Dear Progressive Reader,

This weekend is the fifty-eighth Super Bowl. As Mark Fiore illustrates, swirling in the background of this year’s contest is the absolutely nutty theory that Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce (who appeared in a TV commercial for Pfizer to promote COVID vaccines), and pop star Taylor Swift (who inspired 35,000 young fans to register to vote), and perhaps the entire NFL are involved in a conspiracy to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. Well, as they say, “correlation is not causation”—it might just be that they all agree (for many very good reasons) that Donald Trump should not occupy the White House.

But there are other issues around the Super Bowl, too. It’s historical link to militarism, the ever-increasing understanding of traumatic brain injuries caused by the game, and the rise in violence against women that occurs every year on Super Bowl Sunday are all significant concerns. This week, on our website, David Masciotra interviews Rhonda LaValdo of Not in Our Honor about the continued appropriation of Native American history, themes, and identities in team names, mascots, and symbols. “The NFL is tone deaf. They say that they are trying to raise awareness about systemic racism, and yet they are insulting one of the most marginalized [groups of] people in this country,” she explains. LaValdo’s group plans a protest at the game, and hopes to enlist the support and influence of Swift as well. “She must know the chop is wrong, because she never does it. . . . I wish she would say something. It would help.”

Elsewhere on our website this week, Jeff Abbott reports on the recent reelection of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele; Safa Ahmed examines the growing links between Hindu nationalists and the Christian right in the United States; Joe George reviews the new German film The Teachers’ Lounge; and journalist Jim Morris chronicles his long look at the industrial poisoning of workers. Plus Sabine von Mering pens an op-ed on the ways military spending exacerbates the climate crisis; Johnny Dudley looks at the need for a different lens in examining and dealing with gun violence; and Jacqueline White opines that we must rethink our approach to youth homelessness.

In our ongoing coverage of the wars and violence in the Middle East, Stephen Zunes looks at the origins of the Houthis in Yemen, and how the United States could have chosen a different path in 2011; Glenn Sacks supports the right of teachers to criticize actions by the Israeli government without fear of censorship; and Dana Hassneiah responds to the war in Gaza from her vantage point as a Palestinian physician living and working in the United States. “Even half a world away,” she writes, “I feel the threat of extinction.”

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. – Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2024 – you can still order The Progressive’s new Hidden History of the United States calendar for the coming year. Just go to indiepublishers.shop, and while you are there, check out some of our other great offerings as well.

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