Thoughts on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show was one big love letter to his native Puerto Rico, culminating in a message of pride in his home and the Americas, and an appeal for unity with the U.S.

. . . The 31-year-old, who was the world’s most-played artist in 2025 according to Spotify, made history by becoming the first musician to perform entirely in Spanish at a Super Bowl, which is normally the most-watched event on U.S. TV. He did choose to say one line in English, “God bless America,” before listing nations of Central, South and North America as dancers carried their flags. Behind them, a billboard message read "The only thing more powerful than hate is love," and he held a football at the end of the segment bearing the slogan in English: “Together, We Are America.”

. . . Bad Bunny’s performance in Santa Clara, California, marked the first time the singer and rapper had performed in the United States - except for shows in Puerto Rico - since releasing last year’s Grammy Award-winning album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos).

Puerto Rico, which is a self-governing territory of the U.S.A., was at the heart of everything in this performance, from his early emergence from a sugarcane field to a set that was meant to represent the sounds and sights of the place he calls home.

Transporting himself through a Latin landscape, with set pieces that included everything from a nail salon to a bar, the Grammy award winner reeled off a medley of his biggest hits, including “Tití Me Preguntó,” “MONACO” and “BAILE INoLVIDABLE.”

Bad Bunny ended his performance by shouting “God Bless America” and naming multiple countries and territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S., with those two flags carried behind him side-by-side.

Sunday’s show represented the best of Latin culture on the sporting world’s biggest stage.

– Annabel Rackham
Excerpted from “Bad Bunny Makes History
as Trump Criticises 'Terrible' Super Bowl Show”
BBC News
February 8, 2026

Bad Bunny didn’t just break the Internet and viewership records; he broke MAGA in a way that is deeply personal, and they hate him for it.

But they don’t hate him because he doesn’t sing in English, or because he’s been critical of the masked thugs they beat immigrants vicariously through, or because his pigmentation is problematic – at least those aren’t the primary reasons.

MAGAers hate Bad Bunny because he is a symbol of their greatest fears coming to life: a nation that is outgrowing them, a culture that is evolving past them, a war against progress that they know they’re losing.

They despise him because, over the course of a thirteen-minute halftime show that they swore they wouldn’t watch but couldn’t look away from, they were forced to see what’s happening outside of the insular, white nationalist echo chamber they spend their lives in, and it terrified them.

– John Pavlovitz
Excerpted from “MAGA Americans Have a Bunny
Living Rent-Free in Their Heads”
The Beautiful Mess
February 11, 2026

Bad Bunny’s official half-time show . . . was joyous and complex, intimate and historical, and it managed to do all of that all at once. It felt like a celebration of life, and you didn’t need to follow the words, because you just needed to feel the beat. (Asked if people must know Spanish to appreciate this show, Bad Bunny said: “It’s better they learn to dance. There’s no better dance than the one that comes from the heart.”) The performance concluded with a big banner that read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” and with Bad Bunny holding a football (the U.S.A. kind) with text that read: “Together, we are America.”

That American conservatives saw that last line as “subversive” shows you the depths of the problem we face in this country. While some of us realize that we have and even like our neighbors, others seem to think we live, or should live, in a hermetically sealed-off land.

– Moustafa Bayoumi
Excerpted from “Why Has MAGA
Lost Its Mind Over Bad Bunny?”
The Guardian
February 11, 2026

This is the choice in front of us. You can accept Trump’s America, the America that governs through sieges, blockades, sanctions, and humiliation, deciding from afar who may rule, who may eat, and who must be punished into submission. Or you can stand with Nuestra América, the America José Martí and Simón Bolívar imagined, and that Bad Bunny echoed when he held up a football, reading “Together we are America.” This is an America that refuses domination, that believes no nation is a backyard, and that insists the future of this hemisphere belongs to its peoples, not to an empire. There is no neutral ground between those two Americas.

This is why the moment demands more than applause. It demands that we look past the spectacle and confront the systems that decide who gets to thrive and who is forced to flee. A real Good Neighbor Policy would respect sovereignty, stop weaponizing hunger and instability, and recognize that dignity does not end at the U.S. border. Bad Bunny reminded millions of people of connection, of shared humanity, of a hemisphere bound together by history and responsibility. What comes next is on us. If those 13 minutes meant anything, they must move us toward demanding a foreign policy that treats our neighbors as equals. Because in the end, the message is simple and uncompromising: The only thing more powerful than hate is love.

– Michelle Ellner
Excerpted from “Bad Bunny, Good Neighbor”
Common Dreams
February 11, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Show Symbolism Decoded – Teflon Tv (February 10, 2026).
Bad Bunny’s Nuestra América – Diego von Vacano (Buenos Aires Herald, February 9, 2026).
Bad Bunny’s Superbowl Halftime Show Explained – MattyBallz (February 9, 2026).
In Times of Turmoil, Bad Bunny Chose Love with the Halftime Show – Olivia Flanz (Berkeley Beacon, February 11, 2026).
Bad Bunny Sets Super Bowl Record While MAGA’s Halftime Implodes – David Doel (The Rational National, February 9, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• John Pavlovitz: Quote of the Day – February 3, 2026
• Michael Jochum on Bad Bunny and the “Great American Meltdown”
• John Pavlovitz: Quote of the Day – September 30, 2025

Memes of the Times

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

MINNESOTAN RESISTANCE TO THE TRUMP REGIME’S FASCIST OCCUPATION
• Why Minnesota?
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”
• Dispatches from Occupied Minnesota
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• “This Was a Flat Out Execution”
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• In the Face of Fascist Lies, MN Governor Tim Walz Sets the Record Straight
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26


THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• “If a Praying Minister Isn’t Safe, None of Us Are”
• Historian John Lestrange on the Meaning and Manifestations of Fascism, Past and Present
• James Greenberg on Trump’s “Larger Design” – the Construction of a Military Dictatorship
• “A Power Grab the Likes of Which This Country Has Never Seen”


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism


ISRAEL AND GAZA
• Two Years of “Indescribable Horror”
• The Only Difference
• No Justice, No Peace
• Progressive Perspectives on Hillary Clinton’s Comments on Pro-Palestine “Propaganda” and TikTok
• Qasim Rashid: Quote of the Day
• “It Is Up to Us”


THE DEPRAVITY OF THE EPSTEIN CLASS
• Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”
• Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”
• Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein


BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• What Will Be Enough?
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• “Organized Sustained Systemic Resistance and Self-Defense Are Our Only Options”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly


ZACK POLANSKI
• The Rational National’s Take on U.K. Green Party’s “Brilliant” New Ad
• Zack Polanski’s Christmas Message
• Zack Polanski’s Message of Hope
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”


CHRIS HEDGES
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “Israel Has No Intention of Halting Its Merry-Go-Round of Death”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire


MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
• How to Psychologically Endure This Moment
• “We Need an Expanded Version of What it Means to Be Political”
• Yes, Just Imagine


BAD BUNNY AND THE SUPER BOWL
• Thoughts on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show
• Michael Jochum on Bad Bunny and the “Great American Meltdown”
• John Pavlovitz: Quote of the Day


MICHAEL MEADE
• Wisdom at the Edge
• Michael Meade on “Slowing Downwards”
• Soul: The Connecting Force in Life
• Where Soul Would Have Us Go


SIGNS OF HOPE
• The Path Ahead
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day
• Matthew Cooke: “MAGA Just Lost Everything . . . Now It’s Only a Matter of Time – and Each of Us Doing Our Part”
• Chris Hedges: “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Joyce Rupp: Seeking and Trusting the “Why” of Your Life
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• A Socialist Agenda for 2026


See also:
• Memes of the Times – November 23, 2025
• Memes of the Times – September 21, 2025
• Memes of the Times – July 27, 2024
• Memes of the Times – May 21, 2020
• Signs of the Times – April 25, 2017
• At the Minnesota Capitol, Signs of the Times (May 16, 2011)

The Smile

By Steve Taylor

At the moment of brutal disappointment
when you realize that your hopes were illusions
and you’re ashamed of your gallibility
and angry with the world for stringing you along
for letting this foolish game go on so long
and your future seems bleak and stark
without those filters of delusion
and you survey the wreckage of your life
wondering if you were ever who you thought you were –

Maybe you can sense a part of you
that’s not a part of this
that’s standing outside this psychic storm
untouched by this chaos
peering through the rubble and the clouds of dust
looking on and smiling –
knowing that this damage is only superficial,
just to your facade, not to your foundation.
and that when the debris is cleared away
there will be more space inside
for your essence to shine through.

– Steve Taylor
From The Calm Center: Reflections and
Meditations for Spiritual Awakening
New World Library, 2015
p. 39

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Love Will Not Lose
• Until the Light Returns
• What the Wind Says
• Secret Language of the Heart
• Kahlil Gibran on Self-Knowledge
• When Sorrow Comes
• The Empty Beach
• Walking Away
• The Real Question
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• Aligning With the Living Light
• A Sacred Pause
• Mystical Participation
• Shining On

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”

If you’re trying to get a handle on the full meaning and ramifications of the Epstein files, Terry Moran’s February 4 interview with journalist and political commentator Anand Giridharadas is a great place to start.

Here’s how the interview is introduced on Moran’s podcast, Real Patriotism:

In a wide-ranging conversation, Anand Giridharadas joins Terry Moran to examine power, morality, and the elite networks that shape American life – from politics and corporate culture to inequality, immigration, and democracy itself. Prompted by the release of the Epstein documents, the discussion moves beyond scandal to ask deeper questions: how elite impunity works, why consequences are so rarely attach to power, how corporate values shift with political winds, and why so many Americans have lost trust in institutions meant to serve them.

The [40-minute] conversation also explores the rise of Donald Trump, the collapse of elite credibility, and the enduring tension between exclusion and belonging in American history – including what still draws people from around the world to become American. This is not a story of conspiracy. It is a factual story about systems, incentives, and power – and about what, even now, continues to set America apart.

Related Off-site Links:
It’s So Much Bigger Than Epstein – Anand Giridharadas (The Ink, February 2, 2026).
Rep. Thomas Massie Threatens to Go “Nuclear” and Reveal Epstein Client Names If Attorney General Pam Bondi Won’t Unredact Them – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, February 9, 2026).
The Hidden Truth of the Epstein E-mails: An Interview with Anand Giridharadas – The Chris Hedges Report (January 5, 2026).
The Epstein Files Show How Powerful Men Protect Each Other: An Interview with Helen Rumbelow – Times News (February 4, 2026).
“Billionaire Boys Club”: What the Latest Epstein Files Reveal About Elite Impunity – Democracy Now! (February 2, 2026).
Epstein Files Reveal Scandal’s Global Reach. What’s Next for Europe’s Elite? – Amanpour and Company (February 5, 2026).
How Epstein Helped Ruin Gaming and Engineered the Modern Online Reactionary Movement – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, February 4, 2026).
Why Is the Media Not Touching Jeffrey Epstein’s Clear Connection to Israel? – Prem Thakker (Zeteo, February 5, 2026).
Epstein’s Israel Links and Everything Else Ignored by Mainstream Media – Al Jazeera (February 7, 2026).
Trump, Epstein and the Decline of American Democracy: An Interview with Chris Hedges – Marc Lamont Hill (Upfront, February 7, 2026).
Stop Calling Epstein’s Youngest Victims Underage – They Were Children – Sophie Heawood (The Independent, February 3, 2026).
From Epstein to Gaza: The Depravity of the Western Elite Is Now Fully Exposed – Soumaya Ghannoushi (Middle East Eye, February 3, 2026).
“Heartbreaking”: Journalist Vicky Ward on New Epstein Files and Survivors’ Fight for Accountability – Democracy Now! (December 24, 2025).
How the “Epstein Class” Fails to the Top: An Interview with Anand Giridharadas – The Chris Hedges Report (December 23, 2025).
Anand Giridharadas on the Elite Network Around Epstein – Democracy Now! (November 25, 2025).

UPDATE: Protecting Pedophile Predators: Carole Cadwalladr on Jeffrey Epstein and the Elite’s Veil of Silence – Democracy Now! (February 10, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”
• Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein
• Memes of the Times – November 2025

A Luminous Celebration of Light, Love and Community

Earlier this evening I attended the Luminary Loppet, an annual celebration of light, love and community on and around the frozen Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

This year’s event honors Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens shot to death by the Trump regime’s masked and militarized fascist goons, currently occupying Minnesota as part of an intimidation and terror campaign targeting immigrants and citizens alike. Also honored this year are all those who in one way or another are creating community and standing up for their neighbors.

Don Samuels’ poem, displayed at the Luminary Loppet, says it all . . .

We come together as a city.
We burn with passion, care and love.
In this dark chapter, we’ve become
a beacon for our nation and the world.

They come to see our peaceful protests,
our service to struggling neighbors
and our bold defiance of the cold.

Our martyrs, Renee Good and Alex Pretti,
now shine more brightly than in life.
Their love brightens the light.

We are the luminary city,
shining brightly for the world to see
in this dark night of hate and cruelty.

Bring your fire.
Let’s light the world.

Writes artist Cole Redhorse Taylor . . .

The Loon is considered by Dakota people to be a revered bird because of it being a diver and going back and forth between our surface realm and the water realm of the Unktehi.

I’ve seen our state bird has been used as a symbol of resistance and resilience in these trying and unprecedented times. I never would have thought our state would enter global consciousness and discussion again and yet here we are.

But I am absolutely proud of the way our state has shown up for community and each other. And I’ll always represent being born and raised here in Mni Sota Makoce. My people’s blood is in the very soil we call home. My ancestors died for it.

I can’t do much, but all I can do is doodle on my silly little iPad to keep myself busy.

These are tough times but we’re standing strong.

Related Off-site Link:
Wisdom from Southern Lights: Jemar Tisby's Sermon on Righteousness and Justice – Diana Butler Bass (The Cottage, January 29, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Ice Luminaries” on the Northside
• Honoring Renée Good and the “Astonishing Surge of Courage” of Minneapolis
• Honoring Alex Pretti
• “They Were Alive. Then They Were Not”
• Bruce Springsteen and the Streets of Minneapolis in the Winter of ’26
• Adam Serwer on How “Every Social Theory Undergirding Trumpism Has Been Broken on the Steel of Minnesotan Resolve”
• “It Was Never About Keeping America Safe”
• “ICE Out!”: The Minnesota General Strike – 1/23/26
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• Why Minnesota?

Images: Michael J. Bayly, Brian Mogren, Scott Dibble, and Cole Redhorse Taylor.