Faces in the Crowd

I noticed one face in this photo:

Can you tell which one?

I don’t know who she is, the photo is captioned by AP, “Robert Kennedy Jr., left, stands at a rally held in opposition to a proposed bill that would remove parents’ ability to claim a philosophical exemption to opt their school-age children out of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. …)AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Thus she appears to be just another opponent of vaccines. She looks like she could be Irish. I read her idolizing look, she is looking directly at RFK, Jr., as yet another Kennedy fan girl. But, I thought, maybe it’s his wife, so I googled that. Didn’t know he has been married three times. In chronological order:

Emily Ruth Black, 1982-1994

Mary Richardson Kennedy, 1994-2010 (suicide 2012)

Cheryl Ruth Hines, 2014-present. Kennedy offered to separate from her in June. “…[T]he statement that drove Kennedy to propose the separation announcement were his comparisons between the Holocaust and CDC leader Anthony Fauci’s efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID.

Richardson is obviously rules out as the woman in the photo since she had been dead for seven years. It is also definitely not Hines. If I strain in applying age progression I can’t rule out on photos alone that the woman in the 2019 rally photo is Black, Despite their split, Black and Kennedy have stayed friendly, and Black has even proclaimed their bond in public., but Lord that requires a stretch. 

To a personal standard of at least probability edging to clear and convincing, that is a Kennedy fan girl, which is an extremely non-select group.

The Right To Be Loved

“By one other person” in my second iteration, and “The Right Not To Be Unloved” in my awkward third. I am now leaning to excising “one other” for “yourself” and combining that with “not to be unloved”, because I love myself and I am finding that sufficient and, I’m thinking now, necessary. As between wide love from others combined with self-unlove and wide unlove, which one can avoid, combined with self-love, the latter is, for me, clearly right.

🫲🫱

“I would still lean toward the nine sticking together. There are a few scenarios. The nine sticking together, one more school leaving—Arizona—for the Big 12, or three more schools leaving—Arizona, ASU, and Utah for the Big 12. Then there are the scenarios if that happens, what happens to the other six? A lot of things on the table. I would bet, not very much, however, that the nine stick together.”—Jon Wilner, the PAC Man.

It’s time for Robbins to make the undeniably difficult but correct decision, which is to pick up the phone and give the Big 12 the answer it wants: Arizona.

D-Day

Pac-12 leaders set to meet, 

receive details of potential 

media rights deal, AP

source says

Pac-12 leaders to meet Tuesday; Arizona regents to meet separately

…

The Arizona Board of Regents, the body that oversees the UA, ASU and NAU, has also scheduled a meeting for Tuesday afternoon. The board is expected to discuss in executive session unspecified personnel and legal matters.

It was not immediately known if the ABOR meeting is connected to the ongoing Pac-12 discussions.

Perhaps that is just coincidence and perhaps I will be named the King of England tomorrow. I expect more likely UA president Dr. Robert Robbins to announce that the school is leaving for the Big XII after the Regents meeting.

Not paying attention to DeSantis anymore

Love you, Ted. Don’t tell Powell, k? He’ll want to get it to 2.🙄

“I feel like we just came up short because we had injuries in the 2022-23 season, all those ups and downs throughout the season…I feel like fatigue had a toll.”

Adebayo has a point, with the Heat looking like they ran out of gas in the five-game loss to the Nuggets. 

Now why would they have been fatigued? They hardly went all-out in the regular season! “Built for the playoffs” was the company line. It better not be fatigue.

Good reminder by Jeremy. Jaime couldn’t be traded in the first 30 days or whatever it was after he was drafted. Could this have caused the delay in the Dame trade? No.

Ted Lieu

@tedlieu

Republicans have been in control of the House for well over 200 days. What have they done? 

 

-3 hearings on gas stoves 

 

-2 hearings complaining about Twitter 

 

-1 hearing featuring RFK Jr. 

 

Democrats will flip the House next term and it will not be close. #MondayMotivation

Quote Tweet

 

YESSIR! (but we will lose the Senate).

Close

 

🤔

“He might say mean things and make all the men cry because all the men are wearing your wife’s underpants and you can’t be a man anymore,” David Green, 69, a retail manager in Somersworth, N.H., said of Mr. Trump. “You got to be a little sissy and cry about everything. But at the end of the day, you want results. Donald Trump’s my guy. He’s proved it on a national level.”

I'm not really sure what David is saying here, that men are crying because all the men have fucked "your" wife and are wearing her underpants, and a man who cries about other men fucking his wife is "a little sissy." -Or- Trumpie says mean things which makes "little sissy" men cry. ...It's the "because" and "wearing your wife's underpants" that throws me. If he had said "all the men are wearing THEIR wife's underpants" it would make sense at a Trump low-life level. Alls I knows is it's got something to do with my adage that "Politics is sex by other means" and my other saying that Trump low-lifes are impotent.

Nice

 

Beary Hot :)

 

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time I am near?
Just like me they long to be
Close to me

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time I walk by?
Just like me they long to be
Close to me

On the day that I was born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in my hair of gold
And starlight in my eyes of blue

When I told a federal prosecutor that I had read that Jack Smith brought the MAL docs case in Florida because he thought that the evidence was so overwhelming that even a jury selected from MAL membership rolls would convict him, the fed said,

"I would say this to him: Orenthal James Simpson."

Excellent analogy. Seemingly insurmountable evidence in both cases. The L.A. D.A. office could have brought it in Brentwood but wanted the validation of the community in downtown L.A. Trumpie has "shoot a man on 5th Avenue loyalty", more than O.J. had in the L.A. Black community.

Trumpie's best defenses are, in chronological order, 1) Get a jury of Trump supporters,--they lie! They'll say they can convict him if the evidence is there, but they won't,--even one, the Lone Holdout and a hung jury. 2) Get the trial postponed until after the election, win, and then have his DOJ dismiss the case if pending, or pardon himself if already convicted.

There’s something about Jack

Important

The [superseding] indictment additionally accuses Trump of allegedly possessing the classified document that he was previously heard discussing during a meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on July 21, 2021. 

When the first MAL indictment came down I mused in print about plausible defenses for Trumpie on that one document. What if there was no such document? What if he was just bragging and didn't have the document? I mused. After all, it sounds like something he'd do, right? In fact, that was one of the first things Trumpie said, that he was just bragging, that the document didn't exist. 

There was uncertainty about the contents of that one document. Trumpie said on the audio recording that "Milley" authored the document. Milley said he authored no such thing. In another place on audio Trumpie says "the military" wrote it for him. Then there were reports that a year or so earlier another guy in "the military" did author such a report, proposing strikes on Iran. 

After thinking it through I wrote that it was immaterial, Trumpie manifestly had classified docs he had no right having and Jack Smith recovered hundreds; the audio, whether Trumpie had the one doc or not or if it ever existed, showed consciousness of guilty. But it would be a good thing if Jack Smith had the one document! 

The intro to Counts 1-32 contains this:

 ...TRUMP , without authorization, retained at The Mar-a-Lago Club documents relating to the national defense, including the following:

Document 20 in the superseding indictment, Count 32, refers to a document that reads like it is the one document, on an Iran attack.

January 20, 2021-August 8, 2022
20 TOP SECRET// [redacted]//ORCON/NOFORN
Undated document concerning timeline and details of attack in a foreign country.

Because it's Top Secret even the document attached to the indictment is redacted and the bare summary above is for the same reason bare bones. But is the only document summarized as "details of attack in a foreign country."

Thus, the above excerpt from Saloon is important.

Most Fortuitous Advertising Award

“Who wants to be the first to really be a part of the Big 12 now and join us? ... We’ve got room for one more,” a Big 12 source

Oh God. Look at these completely contradictory messages by America’s two leading market analysts. They don’t know what they’re doing. Advanced capitalism is just too complex for even the most expert to understand.

The consensus, however, is the Big Ten’s lust may have been sated by adding the Los Angeles schools. The SEC, the bully on the block, has no interest in stretching itself so thin. The ACC might [be interested in Washington and Oregon], if only to keep Yormark from going coast-to-coast and encroaching upon its territory as the league with the third-largest media rights package overall.

If the Atlantic Coast Conference had a visionary commissioner like Brett Yormark instead of the passive, defensive Jim Phillips, he would have the Northwest jewels in his pocket, Arizona and Arizona State--and Berkeley and Stanford too! That would be six. A bi-coastal league has been a vision since the 1960's. The academic elites in the East, and Notre Dame in the Midwest, are a perfect match for Washington, Oregon, and especially for the two Bay Area Ivies, who would rather dissolve football than play the likes of Boise State, Texas Tech and West Virginia. An Alliance, if you'll pardon, would secure the Atlantic conference and preserve the remaining Pacific members as athletic-academic elites. It sure would have made even more sense with USC and UCLA--then you would have had a eight-team West branch--but Phillips didn't act. Between the coasts and north of Texas there just are no universities not locked down that are the near equal of the bi-coastal elites. 

Travel costs would be prohibitive for an all-sports Alliance but if we adopt disruptor Yormark's vision one can separate football from men's basketball, then those two sports can be separated from gymnastics and track-and-field and the rest of the so-called Olympic sports. That is already being done. Johns Hopkins is a member of the B1G. What do they play, lacrosse? Some teams in the ACC play hockey; they're in a different conference. 

This could be done, this would be done if Yormark were headquartered in Greensboro. The ACC should raid the Big XII--of its commissioner.

Either/Or

Barry Tramel on the Big XII is a fair analog to Jon Wilner on the PAC-X.

Tramel: Connecticut not the best idea for Big 12 expansion

Any surge in conference realignment brings a concurrent surge in freezing cold takes.  

Predictions, declarations and statements, all made with boldness and conviction, returning from the past, to give us all a good laugh. 

In this part of the country, the current Mister Freeze is The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, a longtime college football scribe who two years ago tweeted about the Big 12’s “carcass.” 

Didn’t hold up well, of course, with the Big 12 staging a rally for the ages, complete with the Colorado vote Thursday to return to the conference, a move that makes the Pac-12 worry about its own carcass. 

But forgive Mandel. He’s a member of a big club. We all say things that depart the rails. We all have our “Dewey Beats Truman” moments. 

And here’s one of mine. 

In August 2016, with the Big 12 staging a casting call for expansion, I wrote that the league should add Brigham Young and Connecticut. 

…

One of my preferred candidates, BYU, has indeed joined the Big 12 and is going to be a home-run addition. [I agree.] The other, UConn, is being promoted by whizbang commissioner Brett Yormark. 

…

Reports that the Big 12 is capping expansion at 14 likely is a Yormark negotiating tactic. Make the Pac-12 candidates believe there’s only one seat left on the lifeboat, when three actually are available. 

[Oh, that is a HOT take from a guy who knows Yormark well!]

And Big 12 loyalists should hope that Yormark also is bluffing about Connecticut. Safe to say, my UConn enthusiasm has waned.  

…

…Connecticut football has cratered since my 2016 endorsement. Cratered worse than Kansas. 

…

That 0-0 season was most telling. While the rest of the nation was scrambling to play football any way it could during the pandemic, Connecticut gave up the ghost. Just canceled the season. 

[Another perceptive point.]

…UConn’s indifference to football is a massive warning sign. 

Connecticut left the American Conference in 2020 to return to the Big East, which doesn’t even sponsor football. …

UConn made the decision to be a football independent. The American was a solid football league — Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Memphis, Southern Methodist — but Connecticut kicked its own football program to the curb. 

Is that the kind of athletic department that would enhance the Big 12? 

…

And as I reported a couple of months ago, Big 12 administrators are alarmed by a $50 million subsidy UConn grants its athletic department. One change in Connecticut administration could wipe out that support. 

[Tramel doesn’t mention another UConn demerit. The “Huskies” community is torn on the Big XII and the debate is hot. The Nays don’t want to abandon the new Big East basketball-only conference to accommodate a football program that they reasonably view as dead weight and Yormark does not want to go where he is unwanted.]

…New England’s traditional sports passions lie with the professional ranks and college basketball. 

[Another. One could say similarly of the entire Northeast. Schools in smaller places like UConn and Syracuse struggle for inelastic attention. Those in bigger cities, Boston College, Pitt, Rutgers, Temple, Villanova, Maryland are swamped by the popularity of pro teams in all sports. New York City has not had big time college football in my lifetime.]

….all of Connecticut’s potential value to the Big 12 resides in college hoops. 

…Yormark sees unearthed potential in basketball. 

That’s a brave theory in modern times, when college hoops has taken a massive hit in popularity. The NCAA Tournament remains a big moneymaker, but pre-March college basketball is a tough sell on most campuses and most networks. In the 1980s, yes. In the 2020s, no. 

Still, the Big 12 has emerged as the nation’s strongest basketball league. …

Put UConn in the Big 12…and there is no debate. Big 12 basketball would be a runaway train. 

How does that equate to increased financial bounty? Don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t. 

[Oh, fabulous! That’s the bottom line question.]

But Yormark deserves some slack here. He’s had the Midas touch in his year in office. Even when his presidents and athletic directors disagree with him, they are deferential to their leader. Sometimes awed. 

And Yormark is adamant that basketball should be separated from football in the next television contract. Since the OU/Texas news hit, Big 12 schools have scrambled to produce other revenue streams, to account for the lost value of the league’s signature schools. 

[And there Yormark may be visionary agayne. I read recently that this decoupling is gaining currency in other precincts as well and didn’t understand it. Gonzaga to Big XII? I am stuck in the 1980’s when the original Big East had two separate memberships, one in each sport. Was the Big East just forty years too soon?]

What if basketball can be one of those revenue streams? What if Yormark — a master marketer and basketball guy, from his days with the Brooklyn Netropolitans — can turn Big 12 basketball into a much-bigger moneymaker? 

I wouldn’t put it past him, and Connecticut would be a big help. 

Still, UConn is a tough sell. The Big 12’s networks are not required to bolster their payout if the league adds an addition from outside a Power Five Conference.  

[Another key point in the here and now. If you add UConn now in all sports you get dilution of the media contract. If you add e.g. Arizona you don’t.]

…

…even…with Yormark’s golden touch, Connecticut can’t match what Pac-12 defectors would bring to the Big 12. 

Forget what I said in 2016. Don’t settle for UConn. 

[I am as “awed” by Yormark as the next guy and I would “defer” to his judgment but these are all strong points.]

Si

Amid the Counterattack’s Deadly Slog, a Glimmer of Success for Ukraine

Recapturing the village of Staromaiorske was such welcome news for the country that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself. But formidable Russian defenses have stymied progress elsewhere.

 

I am a loathsome putrid fungus that grows on humankind causing it to sleep until 10 am.

"We will not hide. They cannot take away our love for life.”-Katia Dubyshkyna, Odesan.

Residents of Odessa, Ukraine at the entrance of Transfiguration Church, damaged by Russian missile strikes.

“There is no one who is not scared. But there is no Odesan who does not drink to Putin’s death. Every day in this country begins with a toast to Putin’s death.”-Savva Libkin, restaurateur.

“We waited in the bomb shelters, but we will not hide,” said Katia Dubyshkyna, 26, an interior designer. “They want us to be scared, but they cannot take away our lives, nor our love for life.”

Captioned by NYT: Dancing at a concert by Serhiy Zhadan, one of Ukraine’s best-loved contemporary poets and writers, in Odesa’s central park.

 

Caption NYT: Oleksandr Klochay, a Ukrainian soldier from the Kyiv region, playing with his 5-year-old son on the beach.

“The Odesan people are tired. People are tired of uncertainty, tired of anxious nights, of not falling asleep. But if the enemy is counting on this, he is wrong. Because this fatigue turns into the strongest hatred. We still don’t know if the missiles landing into the city are old and inaccurate. But if this was a targeted attack on the church, then one thing is clear: Finally, in the second year of this war, Putin understands that this is not a Russian city and that not only is no one waiting to welcome his soldiers there, but that they hate him.”-Odessa Mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov.

“I feel pain, and I want revenge. I don’t have the words to say what we should do to them. Look at the music school! Look at what they did! The fact that those who live next to us, and lived among us, could do this to us — we can never forgive this. Never.”-Nina Sulzhenko, 74.

 

What is it about Jack Smith?

He has the most compelling persona for a public figure in my memory and I can’t put just one finger on why. He’s unhurried, serious without being whatever, calm, unruffled, soft-spoken but well-spoken, his body movements are fluid, even graceful, he speaks without nerves. That’s several fingers.

NYT reporters noted this striking presence the day of Trumpie’s indictment:

June 9, 2023, 3:06 p.m. ET

Maggie Haberman Senior political correspondent

Jack Smith, the special counsel, has started speaking.

Jack Smith has started speaking, OMG. 3 mins later:

 

June 9, 2023, 3:09 p.m. ET

Maggie Haberman Senior political correspondent

Smith has been such a mysterious figure since November, it’s startling to see him live.

June 9, 2023, 3:12 p.m. ET

Ben Protess Investigative reporter

Smith’s comments were brief and to the point, devoid of the sort of hyperbole and accusations that often appear in a prosecutor’s prepared remarks.

 

June 9, 2023, 3:15 p.m. ET

Glenn Thrush Department of Justice reporter

Smith, solemn and unsmiling, delivered his remarks in under three minutes, and then he walked slowly out of a conference room at a nondescript northeast Washington office belonging to the Justice Department, past a phalanx of photographers and stone-faced aides who watched from the rear of the room.

 

Thrush in his full article:

A slim man wearing the generic uniform of federal law enforcement — white shirt, dusky suit, dark monochrome tie — strode to a generic podium inside an anonymous Washington office building to announce something extraordinary. He had just indicted a former president.

The special counsel, Jack Smith, 54, has cut an elusive figure since his appointment last November to investigate former President Donald J. Trump. He has granted no interviews, and kept a profile so low that a recent sighting of him emerging from a Subway with lunch was news in the Justice Department headquarters across town.

But he emerged on Friday to make a concise case for his decision to charge Mr. Trump in connection with the former president’s retention of classified documents.

I was just scrolling through my camera roll aimlessly, delete, delete, delete. Sometimes when you come across an image cold, randomly, out of order and without context, it strikes you differently than when you have the whole story behind it. That's what happened to me just now. The "Gold and White" room, the classified docs boxes stored on the stage. Trumpie. Blondes. Tacky. Strippers. Hookers. That is what that stage was meant for, not classified docs. It struck me as hilariously absurd so I made a meme.

Hey, I’m up.

Last night, at 11:29, I sent my Big Brother, 82 years old, an email, apologetically, "I don't know what brought this on tonight. Maybe that I missed three of your calls today and we only spoke for two minutes when we did. But, I can't lose you again.  You were and are too huge a part of my life. ..." 

It went on from there. 

He works Mondays and Fridays, practicing dentistry in nursing homes. So on these days we don't have our daily 8 a.m. calls. I look for his calls anytime in the afternoon and make sure I have the sound turned on on my cell phone (spam calls). Today my phone rang at 3:54

"I've been waiting for your call!", I answered cheerfully. "How'd it go?"

"Oh Dave..."

"WHAT?! WHAT'S THE MATTER?!"

He didn't answer for a second. 

"MILEY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"Dave, it was bad...so much suffering. ...I was grieving on the way home." 

His voice was breaking, he had cupped the phone for a second to cry. It was the first time in my life I had ever heard him cry.

"MILEY! GODDAMN IT, GET OUT OF THOSE NURSING HOMES AND GO TO THE SCHOOLS!"

It was the first time I had ever spoken to him like that.

Another moment away from the phone to cry.

"...No. Hold on Dave..." Another one. There was at least one more.

"No. I'm going to comfort them, whisper to them in their ears, 'Offer it up to Jesus'".

"Oh great. (sarcastic). That’s just fucking great, Miley. (I am not religious.) STOP GOING TO NURSING HOMES!" 

But he is religious. This is the second time the suffering in his nursing home patients triggered a grief spasm in him. After the first--MUCH more benign than this one--he mused about going into schools to serve under-privileged kids as an alternative. "But it's Clairton! Rough inner city!" What am I going to say to that?

"It just made me think of Anne Marie and how she suffered. " 

"I know, I know..."

"That's what Anne Marie used to say when she'd have an asthma attack. 'Offering it up to Jesus.'" So, I was beat.

His 82 year-old wife died on Jan. 3, after 60 years and 33 days (I think I got that right) of marriage and months of suffering. (I wasn't there. In her last weeks he told me several times, "Oh, Anne Marie is suffering, I break down seeing her suffer." One time I asked, “Miley, is Anne Marie in pain?!" I'm thinking morphine or the equivalent. "Well...No, she isn't in pain"..."WELL THEN SHE'S NOT SUFFERING, IS SHE?!" (I don't have a good bedside manner.) "Don't make this worse than it is! People die, Miley! She's 82 years old, she's been going down hill for 3-4 years, it's an unspeakable personal tragedy but don't torture yourself that it's even worse than dying." Then we get to the fucking service and the goddamned priest says "Only those who suffer enter the Kingdom of Heaven and Ann suffered". The priest said that repeatedly, misspoke her name repeatedly and repeatedly said she had suffered.).

 

 (thought to self) 

What am I going to say to that?

"You know Ben, I haven't been to church since. I can't look at the crucifix."

 

(Jeez, I don't know why!, to self) "I know."

Another moment away and then we changed the subject and then he went to bed. If the Catholic Church would just get away from the homicide scene imagery. But, path to heaven! What am I going to say to that?

It's Friday Night...

 

I've always liked Philadelphia

 

Toldja Adam didn't like this, either. Still want Dame.

Chris Haynes

@ChrisBHaynes

 

Full NBA memo sent to all 30 teams regarding rhetoric on trade request made by Damian Lillard and his agent Aaron Goodwin.   

 

“Recent media reports stated that Damian Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, called multiple NBA teams to warn them against trading for Lillard because Lillard’s only desired trade destination is Miami.  Goodwin also made public comments indicating that Lillard would not fully perform the services called for under his player contract if traded to another team. We interviewed Goodwin and Lillard and also spoke with several NBA teams to whom Goodwin spoke. Goodwin denied stating or indicating to any team that Lillard would refuse to play for them. Goodwin and Lillard affirmed to us that Lillard would fully perform the services called for under his player contract in any trade scenario. The relevant teams provided descriptions of their communications with Goodwin that were mostly, though not entirely, consistent with Goodwin’s statements to us.  We have advised Goodwin and Lillard that any future comments, made privately to teams or publicly, suggesting Lillard will not fully perform the services called for under his player contract in the event of a trade will subject Lillard to discipline by the NBA.  We also have advised the Players Association that any similar comments by players or their agents will be subject to discipline going forward.”

5:52 PM · Jul 28, 2023 from California, USA ·432.8K Views

Jon Wilner

@wilnerhotline

The Hotline views #Pac12 survival as a 2.5-point favorite over extinction (down from 4). Yep, less than a field goal. Time for the presidents to channel their inner Costanza

 

2:59 PM · Jul 28, 2023

·29.1K Views

 

Ukraine Map Shows Counteroffensive Breakthrough in South

🔎 That’s the breakthrough, huh? 🙄

Good!

Fucking crazy bitch.

@wilnerhotline: "The consensus is there *is* a deal out there still for the Pac-12 that's comparable in valuation to the Big 12's, but not the same in exposure. I think it will be a combination of streaming and linear."

That is what the CU president was talking about when he said "visibility and exposure" drove the school to the B.Y. Also, notice "comparable". Not "more", not the same dollars, "comparable." That means less. So less money+less visibility+less exposure...Yeah, that leads to a conference move.

 

Heather Dinich

@CFBHeather

A Big 12 source told me their ADs had a meeting this a.m. and repeated what I told you here yesterday - 14 seems to be their best number. The question is "who wants to be the first to really be a part of the Big 12 now and join us? ... We've got room for one more."

 

🙄What YOU told us. I see. Heather, you took credit for the obvious and didn't emphasize the important, which will lead to the identity of #14.:

"who wants to be the first to really be a part of the Big 12 now and join us? ... We've got room for one more."

 

B.Y. is It. They want to be wanted and they're done courting. If you didn't want them before, talking you, Adela, they don't want you now.