The Republicans are in an uproar over the FBI's search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago: "This is unprecedented!"
Let's face it: Trump, himself, is unprecedented. As much as we may want to treat Trump like all the other presidents in American history, he never gives us a chance. When he is not behaving like a spoiled brat, he is carrying on like a mob boss.
By the way, shouldn't two "unprecedenteds" equal a precedent?
In Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, the Russians occupy the largest nuclear power facility in Europe. The Ukrainians claim they are using the plant as a military base, and storing weapons there. Now, the plant is being shelled, risking a nuclear catastrophe. Both sides are blaming the other for the shelling, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claims to not know which side to believe.
First, who would be so irresponsible as to use a functioning nuclear power facility as a military base? (The Russians.) Who would be so reckless as to fire on that military base? (The Ukrainians. Why would the Russians fire on a plant it controls?)
What is happening in Ukraine is similar to what happened when the Germans invaded the USSR in 1941: Total War. The destruction Germany visited upon Russia, and what the Russians gave back in return, is unlike anything that transpired between Germany and its enemies on the Western Front - France, England, the U.S., etc. The eastern front was the ultimate "killing field." Twenty-five million Russians died in less than four years, as did over five million Germans.
Today, America and its NATO allies are pouring advanced weaponry into Ukraine on a biblical scale. That, along with Russia's grim determination to subjugate Ukraine, threatens to turn that land into the "killing fields" of the 21st century.
We all think life is precious, especially our own lives. How many times have you heard someone relate an experience, and at the end exclaim, "I almost died!" How unthinkable one's own death can be.
Roe v. Wade is about life (and death), and when it matters most (and least). It is about women (and men) who declare their rights to live unencumbered by the children they conceive. It is about children waiting, and in their pre-nascent, simply hoping to be born at all.
Remember Fred Sanford, back in the '80s... "Sanford and Son"? Fred's son, Lamont, had a friend named "Rollo," who was notorious for getting Lamont involved in half-baked schemes. Fred, directing most of his ire at Lamont one day, dubbed the two, "Rollo and Follow." Sounds like Kyrie and KD.
In a nutshell: Kevin Durant followed Kyrie Irving to the Brooklyn Nets where, based upon exquisite talent, alone, the two of them hoped to build a basketball dynasty. It started out well, then reality, i.e., fate struck in the guise of COVID, injuries, and a dose of selfishness, (courtesy of Kyrie), the likes of which have rarely been seen in the annals of team sports. Within two years, the pre-supposed dynasty began to crumble.
Now, he says to the Nets, "Trade me." It is an emotional response designed to "fix" those who misled him. Unfortunately, he is headed for the worst "fix" of all.
"Trade me?" Durant has no idea where he might be traded and seems oblivious to the fact that because he is such a great player, wherever he goes, that team will be gutted (to pay for him) by the time he gets there. (If Nets management cares anything about Durant, they will treat him like the child who wants to be a fry cook, but his parents insist upon piano lessons, instead.)
This Nets management, which is no paragon of leadership, itself, should not panic. Both Kyrie and KD are under contract. Keep them there. Tell Durant, "Be ready to play come October," (the start of the NBA season). Durant, regardless of his trade demand, will be ready because, if nothing else, comes game time, Kevin Durant is always ready.
Kyrie will also be ready, not because he has any loyalty to the game, or to anyone in the game. Kyrie will play "lights out" next season because he will be a free agent after the season. He knows that if he jacks off this upcoming campaign like he did the last time, his free agency stocking will be filled with coal instead of a $200 million max contract, (which is what he stands to gain.)
With a perennially-motivated KD, a "lights-out" Kyrie, and a rejuvenated Ben Simmons... who knows? This crazy-ass Nets team could win it all, after all. Take that, Fred Sanford.
Our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light years away. Fully 50% larger than our Milky Way, it presently hurtles toward us at 250,000 mph. Even at that speed, it will take the colossus, Andromeda, over four billion years to get close enough for us to see it: another half billion years before the big collision.
In that way, we are insulated from the trillion other galaxies out there. To us, our Milky Way is "the heavens." Along with the hundreds of billions of other stars in this galaxy, our own (and Earth) are integral partners in this singular intragalactic dance.
Now, imagine a civilization on a distant planet within the Milky Way looking at us in our neighborhood of stars, and beholding us as "the heavens," (like we have beheld them.) Like us, they will have failed to comprehend the majesty of their existence.
We are stellar. We are "the heavens." Perhaps it is time we start acting like it.
