I was sitting on the porch with Swamp Rabbit, trying to nail down the silliest Super Bowl moment. Was it Budweiser’s “Blowin’ In the Wind” commercial or the halftime performance by Maroon 5?
“Ain’t nothin’ silly about ‘Blowin’ In the Wind,'” the rabbit said. “The song plays and you see a beer wagon pulled by them big horses with them wind turbines in the background and them words on the screen: ‘Now brewed with wind power for a better tomorrow.’ It’s a good message.”
“Budweiser is blowing smoke,” I replied. “They’re hooked up with two of the worst right-wing organizations in the country — the American Legislative Exchange Council, called ALEC, and the Chamber of Commerce. No way ALEC will go for clean energy. Climate deniers care about today, not tomorrow.”
The rabbit lit a cigarette and blew smoke at the porch’s tar paper roof. “Budweiser is using wind power, and that helps the environment,” he said. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, Odd Man.”
I told him wind energy is part of Anheuser-Busch’s campaign to make people believe their beer is more “natural” and “organic” than other beers. It’s a propaganda stunt to mislead beer drinkers, a huge demographic that’s easy to fool.
I said, “Next you’ll be telling me Maroon 5 is a great band instead of a third-rate boy band that was hired because a lot of name acts turned against the NFL after they banned Colin Kaepernick for protesting racism.”
The rabbit looked at me and said, “Of course they’re a great band. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be at the Super Bowl.”
He was putting me on, I think. We jawed about the game itself — a mostly dull affair in which the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3 — and about how the Super Bowl disappoints most years because of the gulf between the hype and the reality. I told him the vulgarity of the spectacle is no longer funny once you realize the team owners have the mentality of slave owners.
“If you think it’s that bad, why’d you watch part of the game?” the rabbit said.
I had to think about that. “It’s the dead of winter,” I replied. “I had nothing better to complain about.”
Footnote: Speaking of vulgarity, I worked at an auto show on the day of the Super Bowl. On my way into the PA Convention Center, I passed a guy hawking stuff on the street corner. “Pretzels!” he shouted. “Candy! Cotton Candy! Super Bowl rings!”
There were no takers.
“It’s a propaganda stunt to mislead beer drinkers…….” And there it is.
Oligarchs and plutocrats say that FDR proves that not all rich people are greedy, corrupt, bastards.
That’s just so much propaganda pure and simple.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the exception to the ‘greedy rich people rule’ out of necessity.
FDR and the other oligarchs and plutocrats recognized that in order to save Capitalism in America they would have to spread their wealth by creating a viable middle class.
But what the wealthy giveth in the 1932 New Deal they taketh away in 1981 with Reagan.
90 Years ago oligarchs and plutocrats were forced to distribute their wealth downward and the time has come to force them to do it again.
A 70% tax bracket, Medicare-For-All and an end to ‘foreign entanglements’ (war) as George Washington warned against.