Trump Admin Claims Dissenters Should be Charged with "Aiding Terrorists" & AG Bondi Wants to Eliminate Trials and Go Straight to Punishment
April 22, 2025
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Goethe reminds us what it means to be a good parent.
Trump Just Escalated His War on Coal Miners. Their Unions Are Fighting Back.: Trump is bragging about bringing back coal, but not about making it more dangerous to be a miner.
Pam Bondi Insists Wrongly Deported Dad’s Wife and Child Are Better Off With Him Gone: In her most illogical and bitter rant yet, the attorney general wants to eliminate due process, one of the foundations of our legal system.
Top Trump Official Claims Defending Due Process Is ‘Aiding’ Terrorists: Anyone defending the Constitution could be charged with aiding terrorists. Yup, this is the U.S.
Kareem the Science Guy: Researchers Find Signs of Life on Distant Planet for First Time: Most persuasive evidence yet of alien life. How will that affect us?
What I’m Watching—Action-Thriller Movies: Drop, A Working Man, and G20 all claim to be thrilling action movies. Only one really pays off.
Kareem’s Video Break: A group of elephants teach us a lesson in parenting that we’ll never forget.
Kareem’s Sports Moments: I’m in awe of gymnasts and this video shows why.
Sarah Vaughan Sings “They All Laughed”: One of my favorite jazz singers performs a witty classic by the Gershwins.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German writer, scientist, statesman
As a parent with grown children, I often reflect on my changing role in their lives. First, I critique my time when they were young. Did I do enough to give them roots and wings? The answer is always the same, as I suspect it is for many parents: I could have done more. Second, I wonder about my role now that they all have their lives that only include me in a cameo role. The answer is always the same: I wish I were more.
I had this odd notion the other day. I thought, in completely non-scientific terms, that when you first see your child after birth, a recessive organ in your body is activated and starts producing a chemical hormone that I will call, fully acknowledging my corniness, love. That love for your child overrides all other emotions, even self-preservation. When that child leaves to go out on their own, you start to notice that your arms suddenly feel empty. Empty of them. There is something profoundly useless about empty arms.
Yet, the organ that pumps out love is still going and you seek other ways to express that emotion—ways to fill empty arms. Maybe it’s with pets. Maybe it’s with friends. Maybe it’s obsessing over grandkids (guilty as charged, your honor!).
But I think there’s another expression of love that happens. It’s a deepening love for humanity. Because now you’re not just thinking about your place in society, you’re thinking about your children and their children, and you know that their happiness—even their survival—depends on what that humanity looks like, what values they uphold, and what they are willing to fight for. You realize for that vision of humanity to exist, you have to start shaping it now.
The instinct to protect our children at all costs is primal, something we share with most other animals. Even insect parents routinely sacrifice their lives so their offspring can survive. But humans can project into the future based on what they’ve learned about the past. That love we feel for our children can be repurposed to extend to the humanity that is necessary for their continued happiness. Unfortunately, some people’s vision stops at their immediate property line. They would fill their homes with the most expensive and elaborate furnishings, even as they watched the rest of the neighborhood deteriorate into cracked streets and trash-strewn sidewalks. As long as they and theirs live high inside their mansions, they are content. Something they share with insects.
The rest of us whose bodies are still pumping parental love into our veins have a bigger, more diverse, equitable, and inclusive vision of an entire community, country, and world living happily ever after. Yes, I hear myself. Yes, I know it’s a highly romanticized vision. But we had grand ambitious visions for our children when they were born and, even if those visions were unrealistic, they provided a pathway and a foundation. After all, a parent’s reach should exceed their grasp, or what is family for?