Unrivaled, Honey Trap, & Fascinating Reads

🤔 Thought of the Week:

Unrivaled is a 3x3 basketball league founded by a couple of WNBA players. It also includes a 1x1 mid-season tournament. It was great to watch. It reminded me of waiting my turn on the court during pickup basketball. The format ensures the game is sped up. You can't take too many gambles on defense, and you can't do late fouls to extend the game. To be honest, this is the first year where there are a lot of different options to watch women's basketball. Between the college season, Unrivaled, and Athletes Unlimited, the opportunities to see basketball in various formats and levels are exciting. I imagine the last couple of years of women's basketball have been like the '96 season following the Olympics when the WNBA was established. Now, the question is, can the investment in women's sports continue? With the rise of companies and the government's hostility to anything that touches "DEI" and "woke," will the incentive to invest still be there? I'm not sure. This year will be crucial, and ratings will have to show growth for the powers to be to deem women's basketball an investment with a significant ROI.

💻 What I've Consumed:

Honey Trap: A True Story of Love & Lies in the FBI

This was a fascinating watch. It is about a mixed German man who got radicalized and ended up being the propaganda arm of Isis. It also talks about his affair with Danielle Green, who was an FBI analyst who was a translator who was supposed to communicate with him to get him somewhere so the US could arrest him. While fascinating, I have mixed feelings about this documentary. 

On the one hand, it highlights how stories can radicalize people. This is a man who was a loner, who was discriminated against, joined a gang, most likely young to find a place in life, and in turn, I think he was looking for power, which a lot of people who are oppressed do look for power. He is the son of an American soldier and a white German mom. So he didn't fit in in a lot of places, and so I think he was trying to find power, and he went to Islam. He got radicalized because he thought he could get power and a place to belong, which he did. 
He was a powerful man. On the other hand, you have Danielle, who was married to a military serviceman who is German, who moves around quite a bit and is far away from family, and it's lonely. She probably wasn't accepted in some places. So, another person who's trying to find her place and the FBI, who is essentially using her as a honeypot. The FBI can say that this was not her job. Still, without ensuring training and that this person can do what is needed to do, then they shouldn't have just anybody, regardless of security clearance, interacting with who they deem as a terrorist. They clearly did not have adequate profiles for either of them. That's just not smart. 
And I think that's part of the reason she only got two years of probation because the FBI screwed up as well. 

I think it was interesting how the documentary kind of showed the parallel propaganda coming from the USA and coming from ISIS and how the Internet influenced ISIS, the entertainment complex that comes out of the US, and how the military uses our movies, think Captain America. Police and military propaganda in entertainment as a tool have been utilized for decades. 
This is not a new thing. And I think sometimes Americans think they're above the fray. But a lot of times, these terrorist organizations, even the ones that the US prop up, are learning from our government or are learning from the way the American government operates. And the government, as I recently said here, has to be both benevolent and dangerous to both the other nations and to its own people. And I think this documentary highlighted that fact. 

One of my critiques of this documentary is that it is held back on its criticisms of America and its propaganda in the way America does things. They kind of just laid it out in a factual position, and that was it. 
And focused on Miss Green as if she were a bad person because she had turned away from her employer and government without delving into or criticizing the circumstances surrounding the FBI's usage of her. It was automatically assumed while watching this, and they offered limited criticisms of how the American government does things, that there is a difference when the USA utilizes propaganda versus others. 

📚 Recent Reads:

• Fledgling. Completed. This book is a mixed bag for me. I have enjoyed the different thoughts it brings to mind. I have had to put the book down and think about what it says, how I feel about it, and my conclusions, and then I was right back into it. One main critique is that Butler does a lot of telling and not showing. This book has a lot of exposition. However, for the most part, I enjoyed the book. My full review is here. I would not recommend this book to everyone. 
• They Were Her Property. Completed. My critique of this book remains the same: it can be repetitive. However, reading about white women hiring slaves to breastfeed their children and white women being madams and forcing the enslaved into prostitution was something I never thought deeply about. It was frustrating to hear how these wet nurses were advertised as good caretakers of children or liked children and then compare that messaging to the stereotype of black women not being good mothers. It was maddening to read how the enslaved were then charged with running a house when it was impossible for them to be free to do so. This book has enlightened me to quite a bit of history I was unaware of. I would recommend it. I also think it is a relevant read today, as we saw lot of white women vote for Trump. I think the mindset has shifted, but ultimately, the power dynamics that are wanted remain the same. 
• Caliban's War. Completed. The book starts off action-packed, just like the first book. I enjoyed catching up on the Roci crew and getting to know Prax, Bobbi, and Asavarla. The mystery element and political posturing were fun to read. However, having that many points of view was kind of jarring, especially in the beginning when they were all separated. The story would ramp up for one character, and then we would switch to another and have to wait a few chapters to see what was happening. While this provides a broader view of the events taking place, it can be jarring if you prefer one POV over another. 

📚 Currently Reading:

• Reel. 47% completed. Since Fledgling was my primary read, it took me a few days to really get into my re-read. I must admit that I am enjoying the book more this 2nd read than before. I forgot how the prologue hits you right out of the gate for both characters, and then it is a slow build from there. The author does a great job of ensuring the reader understands each character individually. However, when the characters get together, it feels rushed somehow. Both are holding out, and then bam, they are together. It is explained, and there is a change in time, but the passage of time isn't reflected well in the story. 
• The Message. 27% completed. Coates's writing is beautiful. This is a reflection on writing. Since I have been listening to the GNX album but Kendrick Lamar, I get "Gloria" vibes from this book. Coates is showcasing why writing is so powerful. The reach and impact writing has on our lives. The gravity and importance. I am looking forward to reading more from this book. 
• I plan to read Drive and Gods of Risk; both are short stories in The Expanse series. I am going in blind to both. Some other hopefuls are Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan and The Accidental Queen by L.R. Jackson. 

💡 Lessons Learned:

I came across a couple of YouTube videos and Instagram posts regarding Pastor Terry W. Jackson of True Vine Apostolic Church of Christ in Hampton, Virginia, telling a young woman to get up in front of the congregation and apologize for getting pregnant out of wedlock. After she made her brief statement, the pastor stated that she didn’t deserve a baby shower and told the church crowd not to attend one in secret. The mother later posted that the young woman was not coerced to stand up and apologize and that she stood with her Pastor. She also added the backlash disturbed her peace. I'm not sharing the video here for various reasons. However, I will highlight this post from @thekristiansmith and his panel who discusses it here.

This made me sad. A lot of times, in the church, the woman is the only one shamed. The young man who got her pregnant was not publicly humiliated. Furthermore, the church continued to livestream this portion of their service. This seemed cruel and not in love. This is not discipline. It is the public shaming and othering of a young woman. And the response online is part of the reason I have stopped following a lot of Christian apologists. Online discourse lacks a lot of empathy, and a lot of Christian apologists are no different than the "world" online. 

Thankfully, I now follow Christians who hold to the faith but have opened my eyes to different interpretations of the Bible and how to live as a Christian. Not only was the pastor and congregation wrong for this, but this is not a depiction of loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Taking this idea seriously has made me rethink a lot. 

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