The Friday Flashpoints
Nobody asked me but….
***Last year, then Candidate Joe Biden indicated that he would help 9/11 victims and survivors obtain more information about the role that Saudi Arabia played in helping the terrorist plane hijackers in their attacks.
Almost seven months into his administration, President Biden has yet to declassify documents that could address the concerns of some survivors who now are demanding that he stay at home next month during the 20th anniversary commemorative events. The simple truth is that these survivors’ anger is righteous, as former Presidents Bush (43), Obama, Trump, and now Biden all have done little to confirm what many suspect, which is that Saudi Arabia, a U.S. “ally” and oil rich kingdom, has unclean hands with regards to the death and destruction on 9/11.
Here's hoping that President Biden will honor his promise and declassify those documents…
*** The great Chloe Anthony Wofford, better known by her nom de plume, Toni Morrison, died two years ago today. One of her most profound quotes provides, "I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons."
Indeed, as was the case this past week when Ol’ Hobbs became Ol’ Mephistopheles after I straightened out a young “Karen” whose tone was extremely rude and condescending to my mother; once my deep and irate baritone kicked in at the loudest decibels, the young lady broke down sobbing and tried to play the “why are you talking to me this way” victim; I have but one regret, which is that Black folks even have to cut up in the first place to get basic decency from some public servants or private store clerks.
***Speaking of Blacks being demonized, earlier this week, Commando Barbie and G.I. Ken, also known as high powered Missouri lawyers
Patricia and Mark McCloskey, were pardoned by Gov. Mike Parson for their crimes of assaulting peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters two years ago who were marching down their street and posing absolutely no threat to their property or persons.
Sadly, Gov. Parson has NOT pardoned Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson, two Black men who have spent a combined 69 years in prison for murders that they did not commit! Despite the fact that the real killers have pleaded guilty in both cases, Jim Crow 2.0 Republican “ethics” often remind that the same will beat their chests and boast that justice has been served for two wealthy lawyers who are as guilty as the day is long, while totally ignoring two poor Black men who will never regain those decades that they lost away from their families and friends.
***CNN and MSNBC have spent quite a bit of air time the past two days discussing the concept that former President Donald Trump pushed acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen to find a reason to declare the 2020 elections illegal. Yes, the talking heads have been a talkin’ about the threat to Democracy and how deplorable and criminally illegal Trump's acts may have been at the time.
Now, if you have followed me for some time, then you know I am no fan of the former president but in a defense of sorts, I agree with his former Ambassador John Bolton's assessment that this was not some formal coup d'etat by Trump, but simply a septuagenarian temper tantrum thrown by a president who simply was not used to being told “no” when there's something that he wanted to possess. I have listened carefully to excerpts from Trump's phone call to Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger seeking to question the count and conclude that those were not the sounds of some calm and deliberative white collar criminal, but the rantings of a man who ostensibly was screaming “it's not fair” like a toddler being told that it's time to cut off Paw Patrol or the Bubble Guppies to bathe and go to bed.
Thus, my conclusion that former Republican AG William Barr, Republican Acting AG Rosen, or Republican Secretary Raffensberger do not get enough credit for being the adult parentals in the political arena and standing firm in what they knew was true from the evidence that they reviewed, which is that Trump, the man who they voted for, lost fair and square—not because of some vast conspiracy.
***It's beginning to look alot like football season, and my heart rate increases every time I see photos like the ones below that feature my friend, Florida A&M University Head Coach Willie Simmons, and several of his top players (including the best safety in ALL of college football, the lethal Markquese Bell #5). Kudos to another old friend and Hobbservation Point supporter, former FAMU Sports Information Director Vaughn Wilson, on the photos that he snapped at FAMU's media day earlier this week!
***When Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban mentioned last month that his freshman quarterback, Bryce Young, had signed contracts worth nearly a million dollars per the new “Name, Image, Likeness” legislation of the NCAA—before Young has even taken a snap as QB1, it reminded me of a comment that Coach Harry Jacobs, the long time football and Hall of Fame track coach at FAMU High School, made when I was in 9th grade. Coach Jacobs was so disappointed that I and some of my classmates were more focused on marching band and scholastic activities than trying to move up from JV to varsity football. I distinctly remember Coach shaking his head once when he saw me in my drum major uniform before saying, “humph, look at you, a 6’1 200 pound drum major; you need to be out there learning to become my next starting linebacker or center.”
But the funniest moment was the time that Jake infamously quipped: "you jokers have to recognize that sometimes, athletics are more important than academics." We chuckled heartily, of course, and most of us became far more known for our academic achievements than our athletic prowess. But looking at the salaries that coaches and now players are making across America, maybe “Coach Jake” had a point?
*** Fusing sports with politics, I chuckled and shook my head yesterday after reading that some Georgia Republicans are serious about supporting football legend Herschel Walker in a race to replace recently elected Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Walker, as many of you know, is the same man who has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and probably has CTE, too, from all of those licks to his head. Nevertheless, his Georgia Republican brethren are going to push him as a candidate to say, 1. “See, we aren't racist” and, 2. To siphon off even a handful of Black votes from Georgia Bulldogs football worshippers and Black ultra-fundamentalist "Christians" (The type of Black Christians who think like many of their white brethren that Jesus looked like Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and not the bronze skinned, kinky headed Afro-Semitic man that he was).
If Walker becomes the GOP candidate, methinks that my Morehouse Brother Raphael Warnock will win a full term in a landslide!
***I do not know enough about the relationship between near billionaire status rap mogul Andre “Dr. Dre” Young and his 38 year old daughter, Latanya Young, to confirm or condemn Dre's decision to cut off her funds.
Ms. Young took to social media this week to state that she is homeless and working multiple odd jobs to survive almost a year after her father stopped providing her any monetary assistance but again, while I don't know the “why,” I do know that I was a tad bit surprised by the nearly 200 comments that my Facebook post engendered, mostly from people saying that the younger Young is grown—and that her father doesn't owe her anything.
While I get those sentiments, my only reply is that as long as I have a home, my daughter will always have a home, too, no matter how old she gets…
***Talk about bipartisanship, down here in the Deep South, some Black Democrats and many white Republicans are in lock step in not taking the Covid-19 vaccinations. “According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 70 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Among Black adults, that number drops to 60 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among Republicans, it slips even further, to 52 percent.”
Sigh…
While I know that some who are not taking the vaccines are being proactive by wearing masks and practicing safe social distancing, my ire is aimed at the know nothings who aren't vaccinated and are walking around mask free without a care in the world. 😠
***While I am an Android user, my brow was raised this morning after reading that
Apple “will install software on its iPhones that can scan for images of child pornography. The cryptographic system will compare users’ stored photos against a database of images held by America’s National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Matches will be forwarded to the organisation for investigation. Privacy activists expressed alarm about the potential surveillance of millions of users.”
I get the idea that child sex abuse must be prevented by authorities, but the privacy issue doesn't sit well with me because today, it could be “let's monitor phones to stop child porn,” while tomorrow, it could be “let's monitor phones to thwart political and social advocacy.”
I would be curious to know your thoughts, so drop a comment or an e-mail to Ol’ Hobbs and let your voice be heard…
Flashback Friday
76 years ago today, the United States of America unleashed the nuclear age by dropping an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, an event that was followed by a second bomb dropping on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9th. These two pivotal events led to Imperial Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945, thus drawing World War II to a close.
Approximately 166,000 people—mostly civilian women and children—were killed in Hiroshima from the fires and falling rubble from the bomb's impact. Nearly half died instantly, with others succumbing months later from burns and radiation sickness.
Lest we forget…
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