La-La is very good too, especially when they have Luk-Luk, whom they did not tonight, and they have...JJ Redick as coach. Hmm. "Lakers" should not be winning this series 3-0.
Friday, April 24, 2026
Houston, you have a "Lakers" problem
La-La Bron-Bron made it three-zip over the KD-less Rockettes in H-Town tonight. H has a very talented team, eapecially (obviously) with Kevin Durant, and one of the best, most respected coaches in the game in Ime Udoka.
Why have Pigeons become Majestic Soaring Hawks?
They got rid of Trae Young. They have good players. This season's Most Improved Player is Nickeil Alexander-Walker. He plays for the "Hawks." Last season's Most Improved Player was Dyson Daniels. He also played for the "Hawks." It's the first time in the forty-year history of the award that back-to-back winners have been from the same team.
Okay, you want to know what a weirdo I am, what I do all day in retirement? When I get interested in something, it can be ANYTHING, I can go on unfathomable deep dives. An example from today.
I bought Addie Pray, a used copy, it arrived on March 2. I love used books when they're inscribed by the previous owner. I research them, look them up, see who they were. It's the detective in me. I have done this many times before when I bought used books on eBay.
In the case of Addie Pray, which I bought through Jeff Bezos' evil empire, I hit the jackpot. It was inscribed by at least two previous owners. The first was a doctor, or his wife, from Texas. There was one of those old-fashioned return address stickers that you used to see on envelopes on the front inside hardcover. Then there was another, hand-written, inscription on the fly page or whatever you call it opposite: "From the Home of Dr. Joe & Barbara Lewis, summer 2021", the same names as on the return address sticker. In March or April, whenever I did this research, it didn't occur to me that it was strange that the same owner inscribed the book twice. I assumed that the hand-written was by Barbara Lewis (the writing is decidedly in a female hand).
Commence research on the Lewises. Dr. Lewis died on Nov. 23, 2023. So, the hand-written wasn't by him, just as I reasoned. Looked up Barbara Lewis. My hand-written notes: "? She died before he did, Feb. 8, 2000 ?" "Who wrote this?"
I got on the Lewises estate sale (deep depth), the contents of their house! Note by me: "estate sale April 30, May 1, 2021." Lotta books. No Addie Pray. Hand-written inscription "From the Home of" & etc. "summer 2021", both Lewises deceased, no Addie Pray.
At the bottom of the fly page there was an inked stamped impression, a circle with an address, "Chapel View Drive" on the outer ring, inside the circle was an elaborate monogram M with what looked like a Christian cross in the "v" of the M, and MARONEY bifurcating the M. I didn't pay the inked impression any mind until today. It only registered with me as from a church--"Chapel," and the cross-like thing. The impression was so fine that it looked part of the book, not made by a second owner with a hand stamp and ink pad.
Today, for some reason, the inked stamp registered with me. Googled the address. BEAUTIFUL home. Single-family home, not church. Googled Maroney with the address. "Dr. Kimberly Maroney." Well, I'll be a sumbitch. Googled Dr. Kimberly Maroney. Colorado. Got on the medical website she was affiliated with up there. "After more than twenty years practicing medicine on the South Texas coast, my family and I felt the mountains calling--and we made the move in 2021." "Published: September 8, 2021".
I had figured it out! Dr. Maroney and Dr. Lewis had to have known each other; Dr. Maroney got Addie Pray "From the Home of" Dr. Lewis after Dr. Lewis passed, hand-wrote the "summer 2021", affixed her monogram stamp, and by September was outta there for the Rockies.
That's what I did today. I am weird, yes I am. I enjoy figuring things out. This. Is. What. I. Do.
-The End-
Local cognos are unanimous that the "Heat" do not have enough. The undersigned Idiot Blogger whole-heartedly agrees.
Comes now D-Wade, the greatest Heater of them all:😳
"It’s not that the talent is not there. I mean, them guys are very talented. It’s just the meshing of the talent is not there. ...
“And it’s not just about going out and getting a star player. I know the star player will get you back in there. But you’ll be out in the first round with that star player, if your players don’t mesh, and that connectivity isn’t there.
“And so we’ve been a little disorganized, a little disgruntled organization for the last few years.
"When it comes to this unit and these groups that’s been put together the last few years, it hasn’t meshed."
Is it Spo pulling the wrong strings? No.:
“Sometimes you see certain teams and you know that they know everything about each other. They spend all the time together, and they just connect it. And you can see it on the floor.
“I haven’t really seen that necessarily in the Heat in a while. And it started when everything started going astray with Jimmy and the Heat, and we’ve been a disconnected organization from that point."
Comes now D-Wade, the greatest Heater of them all:😳
"It’s not that the talent is not there. I mean, them guys are very talented. It’s just the meshing of the talent is not there. ...
“And it’s not just about going out and getting a star player. I know the star player will get you back in there. But you’ll be out in the first round with that star player, if your players don’t mesh, and that connectivity isn’t there.
“And so we’ve been a little disorganized, a little disgruntled organization for the last few years.
"When it comes to this unit and these groups that’s been put together the last few years, it hasn’t meshed."
Is it Spo pulling the wrong strings? No.:
“Sometimes you see certain teams and you know that they know everything about each other. They spend all the time together, and they just connect it. And you can see it on the floor.
“I haven’t really seen that necessarily in the Heat in a while. And it started when everything started going astray with Jimmy and the Heat, and we’ve been a disconnected organization from that point."
And I remembered...
The players split on Jimmy. Jimmy had taken Nikola Jovic under his wing, did a TV commercial with 3J, talked up Tyler. Jimmy was the leader of those teams whatever that C said on Bam's jersey. Then Riley suspended him and suspended him and suspended him some more. Then Spo told Jimmy he wasn't starting and kicked him out of practice.
The players were tilted. What do you say? Who do you support, the org or Jimmy? Nikola remained loyal; Tyler turned on Jimmy. They were "disgruntled", "disconnected." The team lost 10 or 11 straight after the trade. I didn't get the sense that the players "spend all their time together". They righted themselves and won their play-in against Atlanta. Spo has recounted many times that plane ride from Atlanta to Cleveland for the beginning of the playoffs. 35,000 feet up the clouds seemed to him to have parted. The sky was blue.
Then Cleveland blew them out of the sky
Spo had misread the atmosphere.
He fought all summer long with Kel'el Ware, a well-meaning, vulnerable young man who was really trying; said Kel'el lacked "professionalism". During the regular season, too. Paired him with Bam as a starter. Then yanked him. Banished to the bench, then reinserted him as a starter. Up and down the yo-yo went. Said that a young player like Kel'el sometimes subconsciously withholds effort to convince the coach to play him more. Spo had to walk that one back when D-Wade and Udonis Haslem defended Kel'el. Players don't like when one of their own is accused by the head coach of sabotaging the team.
It seemed to me at times this season that the disconnect between org and the players was still there. Hell, even Bam was disgruntled. I wrote that the players seemed to have lost "belief". When a game started going south, the body language was a tell.
So, Dwyane Wade opened my eyes to the "disconnect" in this roster, and he reminded me of its source in the Jimmy Butler trauma. He is absolutely correct.
But I fundamentally, vehemently disagree with him that the talent is there on this roster. These players could be connected at the hips and giving each other love bites, they're just not good enough.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Ontario State (1-2) Feasts on Smelly Cadavers (1-2) 126-104
The first three games have all been decided by double-digita but the +22 tonight is the series high.
THE "KNICKS" GOT IT TO BRUNSON FOR THE LAST SHOT!
And he turned it over. FT Majestic Soaring Hawks (2-1) 109 Mamdani City (1-2) 108.
Trump’s Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary’s Ouster
The Navy secretary, John Phelan, was supposed to deliver the first of the president’s ships by 2028. The timeline was nearly impossible.
NYT
Public Occurrences April 23, 2026
The United Criminal States of America and Israel
I then went to reporting on Israeli war crimes in Lebanon:
“The impunity Israel enjoyed in Gaza as it committed water war crimes is again on full display,” Bachir Ayoub, Oxfam’s Lebanon country director, said in a report published by the charity (https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/israeli-forces-using-gaza-playbook-lebanon-decimating-water-infrastructure) in late March. “The world has shown Israel can do what it wants, whenever it wants, without repercussion and again it is civilians who are paying the ultimate price for this inaction.”
Displacement through water
Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in less than two years on March 2. Hours earlier, Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel, breaking a 15-month period of not responding to Israeli attacks and the more than 10,000 ceasefire violations.
Hezbollah’s attack was also in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days later. Over the next few days, Israel would displace more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon in a bombing campaign across the country.
Israel has killed journalists (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/2/un-experts-urge-investigation-into-israels-killing-of-lebanese-journalists), medical workers (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/14/israel-kills-12-medics-in-attack-in-southern-lebanon-as-war-drags-on), and devastated southern Lebanon’s medical infrastructure (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/3/how-israel-is-destroying-healthcare-infrastructure-in-southern-lebanon). Experts told Al Jazeera that those acts, along with the destruction of Lebanon’s water infrastructure, are part of a concerted effort to create an uninhabitable buffer zone (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/25/israels-toxic-legacy-bombing-southern-lebanon-with-white-phosphorus) in southern Lebanon.
Israel is currently occupying dozens of villages in southern Lebanon and preventing thousands from returning home. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier in April that Israeli forces “are remaining in Lebanon in a reinforced security buffer zone”.
“This is a security strip 10 kilometres [6.2 miles] deep, which is much stronger, more intense, more continuous and more solid than what we had previously,” Netanyahu said. “That is where we are, and we are not leaving.”
One way to prevent Lebanese from returning is by striking Lebanon’s water infrastructure.
“Israel has declared its intent on raising [towns and villages] to the ground and preventing people from going back there,” Rami Zurayk, professor and chairperson of the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “Every drop of water that Israel steals is a drop of the water that is taken from the local population … Israel uses water in order to displace people, and it displaces people in order to steal the water.”
Israel damaged six water facilities in southern Lebanon during previous attacks on Lebanon since 2023, and in the first four days of the renewed conflict this year, “damaged at least seven critical water sources including reservoirs, pipe networks and pumping stations that supplied water to almost 7,000 people in the Bekaa area alone”, according to Oxfam International. Key infrastructure has been damaged in areas like Britel and Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley, and in Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s water infrastructure is being “directly and indirectly attacked and on purpose”, asserted Nadim Farajalla, an environmental engineer and chief sustainability officer at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. “We saw it in 2024 and now in 2026.”
The indirect attacks hit things such as the electricity infrastructure, so that pumping stations cannot work to move water or sewage. The direct attacks have hit the pumping stations, as well as municipal workers operating water wells (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/29/israel-kills-municipal-worker-at-water-well-in-south-lebanon-mayor).
The aim behind these attacks is “to force people to leave”, Farajalla said. “Without electricity, you can stay in the dark and cook with gas, but without water, how will you live?”
Israel has denied that its attacks are a deliberate attempt to weaponise access to water, instead framing its operations as necessary for national security.
...
Water as a weapon
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) “obliges parties to a conflict to take constant care to spare water resources and water infrastructure,” Tadesse Kebebew, a legal researcher and project manager at the Geneva Water Hub, wrote (https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2025/04/24/the-imperative-to-protect-water-and-water-systems-during-armed-conflict/) for the ICRC in 2025.
Israel ratified the Geneva Convention – the basis for IHL – in 1951. But Zurayk said that “Israel has never paid attention to any of those conventions.”
In Gaza, for example, Israel controls Palestinians’ access to water. Israel has impeded Palestinians’ access to water in the West Bank, too.
“The use of water as a weapon has also been going on in Lebanon for a long time,” Zurayk said, citing Lebanon’s accusation that Israel had obstructed access to water from the Wazzani River, which crosses the Blue Line that separates Lebanese and Israeli territory, including the bombing of pumping stations.
...
Still, Israel has never been held accountable.
“The international community stood by in Gaza and watched Israel’s weaponisation of water and its catastrophic consequences to men, women and children there,” Ayoub said in the Oxfam report from March. “The same devastation must not be allowed to play out again in Lebanon. Israel must be held to account for its violations and must not be allowed to occupy more land, deny more civilians of their basic rights, and continue to abuse international law without consequence.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/22/how-israel-is-destroying-lebanons-water-infrastructure
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Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Zollner's Heavy Motown Metal Kills Mice
The Least pole-to-pole season's leaders whooped the Mice 98-83, evening the series at 1-1 after a convincing, never-trailed, "Magic" 112-101 dub in G1. The series now heads to Central for G's 3 and 4.
He is...UNBELIEVABLE!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive “Mail In Ballot Drop!” Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of “Justice.” President DONALD J. TRUMP
Apr 22, 2026, 1:34 PM
Can't Make This Up
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
“YOU CAN’T COMPROMISE ON SANITY AND COMMON SENSE!”
Apr 22, 2026, 2:54 PM
A Dem Friend's Approach😂
They go low we go high. Fuck that in the face
They go low
We go lower cut their cocks off and stuff it in thier faces by any legal means by taking any position that WIILL WIN
They go low
We go lower cut their cocks off and stuff it in thier faces by any legal means by taking any position that WIILL WIN
I am not worthy.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Upsets! FT Beans (1-1) 97 Seven Foot Sixers (1-1) 111. The series now shifts for two games to Philthydelphia.
In Alamo, Portlandia (1-1) defeated the Wenbyless (concussion, 12' played) Hotspurs (1-1) 103-106.
The only team, in the Least at...least, who hold a 2-0 is Sensitive City over Ontario State.
Public Occurrences April 21, 2026
CALLED BY AP: VIRGINIA VOTERS APPROVE DEMOCRATIC GERRYMANDER
🥳👏
The Florida Criminal started this fight in Texas. Democrats are finishing it.
TACO!
He extended the ceasefire despite saying previously it was etched in stone and "bombs will fly" if Iran didn't agree to a deal.
MAMDANIS DIDN'T HAVE A FTO AT END, HAD TO GO!
Oh my goodness, all the cognos, the play-by-play guy, the tweeters and idiot bloggers missed that!
Monday, April 20, 2026
Public Occurrences April 20, 2026
Won't See This Reposted on Truth Social!
The young Yemeni immigrant manning the cash register at a Sunoco gas station in Detroit struggles at time with his English, but police say he immediately understood when the 16-year-old girl seeking to buy cigarettes silently mouthed the word “help.”
Detroit gas station clerk saved teenage girl from man after she mouthed 'help' to him
"I feel good when you save somebody," Yemeni immigrant Abdulrahman Abohatem told local TV.
Now Abdulrahman Abohatem is being hailed as a hero for saving that teenager from a suspected rapist who allegedly abducted her at gunpoint last week. And the local Yemeni-American business community is showing its appreciation by raising money to help him defray the costs of his upcoming wedding.
“We are all very proud of him,” said Mohammed Alsanai, principal of the Frontier International Academy in Hamtramck, which is where the teenager attends school.
...
“I feel good when you save somebody,” he told the ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV. “Sixteen years old — she is a child.”
4:15 pm:
Really, Prime Minister...
Keir Starmer furiously told Parliament today that the Foreign Office never told him that Peter Mandelson failed vetting and overruled UKSV to approve the appointment as ambassador to the U.S.
But Mandelson is a scandal magnet, why did Starmer even consider him? The appointment--to the UK's most important diplomatic posting, no less--faced considerable opposition and skepticism from the start. And what was Starmer told that led him to tell Parliament three times in answer to direct questions if Mandelson had been cleared by UKSV, that "due process" had been followed? The Foreign Office told Starmer something, and if it was anything other than "UKSV-approved", Starmer should have asked "Wtf do you mean 'due process'?"
Starmer Out.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Ira Winderman: "Institutional Arrogance"; Play-IN May Be Difficult 2026/27
MIAMI — Institutional arrogance is what has made and what has driven the Miami Heat during these three-plus decades of Riley/Arison oversight.
...
As coach and players on Thursday at Kaseya Center put to rest the season, the response was no more play-in, have to get out of the play-in, can’t keep placing the season in such a delicate one- or two-game balance.
The institutional arrogance of that they are better than this.
The reality is that there very well may stand a pathway out of the play-in.
A sobering pathway.
Based on this season’s regular-season finish, it is apparent that the Eastern Conference’s top four seeds aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
Detroit has proven it’s for real.
Boston’s staying power is undeniable.
New York is all-in for this moment.
Cleveland’s depth of talent again prevailed.
So that’s four almost sure things going forward for next season when it comes to the six seeds with direct entry into the best-of-seven first round of the playoffs.
And then there is the undeniable truth of this season’s No. 12 in the East possibly rising as high as No. 2 next season.
As in Indiana...
So that’s five out of six that would appear firmly planted as perceived direct-entry playoff teams in the East next season.
Leaving one spot ahead of the play-in round of Nos. 7-10.
And leaving Atlanta, Toronto, Philadelphia, Orlando and Charlotte, who all finished ahead of the Heat this season.
If one of those joins the aforementioned seeming playoffs locks (Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavaliers and Pacers), then all the rooms would be filled at the direct-entry 2027 Playoff Inn.
Further, consider that Washington, with the late-season acquisitions of Anthony Davis and Trae Young has made it clear it will be playing for keeps next season, while also playing with another high-end lottery pick to be added to its mix.
Which brings it back to the Heat and that institutional arrogance of being better than the conference’s chaff.
Remember, the Hawks are receiving the Pelicans' lottery pick; the rise in Atlanta could well continue.
The 76ers, as debatable as it stands, could have more of Joel Embiid, and will have more of Paul George, after this season’s suspension.
The Hornets, as the Heat learned on Tuesday night, have become emboldened by their run through the second half of the season.
And that’s not even getting to the combined 9-0 dominance over the Heat by the Magic and Raptors this season.
So the Heat have to pick a lane.
Institutional arrogance all too often has convinced the Heat that they’re better than the rest — even when they’re not.
As it stands, a third consecutive season at No. 10 might be the challenge, let alone rising into the top six.
The reality is that without change in roster and approach, making the play-in could stand as a quality achievement.
Because being stuck in the middle might not even be possible without change.
So … fork in the road.
With only two logical choices:
— Go all-in on a risk-taking major swing for the fences.
— Or sit back, develop the youth, offload the veterans, with the knowledge that their 2027 first-round pick only goes to the Hornets if outside of the lottery.
This is not a time for the timid.
Nor is it a time for Riley to offer pithiness of how health, internal growth, greater conviction can turn it around.
This will take more. Far more.
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