We paid no attention to the game itself – I doubt anybody else did either, except die-hard fans. The commercials were dreadful; no class, no art, just sell, sell, sell! But what are we selling? A notion, not a product. AI. Crypto. Bye bye Bitcoin. Your time came and went. Why? Beats me. It’s downright whimsical.

And then there was the Bad Bunny halftime show. How many people watched it, versus the other one – Kid Rock? Oh, about 135 million. And the Kid who shoots at Bud Light cans? About 5 million. So, let’s see – 135 million is how many times more than 5 million? You do the math. That’s a whoppin’ big number.

But here’s the thing about that Bad Bunny halftime show – it surely wasn’t intended for the audience in the stands. From any particular seat, they likely couldn’t see more than half of it. The rest was designated quite emphatically for the television audience. Like me. I certainly don’t speak fluent enough Spanish to understand his lyrics, but did that matter? The show wasn’t in the lyrics, it was in the man himself. He’s quite the entertainer. Here he is with Lady Gaga. Another magnificent performer.

But he’s also a provocateur, because from Puerto Rico, a “possession” of the US since the Spanish American war. In 1917, the Jones Act granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans. Why? To secure the Caribbean, and in particular the Panama Canal. If you remember your history around the start of World War I, there was an offer from Zimmerman, the German ambassador, to Mexico to exchange invasion of US for land after Germany won the war. Crazy, but obviously scary. So Puerto Ricans can say they are one of us because of the Germans. Interesting factoid of history.

Back to Bad Bunny. Part of a song of his was “muted”, quite obviously intentional. When I was Phanes about it, he told me the line, which was well, not clear as to who he’s talking about – or to. Here it is (from NBC News, prior to the event: Puerto Rican flags: In his song “La Mudanza,” Bad Bunny sings, “Aquí mataron gente por sacar la bandera / Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera.” In English: “Here they killed people for showing the flag / That’s why I bring it everywhere I want now.” It appears to be a reference to Law 53 of 1948, better known as the Gag Law, a ruling by the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly which attempted to suppress the independence movement on the island and criminalized displaying the Puerto Rican flag. It was repealed in 1952. It is also one of many reasons Puerto Ricans are known for waving their flag with pride for their island. Well, he was waving the flag, but the words were not heard – except, maybe on that rascal Tik Tok.

So we have two nations now: one that appreciates the message Bad Bunny sent (we are all Americans, north and south) and those that watched Kid Rock (we are white, shoot beer cans and try to appease ignorant dudes from the South with my provocative lyrics, even though I started out life as an upper middle class boy from Detroit back in the day). Who are we today? Who will we pretend to be tomorrow?

So that puts us on the path to the eventual big breakup much discussed in previous work. You know it’s comin’. So do I. So does AI. We shall see how and when.