By Tom Burke / Herald Columnist
Have you been paying attention to the news? Know a bit of history? Well, here’s a snap quiz that’ll moderately test your up-to-datedness and reservoir of knowledge:
1. Who said, “I will nominate a woman to the Supreme Court?”
A. Franklin Roosevelt; B. Joe Biden; C. Bill Clinton; D. Ronald Reagan; E. Donald Trump
2. What is the Canadian Freedom Convoy’s main demand?
A. End coronavirus vaccine requirements for truckers’ reentry into Canada (although the U.S. has the same requirements, so little would change); B. Eliminate all pandemic public health rules in Canada; C. Sign a “memorandum of understanding” requiring the governor general, representing Queen Elizabeth II, and the Canadian Senate to rescind public health measures or dissolve the government; actions well outside their constitutional powers; D. Require the American Women’s hockey team to play the Olympics Gold Medal match against Team Canada in their stocking feet.
3. Which president recorded the strongest first year of job gains of any president since the government began collecting data in 1939?
A. Trump; B. Clinton; C. Biden; D. Reagan; E. Eisenhower.
4. Who recently spoke at a Federalist Society conservative political event that barred the press?
A. Liz Chaney; B. Donald Trump Jr.; C. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch; D. Tucker Carlson; E. Mike “My Pillow Guy” Lindell.
5. The Republican National Committee called the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol?
A. An insurrection aimed at overturning the presidential election of 2020; B. A riot with 734 arrested on charges including seditious conspiracy; C. An attack on the Capitol resulting in five deaths; D. Legitimate political discourse; E. A celebration of the democratic process hosted by the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, MAGAs, and QAnons featuring the gala, ceremonial erection of a gallows on the Capitol steps.
6. The RNC censured who for participating in a “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse?”
A. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner; B. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger; C. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris; D. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy; E. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
7. What facility shut its doors due to right-wing, MAGA, Q-Anon threats of violence targeting them as underage/child sex traffickers?
A. The Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.; B. The Trump Towers in New York City; C. The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas; D. The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.; E. Wayfare, the online furniture superstore.
8. Who called the Jan. 6 event, “a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
A. Liz Cheney; B. Nancy Pelosi: C. Mitch McConnell; D. Mike Pence; E. Louie Gohmert.
9. What was the subject of a bill recently filed by a Republican Oklahoma state senator?
A. Teaching about the 1619 Project in Oklahoma schools; B. Allowing parents to sue school districts and individual teachers for teaching absolutely anything that the any parent deems is “in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students”; C. Any classroom mention of the Tulsa Race Massacre, where a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly black Greenwood neighborhood of that city; D. Teaching about the Trail of Tears, where in 1838, 16,000 Native Americans were marched more than 1,200 miles from Georgia to Oklahoma killing more than 4,000, so white landowners could confiscate their lands to grow cotton using slave labor; E. A law allowing non-Christian, agnostic, atheist parents to sue schools and teachers for any mention of, or decoration related to Christmas, even in December?
10. Which president removed or destroyed legally protected records from the White House?
A. Nixon, the Watergate tapes; B. Clinton, the emails; C. Trump, 15 boxes of presidential records smuggled to Mar-A-Largo; D. Trump, and all the documents he ripped to shreds; E. Truman, all recordings of his daughter Margaret’s singing.
11. Which of the following “truths” do Trump supporters, Q-Anons, MAGAs believe?
A. One can be a “sovereign citizen,” and divorce oneself from the current “illegitimate” government (federal, state, and local), freeing one from all current laws and authority; B. President Biden is a “fake” and a replacement, as the real Joe Biden was assassinated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2019; C. JFK Jr. (who died in 1999) will return as Donald Trump’s VP when Trump displaces Biden before the 2024 election; D. It’s necessary to “shoot to kill anyone who tries to inject children under the age of 19 years old with coronavirus vaccines”; E. Hillary Clinton sexually assaulted a child before slicing off her face and wearing it as a mask; the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double years ago; and the California wildfires might have been started by space lasers.
12. Which books have been attacked, banned, burned or removed ala Berlin in 1939?
A. The entire Harry Potter series for witchcraft; B. The Lord of the Rings series for Satanism; C. “Maus” by Art Spiegleman for language and a nude mouse drawings; D. “Michelle Obama: Political Icon” for making white girls feel ashamed of sounding white; E. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, a gay Black man for sexual content.
The answers: 1. D; 2. C; 3. C; 4. C; 5. D; 6. B; 7. C; 8. C; 9. B and E; the law doesn’t specify what “closely held religious beliefs” can be sued for. 10. C and D; 11. All of the above. (A, B, C, D according to the “Q Queen of Canada, Romana Didulo”; E, according to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; 12. All of the above.
So how did you do? Been keeping up?
You should, it’s only our democracy at stake.
Stay safe. Mask up. Get the shots. Get the booster.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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