...the victim's wife [perp's mom] came home to discover Michael F. Mohn beheaded and covered in blood.
Justin Mohn, 32, graduated in 2014 from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management.
The beheading, the video documentation--all very ISIS-like. Penn State is a MAGA hot spot and ISIS has a presence at Penn State.
That was splendid. A deep breath of fresh air. Cannot say one non-positive thing about tonight.
Feels like the “Heat” are back. The rotation is more rational: K-Love has gotten pt 3J is having his best game since injury return. We haven’t given up the lead, we seem more mentally strong, willful, Spo’s term is “intentional”, tonight.
Pigeons 138, LAL 122. Yeah, I'd be pissed if I was a "Lakers" fan!
Manhattan 118 Jizz 103. Wish the "Knicks" were the Manhattan "Knicks" and not New York "Knicks". Only pro team that plays in Manhattan.
They are maddening; I could not root for them if I lived in Beans.
Beans farts around, in games and in streaks, plays wet willies--JoeMaz said after this one the players sometimes play as if they have a sense of "entitlement"--but they're sooo talented, their longest losing "streak" this season has been tyoo games, and they're 36-11.
James was disappointed in how they performed to end the first quarter.
“We just didn’t get back,” he said. “We didn’t have a sense of care factor. We didn’t have no care factor in those last two minutes.”
LAL has lost four straight twice this season. Miami lost four straight once. The "Bucks" lost four of five, two by d.d.s one stretch; lost by FORTY at Cleveland three games after that. Seven straight though, that is a horse of a different color. Five by d.d.s, two certified blow-outs, that feels different, more ominous, like something broke, because it is different and more ominous.
IS it just "funky time"? "Heat" don't care, "Lakers" don't care, and they have almost identical records, 24-23 and 24-24. IS not making the effort ever acceptable? Obviously, no. But it happens; it has happened to Miami virtually every season in the Jimmy Butler era. The one time it didn't, when we won the Eastern Conference, we lost in the conference finals. Two other times we somnambulated into the league Finals.
Adam Silver has made a priority of the regular season, starting this regular season. Anything less than full effort in the regular season cheapens the regular season without cheapening the prices fans pay to see play. I spent about $2000 on three tickets to see the "Heat" play the best, most exciting game they played at home this season, December 16 against Chicago. On the incredible high of that experience I texted my son and daughter-in-law and urged them to pick a date where we could go to another game. Fortunately for my bank account they didn't take me up on the offer. I have thought in this last week that I hoped they wouldn't take me up on it belatedly. I would be PISSED if I paid two grand to see any of the four home games that we lost during this streak--not because we lost, because of the team's lack of effort. I'd feel cheated.
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces disguised as civilian women and medical workers stormed a hospital Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, killing three Palestinian militants in a dramatic raid…
Q: The Heat’s recent collapse is stunning. What’s perhaps most telling that this is not merely a transient lull but rather that the team has regressed to its talent mean is Erik Spoelstra’s approach from the sideline. Back when there were more wins than losses, the coach would be irate at every defensive lapse. Spoelstra’s emotive timeout calls as he stormed onto the court cursing the gods was a delightful feature of every game. That is gone. There are no angry timeout calls. Postgame interviews are full of platitudes about rallying together and fighting through it. No accountability call-outs or reprimands. Has the Miami Heat’s coaching staff and front office resigned to the reality of the limitations of this roster? – Alejandro, New York.
A: First, I’m not sure there is any more dramatic move than trading away a leading presence in the locker room. ...And there have been firm directives to players about what needs to change, including Tyler Herro’s preference for two-point pull-up shots. ...So messages have been sent. It will be interesting, though, to see the approach at Tuesday’s practice, the first for the Heat since Terry Rozier has been acquired. Expect to hear the words “Hunger Games.”
This is now literally uncharted territory for Erik Spoelstra. Never before has one of his teams lost seven straight. He may not know what to do. I am surprised Ira pushed back on the reader's comment/question. It was Ira who just a few days ago wrote that Spoelstra is always Mr. Positive. I agree with the reader. The collapse is stunning, the team has regressed to its 10-year talent mean and this is the time for chair-throwing screaming not the glass is half full emptiness.
Q: Jimmy Butler has infested this franchise with apathy towards the regular season. ...
A: Hard to disagree...the way Jimmy Butler is such a dramatically different player between regular season and the playoffs. ... As it is, Jimmy clearly was the most driven Heat player these past two games. He did his part.
PHO has won every quarter. You know how we had a great 3rd Q in Manhattan? Not here, not in Bang Bus, not tonight. PHO +8 1Q, +5 2Q, +11 so far 3Q.
Good night yinz yinzers.
When things are going bad, you see these heads-I-win tails-you lose inversions. Terry has been Scary bad in his new career with the "Heat", but not tonight: 18, 7/12 (3/5). Tyler has been a Hero this season, but not tonight: 11, 3/13 (3/9). It's fascinating, like watching cancer disappear from one part of your body and then reappear on another. Sorta like that.
As a fan, when a team is on a long losing streak you don't remember what it was when they were winning. You squint trying to see what the difference is but you blink and, there they are, losing by d.d.s again.
MIA shot 35.4% that half. PHO 50.0%
At 25-28, TH fouls the shooter: 25-30. Now 25-33, End 1Q.
🔥shot 38.1% (boo), 🌞50.0% (hoo).
Aside from the soldiers killed, the Pentagon said more than 40 troops were wounded in the attack, most with cuts, bruises, brain injuries and similar wounds.
In what universe are cuts, bruises, brain injuries similar wounds?
Campaigning is exhausting. It’s even more exhausting when you are campaigning while also flying around the country to defend yourself in various trials. When you get right down to it, Trump has at times appeared tired and worn down. Confusing President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, or Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley, could be a sign of age. Or maybe a sign of something else.
That is by "Republican strategist" Susan Del Percio.
The Heat is now one loss away from its first seven-game skid since late in the 2007-08 season — a season that Miami won just 15 games in.
…
The Heat has posted the NBA’s worst offensive rating during this six-game slide…
The Heat has also recorded the NBA’s second-worst defensive rating…
…
“There’s a feeling of discouragement when we miss an open look or a shot in our wheelhouse. ... We didn’t knock down those shots and it affects us on the other end. …this is something that we’re going to correct to be able to defend and do what we’re supposed to do with physicality, force and discipline on the defensive end of the court, regardless of what happens on the other end. That’s the definition of mental toughness.”
Spoelstra added following Saturday’s loss to the Knicks:
“Our defense, that’s the biggest takeaway right now that we’re not defending with the Miami Heat level of toughness, physicality, force and discipline to be able to win games while we’re figuring out all the rest of the stuff.”-head coach Eric Spoelstra.
…
“…it’s all effort. If we don’t show enough effort on the defensive end, games like that are going to keep happening.”-team captain Bam Adebayo.
…
…the Heat continues to have trouble maximizing each of its top three players — Adebayo, Butler and Tyler Herro — on the same night. The Heat is now just 5-10 in the 15 games that Adebayo, Butler and Herro have played together this season. The Big Three! 😂
I liked that Jimmy wanted to play and to win the New York game, the first time since the Dec. 16 Chicago game that I, my son, and my daughter-in-law saw in person. I liked that for the first and third quarters the rest of the team wanted to play and to win. But that was in the Garden, that was against an arch-rival; this is in Bang Bus against a foreign opponent. Who knows? Vegas has made us a 3.5 point favorite.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported Sunday night that two of the Israeli hostages released from Gaza had testified that they were held in captivity separately by UNRWA workers, sometimes in their homes.
In one case the hostage said they were told by the captor’s daughter that he was an UNWRA teacher, fed snacks labeled and distributed by the UN agency, and eventually moved from place to place through UNWRA facilities to avoid detection as Israeli troops closed in.
Hillel Neuer
@HillelNeuer
BREAKING: The “few bad apples” line pushed by the UN has just been obliterated. The Wall Street Journal front page is reporting that an estimated 1,200 Unrwa employees in Gaza are actual “operatives” of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist terrorist organizations, according to Israeli intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. government.
The report said 23% of Unrwa’s male employees—the agency has a total staff of 12,000 in Gaza—took active part in the Hamas organization’s military or political framework, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza.
The information in the Israeli intelligence reports is based on sensitive signals intelligence as well as cellphone tracking data, interrogations of captured Hamas gunmen and documents recovered from dead terrorists.
Nearly half of all Unrwa employees—an estimated 49%—also had close relatives with official ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The Oct. 7 intelligence reports seen by the Wall Street Journal identified an Unrwa Arabic teacher who was also a Hamas terrorist commander and took part in a terrorist attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered, and about 26 people were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza.
Another Unrwa employee, described in the dossier as an Unrwa social worker, played a role in absconding with the body of a dead Israeli soldier, which was taken to Gaza, the reports said. He also coordinated trucks and munitions distributions for Hamas before being killed.
📍Full story by @cjkeller8
& @davidluhnow
@WSJ
: https://wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36
Last edited
8:09 AM · Jan 29, 2024
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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli document obtained Monday spelled out allegations against a dozen U.N. employees the country says participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault — claiming seven stormed into Israeli territory, including two who participated in kidnappings.
...The U.N. fired nine of the 12 accused workers and condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” of staff members.
The accusations come after years of tensions between Israel and the agency known as UNRWA over its work in Gaza, where it employs roughly 13,000 people.
...major donors, including the U.S. and Britain, have cut funding. On Monday, Japan and Austria joined...
With the majority of its budget in doubt, UNRWA says it will be forced to halt operations within weeks if funding isn’t restored.👏
...
UNRWA WORKERS
The Israeli document, which has been shared with U.S. officials and was obtained by The Associated Press, lists 12 people, their alleged roles in the attack, job descriptions and photos.
The document said intelligence gathered showed that at least 190 UNRWA workers were Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives...
See next post on Wall Street Journal review: It's around 10% of UNRWA's employees, roughly TWELVE HUNDRED, not TWELVE.
It said of the 12 workers, nine were teachers and one a social worker. Seven of the employees were accused of crossing into Israel on Oct. 7. Of those, two were alleged to have kidnapped or assisted in the abduction of Israelis and another two were said to have participated in raids on communal farming villages...
One was accused of arming himself with an anti-tank missile the night before the attack, while the document claimed another took photos of a female hostage.
Some were accused of “participating in a terror activity” or coordinating the movement of trucks or weapons used in the attack. Ten were listed as having ties to Hamas and one to the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Two of the 12 have been killed, according to the document. The U.N. previously said one was still being identified.
The allegations have stoked longstanding tensions between Israel and UNRWA. Israel says Hamas uses the agency’s facilities to store weapons or launch attacks from. (sic) UNRWA says it does not knowingly tolerate such behavior and has internal safeguards to prevent abuses and discipline any wrongdoing.
Very effective measures.
...
Israel has long been critical of the agency and accuses it of helping to perpetuate the 76-year-old Palestinian refugee crisis.
...
The United States, the agency’s largest donor, cut funding over the weekend, followed by several other countries. Together, they provided more than 60% of UNRWA’s budget in 2022.
👏Therefore, 60% of UNRWA's perpetuation of the refugee crisis will end!
UNRWA provides basic services for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country’s creation. The refugees and their descendants are the majority of Gaza’s population.
"Who fled"! Flee further! "Descendants"! They've helped perpetuate refugees for three generations!
Is it a net positive for the world or a net negative?
Might not the iconic building that is U.N. headquarters, gleaming on the East River in Manhattan, not serve better to house New York City's homeless?
Or to serve as headquarters of the City's "Rat Czar"?
Could it not be converted into the world's largest synagogue?
Might Trumpie not be appointed to retrofit the General Assembly into a "beautiful ballroom"?
We don't have a right to be loved. In a proposed minimalist version giving children a right to be loved, the philosophical objection is that a right invokes a reciprocal duty to love our children. ... I swear Pilgrim, that's the objection.
Very well, it is manifest that there is no right to be loved by any of us of any age. I'm going to push back on that with vigor. I will do so with a maximalist counter (which you would expect of me) and a minimalist approach.
I argue that there is a duty to love. If each one of us carried out that duty everyone else would be loved. We would have the right and we would have it actuated. Problem solved. Philosophers pick at the margins of otherwise solid arguments. The practical effect of their objections to a right, especially one as "human" as love, is nil. That is the effect of most philosophical objections. I don't know of any human who doesn't love somebody. Even if they don't love their children they love someone else. Imposing a duty is aligning philosophy with practice. Maybe there are recalcitrants, I don't know. They have nothing to fear. There aren't going to be Love Police. It's a moral obligation. If you don't love even one person, including yourself, okay. If it's not too much trouble, let us know by means other than massacres/suicides. Philosophical objection met and cast into the dustbin of whatever history philosophy has. That's my strong argument and I will defend it.
Then there is my minimalist argument. We Americans, at least, have an amorphous right to privacy that is found in the penumbras and emanations of our Constitution. It is entirely consistent with Anglo-American jurisprudence and with moral philosophy that we have the right to withdraw from the society of those who make us feel unloved. So long as I am loved by one person, and that includes self-love, I do have the right to avoid the society of those who do not love me, who do not even like me, who may wish to make me unhappy or bodily unsafe if given the opportunity. I don't have the duty to associate with them. I can isolate myself (as in fact I do). I both love and like myself. So if philosophers are adamant that I have no right to love since they have no duty to love me or anyone else I just won't hang with them.
I think it would be better, no, I know it would be better, if we each accepted a duty to love at least one other person but if not, just don't come knocking on my door; just go away and no one will get hurt.
The end.
One is accused of kidnapping a woman. Another is said to have handed out ammunition. A third was described as taking part in the massacre at a kibbutz where 97 people died. And all were said to be employees of the United Nations aid agency that schools, shelters and feeds hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The accusations are contained in a dossier provided to the United States government that details Israel’s claims against a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency who, it says, played a role in the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7...
Taylor Swift wears short skirts ... and she’s on the bleachers (or a suite at M&T Bank Stadium).
Miss Americana was in Baltimore Sunday to cheer on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the AFC Championship game against the Ravens.
Miss Americana, shoot. She's Miss Universal. This is better than a royal wedding. This is for the whole world.
Follow along for live coverage of the AFC and NFC championship games
Following the win, CBS showed Swift celebrating on the field alongside the team by planting a big kiss on Kelce and embracing him for multiple long hugs.
Kelce scored the first touchdown of the game, and the camera feed promptly flashed to Swift as she appeared to shout “Travis! Oh, my God!”
Holy mackerel, Detroit and KC are two of my alternate favorite teams after the 🐬. A Lions-Swift Chiefs Super Bowl would be a win-win for me!
Niners missed a FG on their first possession (What is up with that this season I don't know.). They are at DET. 32, 1st down when 2Q starts.
Bal's got 2 TOs and then there's the 2' warning. KC needs at least one first down.
1st downs 16-5
Total yards 221-110
Mahomes 20/25, 161; Jackson 5/12, 64.
Kelce 9 receptions, 96 yards.
Dan Daly
@dandalyonsports
Update: At the half Travis Kelce is 48 yards away from Gronk's record for receiving yards by a TE in a conference title game.
He's one of the best tight ends in the history of football. Maybe Baltimore didn't get the memo.
TOP 20:39-9:31.
JEEZ!
Maybe KC didn't get the memo that in a conference championship game you don't pull a Fourth-and-Franklin and leave points on the board.
Duren's first career 20-20 game leads Pistons to lopsided win over Thunder, 120-104
Can you fucking believe that? "Lopsided", too! And Roberto Duren with his FIRST 20-20. Oh, the embarrassment.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is finalizing a contract extension that is expected to take him through the end of the decade, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
The completion of formal negotiations with the board of governors on a new deal keeps Silver -- nearing his 10th anniversary as commissioner -- on course to pursue the NBA's next set of major objectives: a new media rights deal and league expansion.
Largely different than his predecessor David Stern, Silver has built a reputation of pursuing more consensus and partnership with ownership, management and players. He has been able to maintain respect -- and even popularity -- among those constituencies despite difficult decisions and negotiations.
Silver, 61, has driven some dramatic initiatives, including the introduction of the play-in and in-season tournaments, player participation legislation, draft lottery reform that has disincentivized teams from racing to the bottom for top draft picks and steadily rising franchise financial valuations. The implementation of the league's freedom of movement emphasis in 2019-20 has increasingly gassed up the league's scoring, including a 2023-24 campaign that so far includes four of the top 10 offensive teams in NBA history.
Silver completed a new collective bargaining deal with the National Basketball Players Association in March that assures labor peace through at least 2029 and a reshaped salary cap system that is expected to deliver small- and midsize-market organizations a better chance to compete with big-market franchises. The league had been pursuing an economic structure that would help spread talent around to more teams -- and that appears to be happening now.
Silver has shown an ability to navigate crises -- most notably by suspending the NBA season following Rudy Gobert's positive test for COVID-19 in 2020 and leading the way for an American sport and societal reaction to the opening weeks of the pandemic. Ultimately, Silver devised the Orlando bubble to restart and complete that 2020 season, salvaging television revenue and player salaries.
Silver also oversaw bans, suspensions and the eventual sales of teams by two problematic NBA owners -- the LA Clippers' Donald Sterling and the Phoenix Suns' Robert Sarver.
Silver spent eight years as the league's deputy commissioner before succeeding Stern in 2014 and was a consensus choice to replace him when Stern announced his retirement date in 2012.
Russell or LBJ will take the shot...and miss.
That interim guy is still the coach. The Doctor takes over Monday.
They led by TWENTY-NINE after 3. But that's Beans under JoeMazz for you. Remember the Zollner Piston game? BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are exquisite but erratic. The "Heat": not equisite, EVER, but until this streak, consistent.
I don't even remember this game. I must have blogged it. The win made us 24-16. Rust was 16-22 going in. Reading the AP write-up reminds me of Spo's comments after G1, a 103-102 win over the Zollner Pistons. Look:
“I think this is good for us. [Remember that.] This is what I wanted, to see if we could win some games with different solutions when we weren’t necessarily making shots, [We were 37.9% (34.3%)] where it potentially could be a little bit ugly, and then you just figure out how to win at the end.”-post-Rust.
“That’s three straight games where we held our opponent under 100 (points). [Remember that.] That’s progress, and there’s been a lot of moving parts...
We trailed 45-31 at HT. It is clear in retrospect that whatever is broken broke that game.
It was Jimmy's first game back after missing 7 games.
###
Zollner, Oct. 25:
The "Heat" led 58-47 at the half.
The Heat led by 19 with 9:07 left, went scoreless in the final 2:57 and survived when a 30-footer by Detroit’s Cade Cunningham missed as time expired.
Spo post-:
“I loved it. I loved the emotion tonight. I loved the energy. A lot of good things.”
No, he didn't. Spo is always positive.
We then lost four in a row: at Beans by 8, at Ice by 16, at Beer by 8, then back home to Rust by 4. That kicked off 7-straight wins and 9 of 10. We didn't hold a team under 100 points until our 15th game.
We then lost 3 in a row. After that we were 5-4 in our next 9.
In our first 27 games we held our opponent under 100 points once. That's not Miami "Heat" basketball.
We then won four straight again, all triple-digit games by both teams.
Our most impressive win of the season, and the game that broke La-La Lake-Lake, was Jan. 3, 110-96 out there.
Rust was the last of three straight W's, the last holding the opposition under 100. The game before that, Jan. 14, Queens at home, a 104-87 win, was the last game until today that 3J played, the game that he scored 15 points in 15 mins.
3J wasn't himself today, he is going to need to get his game legs under him, and, as I have written before, it is clear to me that he is our MVP this season, our Energizer Bunny, and that without him and his manic drive on both ends of the court, we can't win.
We are 9-6 without Jimmy, .600, equates to 49 wins; we are 15-16 when Jimmy does play. We are 1-5 when 3J doesn't play at all, 2-6 if you include the Charlotte 15' and today's first game back, 1-6 if you exclude Charlotte.
Now, the "Heat" can make a liar out of me but these are season-long trends: dreadful (as usual) shooting, sub-par (by historical "Heat" standards) D; they were present when we were 1-0, when we were 1-4, when we were 10-5, 19-12, and 24-16; they were there when we had Jimmy and when we didn't, had 3J and didn't. But this team only got from 1-4 to 24-16 because of Jaime Jaquez, Jr.
Josh Richardson was the Heat rotation regular who wasn’t in the rotation with the roster finally whole.
It marked Richardson’s first DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season... Richardson, 30, is averaging 9.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 33.3 percent on threes this season.
The Heat has been outscored by 5.8 points per 100 possessions with Richardson on the court this season, which is the worst mark on the team among rotation regulars who have been with the Heat since the start of the season.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article284737276.html#storylink=cpy
In the 3Q they outscored NY 35-28 and could have taken the lead 87-86 but Jimmy missed an and-1.
It's comparatively so easy to play bad basketball that once you start you kinda like it. No D: NY shot 51.7% overall, 51.5% from range. D's HARD. They didn't play hard in the 4th, routed 36-23, turning a game the could have won, if they had wanted it, into a laugher.
3J played, almost played starter's minutes (24) but was an empty 6 points on 1/6 (1/3), 1 reb, 4 asts, 2 steals, 2 blks, 4 fouls, second team-low -18.
Terry Rozier continued to be horrendous, Scary actually: 33.3% shooting (30% vs Beans, 27.3% against Grizz), 10 points (7 and 9 in the other two).
16 points today, 33 Thursday, 9 Wednesday, 18 Sunday. The only close game they have played was a one-point L at home to ATL on Jan. 19. That came after the "shocking" (Spo's word) 24-point beat down in Toronto that started this. With the one-pointer factored in, that's an average loss by 16.8 points in this six-game streak. "Shocking" indeed.
"Heat" fall to 24-22, 43 wins over 82. Trade deadline's Feb. 8.
So, Pitt was no-tell and the "Heat" are not on. 6 straight L's for Miami.
"Knicks" shot 48.9% (50.0%), "Heat" 40.0% (35.0%).
Starters, DARKO rankings
NYC
Brunson 25
Anunoby 39
Randle 50
Hartenstein 51
DiVincenzo 96
MIA
Butler 21
Adebayo 46
Herro 122
Highsmith 179
Rozier186
January 26, 2024
Statement from President Joe Biden On the Bipartisan Senate Border Security Negotiations
For too long, we all know the border’s been broken.
It’s long past time to fix it.
That’s why two months ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators to seriously, and finally, address the border crisis. For weeks now that’s what they’ve done. Working around the clock, through the holidays, and over weekends.
Let’s be clear.
What’s been negotiated would – if passed into law – be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.
It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.
Further, Congress needs to finally provide the funding I requested in October to secure the border. This includes an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers, and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border.
Securing the border through these negotiations is a win for America.
For everyone who is demanding tougher border control, this is the way to do it.
If you’re serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it.
###
As political gambit this is a masterful play, whether it is wise policy or otherwise. It is what President Clinton did to Republicans on a balanced budget in 1996. Then, as now, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party was furious, begrudgingly went along with the president, and came to celebrate the political consequences: 1998 was the first midterm election since 1934 that the incumbent president's party gained seats in the House of Representatives.
There is more at stake here than there was in 1996. A balanced budget is a happy-sounding canard, but a concept that voters think they understand--"Yeah, I have to balance my household budget, yeah," says Joe Voter as he signs his home mortgage papers. It's an issue that just sounds good politically, and is discarded the minute a Republican is president.
The border issue is nearly as overblown as a balanced budget. However, the border issue has more substance going for it. We don't have the right to a balanced budget but we do have the right to admit to this country who we wish, and on our conditions. It's illegal to come into this country, or any other, without permission.It's not illegal to run a deficit either as a household or a nation.
The border issue this time around has more substance to it for it is coupled with aid to Ukraine, which Republicans also oppose. For President Biden it's win both or lose both.
The president has had this coupled, bipartisan, negotiated bill taken away from him by Trumpie for political purposes. He should take the issues back for political purposes. If he can, the president should use current law to do now what he says he would do if the new law came into effect: shut down the border. In a signing ceremony at the border.
“I do know some of her donors and my guess is they want her staying in to put Trump through his paces. They don’t put it on the record but they think there’s a reasonable chance that something will happen to Trump, either health-wise or conviction to the extent that he can no longer be the nominee.”--Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
That is exactly what AP reported a day or two ago and beyond a reasonable doubt they got it from Sabato.
Oh, good point. He's old, he gets tired, and he steps on his dick.
Man, they're playing well. They led by three going into the 4Q and then closed it out with a 32-23 quarter for the 112-100 win. They have won 9 of 10 and sit fourth in the East.
“Donald Trump wants to be the presumptive Republican nominee and we’re talking about $83 million in damages,” the Republican presidential candidate wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. (Politico)
The NBA has been in Funky Town all this season.
I've never seen such edging in a coaching hire. There is some problem, clearly. Your speculation is as good as mine and on logical equivalence mine is as good as yours so here goes.
After being fired by PhilaBoo, ESPN, which has a broadcast contract with the NBA, hired Rivers as an analyst. They made it clear that they didn't want Rivers to use them as a chill pad until he got another coaching offer. Their stated reason for letting Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson go was that. Though ESPN was clear, they apparently did not make it a condition of his hiring.
In December, while working for ESPN, Rivers "began to serve as an informal consultant to [head coach Adrian] Griffin at the behest of the Bucks." That's a conflict of interest with his ESPN duties.
Then, of course, Griffin got fired on Jan. 23 and you know the rest. If this hiring ever happens, that’s a conflict.
My speculation is that Adam Silver is disturbed by this and is looking hard at it. He has one betrayed stakeholder in ESPN, two conflict of interest situations and at the center of it all is Doc Salieri Rivers. I speculate that Adam is holding up the Beer House gig until he determines if it is legally and ethically copacetic, and if it is in the interests of the Association.
Awaiting damage ruling by judge. New York civil fraud trial. Attorney General's Office seeking $370,000,000 damages)
March 4 (likely delayed). Jan. 6 case. Maximum incarceration if convicted as charged 70 years.
March 25. Stormy Daniels hush money case. 136 years prison max.
May 20 (may be delayed). Classified documents case. 450 years prison max.
August 5 (proposed by prosecutors), Georgia election case. (maximum penalty 641 years prison).
Lotta buttons to be pushed.
“This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down.”
...Trump, by his actions and words, was his own worst enemy.
E. Jean Carroll after the damages award ($65,000,000 punitive) today.
I'm concerned that the longer Haley's nikkle and dime guerrilla attacks continue the greater the likelihood a Black Swan floats by and rocks Trumpie's boat dangerously. It is not in our interests for the GOP to have a vice-nominee in waiting. When Haley drops out the GOP will be left with no alternative but Trumpie. That is what we want. But Haley dropping out would remove the guerrilla Black Swan. She is driving him nuts. But this is the concern: if she causes a melt-down she is the beneficiary. The bigger the Black Swan the greater the likelihood of a capsize. What if she wins one--which you know she will if she stays in until the convention? If, counterfactually, it happened in South Carolina, this fucking race which is not a race but a slow-walk coronation, would be on! And if she won SC and that gave Trumpie an aneurysm that'd be a double blow to Us. Between South Carolina and Super Tuesday there are Michigan (Feb. 27), and Washington, D.C. March 3. I don't know how brown the Michigan GOP is, but I predict Haley will win D.C. That would not be enough. Trumpie can mathematically win the nomination on Super Tuesday (March 5). That is soon enough for her to drop out. Haley's strategy tickles me, I admire it, but it better not work!
That's an organization and a team to admire. God, that's a great team. Ira Winderman reminded me that they added Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in the off-season. To a team with Jayson Tatum (4th DARKO, so you know he's great), Jaylen Brown, Derrick White. As Ira wrote:
"The gap between the Heat and the top of the East...was never more apparent than Thursday night." It can be captured in a single photograph:
Porzingis vs Thomas Bryant. "Heat" Culture vs Boston Brahmans. The Soviet Union vs the U.S. Brute vs Beauty. Diamonds in the Rough vs Diamonds in a Regal Setting. YMCA vs NBA. ("the Celtics are in another league," Ira). Talent vs Hard Work. .533 vs .777.
I know, I know, you hear me say this every year (and I have said it every year for the past ten years) when the "Heat" hit a rough patch in a good season (this) or are stuck in Middlesbrough all season (last). "Yes, the playoffs are a different animal. "Sure, coaching yet could matter in a playoff series." (But what about the coaching right now? This five-game losing streak, the twenty-five different lineups this season? Starting Nikola Jovic ten straight games? How far did coaching take us in the Finals vs Denver?) The sum is greater than its parts. But see previous paragraph. That's a great sum with great parts.
The "Heat" will right themselves, Spo will right them, but how right will they be? Beat-Boston-in-the-playoffs-right? Beat-Beer-in-the-playoffs-right? Beat-Denver-right? How about New York? Indiana? Cleveland? Orlando? All of the Eastern elite have upgraded significantly. Miami did too with the Lowry-Rozier trade. Is it enough? Do "we have enough"?
No.
I like that one, too. Trumpie, can I get barred permanently from MAGA? Is there any other way than contributing to Haley? If I make Derogatory Comments about you will that get me BARRED. PERMANENTLY? Pls.
That's the "Heat's" FIFTH straight loss, the second--and most appalling--blowout, and it was at HOME, as were two of the other L's, and it was to 601 Biscayne's most-hated opponent.
Tonight was not a funky time and it was not about missing 3J, something got broken on this team. I have to say in complete candor that when I saw the score with twenty-some seconds remaining I had the thought that Erik Spoelstra's job was in jeopardy. In a nano-second that nonsensical thought vanished. Spo is the guy to put the pieces back together again but I think an intervention is in the offing. Riley will have a talk with Spo. Maybe a players-only meeting. I don't know, but this org is too proud to let this just work itself out.
It’s the same strategy she used in her home state in 2010 — when she seized on allegations of affairs and racist attacks to fend off three Republican primary rivals in the governor’s race.
“Those attacks were one part of why she won,” the campaign official said. “South Carolinians didn’t like it then and they won’t like nasty attacks now.”
‘Now she is an enemy’
With Haley refusing to drop out of the race, Trump has shifted from viewing her as a primary rival to a full-blown enemy, and has grown increasingly angry with her, sources close to the former president said.
“Before she was a gnat. Now she is an enemy, and Trump plans to bludgeon her in the lead-up to South Carolina,” a person who spoke with Trump following his victory in New Hampshire told CNN.
The Haley camp is planning on that!
He is also targeting Haley’s donors, warning that they’ll be “permanently barred” from his orbit if they continue to contribute her campaign.
“Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday night.
"Derogatory Comments": "Birdbrain" Haley makes "Derogatory Comments" about me! Wah-wah. :); "bludgeon", "enemy"--By God, she is getting to him.
Haley’s campaign leaned into those attacks Thursday, releasing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Barred. Permanently.”
YES! 👏
Trump and his campaign had hopes that a win in New Hampshire would effectively end the GOP presidential primary, his advisers said. ...
...Trump personally believes the party has fallen in line and wants to move forward...But from Trump’s point of view, Haley is getting in the way.
Haley’s decision to stick it out for now has infuriated the former president... and he is now determined to hurt her as much as possible...
Wow, "HURT"
How donors are reacting
Art Pope, a North Carolina retail magnate who is supporting Haley, sharply criticized Trump’s threat to blacklist the former governor’s donors, saying it “emboldens me” and only increases his commitment to her candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.
“I and most Americans do not respond well to a bully,” Pope, an influential player in North Carolina Republican politics “President Trump wants to be the leader of the country … noting that he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. "but rather than unifying, reaching out and building support, he’s basically telling us to go away and take a hike and threatening us. I decline to be threatened. I’m not going to be intimidated.”
He said Haley clearly is “getting under the skin” of someone “who wants an anointment...
However, other donors...said they will no longer back Haley’s efforts financially...
Biden’s campaign happy to see GOP race continue
Perhaps I should reconsider my position.
Biden campaign officials have been privately cheering on Haley’s decision to stay in the presidential race, sources say, as they monitor Trump lashing out at her.
The Biden campaign made clear after the New Hampshire primary that it fully believes Trump will be the president’s GOP opponent. Still, Biden’s reelection team has welcomed seeing Haley prolong the Republican contest and force the Trump campaign to use its resources and time to attack her.
“Go forth and prosper,” one Biden campaign official said in describing the team’s delight to see the Trump-Haley battle continue.
‘Part of her strategy is to make him mad’
I'll be damned.
[Pressure to get out] hasn’t stopped Haley from attempting to get under his skin.
“I think part of her strategy is to make him mad, which seems to be very effective,” said Chip Felkel, a South Carolina GOP strategist not working for any campaign. “He gets off script, he says stupid stuff, he tweets stupid things, and it’s been indicative that he’s not controlled.”
Felkel, who described Haley’s approach as “guerrilla warfare,”...
Like the Confederate slaver Nathan Bedford Forrest. Guerrillas can do a LOT of damage.
...said he doesn’t think she can win South Carolina but speculated that she may try to stay in until the convention.
“She got a lot of fight in her, but at some point conventional wisdom says you’ve got to get a W...
I agree with that. Unless...a Black Swan is born!
“And maybe she’s banked enough, going to be judicious enough with it, that she thinks she can be in for the long haul.”
Nikkle and Dime! I bet she has. This is like Mo Udall in 1976.
Underdogs are compelling to just about everybody. Hard not to root for her.
I rag on CNN continuously but man, that was a great article.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is growing more defiant in the face of Donald Trump’s efforts to push her out of the 2024 Republican primary race, poking and prodding at the former president and encouraging supporters to wear Trump’s attacks as a badge of honor.
I like both of those! Defiance plays well when you're the underdog; especially in a woman against a man. And wear his attacks as a badge of honor, absolutely. It is good to have enemies.
Haley’s increasingly pointed attacks on Trump come amid pressure from many Republicans for her to drop out of the 2024 primary race so that the party can coalesce around the former president...
Polls show Haley is far behind Trump in South Carolina...
Still, she remains a thorn in the former president’s side, provoking his ire in ways the 2024 Republican presidential contenders he’s already dispatched never did.
And Haley’s aides say that’s intentional.
Well, I'll be jiggered!
Her campaign is bracing for Trump to go too far in attacking Haley and believes those attacks are likely to boost her support in South Carolina. One campaign official said Trump’s attacks would be a “key piece” of Haley’s pathway to winning over Palmetto State voters ahead of the February 24 primary.
I get that. Southern courtliness. Southern woman's honor. I can absolutely see that playing in SC. Who would know better than Haley? She's South Carolina's daughter. Bullying, especially bullying a woman, I could see Trumpie getting away with that in Alabama, but in genteel Charleston, Savannah, and against one of their own! I must say--I hope this fails--but I think it is brilliant.
I haven't checked team shooting yet but noticed this:
| On the Court | FG | 3PT | REB | AST | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
J. Butler SF | 4-7 | 0-1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| 4-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
T. Herro PG | 4-9 | 2-5 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 10 |
T. Rozier SG | 3-6 | 1-2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
C. Martin SF | 1-6 | 1-3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
Four of five Beans on court at the end of the half were in d.d. one 45 was. Now I'll check shooting %.
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