Noem Reassigned to Made-up Position, WAR-slash-Epstein Files or Real Terrorism Concern, & Panic at the Pump
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
<h4><strong>A Note to My Readers: </strong></h4><p><strong>In my last newsletter, several of you wondered why I didn’t begin my brief history of Iran with the toppling of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Frankly, my goal was to start at a moment of relative peace and move to the perpetual state of internal and external strife that Iran has experienced since. The story of U.K. intelligence and the CIA joining forces to topple Mosaddegh and return Shah Reza Pahlavi to power is fascinating, brutal, and well worth your time. But it also occurred some twenty years earlier than the eras I wanted to cover. I value your comments and hope you’ll keep them coming. </strong></p><h3>What I am Discussing Today:</h3><ul><li><p><strong>Kareem’s Daily Quote: </strong>Great strategy does not always mean great results.</p></li><li><p><strong>Noem Out: </strong>Is anyone crying about this? Because all I hear is…Cricket.</p></li><li><p><strong>Video Break: </strong>Hulas Interruptus</p></li><li><p><strong>War & Epstein Files: </strong>Coincidence or Deadly Sleight of Hand?</p></li><li><p><strong>Panic at the Pumps: </strong>How they gonna spin this one?</p></li><li><p><strong>What I’m Watching: </strong>Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg</p></li><li><p><strong>What I’m Reading:</strong> The Duel, Judith St. George</p></li><li><p><strong>Jukebox Playlist:</strong> </p></li></ul><h2>Kareem’s Daily Quote</h2><blockquote><p>“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”<em> </em></p></blockquote><p><em> <strong>— Commonly attributed to Sir Winston Churchill</strong></em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N0_j!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bca0b-7270-4c6d-8600-a9fd6ef395a9_1024x705.heic" target="_blank"><div class="image2-inset"><source type="image/webp" /><img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="705" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N0_j!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d3bca0b-7270-4c6d-8600-a9fd6ef395a9_1024x705.heic" width="1024" /><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg fill="none" height="20" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="1.5" viewBox="0 0 20 20" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2" fill="none" height="20" stroke="currentColor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Miami Beach, FL 1946: Winston Churchill engrossed in his hobby of oil painting - Credit: Bettmann, Getty Images</figcaption></figure></div><p>Winston Churchill actually said this, at least according to The Churchill Society. So I’ll let it rest there and not dig much more deeply, since it reminds me of something every athlete learns the hard way. The game doesn’t care how pretty your plan looked in the locker room. I played on teams where the strategy sparkled on the chalkboard. Perfect spacing. Clean rotations. A defensive scheme that made us feel like we’d solved the quandary of basketball. And then the ball went up, and reality walked in wearing the other team’s colors.</p><p>One night in Boston comes to mind. We had a plan built around pace and precision, get out and run, move the ball, get deep touches early. It looked airtight. But the Celtics didn’t show up to admire our strategy. They showed up to hit us, lean on us and drag us into a street fight. Suddenly, that airtight plan didn’t matter. The results did. And the results said: adjust or lose. </p><p>That’s the thing about strategy. Will it work? One way or the other, you’re sure to find out.</p><p>I felt that same lesson years earlier in Milwaukee, during the 1974 Finals. We had a disciplined, well‑designed approach: control the tempo, feed the post, force Boston into tough shots. It was smart. It was elegant. And then Game 6 turned into a triple‑overtime brawl. All the neat lines on the clipboard dissolved into fatigue, instinct, and survival. We lost that game and eventually the series, not because the strategy was bad, but because the results demanded something the strategy didn’t prepare us for. Beautiful plan. Brutal outcome.</p><p>Or, as another great orator of our time put it right before his fight with Tyrell Biggs and Biggs’ supposed winning strategy: <em>Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. </em></p><p>A DHS secretary gets fired and praised in the same breath. A new title gets invented to make a stumble look like a step forward…a title that, by the way, makes her sound like she’s taking over a Star Trek convention somewhere in outer space. A nominee is introduced like he’s entering the octagon instead of running a massive federal department. That’s strategy. The performance of control and the choreography of leadership. But the results? They tell a whole different story. And that’s where Churchill and Mike Tyson’s quotes both hit home, no pun intended. </p><p>In basketball, you learn quickly that the scoreboard doesn’t care about your intentions. It doesn’t care how inspiring the pregame speech was or how sharp the strategy sounded, or how many fans are in the stands. The only thing that moves that needle is what actually happens on the court. </p><p>Strategy is the story you tell yourself. Results are the response the world gives you. And ultimately, that’s all that counts.</p>
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