He Tried to Help

An excerpt from CNN -

Obama tried to save Trump from a colossal mistake
By Michael D'Antonio

With every revelation in the Trump-Russia controversy it's becoming clear that the most important moment in Donald Trump's transition involved the man he seems to detest the most.

Two days after the election, Barack Obama delivered a face-to-face warning to Trump about the risk of keeping retired Gen. Michael Flynn around. Trump ignored the advice and instead invested maximum trust in Flynn as he made him national security adviser.

Obama's effort to save Trump and the nation from Flynn is full of painful irony. Remember, Trump is the man who spent years promoting racist conspiracy theories suggesting Obama was foreign-born and thus not legally qualified to be president. Flynn, whom Obama dismissed because of concerns about his leadership, then mocked Obama's ally, Hillary Clinton, with chants of "lock her up" during the campaign.

Obama could have stayed mum. A lesser man would have savored the knowledge that Trump and Flynn were headed for crisis. Obama did his duty by trying to help his successor.

The judgment Obama showed was typical for a president who, prior to politics, was an expert in constitutional law and understood his responsibilities to fulfill the oath he took to "preserve, protect and defend" it.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/opinions/obama-tried-to-save-trump-from-mistake-opinion-dantonio/index.html

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Trapped in Trump's World

An excerpt from New York Magazine -

America Is Trapped in Trump’s Delusional World
By Andrew Sullivan

This past week was, in some ways, the most potent distillation of the Trump era we have yet encountered. This is not because any single incident is worse than any previous one over the past year. It’s because the last few days have brought all of them together in a new, concentrated way — a super-storm, as it were, of liberal democratic destruction. We have deranged tweeting; truly surreal lies; mindless GOP tribalism; evangelicals making excuses for the molestation of minors; further assaults on the free press; an unprecedented attack on the most reliable Atlantic ally; the demonization of personal enemies; stupendous tribal hypocrisy with respect to sexual abuse; the White House’s endorsement of a foreign neo-fascist hate group; the vengeful hanging out to dry of a Cabinet member; and the attempt to pass a catastrophic omnibus piece of legislation in one mad, blind rush in order to get a “win.” And all in a few days!

At its center is mental illness. It radiates out of the center like a toxin in the blood. And this, again, is nothing new. On Trump’s first day in office, with respect to the size of his inauguration crowd, he insisted that what was demonstrably, visibly, incontrovertibly false was actually true. At that moment, we learned that all the lies and exaggerations and provocations of the previous year were not just campaign tools, designed to con and distract, but actually constitutive of his core mental health. He was not lying, as lying is usually understood. He was expressing what he believed to be true, because his ego demanded it be true. And for Trump, as we now know, there is no reality outside his own perfervidly narcissistic consciousness.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/andrew-sullivan-america-is-trapped-in-trumps-delusions.html

Kaep Receives Ali Award

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Colin Kaepernick receives Muhammad Ali Legacy Award from Sports Illustrated
By Des Bieler

For risking a lucrative athletic career in his prime by staging protests against injustice, Colin Kaepernick has often been compared to Muhammad Ali. Thus, in giving the former 49ers quarterback an annual award named in honor of the boxing icon, Sports Illustrated declared that “no winner has been more fitting than Kaepernick.”

In an essay, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg wrote, “In the last 16 months, Kaepernick’s truth has been twisted, distorted and used for political gain. It has cost him at least a year of his NFL career and the income that should have come with it. But still, it is his truth. He has not wavered from it. He does not regret speaking it. He has caused millions of people to examine it. And, quietly, he has donated nearly a million dollars to support it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/11/30/colin-kaepernick-receives-muhammad-ali-legacy-award-from-sports-illustrated/?utm_term=.5cf0c25fffe8

The Power of Howard

An excerpt from the Undefeated -

‘This Is Us’ recognizes the power of Howard University
As a senior, I know exactly how the show’s character Randall Pearson felt visiting The Mecca for the first time
BY PAUL HOLSTON

If you didn’t catch the midseason finale of the NBC series This Is Us, you missed seeing on national television the moment a young black boy full of joy arrives on the main campus of Howard University, a place where blackness is unapologetic and excellence is vivacious.


One of the most touching moments of the show’s second season is a throwback to the ’90s in which high school junior Randall Pearson (Niles Fitch) asks his adoptive father, Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia), if he could visit the historically black university after initially filling out an application for Harvard University. Randall has been trying to figure out for a while where he would like to go to college.

After Jack agrees to plan a trip to Howard with Randall, the episode soon shifts to The Yard, the symbolic heart of the campus. The environment and the Afrocentric energy that thrives throughout The Mecca immediately overwhelms Randall. Randall and Jack then walk to the Valley on campus and are greeted by Keith, a friend of Randall’s who is a Howard freshman, and Craig, another student who is a member of my fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma (shout out to the MAB!). Keith offers to give Randall a tour, and to Randall’s surprise, he gets the comfort of being at an HBCU (historically black college or university). From walking the halls of Founders Library to eyeing a young woman who walks by him on The Yard to chilling in one of the dormitories with Nas and Lauryn Hill’s If I Ruled The World gliding in the background, the show does a great job of showing how many Howard students feel during their first experiences at The Mecca.

https://theundefeated.com/features/this-is-us-recognizes-the-power-of-howard-university/

Black Vegans

An excerpt from the NY Times -

Black Vegans Step Out, for Their Health and Other Causes
By KIM SEVERSON

Aph Ko got tired of hearing that eating vegan was something only white people did. So in 2015, she created a list of 100 black vegans for a website. It included pioneering figures like Dick Gregory and Coretta Scott King and younger, less famous writers, filmmakers, cooks and activists.

“When you say ‘vegan,’ a lot of people tend to only think of PETA, which doesn’t reflect the massive landscape of vegan activism,” said Ms. Ko, 28, a Floridian whose favorite dish at the moment is the spinach pie in “The Vegan Stoner Cookbook.” “The black vegan movement is one of the most diverse, decolonial, complex and creative movements.”

So many other people wanted to be included on the list after it appeared, she started a website, Black Vegans Rock. That spawned a Twitter hashtag (#blackvegansrock) and a T-shirt business. In June, she published ”Aphro-ism: Essays on Pop Culture, Feminism, and Black Veganism from Two Sisters,” a book she wrote with her older sister, Syl Ko.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/dining/black-vegan-cooking.html

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