Year: 2025
Astronomers Discover the Biggest Thing in the Universe (So Far)
Musk Ain’t So Rich
<$400 billion
“Elon Musk’s net worth fell below $400 billion for the first time in two months, dragged down by a double-digit slide in Tesla Inc.’s share price,” Bloomberg reports.“The automaker’s stock has fallen 27% after hitting an all-time high in mid-December on hopes that Musk’s proximity to President Donald Trump would boost the company’s fortunes. Tesla shares and options make up more than 60% of Musk’s wealth, which peaked at $486.4 billion on Dec. 17 in the wake of Trump’s election.”
Trump Has Made European Fascism ‘Mainstream’
“Trump’s tornado has changed the world in just a couple of weeks. Yesterday we were the heretics. Now we are the mainstream.”
— Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, quoted by the New York Times. at a gathering of far-right leaders whose slogan was “Make Europe Great Again.”
Black People Won Super Bowl LIX
It’s hard not to conclude that Kendrick Lamar “pwnd” Donald Trump (and Drake, too) during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show yesterday. The first U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl was treated to a full-on rap storm for 20 minutes, which must have rocked his white-supremacist soul to its rotten core.
The cultural fact is, the Black people have won. The spineless National Football League, by taking a metaphorical knee in anticipation of the arrival of the Racist-in-Chief and removing the “End Racism” message from the end zones and replacing it with “Choose Love,” joined the oligarchs and media companies in capitulating to Trump.
But it’s too late. In 2023, fully 53.1% of players in the NFL were Black, and if you want to see who owns Super Bowl halftime shows, just consider this from CBS Sports:
On Sunday, Kendrick Lamar took the stage in New Orleans. In 2024, Usher took the stage in Las Vegas. In 2023, Rihanna took the stage at State Farm Stadium during Super Bowl LVII. Before that, five performers took the stage for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles, California: Eminem, Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performed halfway through the Rams win over the Bengals.
Seven years ago, Trump mounted a campaign against Black NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. But what really galled him was when the Super Bowl–winning Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 declined his invitation for the traditional winner’s visit to the White House, so he “uninvited” them:
The Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, but the Super Bowl winners’ traditional White House visit is canceled after a host of players decline to attend.
“The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House,” Trump says. “Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling.”
Trump and his racist followers can bitch and complain about it all they want, but the fight is over: people of color are the true Super Bowl winners.
Dictator of Culture
When it comes to culture, Trump thinks he knows what’s best.
He’s taking control of the Kennedy Center at no one’s behest.
Gone will be the orchestras,
The virtuosos and the operas,
And in their stead we’ll get Kid Rock, Carrie Underwood and Kanye West.
