Hi Reader,
A worthwhile way to take on decision making is to consider what decision will yield the most optimal future for you. The option that gets you closer to your compelling future, or the future that you dream about, is the one that you should take. It's okay to be cold and calculated when drawing this conclusion.
Update from Ken
I will be taking the month of September off! Work hard play harder. I am letting you know in advance that a good break for me is inbound. This will be time for me to recuperate and rejuvenate, prepare new content for Life with Ken, and market my book, "Get Your Mind Right." During September there will be no content published. I will mention this again closer to that time, but I want to make it known now, so there is no surprise. I plan on getting some R&R.
Spotlight
The following are a few articles from Life with Ken that you may find value in this week:
A Hobby Vs a Habit Vs a Lifestyle
Learn to tap into a reality and way of living where who you are as a person is more important than what you do. Once you can effectively operate in that paradigm and space, who you are will influence what you do, and you won’t want to do things that don’t reflect who you are. Click here to read this article.
Who is Kamala Harris?
Kamala Harris, while no stranger or newcomer to politics, was for all intents and purposes hoisted into this position, not exposed to a primary or “vetting” process nationally, other than her less than stellar run for president in 2020. Click here to read this article.
Maximum Capacity of Choice
When who you are, where you are, and what you know collide you are presented with a specific handful of choices, AKA the maximum capacity of choice. All those decisions lead to an expected end or known ambiguity. It’s predetermined because of what you have the options to decide about. Click here to read this article.
What I am Interested in this Week:
Israel Hamas War Update
We've been following this war ever since it started. My stance then and now is that I am pro-Israel. I do not like or approve however, of how Israel has conducted themselves over the last 10 months. I think the land is rightfully theirs but I don't think going about a genocide in 2024 after the holocaust is the correct way to go about annexing the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. And the inexcusable for me is America supporting this genocide whether it be rhetorically, with cover on the international stage, or with weapons and USD. It's all but clear at this point that Israel needs America more than we need their lobbying and spy organization AIPAC, buying our politicians and rigging our congressional elections to the tune of $20 million.
The last record for the number of Palestinians dead has been around 35,000. This was back in May/June of this year. Most of the organizations AKA hospitals and news outlets that were keep tracking of the death toll in Gaza, have been brought to rubble by the IDF. No one knows how many Palestinians, a population of which is majority young adults and children, are actually dead. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has a warrant out for his arrest by the International Criminal Court, came to America a few weeks ago and gave a speech to congress where in addition to decrying American protesters, said that in an anecdotal scenario where 12,000 people were killed in Palestine, hardly any of them were civilians.
Since his visit to America, a recent story broke highlighting the torture of Palestinians in captivity by Israeli soldiers including the rape of Palestinian men. There was a bit of derangement happening when this news broke as pro-Israeli pundits argued that the rape of Palestinian men in Israeli custody by other Israeli men was appropriate payback for October 7th and that maybe Hamas should think twice before attacking Israel. Israel also, prior to the aforementioned, and after Benjamin Netanyahu left the states, killed Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, In Iran, at the inauguration of their new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Pezeshkian rose to power after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash on a diplomatic trip.
The state of play is now Israel and her allies are expecting a response to the murder of Haniyeh on Iranian soil. No one knows the scale of this impending response and it's been expected any day now for the last almost two weeks. Israel has said that there will be a response to the response. Netanyahu wants this war to drag on because of the political fallout he is facing once this is all over, at home and abroad. President Joe Biden of the United States has basically been on vacation ever since the lame duck leg of his presidency began after he was forced to stop running via a democratic coup d'etat, featuring Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. While the president is away the kids are at play as Netanyahu also wants and possibly needs the United States to get involved in the war. It's possible that the assassination of Haniyeh was part of a pressure campaign to get the United States deeper involved in the conflict prior to our election this November.
Another nail in the coffin was Hamas walking away from the ceasefire negotiations table this past Sunday. Essentially they are saying that the terms are untenable when you consider the accumulative effect of Israel's campaign in Gaza. Israel is claiming however, that the only reason Hamas is walking away from the negotiation table is because of the influence of Iran. Meanwhile, over the weekend Israel started another military campaign in Gaza, this time in the southern part called Khan Younis. Thousands of Palestinians were woken up by bomb fire and cell phone notifications saying they must evacuate the area and that it's a combat zone. As a reminder there is nowhere for those people to go and they have been moving around the Gaza Strip nomadically, while dodging munitions from heavy artillery, for the last 10 months. Click here to read an article on this story.
Is it Me or Is it DNA?
A story broke over the weekend about a man who is charged with three counts of murder in California. Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was extradited from North Carolina to California after DNA evidence was found linking him to the murder of three sex workers in the late 1970s. This was a cold case for the last 47 years and the Ventura County District Attorney, Erik Nasarenko, credited advancement in DNA technology for allow the DA's office to find Alexander and close in on closing this case. Normally this isn't a story that would make the cut for me. Maybe as an honorable mention but not as a main story. That being said, I am interested in this story because of a man named Kevin Cooper.
Kevin Cooper is in prison and has been on death row for 36 years now. Cooper is accused of murdering most of the Ryen family, in Chino Hills, California, on June 5, 1983. There is some incongruousness with him as the murder suspect because even though he was in the same area as the murder, he may have left the area prior to the murder taking place. Cooper is no saint and he had a rap sheet, but it's genuinely questionable if whether or not he committed the murder of the Ryen family. These two crimes, between Alexander and Cooper, align similarly in terms of how they are being handled in California.
The interesting point is the DNA. In Cooper's case he has been denied an appeal trial with the admittance of DNA evidence that may exonerate him. And to put a fine point on this, the person who denied the admittance of DNA evidence is Kamala Harris herself. Harris as General Attorney of California, refused to allow newly found DNA evidence at the time, to be presented in court on behalf of Kevin Cooper, that could have potentially gotten him off death row. Now she's running for President of the United States. This story highlights the legacy of Harris' "smart on crime" legal approach in California, that has seemed to stand the test of time. Not matter how much she may try to spin it, she was not a progressive prosecutor, and her approach to law hurt California so much, that the state was taken to the supreme court where it was found that Harris was locking people up disproportionately to the rest of the nation, and that her methods were cruel and unusual.
Cooper not being the best person in general, doesn't warrant him to rot in a prison, perpetually fearing for his life, over something he may not have done, which could have been brought to light had that DNA evidence been made admissible. And the fact that DNA evidence was a crucial part in identifying Alexander, is an indictment on Harris' legacy as a GA in California, as it shows that DNA evidence is objectively valuable regardless of which side of the law one may be on. Look, don't do a crime in California. Certainly don't get caught. And especially don't get caught doing a crime in California as a black man; that's the one thing they seem to not be so liberal about over there. Just my thoughts. Click here to read an article on this story.
Word of Encouragement
This week I want to encourage you to connect with the right people. it's a cliche, but it's said that your network is your net worth. From a practical perspective, the people you connect with today could be your consumers tomorrow; and from an ideological perspective, the people you are connected with could influence the doors of opportunity that are opened and closed in your life. Do your best to associate with people who share in your values and can align with your interests. You don't need people in your life for every stage of your life. But if you can find people who can mutually benefit from helping you, and are willing and able to do so, capitalize on that opportunity.
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Have a breakthrough week!