Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Biden eyes White House shakeup amid walkbacks, plummeting poll numbers: report 

 

Walkback Walensky, that's been my nickname for her since her first months.


Faced with a worsening political predicament, President Joe Biden is pressing aides for a more compelling message and a sharper strategy while bristling at how they’ve tried to stifle the plain-speaking persona that has long been one of his most potent assets.

Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say.

Crises have piled up in ways that have at times made the Biden White House look flat-footed: record inflation,
[They told us the U.S. economy was too big for inflation, then that inflation was a rich man's problem.] high gas prices, [That was a consequence of their sanctions on Russia, which I support, but they didn't explain the consequences well to the American people and they still do not have an endgame in the Russia-Ukraine war. They get tunnel vision and don't think actions through.] a rise in Covid case numbers [They were caught flat-footed by 1) breakthroughs 2) waning vaccine efficacy. Anybody heard when a new vaccine is coming out? No. 3) Delta and Omicron]— and now a Texas school massacre that is one more horrific reminder that he has been unable to get Congress to pass legislation to curb gun violence. Democratic leaders are at a loss about how he can revive his prospects by November, when midterm elections may cost his party control of Congress. 
...
 Amid a rolling series of calamities, Biden’s feeling lately is that he just can’t catch a break. “Biden is frustrated. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” said a person close to the president.

The American people are frustrated.

An assumption baked into Biden’s candidacy was that he would preside over a smoothly running administration by dint of his decades of experience in public office. Yet there are signs of managerial breakdowns that have angered both him and his party.

Biden is annoyed that he wasn’t alerted sooner about the baby formula shortage and that he got his first briefing in the past month, even though the crisis had long been in the making. (The White House didn’t specify when Biden got his first briefing on the formula shortage.) His nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Robert Califf, told Congress last week that the agency was sluggish and that it had made “suboptimal” decisions as parents hunted for formula on empty store shelves.
 
Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he’s not fully in command.

The issue came to a head when Biden ad-libbed during a speech in Poland that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” Within minutes, Biden’s aides tried to walk back his comments, saying he hadn’t called for Putin’s removal and that U.S. policy was unchanged. Biden was furious that his remarks were being seen as unreliable, arguing that he speaks genuinely and reminding his staff that he’s the one who is president.

Asked about the staff’s practice of clarifying Biden’s remarks, the official said: “We don’t say anything that the president doesn’t want us to say.”

So now we have a conflict in what is reported here Biden is frustrated about and his staff clarifying that he has nothing to be frustrated with them about. Lovely.


Biden has vented to aides about not getting credit from Americans or the news media for...Unemployment rates have dropped to below 4 percent — pre-pandemic levels — but polling indicates most Americans believe the economy is in bad shape.
Blaming voters for not giving you credit--how often has that worked as a political strategy? Never.] Biden grouses that Republicans aren’t getting their share of the blame for legislative gridlock in Congress, while he’s repeatedly faulted for not getting his agenda passed. 

Dude, Oh God. Why would voters blame Republicans when you have control of the executive and both branches of the national legislature. If you had kept Manchin and Synema, two Democrats in line, you would have gotten everything you asked for.

Biden sees exodus of Black staffers and some frustration among those who remain

The White House is historically diverse. But there are concerns internally about a wave of departures and the current culture.

At least 21 Black staffers have left the White House since late last year or are planning to leave soon. Some of those who remain say it’s no wonder why: They describe a work environment with little support from their superiors and fewer chances for promotion.

The departures have been so pronounced that, according to one current and one former White House official, some Black aides have adopted a term for them: “Blaxit.”

 

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting

The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation...and the state's review of the law enforcement response...

Goodness gracious, how much longer until this country just flies apart?

It was a very good year.

When you decide to follow a sports team passionately, that is, become a fan, you know that your team or teams will to ontological certainty not win 'em all. Your team or teams will almost as certainly not be the best in league, association or conference. You know that at the macro level that when you become a fan you are signing up for one disappointment for every satisfaction. Depending on your team and the level of your commitment you are on notice that you may share vicariously more or less in crushing failure than frisson of happiness.

The three sports teams of which I have been a fan most ardently for many years now are Manchester City soccer team, the Miami 'Heat" basketball team and the Pittsburgh "Panthers" college football team. 2021/22 was very good for my fandom and for those teams.

City finished its season champions of its league with a record of 26 wins in 38 matches, six draws, and only three losses.

The "Heat" won their division, finished second, out of 15 teams, in their conference and won 53 games to 29 defeats.

And Pitt was the champion of their conference for the first time in many years, winning 11 games and losing only three.

Russia is Winning

 

Russia Extends Control Over Key Ukraine City as U.S. Plans to Boost Kyiv’s Firepower

The Biden administration plans to provide Ukraine with precision-guided rocket systems, which could arrive within weeks

(WSJ)

Monday, May 30, 2022

 

Russian Forces Push Into Pivotal City in Eastern Ukraine

Capturing Severodonetsk could free Moscow’s forces to focus on other Donbas cities; ‘the smell of corpses is constant’

(WSJ)

Talent Tells

We never led the entire game. Jimmy had a great game. And he had help--BAM had 25. And our shooting percentage was better! How did we lose. We lost it behind the arc. We don't have reliable long-distance shooters. Jimmy's last shot was our last chance; it would have been stupid and Yes! if it had gone in, stupid and...our last chance if it did not, which it didn't. He could have tied it with one of his drives--only Horford to beat! The lane devoid of humanity!--but Horford was also playing off him, and Jimmy has made those shots in this series, far tougher! We. Didn't. Lead. The. Whole. Game. We trailed by two when Jimmy took that shot. It was over in the first quarter. We trailed by 15 at the end of 1Q! We. Didn’t. Lead. The. Whole. Game. We never recovered. So we didn't get to "Neverledville" because of Jimmy. He had 35, Bam had 25! If you had told me those two things before the game I would have said, “Heat wins.” We got to Neverledville because talent tells and we ain't got enough of it.  Lowry: 4/12 (1/6), Strus: 3/10 (2/7), Oladipo 4/12: (1/7), Vincent: 1/4 (1/3). We played 82 games to get home court through the East playoffs and we lost three times at home to Boston, including game 7. The regular season was meaningless.

If I posed this rhetorical question to "Heat" fans and NBA cognos after Game 5, well I'm doing it again: where do you see this iteration of the "Heat" getting better next year? Show me the "upside" you see because with my 20/400 vision I can’ see it.  Of course we’re not going to be better next season with this group. Jimmy knew: this was our year, this was his year to finally get a ring. We're not getting better, we're getting older and creakier. Bam, man, I don't know about Bam;  Jimmy? Kyle? PJ? Bam? Tyler? Duncan? Strus? Vic? No to the first three, I think the fourth has plateaued strangely; Yes to Tyler, he steps into the starting lineup next season. Absolutely NO! to Duncan, Strus...who knows? Vic? Who knows? Will Tyler get better enough to play Robin to Jimmy's Batman, Brown to Tatum? I think he will. But will Jimmy still be capable of Batman? I don't think so, you can make a case, but I don't think so. We don't have two "sures", much less three. Contrast with Boston: Hell yeah! They've got three and they're young! 

Another question "Heat" fans: Let's say we win this game. What happens in the Finals? I'll tell you what happens in the Finals. 🧹. Golden State is on a different planet than the "Heat." Steph, Klay, Draymond, now they got this fucking kid Jordan Poole. 🧹!  Fo-Oh, bro!

Did Riley want one more Eastern Conference champion banner to hang from the roof of the Bus? Nah-ah. This was as good as it gets for this team and we aren't close to another NBA championship. Take it from here, Pat.

Sunday, May 29, 2022

I’m going back over…

Groundhog Day Nightmare

I left after the first quarter. It actually helped my neighbors’ peace and quiet and the integrity of physical objects being around my son but I am sooo exasperated. This is every “Heat” fan’s, coach’s, player’s nightmare, the ONE think we COULD NOT let happen. EVERYone, EVERYone: “Fast start key to the game! Fast start!”—and then we come out and lay an egg. My son was saying, “Dad, it’s the middle of the firsy quarter!”—so I stayed a few mins more. We went on an 8-0 run and then…these games are maddening to predict beforehand but soo predictable once they get going, Boston made up the run. It’s tortoise and hare. When they get a big lead, we’re fucked! FUCKED. I told my son, “Son, normally, ‘It’s only the middle of the first quarter!’ would be the rational response. In this series, the start is determinative. It’s over, the game’s over.” Just a nightmare…Shoulda started U.D.

Beans-3

Pisses me off. Up half a point since this morning.

 

Nottingham Forest: The Sleeping Giant...

Forbes eight days ago.

FT Town 0 Tricky Trees 1

18.29

...It’s the most euphoric scene, a day the players and supporters will never forget. 

 

Oh, bless their hearts. So happy for them. Do feel bad for 19 year-old Levi Colwill. His own goal was the only goal of the match. There will be better days young Levi.

FT Huddersfield Town 0 Nottingham Forest 1

 The Tricky Trees are back in the Premier League for the first time in 23 years! 😂🥳

You know what one of Nottingham Forest’s nicknames is? The “Tricky Trees”! How can you not love a team with THAT!

HT Town 0 Forest 1

(It was an own goal. Rob Smyth must be disgusted.)

 16.59

29 min It’s not a great game to watch. I’d be a loath to criticise the players or managers for that - it means so much that you can understand the relative caution. Truly, it needs a goal.


28 min Penalties, anyone.

 

Hmm. I don't know what Rob's final verdict was on the CL but his preliminary opinions, plural, was that it was boring to watch too. Maybe Rob needs a break from footy.

“Would Forest be the first universally loved team to be in the premier league?...People are indifferent to Southampton, Palace, Brentford etc. but it feels like there is genuine goodwill towards Forest. As a part-time fan...it’s a pretty good feeling to be rooting for such a popular team.” 

Wow! This is the first time in my fucking life that a team I root for is not universally hated. Go Sheriffs!

Town 0 Forest 0, 27'

Jeez, Rob Smyth is covering this for Guardian after covering the Champions League yesterday. Busy weekend for Rob.

English Championship Promotion Playoff

Huddersfield Town 0
                                    22'
Nottingham Forest 0

 

I have always had a soft spot for Nottingham Forest. For a long time I associated them with a particular vacation when I was young. I thought they must have been in the papers for having won something big and their storybook name stuck in my mind. But it was a false memory. I looked up their history once and no, there was nothing big in the years 1965 to, at latest, 1970 when I was 10-15 years old. Have followed their (lack of) progress getting back to the Premier League for years.

Here you go.


Eric Pogue
@CoachEricPogue

20 years ago today-June 14, 2000 

Mid-Michigan Bucks shutout MLS New England Revolution 1-0 in  @opencup in Foxboro

Starting XI

-Snape, Coulibaly, Pogue, Maruti, Malachino, Heinemann, Shoemaker, Anthonsen, Hall, Scicluna, Mack

Great memories, on & off the field...what a team!

11:40 AM · Jun 14, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

I have a suggestion for Adam Silver: If you want an in-season tournament, make it an Open. The U.S. Open Cup in soccer is the model, open to minor leagues, semi-pro teams, any organized team. It is the oldest soccer tournament in the U.S. and is a major trophy, comparable to the English FA Cup. The sub-MLS teams play in knockout qualifying rounds to meet one of all MLS teams. Win and advance. An NBA Open would be...open to D-league teams, AAU teams, any teams that survive qualification. It'd be a chance to showcase the "hidden gems" and grow the game by bringing the best NBA teams to small cities. Yes, the Golden State "Warriors" have to play in Rapid City against the "Thrillers."

I experienced the U.S. Open Cup once. I was a Miami "Fusion" fan. We played the Mid-Michigan "Bucks" in wherever Mid-Michigan is. I fucking listened to the game on the radio. I have never listened to a soccer game on the radio before or since. It would have been humiliating had a Major League Soccer team lost to the Mid-Michigan "Bucks." That's the hook! That's why you tune in.  It's like a two-seed from the ACC losing to a 15-seed from the Mid-American conference. Or the Dream Team getting beaten by Angola. Imagine the headlines: "Warriors Stunned by Rapid City".  How's it goin' Adam, you good?

Boston Celtics
set the tone from the start 😤
 
 
We all seem to be in agreement on this. What is Spoelstra's plan? (psst-U.D. (if you think advisable (if not okay))).

 

Beans-2.5 Tonight

Has Vegas ever lost more money on an NBA series? Have the cognos ever been more wrong? We've had the science of the PAR Principle. Unscientific; we've had the Grant Williams Effect. Ineffective. I can't make anything of this blasted series either and the utter unexpectedness of it is giving me a nervous tic. Though worth nothing, I think Boston will win tonight.

6 injured in shooting in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, police say

Good morning.


Saturday, May 28, 2022

Night Thoughts

The "Haslem Effect" dominated my half-asleep thoughts all night but before I fell asleep and was thinking of Haslem I was recalled to reality: All the strategy and thinking-outside-the-box doesn't matter if Boston can keep Jimmy Butler from going off. If they do they win. Jimmy was 42% of Miami's points last night. We have no other reliable source of offense. He's both the drink and the straw that stirs it.

0-1, 90'

88 min Alexander-Arnold curls it deep, and Courtois comes through the crowd to claim with authority. He has been immense.

0-1, 84'

Thibaut Courtois has won this Final for Madrid if it stays this way. 

82 min: Magnificent save from Courtois! 

80 min: Good save from Courtois!

69 min: Great save from Courtois! 

16 min: Good save from Courtois!

Time getting tight for Liverpool. 0-1, 79'.

Liverpool 0 Real Madrid 1, 59’

Vinicius Junior with the goal for Los Blancos.

HT Liverpool 0 Real Madrid 0

I have to conclude that Twitter users trolled us. There were several who tweeted that VAR upheld Karim Benzama's goal.

0-0, 45+3

21.24

NO GOAL! Liverpool 0-0 Real Madrid

Benzema was in an offside position when Valverde got a touch, though you could argue that it became a new phase of play when Konate pushed the ball off Fabinho and back towards the Liverpool goal. I’ll be honest, I haven’t a clue any more.

 

21.21

VAR check! Benzema was definitely offside, because he was in front of the goalkeeper Alisson, but the issue is whether the ball was played through by a Madrid player (Valverde) or a Liverpool defender (Fabinho). If it’s the latter, it’ll be a goal. I think this will be given.

 

21.20

43 min: Benzema has a goal disallowed for offside!

Oh!

0-0, 42'

Don't s'pose there's going to be much stoppage time!

 21.12

34 min: Chance for Liverpool!...That’s Liverpool’s eighth attempt at goal and their fifth on target. Madrid? Nada. Zilch.

Possession 56%-44% in favor of 'Pool.

21.10

34 min I told you right from the off this wouldn’t be a classic.


Why?

0-0, 33'

Joakim Gomez
@JoakimGomez
Real Madrid are yet to show up. Hate to say this but it’s all Liverpool so far. #ChampionsLeague

4:06 PM · May 28, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

 

Hmm. Strange.

Madrid Zone
@theMadridZone

@beINSPORTS commentary: “Real Madrid need to find a way to get Luka Modrić involved more, so bare he’s barely had the ball.” #rmalive #UCL

4:06 PM · May 28, 2022·Twitter for iPhone



Ha-ha, he plays for Dallas.

21.00

23 min Real can’t cope with Liverpool’s intensity. I suppose we said the same in the Chelsea and City ties, and look what happened there, but at the moment Liverpool are well on top.


Chelsea and City? When did we ever play them in the Champions League?

20.56

19 min Now Alexander-Arnold shoots over from the edge of the area after a layoff from Salah. Real haven’t got going at all.


18 min Mane lays the ball off nicely to Salah, whose rising half-volley from 18 yards is pushed down by Courtois and claimed at the second attempt. Liverpool are well on top now.

 

Liverpool with 62% possession

0-0, 18'

20.54

16 min: Good save from Courtois!

 

 20.50

13 min Still nothing to report. Liverpool have been the better side, though they are not playing with their usual intensity.

 

Oh my God! Ha-ha.

should i root for real madrid or liverpool?
 
Yes.

20.46

9 min Nothing much is happening. The atmosphere is subdued, the tempo fairly slow. It needs a chance at one end or another to get everyone going.

 

lol

Liverpool 0 Real Madrid 0, 5'

The Champions League Final in France was delayed for 50 minutes because of logjams of fans outside the stadium. (?)

*

This was my night thought on Haslem:

If there has been one constant in this utterly unpredictable series it is the importance of starting aggressively and fast. *Updated. Ime Udoka today: "Obviously, going into [Miami], we want to start better...we have to get ourselves off to better starts, get ourselves easy baskets and not give them life early in the game."

Constant 1A: change things up. It flummoxes the opposing coach. For some fucking reason. We half-heartedly full-court pressed Atlanta and Trae Young. It gave him a few seconds less time to think. Think about it: your main ballhandler bringing the ball up. What's he doing? Looking. Seeing what defense the other guys are in, where they're spaced, where his guys are. Thinking. He counts on those couple of seconds of not being guarded to plot his next move. If you have him thinking, "Whoa! I've got a guy on me, better be careful, I'm going to get stripped!" then he's not plotting.

The main players are exhausted mentally and physically. Look at Bam. He's not himself. U.D. would own the paint. The few times in past years Haslem has played he has been like his own force field. He disrupts the energy of the entire game.

Boston is not mentally tough. They can be distracted. They can be intimidated.

So:

Aggressive. Haslem. Haslem would set the tone for the whole team.
Change. Dude, the "Celtics" would call a timeout before the jump ball if U.D. came out to take the center tip.
New energy. Haslem. Energy is contagious.
Distraction/intimidation. Whooo doggie, Haslem. 

Start Haslem. Fully awake, I still think it's a good idea.

“Inner city schools rarely have these kinds of mass shootings. ...They rarely have this problem despite being located in very tough neighborhoods, in many cases where there’s tremendous levels of high crime and violence”--Trump at NRA yesterday.

...Mr. Trump has a point that high-fatality shootings perpetrated by a single person have mostly occurred in suburban and rural schools...

Wow. I never stopped to think about that. Why on earth would that be? Oh right! White people.

Uvalde, Cops

Uvalde police prevented BORTAC from entering? Didn't enter confront subject themselves? Didn't call for their own SWAT team? Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw was ashamed of their actions, pausing emotionally for six seconds after he told reporters there were 19 officers in the hallway outside room 112, none willing to go to the shooter. McCraw said UPD chief Pete Arredondo, who was in charge of the scene, erroneously concluded that they had a "barricaded subject" and not an "active shooter." McCraw did not defend that conclusion and it seemed fishy, a cover for cowardice, but now we learn from AP that "audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him. But it wasn’t clear why the school chief ignored their warnings." So there goes that always fishy rationalization.

At Parkland we had the "Coward of Broward." I don't know any synonym for coward that rhymes with Uvalde but we have cowards there. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue was appalling in its timidity on the Surfside condo collapse scene. In both Uvalde and Surfside the professional response was callous toward relatives of the victims. UPD HANDCUFFED a mom trying to rescue her child!

There has been some change in the mentality of public safety officials. It's their own safety first. As McCraw said, "we sign up for danger when we become cops."  As at Parkland, people are going to lose their jobs, and well they should. In Uvalde, I thought the night after the shooting that UPD preventing the feds from entering could be criminal. AP: "As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said." "The delay in confronting the shooter — who was inside the school for more than an hour — could lead to discipline, lawsuits and even criminal charges against police."

I'm going with my son on a work trip Memorial Day. A few days ago his boss said, "Do you want a buddy for the trip? I can have Robert go with you." "I have a buddy, my dad." He's my best friend, and he's my son.

The "Heat" are bad for me. I didn't get to bed until TWO a.m. and didn't sleep well, thinking all night about the "Heat" (I thought Spo should start Udonis Haslem in Game 7.) Didn't get up till 10:50. Pathetic.

Miami Beats Boston, Game 6

I really was not following this game. I had given up after Game 5 and was posting about Uvalde, the war in Ukraine, and on America generally. I glanced at the score precisely twice: once we were up 56-52, I think in the 2nd quarter; the other time, when I thought the game would be over (I had just intended to post the final score, a Boston win) at about 11:15 p.m. and Miami led 92-91 with over 6 minutes left in the 4th. I then went back to my phone in bed and was going to read the news but had a text from my son. "I'm watching the Heat and am so sad." So, I figured Boston had made a clinching run and told him I didn't want to know anymore, it upset me. He responded "Okay." Then, with 1:25 left "I can't help myself, Heat up by 6" and that's when I posted the first excited reaction image. Now I was hooked back in. Still didn't go to the computer. "Up 8 with a minute left," my son texted me. Now my nerves were shot. I checked it myself shortly after and it was down to 4 with I forget how much time left, maybe ~:40. Fingers crossed image. Then "Heat are going to win this fucking game up 6." I checked. "Heat won!" Was it over? Not according to ESPN. It was 6 with :10+ secs left. "Is the game over????? They're showing 10 seconds left!!!" "7 points." Then "eight." Then I went to the computer. Excited images. What a heroic performance by Jimmy. Who knows what to expect in Game 7?!?! The line was -2.5 Boston and then it dropped to -2. I don't know our health, I don't know SHIT! But I have to watch Sunday.

Friday, May 27, 2022

Butler, "Heat" Beat Boston, Force Game 7 in Miami

Boston was an 8.5 point favorite to win. 

Jimmy played 46 of 48 minutes, scored more than a point a minute, 42% of the team's points, shot 16/29 from the field, 4/8 from range, 11/11 from the line, had 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, and only 1 turnover. I conclude that Jimmy is not a superstar and then he comes up with this game, the greatest playoff performance by a "Heat" player since LeBron had 45, 15, and 9 against...Boston in another Game 6 in Boston in 2012. The will of Jimmy Butler. His heart is his whole body.

Kyle Lowry had 10 assists to only two turnovers and 18 points in 37 minutes but fouled out. 

Bam Adebayo was the incredible shrinking big once again: 6 points on only 6 shots, 9 rebounds, in 41 minutes.

The "Celtics" two stars, Tatum and Brown had very good nights, a combined 50 points, but only three more than Butler alone. Derrick White continued to bedevil the "Heat" whether starting or, as tonight, coming off the bench. White had 22 points in 33 minutes.

All of that is "also ran." Jimmy Butler flew higher tonight than any "Heat" player has in the playoffs in ten years. An incandescent performance from Miami's one and only superstar.

FT BOSTON 103 MIAMI 111

 Jimmy. Butler!!!! 47 POINTS!

FT BOSTON 103 MIAMI 111 (3-3)

 There will be a Game 7! There will be a Game 7! "Heat" Win! "Heat" Win!

The Failed "American Experiment", 18th Century-21st Century

                                         And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air

The United States of America was gestated by violence in continuous war against indigenous tribes and the Dutch, born of matricidal violence in revolution against the "mother country", Great Britain, grew on the violence of slavery and fractured from violence for four years during the American Civil War (1861-65). In its first one hundred years the United States of America was at war in forty-six. It was at war with Britain for eleven of its first thirty-nine years. 

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. What became its national anthem, violent and celebratory, was composed during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). Despite all of the trouble with Great Britain, composer Francis Scott Key's lyrics were put to the melody of a British song, To Anacreon in Heaven, popular in America at the time.

Born of schizophrenic violence. It was not the first, nor would it be the last, time America appropriated from the country that birthed it.

“Home of the Brave?”-Gabe Kapler, manager, San Francisco "Giants" baseball team

“We’re not the land of the free nor the home of the brave right now.

“When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t. I don’t believe it is representing us well. Every time I place my hand over my heart and remove my hat, I’m participating in a self-congratulatory glorification of the ONLY country where these mass shootings take place.

“But we weren’t given bravery, and we aren’t free. The police on the scene put a mother in handcuffs as she begged them to go in and save her children. They blocked parents trying to organize to charge in to stop the shooter, including a father who learned his daughter was murdered while he argued with the cops. We aren’t free when politicians decide that the lobbyist and gun industries are more important than our children’s freedom to go to school without needing bulletproof backpacks and active shooter drills.

“I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country."

God bless you, Mr. Kapler, God bless you, sir. Your father taught you well. You and he are principled patriots.

Can't Make This Up

Glenn Thrush
3 hours ago

Reporting from Houston
The massacre in Uvalde is dominating conversation inside the convention center where the N.R.A. annual conclave is being held. Attendees who were checking their weapons at the “knife check” desk were discussing the response times of local police — and some N.R.A. staff and volunteers peeked into the press room where TVs were showing Fox News coverage of today’s news conference in Uvalde.

 

In Uvalde, Texas, some of the worst fears about the police response to the school shooting rampage were confirmed on Friday...

In an emotional and at times tense news conference,
[It was. McCraw was shaken, having to pause twice for six seconds, his face twitching throughout, and breaking down once for 22 seconds.] Steven C. McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, gave the most detailed accounting of the shooting yet, diverging in substantial points from the original timeline given by officials.

Most of the time the gunman was...inside the classrooms where nearly all of the killing took place...as many as 19 police officers waited outside in the school hallway.

Sometimes, the New York Times is so twee it makes you cringe. 



Like fingernails run down a blackboard.

How Does It End? Fissures Emerge Over What Constitutes Victory in Ukraine

May 26, 2022

 ...

 

In the past few days alone there has been an Italian proposal for a cease-fire, a vow from Ukraine’s leadership to push Russia back to the borders that existed before the invasion was launched on Feb. 24, and renewed discussion by administration officials about a “strategic defeat”...that would assure that [Putin] is incapable of mounting a similar attack again.

After three months of remarkable unity in response to the Russian invasion — resulting in a flow of lethal weapons into Ukrainian hands and a broad array of financial sanctions that almost no one expected, least of all Mr. Putin — the emerging fissures about what to do next are notable.

Incoming immodesty and common sense: I asked this repeatedly after Feb. 24. How do you not have an end game in view at the outset? 

    Russia Advances in Ukraine’s East as Civilian Toll Rises

    Russian forces seized Lyman, the second small city to fall this week, and moved closer to encircling Sievierodonetsk. A new report by legal and rights experts cited a “genocidal pattern” by Russia.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
39 minutes ago

The authorities now say that local officers first entered the school at 11:35, two minutes after the gunman, and that there were 19 officers in the hallway by 12:03 p.m., but that they did not breach the door and kill the gunman until 12:50, even as they continued to hear him firing.

 

A Border Patrol tactical team was ordered to hold back before confronting the gunman.

 
When specially equipped federal immigration agents arrived at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, the local police at the scene would not allow them to go after the gunman who had opened fire on students inside the school, according to two officials briefed on the situation.

The agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at some point between 12 p.m. and 12:10 p.m., according to the officials — far earlier than previously known. But they did not breach the adjoining classrooms of the school where the gunman had locked himself in until a little before 1 p.m. 

The officials said that members of the Uvalde Police Department kept the federal agents from going in sooner.
...

The Border Patrol and ICE agents did not understand why they were left to wait, according to the official. Eventually, the specialized Border Patrol team went into the building.

Law enforcement officers had initially tried to enter the classroom but fell back after the gunman fired on them, injuring two officers, state law enforcement officials said.

Right, when cops sign up to be cops to risk their lives to prevent children from being slaughtered they don't sign up for risking their lives to prevent children from being slaughtered, right. COWARDS.

The federal officers had driven up from the Mexican border, one official said. The official said it was not clear to the federal agents why their team was needed, and why the local SWAT team did not respond.

They were scared, wouldn't you be?

When specially equipped federal immigration agents arrived at Robb Elementary School, local police told them to hold off from confronting the gunman, officials say.
 

Fighter jets overhead on Miami Beach again! I thought that was a legacy of 46-1 that Biden wouldn’t continue. I guess by “end all foreign wars” he meant so he could use the military at home? May two or more Black people are praying together on the Beach? Does the NRA offer senior citizen discounts on shoulder-to-air missiles? Asking for a friend.

Fat Cuban Horse Euthanized in San Francisco

The "Warriors" will play Boston in the NBA Finals.

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Uvalde, America

The dominant emotions tonight in America are, of course, still grief, sympathy, and horror. Taking the long view, there should be another: embarrassment. But there won't be, because this is America. As many others have said, there is only one country on earth where this continues to happen, America. We call ourselves exceptional, because we lack any sense of shame.

Take the longest view. America will cease to exist except in history books one day. What will historians write of the short, unhappy life of the American Experiment, the "last, best hope of mankind"? That the new nation was a government of bullies, by cowards, for the craven, an ugly, failure built upon slavery and lies, hypocrisy and propaganda in the pursuit of money, and that it perished from the earth. Future archeologists will pore over its cultural artifacts: the abandoned plantation, the AR-15, the burial mounds of massacred innocents, its standard, comprised of the stellate wounds in the foreheads of the slain and the stripes on the backs of the slaves, the remnants of The Wall, the transcripts of its leaders' statements.


Holy Shit

Uvalde Shooter Fired Outside School for 12 Minutes Before Entering

 

Police: Texas gunman was inside the school for over an hour

.543

Culture elitists, it has all been a sham. Propaganda has convinced you of things that are not true: that we "have enough". We always "have enough". Hassan Whiteside and Dion Waiters and James Johnson, were enough; Justice Winslow was enough; Jimmy Butler is enough; Jimmy is a superstar; Bam Adebayo is enough; A team of Jimmy, Bam, over-the-hill players, journeymen and undrafted D-Leaguers is enough; there's a Kyle Lowry "Effect", a PJ Tucker "Effect;" Duncan Robinson is enough; Duncan Robinson is one of the best shooters on the planet; the offense is a "symphony." The Culture is enough to make up for all that is not enough.

Culture elitists, the truth is, in war "mass matters", in basketball "talent tells." The truth is we don't have enough.  We haven't had enough since 2014. Our win percentage since LeBron left is .543, good enough for 7th in the East this year, 8th in the West. This is a roster with no future. The truth is, Culture isn't enough; Pat Riley isn't enough; Erik Spoelstra isn't enough; these players aren't enough.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

58-72, 10:31 4Q

The "Heat" is done, the series is done. I'm done. Night.

27-22, 6:22 2Q "Heat" FTO

Miami 33% from the field, 20% from range; Boston: 32%, 20%. Turnovers: Beans 8, "Heat" 5.

 Over 3 minutes into the 2Q and tyoo points. Total.

21-17, 9:34 2Q

3-point shooting: Miami 1/11, Boston 1/8. Jayson Tatum is 0/6 from the field.

19-17, End1

Did you hear that? Millions of TV sets were just clicked off. Can you believe that's an NBA score? Ugly and bad. Four t.o.'s for Miami, six for Beans. Hey! One of these two fine teams is making it to the Finals!😣


2:12 Derrick White turnover 15 - 15
2:12 Derrick White offensive charge 15 - 15
2:14 Victor Oladipo lost ball turnover (Derrick White steals)

 


4:34 Jaylen Brown lost ball turnover (Victor Oladipo steals) 11 - 8
4:52 P.J. Tucker makes 2-foot layup (Jimmy Butler assists) 11 - 8
5:01 Jaylen Brown lost ball turnover (P.J. Tucker steals) 11 - 6
5:05 Victor Oladipo bad pass (Jaylen Brown steals)

 "I'm not saying I'm excited watching...watching the Celtics fumble away a series of costly turnovers."

6-11, 5:18 "Heat" FTO

 It may still be a short night for me. "Heat" 3/14, Jimmy 1/7.

0-0, 9:46 1Q

Over two mins of b-ball and no score. The teams are 0-7 from the field. This may be a short night for me. "I'm not saying I'm excited watching the Heat score a single point for several minutes..."-Hanif Abdurraqib.

Miami-Boston Injury Reports

Tyler Herro is out. Nobody out for Beans. Smart-dressed and RWIII will play. 

Does he wear heels? No, right?

I can't get over that writing. Best sports writing I have read in a long time. My of my, Hanif Abdurraqi. May get his damn book now!

Miami is a team that endures, partially, by figuring out how to outlast an opponent. An issue here is the Celtics are an especially challenging team to outlast. This, I think, is why the series has swayed so much from game to game, almost like each game is a full round of a boxing match in which one fighter is exhausted from the previous round and just trying to stay upright.

I'm not saying I'm excited watching the Heat score a single point for several minutes, or watching the Celtics fumble away a series of costly turnovers. ...

But I'm excited about the buildup of such a series, one that seems destined for a Game 7, filled with haymakers.

I hope he's right. Everybody in the damn world predicted Beans in six. I'd like them to be wrong.

I came up loving ugly Eastern Conference basketball, which doesn't necessarily mean I came up loving bad basketball. Ugly basketball isn't always bad, and bad basketball certainly isn't always ugly...

I find myself newly rooting for the Celtics, in part, because Jayson Tatum is, for me, the rare player who can make the work look both easy and challenging, all at once. To guard Tatum one-on-one is to be trapped in a seemingly endless tunnel of moves, some of them more effective than others, but all of them appearing simultaneously smooth and immensely laborious. When he's on, he is impossible and when he's off, he is equally impossible. ...I don't care much for a "pretty good" Tatum game. I prefer the ones where he either appears to be in orbit, entire solar systems beyond anyone who dares to challenge him, or the ones where he is way off, puzzled by his own struggles but still firing away.

 Who the fuck is this guy? Listen real carefully and you'll hear the voice of the late Frank DeFord. This is lovely writing.

...

What makes this series especially great and especially exhausting is that it is a series of virtually no prolonged momentum. There are in-game bursts, of course. But nothing seems to carry over from one game to the next. Each new tipoff, it's like both teams have had their memories wiped of each other, and they spend the first act of the game figuring out how to play again. Which, I suspect, has led to the lopsided first-quarter performances in all games beyond Game 1.

I suspect this series will end with a flourish, but in order for that flourish to pay off, I am sorry to say that we have to endure this part. The part of it that mostly looks like immense and ugly...There are many ways this series is decidedly not a throwback to the days of brawling, intense matches that felt like walking through slowly accumulating quicksand. But it wears the costume well. ...

Okay, WHO is this writer?  Hanif Abdurraqib. Never heard of him. "Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His most recent book, "A Little Devil in America," was a National Book Award finalist. In 2021, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship." Oh! Well, that explains that! Genius writing. Hanif, write more on ball? Please?

Ju know the NRA convention is this Friday through Sunday in Houston? 46-1, the senator from Cancun, Corn-hole, and Abbott-&-Costello are speakers. Should be a riot!

"Heat" Fall to 3-Point Dogs

I think the "Heat" are spent.

Trump Takes His Lumps

It was a rainy night in Georgia for von Clownstick. His endorsed choice for governor, former senator David Perdue, took the silver medal to arch-clownstick fiend Brian Kemp by 52 points. Then Brad Rraffensperger, the secretary of state who refused Trump's phone demand that he "find" enough votes to win, avoided a run-off with 52% and hammered Trump-endorsed congressman Jody Hice by 18 points. Trump's puppets for attorney general and insurance commissioner: lost.

Political cogno opinion is coalescing around 33% as what a Trump endorsement in a Grand Old Phascist primary is worth. That's quite a lot it seems to me but not nearly enough. And it says nothing about the success of endorsees in the general election, like carpet-bagging, mentally ill Herschel Walker.

All in all I think he should endorse himself and Run Trump Run!

"Heat"+2 Beans

That's up from +1, so most bettors, and this CBS cogno

Expect Celtics to claim control of Eastern finals vs. Heat

The CBS guy writes that maybe Jimmy Butler just had a bad game in G4 but, and I've read this elsewhere, "But Butler did not look right physically to the naked eye." Butler and Lowry gave it a go Monday night but not Herro. That's three of your top six guys banged up. More significant, at least to me, is this: Eric Spoelstra played his starters only between 15 and 28 minutes in the game. Because the game got out of hand. Spo may have thrown in the towel early, true, but Ime Udoka kept all his starters in except RWIII for longer than any of Miami's starters played. Is it plausible that the alternating victories in this series, and the huge, unsustained swings within games are bursts from two mentally and physically exhausted teams?

Fat Cuban Horse's Roof Leaks

Rain delays second half of Golden State Warriors-Dallas Mavericks game

 

 




May 25, 2022, 12:06 a.m. ET1 minute ago1 minute ago


Jazmine Ulloa

The sobs from families are still audible in the parking lot as some parents continue to wait, but cars are slowly clearing out.

May 24, 2022, 11:50 p.m. ET17 minutes ago17 minutes ago


Jazmine Ulloa

Parents say they have had to go inside the family reunification center in Uvalde for DNA swabs to confirm their relationship to their children and were told to wait. One mother who has just received the news that her child was dead said, through tears, that she had been waiting since the early afternoon.
 

May 24, 2022, 11:37 p.m. ET32 minutes ago32 minutes ago


Jazmine Ulloa

Loved ones embrace in the parking lot outside the family reunification center in Uvalde and weep. Some struggle to walk back to their vehicles.




Thank you again, Jazmine, for your sensitive, vivid portrayal of the suffering. You make it real.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

May 24, 2022, 11:29 p.m. ETJust NowJust now
Jazmine Ulloa

It's a tearful scene outside the family reunification center in Uvalde as parents and relatives who have been waiting for hours receive the news that their children are gone.


Beautiful, poignant, Jazmine. God bless you too.

Michael D. Shear
7 minutes ago

Biden demanded action on Tuesday night in the wake of a school shooting that killed 18 young children and a teacher. But it’s unclear whether this will be another speech from another president that will be followed by little real action. Mr. Biden did not call for a specific vote or a specific policy, choosing instead to focus on the emotional moment for the country.

 

Well put, Michael.

Game 4

 The "Heat's" starting five point totals last night: 18.


Joey War

Biden Veers Off Script 

on Taiwan. It’s Not the 

First Time.


Maybe President Biden isn’t speaking off script after all. Maybe he just doesn’t think much of the script.

Offhand remarks that vary from the official talking points have become a feature, not a bug, of the Biden presidency, as he demonstrated again on Monday when he dispensed with decades of “strategic ambiguity” and indicated that he would militarily defend Taiwan against attack by China.

Each time he says what he really thinks, there is the ritual cleanup brigade dispatched by the White House to pretend that he did not really say what he clearly articulated — or that even if he did, it did not really amount to a change in policy. But then Mr. Biden, unperturbed and unapologetic, goes out and does it all over again.

Let's go with that, then: he's speaking his true mind. How many wars does the motherfucker want? Russia, China, hey Joey, there's still room for North Korea! Was he speaking his true thoughts when he said repeatedly during the campaign--and in office--that he wanted to end foreign wars? This isn't Chinatown, U.S.A. he's talking about (he does know that, right?), it's real China. He threatens war with the People's Republic of China? Was he speaking his true mind when he said repeatedly in the run-up to the Russian war on Ukraine that his absolute-absolute was to avoid a war with Russia? How about a few weeks later when he said Putin cannot remain in power?

Never Gets Old

City's celebration yesterday in the streets of Manchester.


 

                                           Master of Ceremonies Jack Graelish.

Monday, May 23, 2022

HT 57-33

Okay, as I said when the "Heat" led by 26 in the second quarter of G3, this one's over. And I say it tonight with zero fear of lightning striking me. This series, Boston's previous series, but both teams this series, it is, and they are, disgraces to the Association. 

NBA basketball is structurally complex: there are 10 moving parts at a time on a too-small rectangle, two string-masters, lots of strategy. But the swings, intragame, intergame, in this series are reminder that however much you gin it up, basketball is still a simple game: you throw this ball into that hoop with the strings hanging off it. It is not an 80-piece orchestra, the production is not a symphony, and the string-master is no maestro. All of the strategy in an NBA game, the elaborate weaving and passing, the picks, the switches, zone or man--none of it matters unless you can put this ball in that hoop. The wild swings are not evidence of complexity, they are evidence of incompetence at the simple. This series is not what professionals worthy of the label do, it is juvenilia; these coaches are not genius savants, you don't get flummoxed by one Williams rather than the other, by White rather than Brown, by Adebayo finally going Bam when all anybody was talking about before G3 was "What's wrong with Bam?" 

No, the coaches are not geniuses and these players are no more professional, and with the same level of emotional immaturity, without the excuse of excessive youth, as 15-16 year old Rocket Leaguers. It is embarrassment that one of these teams will win and become one of the two best in the Association. G'night, I'm done.

1-12, 7:01 1Q

Okay, fuck this and the air waves that bring it to me. LATER.

Udoka has flummoxed Spo again. He has started Derrick White, a smaller (6'4") guard. White has 7 of Beans' 8 points. Spo did not gameplan for Derrick White going off.

Miami wakes up after Game 2 and chooses violence

That is completely unjustified. No basis for that in the slightest. Fuck you.

 

Dangerous Loomers, PAR Principle Explained

 


On January 12, a college professor and NBA analyst wrote a piece for ESPN categorizing NBA teams as "true contenders" and "dangerous loomers" for the NBA title. There were six true contenders. Only one, Golden State, has survived to make the final four. There were two dangerous loomers, the Los Angeles "Lakers" and Miami "Heat," and one of them is still around in these playoffs.

Dangerous Loomers has become increasingly popular among fans as a further nickname for the "Heat" and has been embraced by the front office.

...

According to the PAR Principle, when the "Heat" hold an opponent's best player to under his average of points, rebounds, and assists combined, the "Heat" wins. Jayson Tatum is Boston's best player; his current PAR is 38.5, ergo. The "Heat" is 12-2 in these playoffs under the PAR Principle and Tom Fornelli, the CBS sports pencil who apparently came up with the metric, predicts that Miami will hold Tatum under 38.5 tonight and win. The Las Vegas investment bankers have installed Beans -7 to win (Tyler Herro is out which caused the spread to move a half point), I have historical faith in Vegas and no history with PAR. Ergo, I go with Vegas tonight.