There's a hashtag and everything for that, huh?

 

This is Still a Dream to Me

Beer GM Jon Horst:

“No one’s sitting here today and saying that we’re a better team today after trading Giannis,” he said, according to The Athletic’s Eric Nehm. “He’s one of the greatest players to ever play, (the) greatest player in the franchise history. We’ve had an incredible amount of success. And as I’ve said to Miami a couple of times, he’s going to have an unbelievable season for them. [They’ve] got an incredibly motivated, healthy, focused Giannis Antetokounmpo that I think is going to have an unbelievable season and seasons, for that matter.

Heat Central

@TheHeatCentral

And I may be on my deathbed and having senile dementia this is so much. Maybe Putin or Trump or the Netanyahoo spiked my diet pepsi but it's too much for my brain to handle. 

Windy, who has followed LBJ everywhere from Akron high school to Cleveland to Miami,

back to Cleveland, and to La-La, who knows him and how he thinks STILL,12 yrs after "going home", sees and hears the Miami "Heat" in LBJ.

Brian Windhorst believes Miami and Cleveland are in their own category for LeBron’s next team:

“One other thing I think is going to come down here that LeBron will have to decide is how much he cares about what people will think if he goes to a team he’s never played for before. Basically if he chooses somebody besides CLE or MIA. CLE or MIA, it’s a very clean decision. It makes sense. Both of them have cases. Does he want to deal with in his life what the reaction will be if he went to Philadelphia, MIN, DEN? Also deal with people calling him a ring chaser. I think that’s an extra layer.

I think CLE and MIA are in their own category. To this day he repeats Miami Heat Mantras. When I watch him play and hear him talk, you feel the Miami Heat part of his basketball DNA.”

Heat Central

@TheHeatCentral

“I think Giannis is clearly hopeful that LeBron will come and I think that was a good sign… If you’re LeBron you think it’s cool that Giannis is so wrapped up in what you might do and certainly the Heat are still absolutely on the board.”

— @WindhorstESPN on LeBron to Miami rumors

(Via @YahooSports)

For all the world to see, this is who the Ukrainian people are

Every day for 1,595 days (and counting), at exactly 9:00 am, Ukriane comes to a stop. For one minute, Ukrainians, whatever they are doing, stop in place for a moment of silence. Every day since February 24, 2022.

June 27:

This Deserves to Stand Alone

Russo-Ukraine War Casualties, Wikipedia from The Independent:

In July 2026, Oxford historian Peter Frankopan cited an estimate by Russian military bloggers that Russian soldiers in some areas of the frontline have a life expectancy of 20-35 minutes amidst evolving Ukrainian drone capabilities.[143]

Public Occurrences July 8, 2026

Putin on Precipice: Ukraine Pounds Rus in Crimea--38 Targets, Kerch Bridge, Shoots Down Su-35 Fighter; Trump Allows Ukraine to Assemble Patriot Missiles

All smiles. He has the cards.

Institute for the Study of War:

Rooski brain no goot, forget umbrella.

                                                        Rooski also corrupt swine.

7:43 am:

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

CONSIDERED IN ISOLATION...

...I LOVE MY LIFE!

Hole-and-corner

I love words. I love the English language. I used to just randomly open the dictionary. Today, for reasons I don't even remember, I checked Merriam-Webster's thesaurus for secret. This was one of the synonyms:

hole-and-corner

as in clandestine

undertaken or done so as to escape being observed or known by others

They give a recent example of its usage:

"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.🙄

Would that another Jewish leader whose nation was brutally attacked, had the same soul as that great man

 

Public Occurrences July 7, 2026

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.

In other short pants football news, Argentina continued its march to the MENA Cup with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Egypt.

America at 250: We Had a Good Run

It’s not a celebration. It’s a vigil.

Jonathan V. Last

It was if he found my letters and read each one aloud. Yesterday evening I sent Mr. Last an email:

Oh my goodness.

Everything that I have written, everything that I have thought, the advent of "America 2.0", RIP Original America. 

Reading those words in somebody else's voice is crushing. But thank you.

"More eager to fight. To struggle is to live"

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.

"The America we knew and loved has passed"

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.

"Illiberalism born of tranquility and wealth"

...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.

Liberalism

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.

America 2.0

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?" "There is only life": McDonald's, sports, work, struggle

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.

Form vs Substance

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.

Virtue

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?

A good run spoiled

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 had a good run

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.

Russia Missile Attacks on Kyiv Residential Buildings Kill 11

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.

Top News Story Google Aggregate

 Norway does not produce the footballers that Brazil does, but Brazil does not have Erling Haaland.

I'm liking eulogists this morning

Eulogist at Khamenei funeral in Iran calls for death of Donald Trump

euronews

Great American State Fail Occurrences, July 4, 2026

Trump Speaks! The "to-show-that-I can-do-anything" must go on! Started 11:00 pm, fireworks and cross-burning to follow! 😂

8:22 pm:

Evacuation ordered at National Mall as storms gather ahead Trump's America 250 speech

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plans to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary of independence with a rally on the National Mall were complicated on Saturday by severe storms that gathered near Washington, forcing event organizers to order an evacuation.

“Freedom 250 will share updates on programming and doors reopening,” Freedom 250 spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement that encouraged participants to seek shelter at museums and federal buildings near the National Mall. Washington’s metro system also said several of its underground stations were available for shelter.

...

...signs at the Great American State Fair posted an alert shortly after 7 p.m. ET encouraging participants to leave the area. As the order to evacuate was played over loudspeakers on the National Mall, some people appeared to be standing in place, talking with those around them and not exiting the area, while others were walking toward exits. National Guard troops told people to leave.

Oh my God, Trumpie!!! ROFLOL

2:56 pm:

ANOTHER 🦊 Propaganda Report on Great American State Fail!

"Heavier attendance"!😂

2:45 pm:

July 4 heat delays America 250 celebration as (State Fair guests share love of USA😂)

Families sheltered in museums and rode the Metro to stay cool until gates reopened

🦊

FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE, THIS IS WHO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE

Trump White Supremacists Invade Washington to Celebrate Their Country

photo Reuters via Wally

There were "hundreds" of them per nytimes. Imagine what would have happened if hundreds of masked Black Panthers got on the DC Metro

July 4, 2026, 4:14 pm:

White Nationalists March in Washington Amid 250th Anniversary Celebrations

lede and photo nyt

Wonder if my brother-the-klansman is there, you know, just "to check it out." FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.

May 23, 2026, 7:54 pm:

Q: What is the difference between the American people and a bucket of shit?

A: The bucket.

May 14, 2027

May 4, 2026:

"The American people got what they voted for, they elected him."

Sen. Marco Rubio, CBS, March 19, 2017

April 22, 2026:

April 27, 2026:

“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership..."

-German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

Today: 

Which is the Toilet People who you would want to bar entry into your country, the people to the north who elected Mark Carney, the people to the south who elected Claudia Sheinbaum, or the people in the middle who elected a 34-time convicted felon?

April 1, 2026:

AMERICANS! THEY'RE LAUGHING AT YOU! IRAN IS TROLLING YOU!

The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. 

Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!). This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year 'Reign of Terror'.

-The Toilet Peoples President. The instantiation of who the American people are, for all the world to see.

Toilet People! Iran "Bursts Out Laughing At" at Bum Trump and You

"Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

America is built on those worn out. not able to make a living elsewhere, and homeless. Americans are combined wretched refuse of others gathering hopeless on others' shores, taken in by this new country that needed bodies, able or not, intelligence and morals irrelevant. America has accumulated 200 years of garbage and are thrilled to elect one of their own. Garbage does not take itself out and toilets do not flush rhemselves. A new species of humanity, the ignorant, easily fooled Toilet People have taken root, flowered and spread their pestilent seed all across the land. Americans are the worst of the worst, laughed at by Iran, at the United Nations, by the world, who would flush them if they could, and may yet.

They are "marks", easily fooled, ignorant dullards. The world sees.

Bruh, did you see all the splosions? America, fuck yeah!

Because American marks might be fooled by this, but the world’s political, military, and economic leaders wouldn’t be.

The world LAUGHS at them:

[The president chosen by the American people twice] also jabbed at Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly, when asked about her criticism that the U.S. and Israeli operations have been “deliberate assaults on international law.”

“Look, he’s lucky I exist,” Trump said of Connolly, who is a woman.

Associated Press, March 17, 2026

"Big hitter, the Lama"

The Iran war is "a big chess game at a very high level — very high-level chess, the highest.”😂

Not since the swiss-cheese brain of Idi Amin has any nation's leader been so mocked for his cognitive deficits. Never has a people so convincingly proved themselves too stupid to make democracy work than has the American people. They chose (twice) the Caddyshack president, The Apprentice president, the Saturday Night Live regular. Americans truly are the "wretched refuse" of humanity, as their national statue is inscribed. The world would be a cleaner, safer place if these Toilet People and the Toilet Nation they comprise were flushed from the surface of the Earth.

Trump says US may strike Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub ‘just for fun’

(...and always have been)

March 3, 2026, 2:41 pm:

Pressed for answers on Iran, Trump is betrayed by his limited attention span

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.

Feb. 21, 2026, 6:17 pm:

"There's hatred there."--Brady Tkachuk, Team USA on Team Canada, who play for the Olympic gold medal tomorrow.

Trump throws a temper tantrum after tariff loss

NPR

It is who we always have been. 

As the Chief Justice put it, "Having just fought a revolution motivated in large part by taxes imposed on them" by the King of England without their consent...

The most absurd cause of revolution in the history of humanity. Born in a temper tantrum, die in a temper tantrum.

 

And on...

[Trump's racist Obama meme is] something which had, for many years, been confined to the dustbin of history, while still very much a part of the vocabulary of white supremacists.

But something has changed.

Maybe it's social media, maybe it's something else, but something has changed. We are in a new reality where, for more than 12 hours, Trump's White House thought this was OK.

sky.com (UK)

On and on...

Trump: "I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. Nobody knew that that was at the end."

When asked if he would apologize for an overtly racist video clip of the Obamas posted on President Trump's Truth Social, the president said Friday, "No, I didn't make a mistake."

Trump said he looks at "thousands of things" when he spoke to reporters on Air Force One en route to Palm Beach.