Tag: news

Morning Ramble: Bad Bunny, Kid Rock, and the Strange Weather of Culture

Morning Ramble: Bad Bunny, Kid Rock, and the Strange Weather of Culture

Some days, the cultural weather rolls in sideways, and you find yourself watching people online argue about whether Bad Bunny or Kid Rock is the “real” entertainer. This debate misses the core point: what matters isn’t which entertainer is more legitimate, but the type of culture each represents. Comparing them is like comparing a lighthouse to a lawnmower — both make noise, but only one helps you find your way home.

Bad Bunny — Benito — is out there bending sound like light through a prism, turning reggaetón, trap, pop, and whatever else he feels like into something that feels alive. He’s got Grammys, stadiums, and a global fanbase that sings in Spanish with their whole chest, even if they only understand every third word. He’s fluid, political when he wants to be, joyful when he chooses to be, and unbothered by the borders other people try to draw around him.

Kid Rock, meanwhile, is still trying to convince the world he’s the same guy from the “Cowboy” era, even though the world has rotated a few dozen times since then. The swagger hardened into shouting, the rebellion calcified into grievance, and the lyrics… well, let’s just say they don’t exactly age like wine. More like something you’d find in a forgotten cooler behind a shed.

And that’s why—let me be crystal clear—I would choose the Super Bowl halftime show over Kid Rock and TPUSA. Not out of spite or politics, but because the moment feels like a reflection on what culture can grow into, not what it leaves behind. It comes down to the music, the message, the energy—the difference between expanding the world or holding it still.

Bad Bunny writes about identity, heartbreak, joy, pride, and the messy business of being human. Kid Rock writes about… well, sometimes things you wouldn’t want on your search history. One artist is building bridges; the other is burning daylight.

But the funny thing about music is that it’s weather. It shifts. It tells you what season the culture is in. Bad Bunny is a warm front rolling in from the Caribbean, reshaping the atmosphere. Kid Rock is a cold gust from a bar that closed at 1 a.m. and forgot to turn off the neon sign.

Maybe that’s the whole point: choosing between them isn’t really about music — it’s about the kind of world we want to live in. Are we supporting a culture that grows and remixes itself, or one that clings to the past and resists change? This is the real choice at the heart of the argument.

Anyway, that’s what washed up on the harbor today. The tide brings what it brings.

Have a good morning. As the Super Bowl approaches—a time that should be about sports, not politics—I’ll keep exploring the truth about why Bad Bunny, Kid Rock, and the halftime show matter in this cultural conversation.

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from the Edge of the List

So, it’s official: Pam Bondi, Attorney General and microphone wielder, has reportedly directed the FBI to compile a list of “anti-American” groups. The leaked memo reads like a fever dream of ideological purity — targeting anyone who dares question immigration enforcement, capitalism, gender norms, or traditional family values.

In other words, if you’ve ever posted a meme about billionaires, marched for trans rights, or wondered aloud whether Jesus would deport asylum seekers — congratulations, you might be on the list.

I can’t say I’m surprised. When college students began being arrested for writing in campus newspapers, I figured it was only a short walk to us on social media. The ink dries, the post goes live, and suddenly free speech is treated like contraband.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t just a rumor. It’s been fact-checked and confirmed. You can do your own fact-checking, too — the memo exists, the directive is real. What we’re smelling here isn’t the sweet air of liberty; it smells like dictatorship.

The memo builds on Trump’s NSPM‑7 directive and paints dissent as domestic terrorism. It’s not about violence — it’s about views. And if your views don’t align with the administration’s gospel, you’re suddenly a threat.

Do your own fact-checking. Here are the verified fact-checking and reporting links on Pam Bondi’s leaked DOJ memo directing the FBI to compile lists of “anti-American” groups:

  • Snopes – Confirmed leaked memo
  • Reuters – Bondi orders law enforcement to investigate “extremist groups”
  • Ken Klippenstein – Original leaked memo publication
  • Common Dreams – Coverage of Bondi memo
  • Democracy Now! – “Domestic Terrorism” leaked DOJ memo
  • Nation of Change – Memo targets anti‑Americanism, anti‑capitalism, anti‑Christianity
  • Crooks and Liars – Bondi plans to treat anti‑Trump activists as domestic terrorists
  • Factually – Fact‑check summary of Bondi memo

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Clamshell Echoes: A Rambling Harbor Reflection on Seabrook and Sanctuary

There was a time when the salt air of New Hampshire carried more than the scent of low tide; it had the pulse of resistance. I remember it not as a headline or a footnote, but because I was there as part of the Clamshell Alliance, and we stood stubborn and unarmed against the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant.

We weren’t just protesting a facility; we were trying to protect a way of life. The marshes, the estuaries, the fragile coastline — they weren’t just geography. And when the government said “progress,” we said “not here.”

My friend Ron Rieck, a pacifist apple picker with the soul of a poet, climbed the weather observation tower in January 1976 and stayed there for 36 cold hours. Alone but not isolated, he turned that tower into a lighthouse of resistance. I was supposed to go up there with him. That was the plan. But duty called me back to Baltimore, to Jonah House, where the work of peace and resistance and support was unfolding in its own sacred rhythm. I wasn’t there in body on the tower with Ron, but I was there in spirit, tethered by purpose and friendship.

In May of 1977, over 2,000 of us occupied the construction site. This time I was there. I felt the ground beneath me, the tension in the air, and the quiet resolve of people who knew they might be arrested but refused to be silenced. More than 1,400 of us were taken into custody. We slept on armory floors, shared stories, and turned confinement into communion.


The Clamshell Alliance wasn’t just a protest group—it was a blueprint for change. We organized in affinity groups, practiced nonviolence, and made sure our resistance was as disciplined as it was passionate. We weren’t radicals. We were caretakers. And we believed that energy should be clean, democratic, and rooted in respect for the land.

Seabrook eventually went online in 1990, but not without delay, bankruptcy, and a legacy of resistance that still echoes. The plant may have risen, but so did we. And in that growing, we shaped a movement that inspired anti-nuclear activism across the country. Jonah House, as the war in Vietnam ended, became involved in Nuclear disarmament, as Phil Berigan said. “Nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself.”

Now, decades later, I sit in Rambling Harbor and remember. Not with bitterness, but with pride. Because sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is stand still. To plant your feet in the sand and say, “This matters.”

We were clamshells—fragile, beautiful, and unbreakable in our unity. And though the tide has shifted, the memory remains. A protest becomes a poem. A moment becomes a movement. And a harbor becomes a sanctuary.

Here is a line from Allen Ginsberg’s Plutonian Ode: “I declare the end of War!” “I chant your absolute Vanity. Yes, you are pure Void.” “I enter your secret places with my mind…” “I call upon the soul of Man to arise and walk.”

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