FL Curbs Shade and Water Breaks, Trump Warns Against Foreign Languages, Antisemitic, Racist GOP Nominee for Guv of NC, Fake Photos Try to Prove Trump Likes Black People, Gladys Knight & The Pips Sing
You and your writing/video breaks/music breaks are a bright light in our troubled country. Your words inspire me to reach out to others and let them know I care…one human being to another. Thanks for all your time and efforts that nudge all who read your words to try to know more and do better. 💙
A couple of decades ago, work brought me to West Palm Beach. I vividly recall a lengthy row of mansions built along a canal lined with enormous yachts. Displays of ostentatious wealth cubed in a state that catered to the rich. Apparently, catering to fabulously wealthy requires indifference to the remainder of humanity. Otherwise, one might feel compelled to impose modest taxes on that wealth to provider for, I don’t know, water breaks and shade for your laborers.
Florida’s moral rot is deeply rooted in its history. What first comes to mind is a tax haven for gangsters. That rot was for the better part of a century deep inside, but has broken through to the surface. Now the legislature and governor of a state suffering inundation by rising sea levels and skyrocketing home insurance rates due to the increasing frequency of mega storms, focuses their attention on battling imaginary foes like “wokeness”, embraces medical quackery and needlessly inflicts cruelty on the working people who actually make life possible for the yacht owners.
Bad for Black people. Bad for North Carolina. Bad for America. But good enough for Republicans.
That slogan should be on every billboard inside the borders of North Carolina and, by just removing the North Carolina phrase and replacing it with Trump's picture, everywhere else in America.
Mr. Jabbar, I have another quote I think you might like that expresses similar sentiments: “The landmarks of political, economic and social history are the moments when some condition passed from the category of the given into the category of the intolerable" - Sir Geoffrey Vickers, 1958
OBEY!! And give money. It's always about money and power. Ethics, integrity, honesty, truth - what are they? Non-existent today, only given lip-service as a façade to self-promote the grandiosity of all of the charlatans. Oh brother!
About Florida - a couple of days ago WaPo reported that the FL lawmakers are tiring of the anti-woke antics of Humungus & have turned back a series of bills. I wonder which ones. It is completely baffling to me that a State that has a huge agricultural industry would treat its workers with such impunity and disregard, thereby endangering the crop production of the State. Why haven't the farmers dragged Humungus out to the public square and stoned him? These tactics must endanger their crops. And I love grapefruit. Eat it every day.
And Humungus and LapDog. Perfect. I wonder how many times a day little doggie gets stroked.
As to the presumptive elephantitis nominee, have you ever noticed his speech patterns and dislikes always repeat? Whatever he hates, whether it's people, countries or now languages, he always uses the same language. Never anything new. Same old dogma. Hate, fear, obey, give mone;y. 🤓 So boring. And now the epitome of nepotism. Has installed newbies as co-heads (Lara) of the RNC and there have been mass firings. When will they ever learn?
The boy and his huge pup! Beautiful! We should all be greeted with such love and wet kisses upon our arrival home.
Kareem. You would have been an exceptional Pip. Dancing and singing, especially after a game at the Forum. Thanks for the music and wise words.
“Robinson: Bad for Black people. Bad for North Carolina. Bad for America. But good enough for Republicans.” It’s the latter that gets me! How debased does one have to be to determine, “Yes, he’s my guy?! My moral compass! My standard bearer!” In his effort to be seen and recognized, he voices a high level of stupidity—giving no thought to the statement that he’d “like the country to go back to the days before women could vote…” Hmmm, he desires to go back to the era of lynchings!
Gladys Knight and The Pips: Not only great music, but the days when women were fully clad and men weren’t grabbing crotches.
R.I.P. Eric Carmen - "All By Myself" (solo), "Go All The Way" (The Raspberries). The latter is one of my all-time favorite rock tunes - as it uses a multi-dimensional approach to songwriting.
Your quote is very fitting, especially after Trump’s meeting with Orban. These are leaders who require total, unquestioned power. They attract people who feel that they will be protected from the immigrants, minorities, free thinkers, and anyone who wants diversity, equality, and justice. They don’t realize how they too will be victimized. The example who immediately came to mind was Martin Luther King Jr. who confronted the cruelty of the power structure and paid with his life. This was reinforced by Malcom X, who openly stated “the price of freedom is death.” What happened in all the slave revolts all over the world? What happened to the women who were outspoken, especially for women’s equality. Many were burned or guillotined. Today’s Republican Party demands the same kind of unquestioning loyalty.
Such sadness and weariness afflicts me reading your columns, Kareem. In part because we are Bruins of the same age. But also because you seem more hopeful than I can be. I get news alerts from some of the MSM—WaPo, the NYT, particularly. The least little supposed failing or faux pas of President Biden claims “alert” status. The daily outrages of the Orange Excremental, pretty much never. His horrific bigotry, misogyny, corruption, criminality, hucksterism, narcissism, racism/white nationalism, authoritarianism, cowardice, constant malapropisms, compulsive lying, all ignored. Either because they view him as him just being him (which is somehow okay), or, my take, because they consciously seek his return, because their billionaire owners like what he will do for them, both directly in their pocketbooks and providing red meat to draw eyeballs if back in office.
I agree with you on blasphemy, but not when what is blasphemed are our ideals. And not when the goal is not reform, but chaos, anarchy, and the entrenchment of white heterosexual male supremacy and the plutocracy.
We have a humongous job to do before November to turn this country blue and at least purple. The odds against us are growing. To the MAGAts, France will be, not a cause for celebration, but a warning. I cannot bear the thought of a deplorable future for our grandson, in the language of one of TFG’s grandparents—and Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms—“Ich kann nicht anders.”
Vive la France! First croissants, now women's rights. They just keep on beating us in certain respects (we might be on par with respect to anti-semitism, though, sadly).
The little boy and the dog... well, I never encourage my dogs to jump on people, and certainly would discourage it for such a large dog. So that's not very cute to me.
The Trumpster (rhymes with Dumpster), I can't handle; the AI photo was disgusting, and I've never seen him smile that way anyway.
The further rollback of shade and water breaks in FL: OSHA is in the process of reviewing a NATIONAL recommended standard that includes recommendations for employers about how to prevent heat-related illnesses. In the meantime, employers are required under the OSHA General Duty Clause to provide their employees with a place of employment that "is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees". And the courts-- normal courts, not DeSantis courts-- have interpreted this to include heat-related hazards that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm. Someone with power needs to sic this on DeSantis.
And Gladys Knight and the Pips are always a dream team! Thank you for bringing them here.
Cap, I couldn't agree more about the US dragging its tail on women's rights, namely abortion rights. I'm sure we disagree over the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but even RGB saw its flaws. It was a "right" held up on the shakiest of foundations.
But, we as a society are so focused on that we aren't turning that focus on our "leaders" who over the last few DECADES still have yet to write anything of substance into law, where it belongs.
We cannot have rights or laws created by a group of unelected officials, and therefore we absolutely wasted all these years leaning on Roe v Wade instead of creating those rights and laws legislatively.
I am sad and frightened by the repetition of history. Hitler wanted (Aryan women) to produce babies to counteract global demographics. Now, so-called Christian nationalists are trying to take away abortion and as many forms of birth control as possible to assure more babies (have they considered that this will also result in more black and brown babies, too?).
Oh, wait, the oligarchs are pressuring to eliminate child labor laws. Not enough workers — and we surely don’t want more immigrants to fill those jobs (that Americans don’t want).
Funny how the Christian nationalists and the oligarchs converge on a strategy to take away women’s rights. Case in point: that ridiculous Senator Britt’s rebuttal to Biden’s glorious SOTU. She speaks in the breathy, girly emotional voice of a fundamentalist, from a kitchen, weepily addressing mothers and motherhood. Perfect.
Great and inspiring newsletter, as usual, Kareem. I'm so grateful and appreciative of learning about your Substack account and for all the wisdom you share with us. I just wanted to add a pivotal ancient philosopher to your list of blasphemers--Socrates was narrowly convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and failure to worship the traditional gods of the city. He was sentenced to death and refused offers of leniency and escape, so he drank his cup of Spotted Hemlock (the poisonous variety) and died surrounded by his most loyal followers, according to Plato's account. Can anyone imagine Western Civilization without Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? The theme of "corrupting youth" and failing to worship "traditional gods" sure does sound familiar now. It reminds me of the 60s song with the chorus "When will they ever learn?" Barring dictatorships, the future always becomes what the youth want it to be, not what the old people do. When will we ever learn?
oh yes, Gladys Knight and the Pips -- and the yearning for 'back to a simpler place and time.'
We don't have the option to opt-out on tough times, though - with North Carolina now looking like the new Florida. All voters, not just Blacks, have to look behind the "content creators" to find the facts. And the mobs are not just on the right -- for example there are 'leftist' mobs, following fake news and slogans, attacking Jews on elite campuses.
While society - social order - requires mechanisms of law and order to prevent damage (so we require permits to march and protest, for example), all order requires basic TRUST that most people will do the right thing most of the time. Given the FACTS and an understanding of context, we'll make good choices and correct our mistakes; we'll see ways to improve life for everyone.
Trump and his lackeys have undermined that trust by creating 'stories' without facts. The "foreign languages" thing is one of the most outrageous. It's only by speaking -- building bridges between our inner lives until we understand each other -- that 'society' exists. It's amazing that we can learn different languages!! Trump, DeSantis, and their now-dominant wing of the Republican party are saying "trust only us, trust our stories." Voters have to say a loud NO.
You and your writing/video breaks/music breaks are a bright light in our troubled country. Your words inspire me to reach out to others and let them know I care…one human being to another. Thanks for all your time and efforts that nudge all who read your words to try to know more and do better. 💙
A couple of decades ago, work brought me to West Palm Beach. I vividly recall a lengthy row of mansions built along a canal lined with enormous yachts. Displays of ostentatious wealth cubed in a state that catered to the rich. Apparently, catering to fabulously wealthy requires indifference to the remainder of humanity. Otherwise, one might feel compelled to impose modest taxes on that wealth to provider for, I don’t know, water breaks and shade for your laborers.
Florida’s moral rot is deeply rooted in its history. What first comes to mind is a tax haven for gangsters. That rot was for the better part of a century deep inside, but has broken through to the surface. Now the legislature and governor of a state suffering inundation by rising sea levels and skyrocketing home insurance rates due to the increasing frequency of mega storms, focuses their attention on battling imaginary foes like “wokeness”, embraces medical quackery and needlessly inflicts cruelty on the working people who actually make life possible for the yacht owners.
Bad for Black people. Bad for North Carolina. Bad for America. But good enough for Republicans.
That slogan should be on every billboard inside the borders of North Carolina and, by just removing the North Carolina phrase and replacing it with Trump's picture, everywhere else in America.
Mr. Jabbar, I have another quote I think you might like that expresses similar sentiments: “The landmarks of political, economic and social history are the moments when some condition passed from the category of the given into the category of the intolerable" - Sir Geoffrey Vickers, 1958
OBEY!! And give money. It's always about money and power. Ethics, integrity, honesty, truth - what are they? Non-existent today, only given lip-service as a façade to self-promote the grandiosity of all of the charlatans. Oh brother!
About Florida - a couple of days ago WaPo reported that the FL lawmakers are tiring of the anti-woke antics of Humungus & have turned back a series of bills. I wonder which ones. It is completely baffling to me that a State that has a huge agricultural industry would treat its workers with such impunity and disregard, thereby endangering the crop production of the State. Why haven't the farmers dragged Humungus out to the public square and stoned him? These tactics must endanger their crops. And I love grapefruit. Eat it every day.
And Humungus and LapDog. Perfect. I wonder how many times a day little doggie gets stroked.
As to the presumptive elephantitis nominee, have you ever noticed his speech patterns and dislikes always repeat? Whatever he hates, whether it's people, countries or now languages, he always uses the same language. Never anything new. Same old dogma. Hate, fear, obey, give mone;y. 🤓 So boring. And now the epitome of nepotism. Has installed newbies as co-heads (Lara) of the RNC and there have been mass firings. When will they ever learn?
The boy and his huge pup! Beautiful! We should all be greeted with such love and wet kisses upon our arrival home.
Kareem. You would have been an exceptional Pip. Dancing and singing, especially after a game at the Forum. Thanks for the music and wise words.
Good health and peace to you at this time.
“Robinson: Bad for Black people. Bad for North Carolina. Bad for America. But good enough for Republicans.” It’s the latter that gets me! How debased does one have to be to determine, “Yes, he’s my guy?! My moral compass! My standard bearer!” In his effort to be seen and recognized, he voices a high level of stupidity—giving no thought to the statement that he’d “like the country to go back to the days before women could vote…” Hmmm, he desires to go back to the era of lynchings!
Gladys Knight and The Pips: Not only great music, but the days when women were fully clad and men weren’t grabbing crotches.
Kareem-hope you continue to heal and put out your thoughts on what's happening!!
R.I.P. Eric Carmen - "All By Myself" (solo), "Go All The Way" (The Raspberries). The latter is one of my all-time favorite rock tunes - as it uses a multi-dimensional approach to songwriting.
Your quote is very fitting, especially after Trump’s meeting with Orban. These are leaders who require total, unquestioned power. They attract people who feel that they will be protected from the immigrants, minorities, free thinkers, and anyone who wants diversity, equality, and justice. They don’t realize how they too will be victimized. The example who immediately came to mind was Martin Luther King Jr. who confronted the cruelty of the power structure and paid with his life. This was reinforced by Malcom X, who openly stated “the price of freedom is death.” What happened in all the slave revolts all over the world? What happened to the women who were outspoken, especially for women’s equality. Many were burned or guillotined. Today’s Republican Party demands the same kind of unquestioning loyalty.
Such sadness and weariness afflicts me reading your columns, Kareem. In part because we are Bruins of the same age. But also because you seem more hopeful than I can be. I get news alerts from some of the MSM—WaPo, the NYT, particularly. The least little supposed failing or faux pas of President Biden claims “alert” status. The daily outrages of the Orange Excremental, pretty much never. His horrific bigotry, misogyny, corruption, criminality, hucksterism, narcissism, racism/white nationalism, authoritarianism, cowardice, constant malapropisms, compulsive lying, all ignored. Either because they view him as him just being him (which is somehow okay), or, my take, because they consciously seek his return, because their billionaire owners like what he will do for them, both directly in their pocketbooks and providing red meat to draw eyeballs if back in office.
I agree with you on blasphemy, but not when what is blasphemed are our ideals. And not when the goal is not reform, but chaos, anarchy, and the entrenchment of white heterosexual male supremacy and the plutocracy.
We have a humongous job to do before November to turn this country blue and at least purple. The odds against us are growing. To the MAGAts, France will be, not a cause for celebration, but a warning. I cannot bear the thought of a deplorable future for our grandson, in the language of one of TFG’s grandparents—and Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms—“Ich kann nicht anders.”
Vive la France! First croissants, now women's rights. They just keep on beating us in certain respects (we might be on par with respect to anti-semitism, though, sadly).
The little boy and the dog... well, I never encourage my dogs to jump on people, and certainly would discourage it for such a large dog. So that's not very cute to me.
The Trumpster (rhymes with Dumpster), I can't handle; the AI photo was disgusting, and I've never seen him smile that way anyway.
The further rollback of shade and water breaks in FL: OSHA is in the process of reviewing a NATIONAL recommended standard that includes recommendations for employers about how to prevent heat-related illnesses. In the meantime, employers are required under the OSHA General Duty Clause to provide their employees with a place of employment that "is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees". And the courts-- normal courts, not DeSantis courts-- have interpreted this to include heat-related hazards that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm. Someone with power needs to sic this on DeSantis.
And Gladys Knight and the Pips are always a dream team! Thank you for bringing them here.
Cap, I couldn't agree more about the US dragging its tail on women's rights, namely abortion rights. I'm sure we disagree over the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but even RGB saw its flaws. It was a "right" held up on the shakiest of foundations.
But, we as a society are so focused on that we aren't turning that focus on our "leaders" who over the last few DECADES still have yet to write anything of substance into law, where it belongs.
We cannot have rights or laws created by a group of unelected officials, and therefore we absolutely wasted all these years leaning on Roe v Wade instead of creating those rights and laws legislatively.
Where is the uproar over that???
I am sad and frightened by the repetition of history. Hitler wanted (Aryan women) to produce babies to counteract global demographics. Now, so-called Christian nationalists are trying to take away abortion and as many forms of birth control as possible to assure more babies (have they considered that this will also result in more black and brown babies, too?).
Oh, wait, the oligarchs are pressuring to eliminate child labor laws. Not enough workers — and we surely don’t want more immigrants to fill those jobs (that Americans don’t want).
Funny how the Christian nationalists and the oligarchs converge on a strategy to take away women’s rights. Case in point: that ridiculous Senator Britt’s rebuttal to Biden’s glorious SOTU. She speaks in the breathy, girly emotional voice of a fundamentalist, from a kitchen, weepily addressing mothers and motherhood. Perfect.
Love that song. Check out this video from The Richard Pryor Show
https://youtu.be/LdN27HzoyO4?si=sqMHEC8tcPvToMwP
Great and inspiring newsletter, as usual, Kareem. I'm so grateful and appreciative of learning about your Substack account and for all the wisdom you share with us. I just wanted to add a pivotal ancient philosopher to your list of blasphemers--Socrates was narrowly convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and failure to worship the traditional gods of the city. He was sentenced to death and refused offers of leniency and escape, so he drank his cup of Spotted Hemlock (the poisonous variety) and died surrounded by his most loyal followers, according to Plato's account. Can anyone imagine Western Civilization without Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? The theme of "corrupting youth" and failing to worship "traditional gods" sure does sound familiar now. It reminds me of the 60s song with the chorus "When will they ever learn?" Barring dictatorships, the future always becomes what the youth want it to be, not what the old people do. When will we ever learn?
oh yes, Gladys Knight and the Pips -- and the yearning for 'back to a simpler place and time.'
We don't have the option to opt-out on tough times, though - with North Carolina now looking like the new Florida. All voters, not just Blacks, have to look behind the "content creators" to find the facts. And the mobs are not just on the right -- for example there are 'leftist' mobs, following fake news and slogans, attacking Jews on elite campuses.
While society - social order - requires mechanisms of law and order to prevent damage (so we require permits to march and protest, for example), all order requires basic TRUST that most people will do the right thing most of the time. Given the FACTS and an understanding of context, we'll make good choices and correct our mistakes; we'll see ways to improve life for everyone.
Trump and his lackeys have undermined that trust by creating 'stories' without facts. The "foreign languages" thing is one of the most outrageous. It's only by speaking -- building bridges between our inner lives until we understand each other -- that 'society' exists. It's amazing that we can learn different languages!! Trump, DeSantis, and their now-dominant wing of the Republican party are saying "trust only us, trust our stories." Voters have to say a loud NO.