Kareem Substack

Source: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Substack

"Trump is President

America fooled me. Just when I was optimistic that we had turned a corner against irrationality, hate, and greed, and were marching forward toward a new age of enlightenment. We hurtle backward in time to a dark place where we dance around a pagan fire like the deranged children in Lord of the Flies.

I don’t want this to turn into a bitter diatribe about my disappointment in the American people who selected a rapist, racist, and cognitively challenged buffoon as their leader. Who put all marginalized people’s lives and rights at risk. Who put the security of the country at risk. Who put our children’s futures at risk.

The next four years will be challenging as we are led by a man in serious mental decline who has surrounded himself with political dimwits and moralless thugs. Most of the prominent people he hired last time turned against him during this election to warn us of his ineptitude, pettiness, and greed. His closest advisors said he was incompetent. But his supporters thought they knew him better. So, here we are.

The next four years will be about survival. If his economic plans are instituted, economists warn that we face dire times. If his health insurance plans are carried out, many will be without insurance. If his plans to protect women against their will (leave it to a sexual predator to phrase it that way) are realized, women will slip further into second-class citizenry. Christianity will be shoved down our throats by the most unChristian man in the country.

How do we live with our friends, families, and neighbors who voted for a rapist, racist, and fraudster? We give them grace. We assume that, though their minds were clouded by their lack of critical thinking, in their hearts they still want a compassionate America that embraces all of its people and protects their rights. They made a mistake, like a child sticking its finger in an electrical socket. Let it go as that and be the person that maybe influences them to think better next time.

Take a day or week to mourn, those of you who still believe in our Constitution and the country we could be. Then roll up your sleeves and prepare for four years of battle to save our country from becoming the tyrannic state that Trump and his supporters envision. They expect us to be humbled and docile. We won’t be. We are better than this election. Let’s prove it.

Special Note: Aside from this opening about Trump’s election, today’s newsletter is deliberately designed to avoid election-related stories. Yes, I will be back commenting on all things political, social, personal, and cultural. But today, let’s just take a breath and look out a different window."


No link yet.

Nice bit of American history

prayers for the Queen city

Protesters hugging national guardsmen. Fingers crossed.

I agree there is overlap on many issues

But Trump is the shark on the horizon. Obama rescued us from a Depression and did the best he could with the Republicans. He doesn't get near enough credit.

That's what I like about the south.

Since we don't have a southern forum, I thought it would be nice to publish what we DO like about NC and the South. Please add good things.
I'll start. Eating grits and hearing Brother Cornelius and Sister Rose in Eddie's Place.

whats up with republican caucus/primary in North Dakota?

Is this Tammany hall? I hear

they're not bound to any candidate? How can this be?

Why do Amtrack people wake you up in middle of the night?

It is my pet peeve about train travel. Is you can't get a sleeper car don't bother. They are sadistic to coach.

Question submitted by Mary Mac

Should bathrooms be a design issue more than a civil rights one.

Is giving privacy maybe something that can be built in? Also protection. I m thinking of murders in rest stop bathrooms. Security cameras or alarm buttons?

Maybe separate ones for children. I wonder if the architectural community has any ideas how to accommodate trans users.

NC to give full ticket for one mile per hour over the speed limit.