’t Get Jobs. And More
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny stole the show.
The Seattle Seahawks “smothered” the New England Patriots to win last night’s Super Bowl. But it’s Bad Bunny’s halftime show that’s getting all the attention.
National Review, admittedly not a bastion of sports writing, calls the both the game and the halftime show “forgettable.” NR’s Luther Ray Abel, however, did an excellent job of summing things up:
While the players filed off the field, America prepared itself for the greater gridiron battle: the anti-American Bad Bunny half-time show vs. TPUSA’s populist alternative that featured Kid Rock and a handful of generic country singers.
Bad Bunny’s performance had him wandering sugarcane fields in a padded shirt and bearing a football, touring Puerto Rican cultural storefronts, and presiding over a presentation of rotating rumps. Performing exclusively in Spanish, as is his wont, Bad Bunny sang lyrics that were as alien to me as they were to older relatives — a departure from last year’s half-time show starring Kendrick Lamar, which was indecipherable exclusively to those over age 40.
Lady Gaga showed up at some point, and some strings contributed the most musically interesting aside of the show. Ricky Martin popped out of the foliage with some bananas, and then Bad Bunny — bearing the Puerto Rican flag — led a revolution of sorts up a power pole. He then led a parade of flags, listing off the countries of Latin America and North America.
Suzy Weiss of The Free Press didn’t seem to care for either Bad Bunny’s or TPUSA’s halftime show. Happiness guru Arthur Brooks asked at the same publication, “Can We All Relax About Bad Bunny’s Spanish Halftime Show?” Needless to say, President Trump, who is not relaxed about Bad Bunny, weighed in. Luther Ray Abel writes about a brilliant Budweiser ad, but Ms. Must can’t quite tell if he’s being tongue-in-cheek. Townhall waxed ecstatic about TPUSA’s patriotic show.
And City Journal picks this weekend to ask, “Is Football Doomed?” How about dooming those ridiculous halftime shows?
As you probably have heard, Jimmy Lai—Chinese-born British citizen, Hong Kong newspaper mogul, democracy advocate, and critic of Beijing—was sentenced to 20 years in prison. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal observes:
The 20-year sentence might as well be a death sentence for the 78-year-old newspaper man. He is in ill health and has spent most of the last five years in solitary confinement, the lone window fixed to block sunlight. Along the way, the Hong Kong government denied him his choice of lawyer and stole his newspaper without a court order. Six former Apple Daily executives also received multi-year sentences on Monday.
This isn’t the way Hong Kong operated under Britain. It isn’t the way a world trade and financial center operates. But it is the way of Hong Kong under Chinese rule.
Whatever the Hong Kong government may say, the people who live there know Beijing is the real authority.
“An Anti-ICE Movement Increasingly Run by Revolutionaries” is the headline of a sobering City Journal story. Stu Smith writes:
As public support wanes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become the target of nationwide protests. While many of these protests are peaceful and popular, they have also created an opening for aggressive activist networks with long histories of revolutionary politics. Some of these groups are moving beyond lawful dissent, with organizers and online channels increasingly promoting confrontation, disruption, and other unlawful actions against federal authorities.
Leaders of Centro CSO are clear about the tactics they endorse. At a major conference in Chicago this past fall, one member described confronting ICE vehicles in Los Angeles.
“You should have seen how f*cking scared they were when a couple dozen Chicanos surrounded their unmarked black tinted truck,” Gabriel Quiroz Jr., a Centro CSO member, said. He mentioned that a number of WayMo cars caught fire “by accident,” prompting laughter from the audience.
Do celebrities who parrot anti-ICE slogans realize this? I doubt that they’d care. The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Kessler has a good piece on the profound ignorance displayed by celebrities at the anti-ICE Grammys (we’ll get a rerun at the Oscars):
What I don’t understand is the shallowness of activism we’ve been subjected to. Is there some secret group text that goes out to progressives saying, “This week, it’s ‘From the River to the Sea.’ ”? And then, “Beware of DOGE”? Or more recently, “Hands off Greenland, Europeans might be offended“? Everyone is a mini Greta Thunberg bouncing from climate to Gaza to who knows what. Dissent du jour.
“Why Unemployment is Rising Among Young College Grads” addresses a seemingly contradictory phenomenon. “Their skills, experience and ability to function are increasingly out of step with employers’ needs,” Allysia Finley argues. She explains:
The real problem is a mismatch between labor supply and demand. Government subsidies and public schools have funneled too many young people to credential mills, which churn out grads who lack the skills that employers demand. Many would be better off training in skilled trades, for which demand is enormous.
More than half of high-school grads matriculate to college, even though only 35% of 12th graders score proficient in reading and 22% in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This suggests that many college students aren’t academically prepared or even inclined. But colleges ensure they graduate just the same by handing out A’s for no effort.
Speaking of jobs, Ms. Must was vastly amused by a quote in a New York Times story on the latest at the Washington Post—CEO Will Lewis stepped down “after a stormy tenure.” Here’s the yummy quote:
Katie Mettler, a former chair of the Washington Post Guild, said on Saturday: “I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”
The underlying theme is that WaPo owner Jeff Bezos should have underwritten, indefinitely, Ms. Mettler’s smug “friends.” This snobbish idea is more nakedly stated in a snarky piece in the London Spectator headlined “How the Washington Post became a liability for Bezos“:
What’s changed is something different. The people who do care about world affairs and literature are not the kind of people whose attention Bezos wants to attract. His new demographic is fans of Amazon’s new Melania documentary.
Just a note: “Melania” has been hugely lucrative (here is a terrific review by Charlotte Allen), whereas the Post lost $100 million last year. Fox Media Reporter Howie Kurtz says Bezos has ruined the Post and should sell it.
“No, Texas Isn’t a Blue State. But Democrats Win Is a Warning” is the headline on Nicole Russell’s USA TODAY column:
In sum, [Democratic winner Taylor] Rehmet described an old political slogan, “All politics is local.” I am concerned that conservative candidates at the local level may try to ride Trump’s national coattails, forgetting how true this statement really is.
More Texas: Parents in the Lone Star State are rushing to support school choice in record numbers.
It’s been noted in recent days that the transgender movements lock on public opinion is collapsing. But not everywhere:
Feminist Isadora Borges de Aquino Silva of Paraíba, Brazil, doesn’t believe that a male can become female. The 34-year-old veterinary student said so on social media in November 2020. She also posted video remarks by Sydney University emeritus professor Bronwyn Winter: “A person who identifies as transgender retains their birth DNA. No surgery, synthetic hormones, or change of clothes will alter this fact.” Ms. Winter cited Simone de Beauvoir to support her views.
For doing what U.S. feminists refused to do, Ms. Silva could go to prison.
Headline of the Day Isn’t Good Enough for This One: “Trump Hates Minnesotans Because We Love Each Other,” by Minnesota DA Keith Ellison. Do you ever get the feeling that words like “love” and “hate” are being thrown around promiscuously? I passed by a Baptist church with a big banner: “Stop Cruelty.” What a bold idea. … Treat Yourself: Kamala Harris attempts to explain why she’s against photo ID for voting.
