It Was The Best of Halftimes, It was the Worst of Halftimes,

It was the best of halftimes, it was the worst of halftimes, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Love, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of hate, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to jails, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Dickerson was writing about another era but it is just as fitting now

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Review: Bad Bunny brought Puerto Rico’s history and culture to a revolutionary Super Bowl show

AP News

By  MARIA SHERMAN

February 8, 2026

The sun hung low when Bad Bunny emerged in Puerto Rico’s sugar cane fields during his halftime show, surrounded by jíbaros in pavas (rural farmers in traditional straw hats), viejitos playing dominos (an affectionate term for older men) and a piragua stand (shaved ice) — undeniable symbols of Puerto Rico.

From a small Caribbean island with a complicated colonial history, to the world: The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio brought Puerto Rican culture to the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, for his 2026 Super Bowl halftime show in what was always going to be a landmark moment for Latinos.

[...]

In English: “My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and if I’m here today at Super Bowl 60 it’s because I never, ever stopped believing in myself and you should also believe in yourself, you’re worth more than you think.”

[...]

Behind him, a screen read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” in English text, a direct reference to one of his recent speeches at the 2026 Grammys.

It was all about love, unity, and embracing our difference.

So what did Trump think of the show, for the turn to WUSA 9,

“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” Trump said on social media. “This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our Country,” which Trump claimed is “setting new standards and records” daily.

“There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD,” he added before again urging the NFL to immediately replace its new kickoff rule. Trump said it’s “ridiculous.”

And then we had...

We Watched Turning Point’s “All-American” Show So You Don’t Have To A mess.

Dallas Observer

By Carly May Gravley

February 8, 2026

Turning Point USA’s “All-American” Halftime Show will probably go down in history as the most painful thing I experienced this week, and that will include the root canal I have scheduled on Thursday.

While millions of Americans tuned into Bad Bunny’s much-anticipated performance during the real halftime show during the actual Super Bowl, I was tasked with watching and recapping the “All-American” alternative thrown by Erika Kirk (widow of the late conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk) and led by Kid Rock. There were also a handful of country music Z-listers I’d never heard of until this week. I can only assume this was some sort of karmic punishment for taking French instead of Spanish in high school.

[...]

“Yeah, but Turning Point probably doesn’t have their shit together,” my husband replied. And he had a point. At 7:41 p.m., a 15-minute countdown began on the livestream, as did a series of creepy, conservative ads for things such as the TPUSA “Make Heaven Crowded” tour and the United States Department of War, as well as vague concepts like “saving our civilization.”

But the best part was, when Kid Rock took the to the stage the Hindustan Times writes,

Kid Rock, known for songs like All Summer Long and Born Free, was heavily criticized after his performance. “Wow! Kid Rock may be the worst Lip syncer I have ever seen. If you're just going to lip sync it, why not have Mike Lindell or Dr. Phil do it for you?,” Republican Jack Kimble wrote.

[...]

Another added, “Kid Rock showed up for one minute and lip sync’d every third bar from the first verse of Bawitdabawkbawkchickenhead while tweaking in jorts and playing with his fedora and then it awkwardly cut to a classical performance.”

To me it seems like the “All-American” was a big flop! Who would have expected it? 

Mini-Post: Why’s Everybody Always Pickin’ On Me?

Let me count the ways!

Dr. Oz Sparks Outrage With His Solution For Lack Of Doctors In Rural Healthcare

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke on Monday about the doctor shortage in rural communities—and his solution isn't going over well with critics.

Comic Sands

By Amelia Mavis Christnot

Feb 05, 2026

Former television presenter and author Mehmet Oz, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke at a "fireside chat" for the "Action for Progress" initiative in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

During his remarks, Oz stated that rural communities would benefit from having AI avatars stand in for doctors. The Trump administration passed a law dramatically reducing funding for rural hospitals, which are already understaffed.

Gee... I think I can think of a better way... restore the cuts!

The multimillionaire has also said healthcare is a privilege, not a right, and suggested more people go to work immediately out of high school and retire later to eliminate the national debt.

Hey folks that what happened when you vote for a con artist! Some say the TrumpR_x is scam

HEADLINES: Trump’s Drug Pricing Scam Is a Slap in the Face to the Millions of Working Families Agonized by GOP Health Care Cuts

Protect Our Health Care

February 6, 2026

The American people know that Trump’s new “TrumpRx” website is nothing but a dressed-up window shopping page where Americans can peruse jacked-up prices for medications they can no longer afford thanks to the GOP war on health care. Most Americans won’t save any money by using the site, and experts warn that families could waste hundreds of dollars purchasing brand-name drugs on the site that are available for cheaper in generic form or through insurance. This latest Trump scheme is a slap in the face to the 22 million hard-working Americans who just saw their health insurance premiums double, triple, and even quadruple due to the Trump-GOP health care cuts — not to mention the millions losing coverage entirely. The vast majority of Americans wanted Trump to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that kept health coverage affordable for millions. Instead, they got another election-year vanity project from a president who uses his power to make life easier for billionaires and big corporations while selling out working families every chance he gets. 

Politico reported...

The drug-pricing deals can undoubtedly be seen as political wins at a time when Democrats are pounding the White House over high prices. They will save Medicaid money in the short run, allow Americans to buy discounted drugs with cash directly from drug companies and boost domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing.

But will most Americans feel like the deals make their lives more affordable?

The answer is likely “No” — at least not in the near future — according to some health policy analysts and drug-pricing experts.

The confidential agreements lack some critical details and largely don’t help the roughly two-thirds of Americans who use private health insurance, they say. It’s also unclear whether the deals — which are voluntary on the part of drugmakers — will last beyond the current administration.

“The vast majority of consumers are not going to see any benefit in their pocketbook,” said Chris Meekins, a Raymond James health care analyst, and a former health official in the first Trump administration.

Once again... Trump's healthcare is all smoke and mirrors!

It Is Doing What Trump Wants It To Do.

[Editorial]

I am at a crossroads with my blog. It is taking an emotional toll on me.

It is hard writing about all the injustices. I don’t just write about them—I read many articles on the topic, and that’s the part that is really getting to me.

There are so many people out there encouraging ICE to bash more heads. There are so many cheering the killing. They see ICE as heroes defending the nation. I can’t understand it.

I read comments to get a sense of how people are thinking (I used to be on the Family Institute of Connecticut email list to keep up with what they were saying), and the tone is starting to change over what ICE is doing. The polls are showing it.

I think Trump is on a downward spiral, and I also think that is when he is most dangerous. I have seen one judge’s order after another ignored. There are executive orders being shot down by the courts one after another. As his poll numbers tank, I worry that he is going to do something crazy on election day.

He lashes out at one group one day and praises them the next. He slaps a huge tariff on a country, then rolls it back. He singles out states that didn’t vote for him and makes personal demands of them, like naming railroad stations after him. He’s vindictive.

I worry that he is going to do something reckless along the lines of January 6 if Congress flips.

So I don’t know where my blog is heading. My daily hits are around 2,000 to 10,000 per day, and that weighs on my thoughts. Some days I just want to walk away; the next day I publish five blogs.

I don’t want to publish negative stories all the time, but there is so much bad out there that I just can’t leave it unchallenged.

[/Editorial]

Gag Me With A Spoon!

Okay... all you Super Bowl fans. This is your warning, MAGA spent millions on ads during the game!

Trump Goon Pumps Super Bowl With MAGA Propaganda

The same crowd that wants to keep politics out of sports has purchased a multimillion-dollar commercial spot to air during the Super Bowl.

Daily Beast

Josh Fiallo

Feb. 4 2026

Those hoping to escape the daily chaos of MAGA 2.0 during the Super Bowl may want to take a bathroom break after the National Anthem.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent boasted on Wednesday about the pricey ad spot purchased to tout “Trump accounts,” set to air just after pop singer Charlie Puth performs the “Star-Spangled Banner” this coming Sunday.

Bessent, 63, said he anticipates a “flood of sign-ups” as a result of the commercial airing in full on Feb. 8.

“I would tell everyone to look for the commercial right after the national anthem at the Super Bowl this weekend,” he testified to the House Financial Services Committee. “I think we are prepared for a flood of sign-ups, and then they will go live on July 5.”

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Thirty-second advertisements in prime spots cost $10 million for this year’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, NBC has revealed. The average cost for standard spots are $8 million, and pre-game broadcast spots run at about $7 million, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Semafor reported in January that a pro-Trump group would be footing the bill for the ad.

So enjoy the game but don't gag over the MAGA commercials!

Then we have the racist, xenophobic halftime show!

Kid Rock to Headline Turning Point USA’s MAGA-Friendly Super Bowl Halftime Show

The conservative organization first announced its plans for a halftime show alternative following right-wing backlash to Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny.

Hollywood Reporter

By Ethan Millman

February 2, 2026

Kid Rock is set to headline Turning Point USA’s MAGA-friendly alternative “All-American” Super Bowl halftime show, the organization announced on Monday.

TPUSA — the organization co-founded by the assassinated right-wing political figure Charlie Kirk — had first announced its plans for a halftime show of its own last fall, following conservative backlash over the selection of Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny to headline this year’s event.

“We’re approaching this show like David and Goliath,” Kid Rock said in a statement of the upcoming show. “Competing with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible … or is it?”

[...]

Aside from Kid Rock, a vocal Trump ally, the lineup also includes musicians Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett. The show will air on TPUSA’s socials, as well as Daily Wire+, Real America’s Voice, TBN, CHARGE!, The National News Desk, NTD.com and OAN News.

“The All-American Halftime Show is an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family and freedom,” Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said in a statement.

Not one of them have won any Grammys!

The simple fact is that they are having an alternative halftime show because Bad Bunny is Latino and sings in Spanish. Never mind that he just made history by winning Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammys—his 6th win total—that clearly doesn't matter to the MAGA crowd. He has over 100 Latin Gold/Platinum records and a massive global reach! But none of that matters because they have has-been Kid Rock, an artist who hasn't had a major hit in nearly 20 years and has zero Grammy wins to his name. To me it seems like is was for Trump's patronage he would be a nobody.

Speak No Evil

Their goal is to eradicate us, speak no trans stuff, write no trans stuff they want to wipe us out, they want to criminalize us!

She was fired for acknowledging trans people exist. Now she’s fighting back.

“There’s no satisfaction in doing this, only sadness.”

LGBTQ Nation

Daniel Villarreal (he/him)

February 4, 2026

Melissa McCoul, the now-former Texas A&M University lecturer who was fired for teaching that transgender people exist, filed a federal lawsuit against the university on Tuesday. McCoul alleges that university administrators violated her free speech and due process rights just to appease transphobic politicians after a student recorded her classroom disagreement with the lecturer.

McCoul’s lawsuit accuses the chief of staff of Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) of pressuring the university’s now-resigned President Mark A. Welsh III to fire her. It also accuses A&M’s supervisors of telling university Provost Alan Sams not to give her a required disciplinary hearing before her termination.

You know their a thing here called a Constitution and the Frist Amendment?

McCaul says she was fired even though she didn’t violate any law or university policy. “Instead, [McCaul was] terminated for exercising her academic freedom guaranteed under the First Amendment,” her lawsuit states. McCaul seeks reinstatement to her position, punitive damages, back pay, and other restitution.

But laws and the Constitution mean nothing to the Republicans!

Their Hatred Knows No Bounds

They are sending people to their deaths, and the administration seems to revel in it. Their hostility toward LGBTQ+ individuals apparently knows no limits.

Trump admin is trying to deport LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers to countries where they'd be killed, lawyers say

Attorneys say new transfer agreements and court tactics allow the U.S. to sidestep asylum rulings, risking removals to countries where LGBTQ+ people face imprisonment, torture, or execution.

The Advocate

Christopher Wiggins

Jan 29, 2026

The Trump administration is quietly advancing immigration policies that attorneys and LGBTQ+ advocates say could send asylum seekers to their deaths, including by transferring queer and transgender people to countries such as Uganda and Iran, where same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity are criminalized and can be punished by imprisonment, torture, or execution.

[...]

LGBTQ+ asylum seekers facing possible removal to Uganda

Much of the concern centers on Uganda, where LGBTQ people face some of the most severe legal penalties in the world. Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, passed in 2023, prescribes life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relationships and allows for the death penalty in cases labeled “aggravated homosexuality.” The law also criminalizes what it calls the “promotion” of homosexuality, a provision that human rights groups say has been used to justify arrests, harassment, and the suppression of LGBTQ+ advocacy.

Ugandan authorities have continued to arrest men accused of same-sex conduct under these laws.

“Uganda is not a safe place for LGBTQ people,” Wolf said. “The idea that we would send people there to try to adjudicate their protection claims is deeply concerning.”

There is a law in the US that says you cannot do that! The Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School writes in The U.S. Refugee Re-Vetting Order Violates the Principle of Non-Refoulement that,

It marks a profound shift in how the United States interprets one of its core obligations under international law: the prohibition on refoulement, the principle that forbids returning a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. By turning refugee status from a durable legal commitment into a conditional category subject to political reinterpretation, the administration is testing the limits of what non-refoulement can withstand.

[...]

U.S. jurisprudence mirrors the international cases. In Matter of Toboso-Alfonso the Board of Immigration Appeals recognized sexual orientation as a basis for a “particular social group”.  In Avendano-Hernandez v. Lynch, the Ninth Circuit held that a transgender woman who suffered police and military abuse in Mexico faced a clear probability of torture if returned. In Bringas-Rodriguez v. Sessions, the court rejected the notion that LGBTQI+ survivors of violence must first seek protection from authorities known to persecute them.These decisions affirm that criminalization and state-enabled violence meet the threshold that “life or freedom would be threatened.” There is no question that the United States has long recognized this standard, even as current policy drifts from it.

There is no question that the United States has long recognized this standard, yet the current administration shows a complete lack of respect for these laws.

Saturday 9: You Make Me Feel So Young

Saturday 9: You Make Me Feel So Young (1956)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun… 

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Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This morning, do you feel younger or older than your years?

Well I’m at an age where getting out of bed consist of a lot grunts and groans, snaps and pops!

2) In this song, Frank Sinatra tells us that every time he sees his lover's grin, he's happy. What's something you can reliably count on to lift your spirits?

A chocolate milk shakes!

3) The lyrics mention hide-and-seek. What games did you play when you were young? 

Well, it depends upon what you mean by “games” I liked playing Monopoly, and hide-n-seek.

 

4) Frank Sinatra was a fan of Campbell's chicken and rice soup, believing it helped his throat feel better after an evening of performing. Is Campbell's soup in your kitchen right now?

Yeah, but I have to throw them out, they have been in cupboard for years and they are out dated.

 

5) Frank's favorite dessert was a slice of lemon ricotta torte. He believed every meal should include "a final flourish." Do you more often indulge in or skip dessert?

Well tonight I’m going to dinner with some friends and I’ll ask for a “dogie bag”. It is going to be hard to pick between Tuscan Seafood Pasta & Lobster Carbonara

6) At Sinatra's home in Palm Springs, CA, you'd find a less sophisticated dessert. He always kept Entenmann's Crumb Cake on hand for his young granddaughters. Share a memory of your grandparents.

I don’t have many memories of my grandfathers, the only memory of my are their big feet. My maternal grandmothers memories… the food at holidays.

 

7) In 1956, when this song was popular, Frank was tooling around Southern California in a blue Continental Mark II. That model was known for its interior of hand-stitched imported Scottish leather. 70 years later, Scottish leather is still used in luxury cars because it's both soft and durable and the production methods minimize environmental impact. If you could splurge on something right now, what would it be? A luxury car, jewelry, travel, clothes, something else? (No responsible answers allowed!)

Oh, man! When you are my age you splurge doctors, last weekend I did my bills and all the checks that I wrote were for doctors!

 

8) Also in 1956, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Forbidden Planet were popular at the box office. Do you have a favorite sci-fi movie?

I’ll go with 2001: A Space Odyssey

I would say that we the first real Sci-Fi movie, the other were monster movies.

9) Random question: What were you doing three hours ago?

Zzzzz… cutting wood, getting “Zs”, sleeping. It was 5 AM when I wrote this.

 

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Who's watching the Super Bowl?

 

A friend is coming over to watch it with me, hot dogs and chili, with tons of munchies.

P.S. The high temperature tomorrow will be around 0F! With a fire in the woodstove!