ADHD-Afflicted Florida Felon, Eyes on Greenland, Declares Iran Leaders "Sick", Peace "Over", a "Waste of Time", Endangers Nobel Pursuit
1:02 am:At NATO Meeting in Ankara, Turkey Florida Felon AGAIN Demands Greenland for Toilet Nation from NATO Ally Denmark
hole-and-corner
as in clandestine
undertaken or done so as to escape being observed or known by others
"a hole-and-corner antiterrorist operation whose very existence has been steadfastly denied by the government"
I had NEVER fucking heard of hole-and-corner. M-W doesn't give the etymology, noting only that it came into existence in 1833. I assume like hiding in a hole and behind a corner, clandestine-like.
And then of course there is the possibility (?) probability (?) that it owes its existence to the cornhole, "anus (in the context of anal sex)". A hole-and-corner cornholer? Yeah, that's just coincidence.🙄
Another Iran War for Trump to Win Nobel Peace Prize :)
"Ceasefire" tit by Iran: Attack Strait of Hormuz shipping.
"Ceasefire" tat by Toilet Nation: Air strikes on Iran.
: Reimposition of sanctions on Iranian oil.
U.S.-Belgium most-watched soccer game in American history
It may be the last-watched, too: 1-4, two Keystone Cops blunders, unenthusiastic play. Another Toilet Nation humiliation on the world stage.
The triumph of liberalism is not inevitable. It can fail. And then, if we are bold, unrelenting, and lucky, it can be won back.
Maybe this knowledge—stripping America bare of her pieties—can make us less fatalistic and more eager to fight.
Because to struggle is to live.
Another text to same friend:
there's a theory about america, i'm not saying it's the consensus but it has been out there for some time, that this very peculiar nation needs a great bloodletting at times before it jerks itself into the next iteration, like the civil war, 80 yrs after founding. we're overdue by this theory, unless we count the '60's, and maybe we should. real violence, a quasi-civil war. god bless me, if it happens soon i'm already in my '70's, i won't be of much use, but i'll do my part if it comes to that. i don't even own a gun but i goddamn will if, as lincoln said in his second inaugural, "and the war came." it's just a theory but it feels a little like a great fit of violent vomiting may, i don't say will, come. i just don't think anyone much thinks we can go on like this indefinitely. the stress has already fractured institutions and norms. will it break people out of "comfortable numbness", or haven't we that much "virtue", and that much "fight" left? maybe we're gonna find out, idk.
So what happens next? At some point the vigil will end and we will make peace with the reality that the America we knew and loved has passed.
But we’ll still be here. A placed called America will still be here. Life will go on.
What are we supposed to do?
The same thing we do when any loved one passes. We live.
...our lurch toward illiberalism is not the result of hardship or privation—it is the product of success. Americans did not turn to a corrupt strongman because they were suffering through a Great Depression or a World War. Illiberalism was not undertaken out of desperation.
...
Instead, this age is marked by something unseen in the history of our once-great nation: A surge toward illiberalism born of tranquility and wealth.
America is not more unjust or illiberal today than it was in 1800; or 1850; or 1950. But we have moved decidedly backwards: We are a great deal more illiberal in 2026 than we were in 2000, or 2008, or 2016.
We were founded in genocide (1) and then our new nation institutionalized slavery. We didn’t do (much) colonialism, but we did practice a brutal mercantilism. Even after the Civil War, we allowed authoritarianism to persist in half the country. Our hands have never been entirely clean.
My own formulation in a text to a friend last night:
You live in a fucking country that was acquitted by reason of insanity on a charge of matricide, that was erected on the backs of imported African slaves, that was reared on violence, nourished on (Jim) Crow and the "strange fruit" of lynchings. You think today's cruelty is "unamerican"???
(1) Genocide of Native Americans is a controversial topic among scholars. I disagree that the English settlers of North America committed genocide.
If you think it’s always “too soon to tell” then you don’t believe that America always has enough virtue for liberalism to prevail.
...
My own suspicion is that the hour is late. Liberalism in America as it was even ten years ago is gone. "The republic” still exists. It just isn’t the same thing we once loved.
Has the republic been saved? ...
From this vantage point, no outcome is ever determinative. You can’t say, “Well, there wasn’t enough virtue to save America in 2016. Or 2024.” Because the story never ends and there is no “emergency.” There is only life; there is only struggle. Which rolls in endlessly, like the tides.
A nation called “The United States of America” would still exist. It would still have books full of laws, and McDonald’s, and the Postal Service. Just as a for-instance: If Donald Trump’s attempted coup had worked in 2021, “America” as a place, a thing, would have persisted, even if the liberal republic as we had known it was gone.
My best friend is fond of quoting William Seward’s line about America:
“There was always just enough virtue in this republic to save it; sometimes none to spare, but still enough to meet the emergency.”
Virtue goes all the way back. Before the Civil War, all the way back before the Declaration of Independence. It goes back to the pre-Revolutionary literature. A belief that Americans had superior virtue is what animated the Revolution.
That’s a nice sentiment, but I don’t think it’s right. For one thing: How would we know if the republic hasn’t been saved?
But beneath the surface a cancer was growing. And here, on the eve of our nation’s birthday, the America we knew is in hospice. After the cancer of illiberalism first presented itself, we chose a difficult course of treatment and beat it back for a few years. But then it returned, stronger and more aggressive. The illiberalism metastasized.
July 4, 2026 is not the celebration of a vital and prospering liberal society. It is a deathbed vigil.
We were fine. Maybe better than fine. We’d won the Cold War and reached the end of history, where liberalism was the inevitable conclusion of human affairs. Everything seemed good. We’d even elected a black president.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Moscow's overnight strikes destroyed four districts, with Podilskyi reporting the most damage as several high-rise residential buildings were struck.
...
The latest attack comes just days after another wave of Russian missile and drone strikes killed 13 people and injured more than 80 last week and two days after Russia's leader Vladimir Putin held a call with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Norway does not produce the footballers that Brazil does, but Brazil does not have Erling Haaland.
.JPEG)
.jpg)
Monday offered the president an opportunity to explain and justify the war he’d started. He appeared far more interested in the White House decor.
...the Salute to America 250 Celebrations & Fireworks - is due to begin at 19:00 local time, with Trump expected to speak a few hours later at approximately 21:45 [9:45 pm Normal Eastern Colonies Time].
He has promised to make a "really long speech" at the Fourth of July festivities, despite the heatwave, "to show that I can do anything".
*Update: THE SPHINX WILL SPEAK. Brad Stevens, prez of basketball operations, Beans, and Bill Chisholm, owner of Beans, will hold press conference on Debacle Monday (July 7, the date Debacle becomes official) at 4 pm. I have not received my invite yet.
July 3, 7:27 pm:
The quality of the package the Celtics received...
Pause. That would be Paul George John Ringo and four individuals now in high school; The same PGJR who was SUSPENDED FOR TWENTY-FIVE GAMES by the NBA in 2026; the same PGJR who is THIRTY-SIX YEARS OLD; the same PGJR who has played ONE FULL SEASON in the last SEVEN due to multiple injuries; the same PGJR who has played an average of FORTY-NINE GAMES in those last seven. Unpause.
...and the timing of the deal, with three seasons left on Brown’s contract, left some around the league wondering why the team seemed to feel so much urgency to move Brown now.
Why are we going to speculation from "some around the league" about what the "Celtics" "seem" to feel? The "Celtics" are still in the league, right? Did you ask some around "the team" if and why they felt "urgency" to trade Jaylen? Maybe the urgency was to get PGJR before he hurt himself again?
...
[Paul] George [John Ringo] only has two more years left on his contract, one fewer than Brown, but a league source also said the trade was not driven by finances.
(That is going to be contradicted below.) Did you ask Brad Stevens if the trade was "driven by finances"? No, right? Because he's not talking so you have to go secondary sources.
...
In the days leading up to this week’s deal with the Sixers, it is quite telling that two of the reported suitors — Denver and Portland — had shown no interest in meeting the exorbitant asking price that Boston had previously put forth. Front office executives all around the NBA had been talking about the unreasonably high bar they’d set, how the Celtics expressed a strong desire to land as many as four first-round picks.
...
A Blazers team source said the Blazers were never enamored with Brown, even before Boston made it known he was available on the trade market. Two factors went into the Blazers’ disinterest: Their analytics viewed him as a negative player and the Celtics’ asking price was too high. “We were never aggressively looking to trade for him,” a team source said. “And particularly not at their price.”
The cool market suggested the existence of a significant gap between the general perception of Brown, who finished sixth in MVP voting this season, and the way he is seen within the NBA.
...advanced analytics never shined too brightly on Brown’s game. Even more pointedly, a current general manager, speaking anonymously to comment on internal team discussions, told The Athletic in the wake of the trade that he doesn’t view Brown as a top-50 player in the NBA.
For all of Brown’s individual accolades, the Celtics over the years consistently saw no dropoff, statistically speaking, when he left the court. Even in the Boston front office, some believed Brown’s impact did not match his reputation.
Over the years, Brown had sometimes voiced that he didn’t believe analytics could capture everything he contributed on the court. He seemed well aware that some of the numbers weren’t favorable to him...
...
Stevens always seemed to place a high value on Brown, making him the highest-paid player in the NBA in 2023 after arguably the most disappointing playoff series of his career. But the market seemed less sold that Brown was worthy of his current contract.
As several front office executives shared with The Athletic, the most significant suppressor to Brown’s market was his massive salary. He is owed a combined $182 million in the next three seasons...
Isn't "massive salary" a component of "finances"? Who gave Brown that massive salary oh that's right Brad Stevens.
In today’s NBA...the prospect of paying more than one player that much money can be disastrous for a team’s depth.
That is the contradiction mentioned above. The "Heat" trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo is being judged by this view also. I don't buy it in Miami's case. Philadelphia didn't buy it in the case of Brown's trade.
So when it came to Brown’s market, it’s clear rival executives didn’t believe he was valuable enough to justify the contract. Or, more specifically, that what he brought to a team outweighed the fact his presence would make it challenging to provide top-tier supporting talent. What’s more, some rival executives said they believed Stevens was at a negotiating disadvantage because he had never truly shopped Brown to the entire league in the past.
Now, are you Athletics going to get to WHY Stevens had never tested Brown's market value before? There's a lot of filler in this article, Athletic. It's reported elsewhere that Brown's Twitch stream and "this was my favorite season" were the tipping points. I don't buy that either, by the by.
As for the notion that Boston should have waited, and perhaps revisited a deal down the road if they couldn’t mend fences with Brown, the possibility of the star making a formal trade request was seen by rival executives as the sort of thing that would put more duress on the Celtics.
Doesn't make this fire sale reasonable. Stevens gets paid the big bucks to operate rationally under "duress." Hell, he is under so much duress now for having traded Brown that his children have been threatened and he has deleted his social media feed. Fans have compared him to Fire Nico Harrison (he ought to formally change his name to Fire Harrison.)
Since 2022, when he and the Celtics were able to move past the team’s willingness to trade him for Kevin Durant, he had ascended in his career. It wouldn’t have been as easy for the organization to mend the relationship with Brown this time.
Too much "duress", Brad? Oh bullshit.
Based on how the Celtics operated, they seemed to understand that.
So Stevens did not tell the Athletics that, that's these sports pencils' conclusion.
With Tatum out for most of last season, Brown took the reins — and something shifted.
“I think this has been my favorite season so far,” Brown said in December, “being able to get an opportunity to lead a group.”
He didn’t get enjoyment just because he took over as the No. 1 option with the team’s star sidelined. He loved seeing his younger teammates succeed alongside him. He took pride in the way the organization exceeded all realistic expectations after losing half of its rotation in the offseason, including three former All-Stars in Al Horford, Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, plus an injured All-Star in Tatum. Brown saw beauty in how quickly the Celtics jelled after going through so many changes.
“It just doesn’t happen,” Brown said late in the regular season. “I’m very proud of this group that we’ve been able to come together and find chemistry and the product looks like it looks. It could have looked completely different.”
So, it WASN'T that statement. Okay, Athletics, you're up.
Only small hints of possible trouble began to emerge. As Brown consistently expressed how much he was savoring the season, what went unsaid was that the Celtics’ formula would need to change significantly again once Tatum came back,
Pause: Why? The won an NBA title TWO YEARS AGO with the Two Jays; they won 56 games this season with One Jay. So you slip Tatum back in. What the fuck needs "to change significantly"? Unpause.
...and that, after a career of accepting smaller roles than he believed he could handle, Brown could have some reservations about sliding back into one.
"Could have some reservations": No won told the Athletic Supporters that. That again, is their intuition, not facts.
As much as Boston thrived after Tatum returned in March, going 13-3 with him during the regular season, Brown let it be known that the adjustment wasn’t always easy for him.
“It takes humility and it takes some understanding,” Brown told reporters on March 16. “I think JT is extremely important to us for what we want to do. Obviously, I’m having a great season, but then I have to just think, what’s the big picture? And sometimes that’s not easy, but I always put the team first and what the bigger picture is first.”
You're quoting Brown as if your quote supports your intuition. IT DOES NOT! How much more honest can a player be? OF COURSE it wasn't easy for Brown, "but I always put the team first and what the bigger picture is first.” What, did you expect him to say it was "easy"?
Over the years, Brown had a habit of doing just that. Still, the Celtics began to have questions about whether he would remain fully bought in moving forward, according to league sources. Internally, they wondered whether they could keep everyone on the same page basketball-wise, as they had always managed to do in the past.
Okay, since "league sources" told the Athletics that, yes, it's second-hand, but at least it's not the Athletics' intuition. This then makes me think Stevens got paranoid. All of this article is positive: Brown did not request a trade, never told Stevens privately that he wanted a trade (that we know of), Brown and Stevens had been through this before with the KD trade, they moved on AND WON A FUCKING CHAMPIONSHIP, but "the Celtics began to have questions". (?) That's paranoia, not rationality.
Some around the league believed Boston had a potential problem brewing when Brown spoke so glowingly of the experience he had...when Tatum was sidelined for 66 games. Not helping the external perception of the situation, Tatum’s trainer, Drew Hanlen, posted several times on social media about how well the Celtics played when the ball was in his client’s hands.
See what the Athletic Supporters did? Not able to get ANY intel out of Stevens or the org to make the inexplicable explainable, they are turning to "league sources", to "Some around the league believed" the org. had a "potential problem"--and to Jayson Tatum's TRAINER!
“Last night, (Tatum) had a usage rate of 39.4%,” Hanlen posted on X on March 30. “Celtics are really tough to beat when Tatum’s usage is over 33%.”
...Hanlen didn’t necessarily speak for Tatum, who was less than 100-percent physically and never complained about his touches, but it was the first time since Tatum’s rookie season that he finished with a lower usage rate than Brown.
...
As recently as this week, the Celtics were giving indications they were still willing to bring Brown back if they didn’t find a trade they were willing to accept. If that had happened, they would have needed to confront any lingering issues about the trade negotiations. They would have also needed to make sure everyone was aligned from a basketball perspective.
Contributing to concerns about the situation, the Celtics believed that Brown went off script too often during playoff games as Boston blew a 3-1 first-round lead to Philadelphia, according to a league source. Over the final three games of that series, the Celtics were outscored by 57 points with Brown on the court. Though he scored 33 points in a Game 7 loss, he shot 12 for 27 from the field and finished the series with more turnovers than assists. Afterward, despite the loss, he stated how much he appreciated the style the Celtics played in that game, which was played without Tatum on the court. He thought they had played faster and freer.
“Tonight, I wish we played that style and trusted that style more, even throughout the playoffs, even through wins and through losses,” Brown said. “Obviously it’s not always the easiest decision, but I wish that style for our team was how we empowered the rest of our group, and you saw tonight how everybody came out and they played their tail off. I wish we trusted that more.”
Though far from unforgivable, those comments could have been viewed as a criticism of head coach Joe Mazzulla. They could have been taken as a hint that Brown preferred how the Celtics played without Tatum. Regardless of what Brown intended, as he ended the best season of his career, some around the NBA wondered whether his words suggested the possibility of future friction between him and his organization.
"Could have been", "could have been", "some around the NBA WONDERED...POSSIBILITY...FUTURE FRICTION...[Brown] and his org.": Do you see what bullshit this is? "Regardless of what Brown intended": DID BRAD STEVENS EVER ASK JAYLEN BROWN WHAT HE "INTENDED"? It is as if Brad Stevens is dead and there is no way to get answers to that question and all of this speculation.
One week before the trade, Stevens emphasized how much the organization had always appreciated Brown.
“I think the one thing that I want to make very clear is how valued he’s always been,” Stevens said after the first round of the NBA Draft. “He’s been amazing. He’s been an amazing teammate. Great person to be around. Whether that run ends 10 years from now when he retires or before, there’s a lot to celebrate.”
Ironically, Brown might have foreshadowed the end of his Celtics tenure eight years ago.
Oh my God, now we're going back eight years to look for clues to answers to questions from an event that happened TWO DAYS AGO!
While speaking at Harvard, he spoke about a paper he had read in college at Cal about the difference between identities players see for themselves and the identities a coach — or in this case, an organization — gives to them. Brown said friction begins when those identities clash.
Oh, you've found the Rosetta Stone, Athletic Supporters. Did Jaylen have his palm read too? Maybe a Ouija board?
Great American State Fail Shut Down for Heat, Trump Cools it in South Dakota
Oh my God, poor thing lolol
Dancers Barely Avoid Death as Great American Stage Fails
.jpeg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(745x253:747x255):format(webp)/Melania-Trump-cow-062926-fb2ae8c866044cde8afa27280d313326.jpg)
