Go With The Flo
Even though “Creed III” star Jonathan Majors referred to Meagan Good as the “missus” at the September 23 Congressional Black Caucus’ eighth annual Black and White Gala, which Good hosted with Larenz Tate, a source told People they aren’t married. Meanwhile, a source tells me that former NBA player and current sportscaster Jalen Rose and former CNN reporter Angela Rye, also attended the festivities in Washington D.C. together over the past weekend. In the past, Rye was the executive director and general counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus. Rose was previously married to ESPN host Molly Qerim, while Rye had a relationship with Common, who is currently linked to Jennifer Hudson……..
According to multiple reports, in her new memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” Kerry Washington reveals that learning that the man she calls her father, Earl, is not her biological one. This 2018 revelation is what inspired her to write the book. The “UnPrisoned” star also said the feeling of something being wrong with her body may have led her to develop an eating disorder. Washington found out the information about her father when she was a guest on Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ PBS show, “Finding Your Roots.” When she told her parents to spit in a tube to track family histories, they started freaking out and her father decided to pull out of the show. The “Scandal” star has still not been able to find out who her real father is because he was an anonymous sperm donor that her parents used after they had trouble conceiving naturally. Washington also reveals she had an abortion in the book. On September 26, Washington braved the dreary weather in New York City, to hand out “Thicker Than Water” on the subway…..
Celebrity artist Patrick Killian is thrilled to announce his debut for the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame’s (ACBHOF) 7th Annual Awards & Induction Ceremony. The highly anticipated event is scheduled for Saturday, September 30, 2023, with doors opening at 7:00 p.m. at the prestigious Sound Waves theater within the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. Killian has left an incredible mark on art and sports with his jaw-dropping portrayal of Spence v. Crawford in Las Vegas. Killian brings his celebrity to the ACBHOF, where he will craft captivating masterpieces to commemorate the legendary fighters being inducted. Among the legends being honored are George Foreman, Shannon Briggs, David Tua, Pinklon Thomas, Tracy Harris Patterson, Jamillia Lawrence, and Doug DeWitt……
Former first daughter Sasha Obama showed off her midriff in a figure-hugging crop top, a bohemian-style shirt, and knee-high heeled boots as she left the gym in Los Angeles last weekend. The youngest-daughter of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, donned a tight pink top, and sneakers, as she worked out, reports the Daily Mail. Sasha moved to the City of Angels in 2022 after she transferred from the University of Michigan to the University of Southern California….
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It isn’t nice, but climate activists will block the doorways
The 1960s folk singer Malvina Reynolds wrote a song, “It Isn’t Nice,” with lyrics about there being “nicer ways” to accomplish social justice goals than blocking the doorway or going to jail—but that those ways fail.
Keep Malvina in mind as you read about the climate protests next week and in the days to come, including Climate Defiance blocking the doors to Citigroup because of the company’s financing of new oil and gas projects. Prepare to witness a militant escalation of tactics aimed at the fossil fuel industry and their role in delaying society’s response to climate change.
After a summer of floods, fires, droughts, record heat, and weather disruption, we are clearly moving into the “new abnormal,” fueled by increased greenhouse gas emissions.Yet even President Biden can’t seem to mouth the words “climate emergency.” As part of the June budget deficit deal, Biden approved an expedited Mountain Valley gas pipeline project, along with an unprecedented legal shield against delaying lawsuits.
There are still avenues and pressure points for humanity to avert the worst outcome of climate disruption, which is an extinction event. But this will require bold action in what scientists call the critical decade ahead.
A new United Nations global climate report card finds countries need to catch up in meeting their Paris Agreement goals in reducing emissions. We would be making more progress if an unrepentant fossil fuel industry wasn’t using its considerable clout to block the transition to a clean energy future.
As global leaders gather in New York City for Climate Week and other United Nations meetings, hundreds of thousands will join the March to End Fossil Fuels. Some of them will be “blocking the doorways.”
Actions in Europe presage U.S. coming attractions. Extinction Rebellion UK has blocked roads and building entrances. Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at paintings and disrupted cultural events. Other European activists blocked private jet runways.
Their focus on fossil fuel corporations makes sense. Investigative reporting has revealed that the largest fossil fuel companies, including Shell and ExxonMobil, have known about the dangerous repercussions of burning coal, gas, and oil for decades. And this week, the Wall Street Journal offered its own exposé about Exxon’s internal strategy to downplay climate risk.
If governments and the public had known what these corporate leaders knew four decades ago, we could have moved to a safe energy transition more quickly. Instead, the industry has “run out the clock”—making low-hanging fruit adjustments impossible and putting our planet on a trajectory toward ecosystem collapse right up until the present moment.
The leaders of a couple dozen global energy corporations are making conscious decisions to build new infrastructure to extract and burn billions of tons of carbon and methane that are presently sequestered. A Guardian exposé identified 195 carbon bomb projects that would each burn a billion tons of carbon over their lifetimes. Private airports are making plans to expand capacity for private jet travel, one of the least defensible forms of luxury excess.
In this context, more people are abandoning our political system as the arena for making change, focusing on private sector responses, such as carbon capture technologies, and militant direct actions to block new oil, gas, and coal infrastructure. On Earth Day last year, Colorado activist Wynn Bruce self-immolated on the steps of the Supreme Court as they handed down a decision undermining climate protections.
Disruptive direct action, such as efforts by Extinction Rebellion and Climate Defiance, are critical to drawing attention to the fight, an urgency that will only grow as ecological stability unravels.
The collision course between ecological realities and our insufficient societal responses will only intensify. The coming decade will see more Wynn Bruce acts of desperation and eco-sabotage, like that depicted in the dramatic new film,“How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” and the nonfiction book by Andreas Malm with the same name.
Works of future fiction may be preparing us for what may lay ahead. In “The Ministry for the Future,” Kim Stanley Robinson depicts a murky “black ops” group that leads to private jets falling from the sky and hostage-taking.
In my novel, “Altar to an Erupting Sun,” a group of terminally ill grandmothers calling themselves the Good Ancestors self-immolates in the lobby of ExxonMobil, a wake-up call that mobilizes humanity. Other fictional activists focus on preparing their New England communities to face a disrupted future by building local food resilience, mutual aid, and the capacity to welcome climate refugees. In “The Deluge,” author Stephen Markley describes the radicalization of right- and left-wing activists in response to sea level rise and economic collapse.
What we need is a bold “just transition” program that ends fossil fuels as soon as possible—including a declaration of a climate emergency; a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure; and the elimination of government subsidies for oil, gas, and coal, and its timely phase-out.
Until this program can move forward, be prepared to find people blocking the doorways.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org. His near future novel “Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption.
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Baker and Roberts continue a standards for managerial excellence
The regular season is coming to a close and the final playoff standings are beginning to form. Every manager that will arrive in the playoffs will prepare their team for a potential World Series run. However, there are two managers that have more extensive experience in the postseason, and are both ready to push for their second championship.
Dave Roberts has already led the Dodgers to the NL West title and Dusty Baker, who guided the Houston Astros to a World Series victory last season, headed into last night’s game versus the Seattle Mariners with his team holding a half game lead over the Mariners for the third and final AL wildcard spot.
Roberts piloted the Dodgers to a World Series title in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Although he is a proven winner, Roberts has won only one of three of the World Series appearances in which he has taken the Dodgers. Expectations are high for him and the Dodgers again ahead of the upcoming playoffs. Currently, the Atlanta Braves are the favorite to win the National League pennant.
Baker brought legitimacy back to the Houston Astros organization after a few years of chaos following a cheating scandal which many baseball fans believe was the primary reason they captured the 2017 World Series. In the aftermath, the general assumption was the Astros run was over, but Baker, hired by Houston in January of 2020, helped steady the franchise and regain credibility
An Astros repeat as World Series champions would place Baker in an elite category as he would join Cito Gatson as the only other African-American manager to win back-to-back World Series titles. Baker is the only manager to win a division with five different teams. And over the last 30 years he’s accumulated 2.179 wins, good for seventh place all-time just behind Sparky Anderson, who Baker should pass in 2024 if he manages next season.
Another pennant for the Astros this season would mark Baker’s club winning three straight in the American League, a feat that has not happened since the New York Yankees did it from 1998-2000. Roberts has been the Dodgers manager since 2016 and they have garnered 10 of the last 11 NL West crowns. He has never won less than 91 games in seven full seasons as manager.
A dream scenario would be to see Roberts and Baker meeting up against each in the Fall Classic.
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Jermell Charlo dares to be great in challenging Canelo
Undisputed super middleweight world champion Canelo Álvarez will defend his titles against undisputed junior middleweight world champion Jermell Charlo on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be broadcast by Showtime PPV.
The 33-year-old Charlo, who is 35-1-1, not only hasn’t fought since May of last year, but is also moving up from a maximum of 154 lbs at junior middleweight to a maximum weight of 168 lbs at super middleweight. Charlo most certainly is daring to be great.
The fight is also historic. It is the first time that two reigning, undisputed male champions will face each other. If Charlo can pull off the upset, he would become just the second man to earn the undisputed title in two divisions during the four-belt era, following Terence Crawford, who became the first with a victory over Errol Spence in their welterweight bout in July. Charlo would join boxing legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roy Jones Jr., who each successfully jumped two weight classes to win a championship.
Both Alvarez and Charlo spoke to the media earlier this week before the clash.
“I feel the love and support from my people and I’m proud to represent my country,” said the
59-2-2, 33-year-old Alvarez of his Mexican heritage. “I am 100% right now and ready to show you a different Canelo on Saturday. Charlo is a great fighter who knows how to box. He is strong and has nothing to lose. He came to my division to win it all. But I’ve been in this position for a long time and I’m ready.”
Charlo exuded confidence in knowing what’s ahead against an opponent considered an all-time great by numerous boxing pundits.
“These fans think Canelo is the best in the world, but I’m going to come here and show that I’m the best,” said Charlo. “I do this for the dogs, the hungry ones. I do it for the animals. I’m made for this. After I beat Canelo, the world will be screaming ‘Charlo, Charlo!’ You dig? Now it’s my turn, my time, my moment. I’m going to shine on Saturday night. We can’t talk about it; we have to be about it. Come fight night, you’ll all see what that means.”
Alvarez is favored in the fight and he should be. But Canelo hasn’t knocked out an opponent since November 2021 and suffered the second loss of his career in May of last year versus Dmitrii Bivol. Canelo has absorbed a lot of punishment in his 63 fights and even acknowledged looking subpar in his last three matches.
Shakur Stevenson is scheduled to return to action when he battles Edwin De Los Santos for the vacant WBC lightweight title on November 16 in Las Vegas.
Devin Haney will dare to be great when he moves up to junior welterweight to battle WBC welterweight champion Regis Prograis. Haney is currently the undisputed lightweight champion.
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will take on MMA fighter Francis Ngannou on October 28 from Saudi Arabia.
Finally, 22-year-old Irishman Callum Walsh will make his Madison Square Garden debut and defend his WBC US silver super welterweight title against Ismael Villarreal on November 9.
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As Zach Wilson labors, the Jets face a season-defining dilemma
Zach Wilson isn’t ready.
The 24-year-old, third year quarterback, and the No. 2 overall pick by the New York Jets in the 2021 NFL Draft, is not ready to be an effective starter in the league.
He has played in 25 career games as a professional. Last Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium was start No. 24 for Wilson. Ideally, it would be his last for most, if not all of the remainder of this season. However, the Jets’ circumstances dictate that Wilson remains as their first string QB until the team can acquire a more viable player at the position.
The Jets’ playoff and Super Bowl aspirations were plausibly high when they opened the regular season on September 11 versus the Buffalo Bills. But if those thoughts still persist now, it’s mere magical thinking. When four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn left Achilles tendon less than five minutes into the game on just the Jets’ fourth offensive play of the 2023 campaign, the team’s hopes effectively sidelined with him.
Rodgers will not return this season. As of today, neither will any semblance of a Jets team that could’ve been a champion. They defeated the Bills 22-16 in overtime and since then lost 30-10 to the Dallas Cowboys and 15-10 to the Patriots. The Jets are statistically the worst offense in the league. Subtract the six points that Jets punt returner Xavier Gipson scored on a 65-yard walk off touchdown in OT against the Bills, and the Wilson-led offense has posted just 36 total points for an average of 12 per game.
It is virtually impossible to compete for victories with such alarmingly low offensive output. In defense of Wilson, he never expected to be starting this season. As the No. 2 quarterback behind Rodgers to begin the season, yes, it’s his charge to be prepared to step in and perform capably. The urgent issue for the Jets is that Wilson, at this stage of his young career, is demonstrably incapable. It gets more problematic for head coach Robert Saleh and his squad as the Jets’ next opponent is the 2-1 defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in a showdown at MetLife on Sunday night.
“Right now he is the best player, he’s the one who gives us the best chance to win. That’s the cleanest answer I can give you,” said Saleh after Sunday’s loss regarding Wilson’s status.
It’s demoralizing for Jets fans to reconcile Saleh’s words but it’s true. Wilson’s backups are Tim Boyle, who has just 106 career passing attempts in his fifth season with three teams and Trevor Siemian, who the Jets signed earlier this week. Siemian was the Bears’ second-stringer last season for the Chicago Bears behind Justin Fields.
To assert that the Jets are in dire straits is an understatement.
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