QUICK HITS! Roe to Victory; More War for Bibi; Migrant Fighters League; Heat and Hajj; Take Off Your Shoes
When there’s too much news and not enough time, we have to unleash some Monday Quick Hits!
Here are 5 news items worth your time.
Roe, Roe, Roe all the way to 2024 and beyond!
Forgive me for the terrible pun, but I couldn’t resist.
This week is the second anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the right to an abortion thanks to a thoroughly corrupt and extremist conservative majority on the Supreme Court that yearns to make Handmaid’s Tale into a reality. After punting abortion rights to the states, we’ve seen the Alabama Supreme Court attack IVF and the Arizona Supreme Court take the Delorean back to 1864 to revive a law that banned nearly all abortions. Republicans have also signaled Dobbs as the first wave of a massive attack on personal liberties and freedoms that will include going after birth control and marriage equality. On Monday, this same Supreme Court - which has two Justices whose spouses support violent insurrectionists and white Christian nationalists - said it will hear a case regarding banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Good luck, transgender kids.
For several years, I’ve been warning that MAGA will take us back to 1953, before Brown v Board of Education which ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. On cue, Justice Thomas wants to revisit Brown. Maybe his right-wing sugar daddy billionaires will protect him, regardless, all of this spells bad news for people of color, women, LGBTQ+ groups, and basically anyone who wants to live in the 21st century and enjoy hard-earned freedoms. We should take MAGA both literally and seriously, especially as they’ve given us their Bond-villain blueprint in the form of Project 2025.
Thankfully, the majority is responding. Democrats are finally unleashing Vice President Kamala Harris all across America. Remember Kamala Harris, our first female VP? She’s set to promote this message: “It’s about freedom.” That’s exactly it. Rinse and repeat. That should be the slogan for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election and beyond. We will fight to protect your freedoms, as Trump and MAGA try to take them away. It’s perfect timing for President Biden who is set to debate Trump on Thursday. Just keep hammering Trump on abortion and bring up his numerous quotes where he takes credit for Dobbs.
Democrats have overperformed in nearly every special election involving abortion rights. It seems women, a majority of the population, enjoy having freedom and will fight for their right to control their bodies from men who want to send them back to the kitchens and alleyways.
More War For Bibi
(ARTUR WIDAK/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked no one when he announced on Sunday that he wasn’t accepting President Biden’s three-phase ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza. Remember President Biden said this was Israel’s proposed plan that would end the fighting - that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians - in return for Israeli hostages captured by Hamas. Bibi continues to take every opportunity to mock and humiliate President Biden, whose initial “bear hug” has shifted to an awkward side hug. Bibi doubled down on his criticism of the Biden government alleging the U.S. is withholding weapons and slowing down his war efforts.
He also said, “The intense phase of the war with Hamas is about to end” just as tensions are flaring across Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon threatening a massive escalation which would bring Iran into this war. There’s also the occupied West Bank, where more than 500 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7 attacks by Hamas. In a recording of a speech at a private event, Bibi’s genocidal foreign minister, Bezalel Smotrich, told settlers the Israeli government is seeking to cement control over the land without formally annexing it.
So much for peace. So much for a two-state solution advocated by the U.S.
The reality remains that Bibi needs war to maintain his tenuous grip on power, especially as protests against him are growing in Israel. As such, he continues to rely on the most extreme and vicious elements of his coalition, such as Smotrich, to stay politically alive and avoid accountability and potential jail time.
And despite all this, Bibi is still set to give a speech to Congress next month.
When will Democrats denounce him? Why invite one of the most unpopular leaders in the world who is dead-set on more pain, misery, and bloodshed especially as the White House privately concedes they have no idea what he’s going to say?
Maybe it’s time for Biden to start shoving instead of hugging.
Trump’s “Migrant League of Fighters.”
Donald Trump says hateful, racist shit. News at 11. Roll your eyes. Change the channel. Watch Bridgerton.
And that’s how the world normalizes the former President and current GOP Presidential candidate mainstreaming vicious cruelty that directly impacts the national discourse and threatens the security of marginalized communities. “Flood the zone with shit” - that’s what convicted criminal Steve Bannon proposed as a deliberate strategy to overwhelm Americans, the media, and our democracy with misinformation, conspiracy theories, lies, and hate.
Since Trump’s latest “flare-up” of racism will be forgotten by Wednesday, just sit with it for a second, and let’s unpack it. On Saturday, Trump described migrants as “nasty, mean” people who “come from prisons.” (He has previously used Hitler’s language of “vermin” and accused them of “poisoning our blood.”) He then proudly shared an idea he recommended to his friend and ally, Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship: “Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters?”
Trump’s idea includes migrants fighting each other until there is one winner who would then compete against an official UFC fighter. Trump probably saw the Mandingo slave fight in Django Unchained and was inspired. Thankfully, Dana White reportedly rejected the idea.
I also want us to focus on where Trump shared this bat-shit idea. He spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference and addressed self-professed religious Christians. Trump describes them with the following quote on their website: “No other group has fought harder for Judeo-Christian values that we all stand for and uphold. And no group will be more crucial to our magnificent victory on Election Day.”
What would Jesus say? According to MAGA Christian nationalists, it would be, “Let’s get ready to rumble.”
Heat Wave, Hajj, and Climate Change
Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
During a record heat wave in the Northeast, our AC system called it quits over the weekend. Perfect timing. We spent the entire day sweltering in our home and were forced to go to Costco to purchase some temporary units. Naturally, as a proud American and child of immigrants, I bought the glorious $1.50 Costco meal for my family.
I tweeted about this and was immediately hit with a barrage of climate change-denying trolls, some of whom were blue check marks and real people who kept promoting bunk science and the alleged superpowers of the free market to solve any “alleged” climate issues. This type of misinformation might have worked in swaying some people in the past, but there’s something about experiencing record heat waves, year after year, and seeing your infrastructure melt in front of you that just might finally be enough for most Americans to avoid being gaslit by GOP and Big Oil/Energy/Gas propaganda.
Sadly, I fear our children will look back on the summer of 2024 as the good old days when the weather was cool. We’re trending in the wrong direction. Tragically, we saw the cost of climate change in Mecca where over 1,300 pilgrims died during Hajj, the annual pilgrimage Muslims are asked to perform at least once in their lifetime if they have the means and health to do so. According to initial reports, the people who died were mostly poor. They didn’t have access to air-conditioned tents or hotels. I thought about this during our brief moment of discomfort. It was terrible for my kids, but at least we had the means to get some temporary relief.
What about the rest of humanity?
We can’t keep punting this problem. It has to be aggressively confronted if we want to, you know, live on this planet. A reminder that Donald Trump believes climate change is a hoax created by China. Vote accordingly.
People, take your shoes off in your homes!
Friends, we live in the 21st century. We can enjoy a few fine things now, such as a clean, sanitary carpet devoid of dirt and feces. We can jettison the antiquated practices of our ancestors who, God bless them, did the best they could with the information they had at the time. It’s time to adapt and learn.
We know better. We have to take our shoes off in our homes.
Wajahat, why are you harping on this, you elitist curmudgeon? Good question! And, I’m no elitist!
The New York Times interviewed 43 people on “How to be stellar guests and gracious hosts.” Rebecca Gardner said, “Please don't ask people to take off their shoes when entering your apartment. It’s rude.” Romilly Newman added, “When you invite people into your home, you need to let go. You can’t be like, ‘You can’t touch this’ and ‘You have to take your shoes off’...hosting is letting your guests enjoy themselves.”
Uh, no.
If you enter most Asian and Muslim homes, please proactively take off your shoes. If you don’t, we will tell you to take off your shoes. If you refuse, you can kindly come back to our homes and enjoy our delicious meals and amazing party…after you have taken off your shoes.
Help us, help you. Trust me. The world will be better this way, especially your home or apartment. We all can learn a few things from Asians and Muslims. (We’re on to some stuff, especially when it comes to the bidet - I’ll write an essay on that later.)