The Roman Empire had its bread and circuses, highlighted by the annual festival Saturnalia, to honor the god Saturn.
Our current American Empire has bread (welfare, SNAP, earned income tax credits, various heavy-handed governmental handouts based on perceived inequality), and circuses (assorted sports, general low-brow entertainment in movie and song, all-encompassing social media) climaxing with our annual Super Bowl celebration, in which the majority of the country’s populace gathers to watch football and commercials.
This is a moment in history exhibiting a particularly great need for distractions from the unpleasant realities of day-to-day existence. And so the elites took it upon themselves to meld football and pop culture.
There are those who think it is no coincidence that broadcasts of Kansas City Chiefs contests have devolved into unending shots of Taylor Swift in some private box observing the play.
Getting Swift – and the Chiefs – to the Super Bowl has been a coup for those desperate to have you lose focus on your personal plight.
Recall, Swift endorsed Clueless Joe Biden the last election, thereby unleashing her legions of Not-So-Swift brain donor fans to vote early and often for Joe. She is expected to do the same this time around, standing squarely behind a guy, who in the tradition of Super Bowl proposition bets, is about a 50-50 pick to know which two teams are playing in this most publicized sporting event.
I imagine broadcasters would collapse in orgasmic pleasure if only Mr. Taylor Swift would bend knee and propose on the field following the final whistle, that to be followed by the couple endorsing Biden and the cackling hen who serves as his vice president for four more years in office.
Or maybe Swift can commandeer the halftime show to indicate she’s ridin’ with Biden, which would rank in terms of memorability with Janet Jackson’s pierced breast nipple “accidentally” being exposed in a Super Bowl halftime extravaganza 20 years back.
For the average logic-impaired voter, this would be more than enough to allow them to forget day-to-day inconveniences such as inflation, heavy-handed government regulations, double standards in justice and the inability of otherwise learned individuals to discern whether an individual is a man or woman.
In recent days, we’ve been told that Biden, like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, mishandled classified information. But, like Hillary, Joe will get a pass because he’s an addle-brained old guy who can’t remember things and likely would be acquitted by a sympathetic jury. This is not my take, but that of the report from the special prosecutor assigned to investigate this Biden foible.
An outraged Biden held a press conference to dispute he is impaired mentally, and managed during this short time to provide further evidence by confusing Egypt and Mexico and freezing when delivering a line about where the rosary he has on him daily to honor a deceased son originated. Etc. Etc. Etc.
A study, based on a survey that had about 1 in 5 respondents ADMIT they have committed fraud in submitting their 2020 mail-in ballots, indicated Trump most likely actually won the election if only legitimate ballots had been counted.
The Federal Reserve, the quasi-governmental bank of banks that manipulates the money supply and sets interest rates, managed to lose a record $114.53 billion in 2023.
These are the same Fed people who helped cause the inflation with which we have suffered for years due to their unreasonably loose monetary policy.
And if you have the willingness to contemplate existential issues, know that we are one misguided act away from being involved not in proxy wars around the globe, but in actual combat with our military vs. counterparts from Russia, China or Iran.
If you think there is no risk to what is transpiring regarding Ukraine, the Middle East, or Taiwan, enjoy your blissful ignorance as long as you can.
Vote for Biden, again and again.
Let us forget reality for a few hours and lose ourselves in a football game and lose our money as a result of the availability of a seemingly never-ending supply of so-called proposition bets.
Take the yes for Taylor Swift arriving before kickoff. Take the over on Swift being shown on camera more than six times during the broadcast. Bet yes on Swift wearing a Travis Kelce jersey.
One prop bet I’d take, that I haven’t seen offered, is that Kelce and Swift no longer will be a couple at next year’s Super Bowl, but she will have used the experience to write yet another breakup song.
As for the game, (this from a guy who was 0-2 on the conference championship games) I’d love to see San Francisco win, but I’d eagerly take the two points and bet on Kansas City to win outright
Sam Ross Jr's site 