Apologies Accepted

This is one for the history books.  RFK Jr. is the son of Bobby Kennedy and the nephew of John F Kennedy - two renowned American historical figures and responsible for shaping much of 20th century American politics.

RFK Jr. is trying to follow in their footsteps, but he has some big shoes to fill.  He's running for President in 2024 and a political action committee spent 7 million dollars on an ad which aired during the Super Bowl.  The ad featured a lot of images of JFK and tried to associate RFK Jr.'s bid for office with JFK's presidency.

Members of the Kennedy family saw the ad and weren't happy.  They publicly called RFK Jr. out for this rather tasteless campaign tactic (also they think he's completely wacky) and reminded RFK Jr. that the Kennedy family believes in things like science and reason.

RFK Jr. apologized for the hurt caused to his family by the ad, but it wasn't in his hands to control.  It was an ad created by an independent political action committee and he wasn't allowed by law to even know that an ad would be aired - let alone the contents of the ad!

He's sure sorry about that ad, but not about his stance on a number of conspiracy theory topics ~ which is another reason the Kennedy family isn't supporting his run for the presidency.

Blood is thicker than water, but not in family politics!

Our corporate overlords have paused this episode of Apologies Accepted, the Podcast, to remind everyone of the joys of work and the joys of not complaining about it.  We return you now to your regularly scheduled work day:

Someone said the quite parts out loud on a podcast, but she wasn't talking for herself.  She got a lot of pushback and fulll disclosure I am blissfully hight righ now during my personal time!  I can do what I want! 

Or can I? 

(0:

OMG you are gonna love this episode unless you are a corporate overlord!

Love,

Not Working Right Now

Could that get you fired if you posted it online (theo will find out next week!).  When does the work day end and are you the owner of your own soul?  Gen Z is about to find out, or die tryin (while working)!

Martyrdom is a Black Metal band from Texas and they did the most Black Metal thing they could think when performing at a local Houston venue, they threw a pig's head into the crowd.  Some people were into it: Black Metal is about anti-establishment Satanic performative screaming!  Pig Heads are awesome!  Some people were not into it: Black Metal is about authenticity and throwing a pig's head into the crowd is rude - we're here for the screaming and not the blood!

The rift in the Black Metal community was never more clear than after Martyrdom issued an apology to any fans in the crowd who were vegans or Muslims. They also thoughtfully apologized to Harry the sound guy who was working that night at the White Swan.  Some fans felt the apology was owed and other fans felt the apology made the band into a joke (Harry did not voice his opinion one way or the other).

Please note that no sound guys or pigs were hurt during the recording of this episode.  We can't speak for what happened afterwards...

Right Wing Media will have you know that Sherita Hill Golden is the DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusion) officer at John Hopkins Medical Center and she sent out an email that said that white people, Christians, and men are privileged.  The slant of the articles and opinion pieces and onscreen televangelists – sorry we mean onscreen television news casters – would have you believe that she is calling for America to open up prison camps for white Christian males.  They don’t say that explicitly, but for sure they are stoking the fires of fear with their rhetoric.  They also don’t explain that the list of “privileged people” included people who speak English.

What they further fail to mention is that Dr. Sherita Hill Golden is an actual doctor, not some activist hack who landed a position in the Human Resources Department.  She is the Professor of Medicine and Vice President as well as Chief Diversity Officer at John Hopkins Medical Center.  She speaks English and identifies as Christian.  What she isn’t is white and male and that seems to be largely what set off alarm bells throughout the right-wing media EchoSphere.

Dr. Sherita Hill Golden apologized.  That’s right, she apologized for being right and there wasn’t any snark in her apology at all.

We have the last laugh as we reveal the right-wing’s playbook for how to take over America and consider the value of an apology that never needed to be offered.

OR IF YOU PREFER TO READ THE AI SUMMARY OF THIS EPISODE - UNTOUCHED AND UNDOCTORED BY HUMAN HANDS (not even Dr. Hill Golden's hands would be allowed to edit this):

Press play on 'Apologies Accepted', an enlightening podcast episode featuring Theo and Juliette as they traverse through light-hearted banter to profound discussions. They paint a vivid picture of their personal experiences, balanced perfectly with engaging dialogues on critical global issues.Google

The episode swoops into action with an amusing update on Theo's Scottish Christmas and Philippines' journey, contrasted beautifully with Juliette's Canadian snowstorm escapade and mouse invasion encounter. The opening sets the stage for the episode's crucial discussion.

Crunch into the kernel of the episode that discusses the incendiary backlash to Dr. Sherita Hill Golden's definition of 'privilege.' Dissect the unfolding controversy that involves the prestigious medical professor and Vice President at Johns Hopkins University, her explanatory email on 'privilege,' and the subsequent apology that reveals the distortion of the privilege issue at large.

Dive deep into discussions critiquing selective media treatment towards diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris and how privilege is distorted in various societal circles. Get swept into a thought-provoking journey that extends to unpack increasing conflicts between right-wing organizations and financial institutions in the US, instigated by a controversial event involving JP Morgan Chase and the National Committee for Religious Freedom.

This episode serves not only as an exploration of political bias, institutional instability, and manipulative narratives, but also as an eye-opener that discerns facts from distortion. Tune into this engaging podcast that perfectly blends the personal and the political with tales of apologizing in the public eye.

(thank you, AI.  We accept your praise and you are totally right about us!).

So it's come to this, an Italian Bishop told a group of school children that Santa Claus did not exist.  The Church has resorted to lies to win the war against Christmas!  The Bishop's assistant apologized and explained that the Bishop meant to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas (again, lies).

The War on Christmas has some deep roots, the commercial versus the religious aspect has troubled people for over 200 years - people have been downing on Santa for years and it's time to stop.  In 1897 the war against Santa troubled one 8 year old girl so much that she wrote into the most important newspaper in the US, The Sun, to ask the question "is Santa Claus real" because "if you see it in The Sun it's so".  The most famous line in Christmas history was born when Francis Pharcellus Church (lay writing here, his last name is Church?!) replied "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Truly, the case is closed.  But still the war wages on and we're here to give you some of the background on the reality of Santa and the sad little apology coughed out by one tiny-hearted Bishop's assistant.

It's our Christmas episode.  Christmaschristmaschristmaschristmaschristmaschristmaschristmas.  We love it - the lights, the music, the cookies, the racist caricatures!  Ah, Christmas - the yuletide celebration that brings the world closer together.  A lovely time of year when we ask ourselves the eternal questions like: what is the meaning behind a black man dressed for a renaissance fair who has curly black hair and red red lips and puts children in a sack and beats them with a stick while taking them away to work in Spain. The meaning, in the Netherlands, is Christmas.  What a fun jolly time of year, and what a fun jolly sidekick-servant-slave-companion for St. Nicholas to have, a colorfully dressed black man who punishes naughty children by forcing them to work (for free) in Santa's toy shop in Spain.

Listen, we get it.  Black Pete is racist.  But some Dutch people don't think so, they will argue with you, they will scream at you from their windmill houses, shaking their fists while throwing tulips and wooden shoes at you...be warned, the dutch are tolerant but that doesn't mean they will tolerate you talking smack about their beloved Zwarte Piet.  He's been around for 150 years and comes from a children's story book and you Americans have Rudolph and Frosty and your Santa is fat like all Americans and shame on you for your history! Go drink some coca-cola and celebrate capitalism, you Americans!

Christmas gets ugly this year as we turn our attention to Dutch Delicious, a bakery in Edmonton (hello, Canada!) that thought it would be fun to share their Dutch cultural Christmas tradition of Black Pete with Canadians.  They weren't prepared for the backlash and quickly offered an apology and a new version of Black Pete, Chimney Pete - which leads us to ask another eternal question: will our listeners in the Netherlands ever forgive us for the windmill houses and throwing tulip jokes?

Russ and Phylis have been victims of Christmas pranksters since 2016.  One year the baby Jesus was stolen out of their nativity scene, later returned thanks to the miracle of faith and a very passive aggressive 3-foot-tall sign that Phylis posted on the front lawn.  Another year baby Jesus was stolen and never returned.  In 2019 the merry pranksters struck again, stealing the entire nativity scene…only to return it a few days later with a note of apology (surely returned thanks again to the miracle of faith and yet another giant passive aggressive note signed by Phylis).

We’re here to rate the apology note the thieves left behind and explore the mystery of the nativity: how accurate is our modern day understanding of the birth of the baby Jesus?  What about the Wise Men, or the animals in the manger, or even the year and day of the birth?  What is true and what is fiction? We take a deep dive into first century Christianity and all the things around the two completely different birth narratives found in the Bible.

Note from Phylis: Do not listen to these two heathens discuss my nativity set or any of the words they can muster out of their mouths. (Note on the note: please note this is not an actual note from Phylis).

FabFitFun is a monthly gift subscription box that arrives filled with surprises.  The idea is that the total cost of the items in the box is worth waaaay more than your monthly subscription price.  Subscribers love it and it's been kicking around since 2010 just delighting people and making money.

That is until the company decided to throw its advertising money on the site-formerly-known-as-Twitter after Space Karen (Elon Musk) decided to add his free speech ability and endorse a tweet that was pretty anti semitic.  “You have said the actual truth.” Musk tweeted in agreement to what is widely known to be an anti semitic trope.  Advertisers fled the site and Musk started waving the banner of free speech.

Later, on stage at a conference, Musk made his "free speech" speech and then said he was being blackmailed by Bob Iger (Disney) and that Bob could go "F'ck Yourself."  This was his heroic mic drop moment but it fell flat since it was based on the false premise that Bob Iger gives a f*ck about what Elon thinks.

But the people at FabFitFun decided that free speech was a worthy cause and that "#gofuckyourself" would make a great promo code and hashtag.  So sign up now and get a box mailed to your house each month filled with presents worth way more than your monthly subscription price!

FabFitFun fans were not amused.  Apparently the whole Nazi anti semitic thing just flew under the radar at the corporate headquarters of FabFitFun.  The $100,000 they threw to Elon to support his free speech movement was wasted money as instead of getting lots of new subscribers, they lost subscribers.

But wait, they apologized and are ready to make things right!

What is free speech, where does it come from, and what use is it?  Is free speech free from consequences?

Weight Watchers used shame as part of their buffet of options to motivate people to lose weight.  You are what you eat and your self control is visible in the extra pounds you carry around.  It was all tied together nicely and that's the way it was until Ozempic showed up and was like "hey friend, I gotta let you know a secret" and the secret was you could lose weight without Weight Watchers.

There was a sea change in the diet world when Ozempic appeared and that sea change came with a whale of an apology from Weight Watchers.  Suddenly Weight Watchers was losing weight itself, changing its name to "WW" (not Wonder Woman) and taking the word "diet" out of its marketing.  Big changes, but is WW putting its money where its mouth is?

Matt Rife is/was a comedian who rose to fame on Tik Tok.  Most of his followers are/were female, to which he credits his glow up from average to pretty dang good lookin!  On Tik Tok, he comes across as empathetic, caring, not afraid to cross a line and offend in the name of humor, and just super likeable.  On his Netflix special, Natural Selection, he decides to let the world know that he is a bro, a hardcore man whose comedy isn't "pandering to women" and to prove it he opens his special with a joke about domestic abuse.  It didn't go over well (not even in the special where it was a room full of super fans).  The rest of the show was meh but then who are we to criticize with zero Netflix specials?

We're Apologies Accepted, that's who. Matt made his public apology to the world for the joke, and let's just say it was an apology rife (you're welcome!) with insincerity.  But if he's looking to be the new MAGA boy king then he's off to a good start.