You don't see this every day
President Trump isn’t having the best week. Members of his own party aresplittingwith his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, and a Washington Post-Schar Schoolpollreleased today found 58% of Americans support the impeachment inquiry and 49% support him being removed from office. But at least he has Kanye.
I’m writing this week’s issue from Utah. I flew out Saturday morning to catch Kanye West’s Sunday Service on a hunch he might make news, and he did. Also in this issue we’ll look at a campaign logo that mixes serif and sans-serif fonts and see how the controversy over the NBA this week is part of something much bigger.
Yours,
Kanye West is talking about politics again
Just a few weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of Kanye West announcing he was abandoning politics — his infamous “ I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in” tweet was on October 30, 2018 — West defended his support for Trump during his Sunday Service performance in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
“Abraham Lincoln was the Whig Party—that’s the Republican Party that freed the slaves,” West said as part of an extended monologue during “Jesus Walks.” “I ain’t never make a decision only based on my color. That’s a form of slavery mental slavery.”
West’s return to political commentary has upset people online who’ve pointed out the Republican Party of Lincoln is different than the modern GOP. The fan account @kanyesundayservices wrote that it was “hesitant to post” my footage of West’s comments on Instagram at first but relented to “get the conversation going.”
West also briefly touched on criminal justice reform during his performance (“There’s one in three African-Americans in jail in this country,” he said) and spoke about his dislike of social media.
“Do not read comments on the internet,” he said. “These people don’t know you like that. Social media is designed to make you think slower. … They want to slow you down and control you.”
Some of West’s family members have expressed their desires for him to keep his political views more private. West has mostly complied, although he did talk about feeling like liberals bully Trump supporters on David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and tweeted on New Year’s Day that he would perform wearing “my mutherf—-ing hat” from now on. He did not wear a hat, MAGA or otherwise, during the Salt Lake performance.
As for those wondering what a Sunday Service performance is like, it’s mostly *not* Kanye. West’s choir and band, the Sunday Service Collective, performed by themselves the majority of the time, singing many songs with Christian lyrics set to families pop music melodies. There was also a message on John 3:16 from pastor Adam Tyson.
Wife Kim Kardashian West did not make an appearance. She’s been in Armenia where their kids Psalm, Chicago, and Saint got baptized. KKW also praised climate change activist Greta Thunberg while in the country, telling Reuters today that Thunberg is a “brave and amazing young woman.” 🎤
You don’t see this every day
Here’s a campaign logo that mixes serif with sans-serif type in a single wordmark. Richard Berube is a Marine veteran running for district attorney for Dutchess County, New York, and I reached out to the campaign for an explanation. They did not respond to my questions. Designer Michael Bierut, known to political design nerds for his work on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 logo, called the combination of serif and sans-serif type “troubling.” 🔠
Trump’s former attorney loves Comic Sans
via @KFaulders
Yes, Comic Sans. Attorney John Dowd sent a letter to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence written using the maligned font to inform the committee that two of Rudy Giuliani’s business associates connected to the Ukraine investigation would not meet a deadline to turn over documents related to their work in Ukraine.
Dowd, who worked as the lead lawyer for Trump during the special counsel investigation, wrote in the letter that it would take time to prepare a response and that some of what the committee asked for could be protected by attorney-client privilege.
Dowd has used Comic Sans before, including on the letterhead of a 20-page letter responding to Robert Mueller’s request that Trump be questioned about allegedly committing obstruction of justice, according to New York Times national security editor Amy Fiscus. 📝
The NBA’s Hong Kong controversy is part of something much bigger
The Houston Rockets have found themselves in hot water in both China and the U.S. after general manager Daryl Morey tweeted then deleted his support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters Friday.
After upsetting Chinese fans for supporting the protesters, Morey tweeted that he was “merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event” while the NBA released a Chinese-language statement that it was “extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment,” per the New York Times.
The Rockets are the second-most popular NBA team in China, a report from the digital marketing agency Mailman found.
The outcry in the U.S. has included Democrats and Republicans alike, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas).
This isn’t the first time an American company has bent to please a Chinese audience. In the past week, video game developer Blizzard Entertainment pulled prize money from a tournament winner who said “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!” during a livestream. We’ve seen Hollywood films makes changes to scripts to please Chinese authorities before and American-based airlines have removed references to Taiwan for flights into its capital city of Taipei. Google is reportedly still working on a censored search engine for China despite employee protests, according to the Intercept.
The influence of Chinese politics on American business and culture is growing and it’s not something that will go away anytime soon. But if the NBA controversy is any guide, we could increasingly see Americans push back. 🏀
Banksy’s sending a message with his new store
The street artist is opening a store to fend off a greeting card company attempting to take control of his copyright. Called Gross Domestic Product, the store has a physical location in Croydon, England, that you can’t actually go into and an online storefront that says “Opening soon.”
Among the items slated to go on sale are a toy truck with migrant dolls, a welcome mat made from a migrant life jacket, and a disco ball police helmet. In a statement, the street artist said the proceeds will go towards buying a migrant rescue boat to replace one confiscated by Italian authorities. Banksy’s attorney, Mark Stephens, told artnet News the artist is “quite happy for his work to be used for activism and personal enjoyment.” 🎨
Ellen wants us all to get along
After hanging out with former President Bush at Sunday’s Cowboys-Packers game, Ellen DeGeneres is defending her friendship with W. In a segment she tweeted out, DeGeneres said she and wife Portia de Rossi were invited to the game by Charlotte Jones, daughter or Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and that she knew she’d be seated next to people who didn’t share her beliefs.
“People were upset. They thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” DeGeneres said. “Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them. When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone.” 💖
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Correction: A previous version of this issue misstated the location of Dutchess County.