Jokic 8 Jovic 7.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Holy Shit
San Antonio (12-48) rolled the “Thunder” (41-18) 132-118 in Alamo. Wembanyama had 28 points, 13 rebs, 7 asts in 32’ to Chet Holmgren’s 23-7-5 in 33’.
Let me see if I have this straight
Nikola Jovic is outscoring Nikola Jokic 7-6, we’ve never had the lead for one second and are trailing at the half 56-51, and I’m supposed to be, what, happy? Encouraged? I’ll bet you $1000 right now—serious as a heart attack—that Jovic has not outscored Jokic 14-12 when this game hits all zeros.
"We were trying to think well, it's gonna be like selling candy bars for Little League"
“We were trying to think well, it's gonna be like selling candy bars for Little League or Girl Scout cookies. You've got to convince 3 to 5 million people every year to sign up for $100 a year to watch on a streaming only app.”
One of the all-time great quotes. Bobby Robbins, president of the University of Arizona, in August on the PAC-12 media deal that led to Arizona and the rest of the conference leaving for greener pastures.
"Heat" at Champions, 10 pm
We're going for our seventh straight road win. That's a weird stat, man. The "Heat" are a weird team.
They'll have to try WITHOUT
Tyler
K-Love
J-Rich
Thomas Bryant (who will nonetheless be in the building to collect his 2023 championship ring from Denver). Weird.
So we'll start, I predict,
Duncan
Jimmy
Bam
Nikola
3J
Champs are -6.5
Battle of LA
The “Clippers” have won more games and have excellent personnel. And they had a 21-point lead. But the “Lakers” had LeBron. 39 years old and he had 19 in the 4Q to lead the comeback win, 116-112.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Pitt to Acquire Pittsburgh Athletic Association
This is a magnificent building.
The PAA is on the National Register of Historic Places and is adjacent to other historic properties owned or used by Pitt, the university's icon, the Cathedral of Learning, the William Pitt Union, Soldiers and Sailors Hall, and the Twentieth Century Club. Building started on the PAA in 1908 and was completed in 1911.
The University of Pittsburgh has the most inspiring urban campus in America. Adding the PAA is another jewel in that tiara.
COVID (Partially) Caused Jan. 6?
In sentencing a Jan. 6 defendant, Michael Foy, today, Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected federal prosecutors' request for a sentence at the top of Foy's federal sentencing guidelines. There was a commonality that she discerned in the Jan. 6 defendants who have appeared before her.
Chutkan acknowledged that the day seemed to be an aberration for Foy...
...
The judge added that Foy’s story was a familiar one among Jan. 6 defendants: people, particularly in the time of strict Covid lockdowns, who found “community, connection and a purpose” in protesting the 2020 election results.
COVID fucked people up in the head, not just the body. It was literally unique in human history. All of a sudden this plague hits and all human social activity ceases. It was surreal. I went from being in a jury trial that ended on the Wednesday before the Monday when the courts dead closed. I live on a densely populated island of 80,000 people, part of a metropolitan area of 2.6 million. My condo is right off one of only two main arteries that connect to the mainland. That artery becomes 41st Street on Miami Beach and except for the middle of the night and especially during normal hours, a person wouldn't last five seconds alive standing in the middle of 41st Street. After we went on lockdown I went out at a normal hour, 7 p.m. or so, and 41st Street was deserted. For the absence of traffic, motorized and pedestrian, it was a post-apocalyptic landscape--because it was. It was bewildering and disorienting.
Crime spiked after the lockdowns were lifted and people went back to "community, connection and purpose". The crime was normal and it was also weird. People weren't the same, not even criminal people. I remember thinking, "Did COVID fuck with our heads?", not the disease, but the unique conditions the disease forced us to live under. I can't remember now the specific criminal incidents that I remember as being weird then. I do remember one quasi-criminal incident: the LeBron James-Isaiah Stewart brawl. Have you ever seen another human being so weirdly violent as Stewart? (I hope not.) But I didn't know who Stewart was then. It was LeBron who was weird to me. Whatever that was, that backhand punch, accidental swipe, it was weird, it was just not LeBron. Lance Stevenson blowing in his face, Draymond Green kicking him in the groin, 'Bron didn't react like that, in that whip-like manner.
Judge Chutkan has seen a lot of Jan. 6 defendants, and she has seen a common “community, connection and purpose” weirdness in them. She doesn't excuse this dickhead's behavior, she sentenced him to 40 months in federal prison, but she recognizes that people just weren't the same in the head then. Not criminal defendants, not most if not all of us. COVID really fucked us up.
"Miscellaneous Order (02/28/2024)": SCOTUS Refuses to Allow Trumpie Jan. 6 Trial to Go Forward
The high court could have taken the issue of presidential immunity on Writ of Certiorari filed by Jack Smith, but they denied Smith's writ. They waited for the D.C. appellate court ruling that Trumpie was not immune from prosecution and waited for Trumpie to appeal. They could have vacated the stay of the trial pending their resolution of Trumpie's appeal on "Whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during
his tenure in office". (The Order today on the Court website is nonchalantly titled: "Miscellaneous Order (02/28/2024".) Instead, they held the trial in abeyance while scheduling oral argument the week of April 22. In the normal course SCOTUS will issue its decision in late June. Then Trumpie will argue that the trial can't be held because it will be so close to the November election as to constitute interference and the trial will be put off until after the election.
This was my sense: not a well-played game, a win that hung in the balance
HEAT Overcome Slow Start For Professional Back-To-Back Victory
1. When you’re on a back-to-back in the middle of a West Coast trip, nothing matters more than just getting the win and getting on the plane.
Sure, it was a strange back-to-back given Miami was getting back some fresh players off suspension and injury so it’s not as though everyone came in with tired legs, but it looked like a back-to-back from the start anyway as the turnovers came in fast and furious. Portland came out with plenty of energy, their threes falling and their rangy defenders getting into the passing lanes, but it was nothing Miami hasn’t seen plenty of times before. And yet it never matters what you should be doing, only what you are doing, and facts were the Blazers were working with a double-digit advantage for most of the first half because Miami couldn’t string more than a couple good offensive possessions…
…
A professional win, 106-96, for the HEAT in the end, one of 82 that won’t be remembered too long beyond the upgrade in the win column. On to an NBA Finals rematch in Denver.
…
2. This was about as business-like a game as you’re going to get during the 82-game slate once Miami dispensed with those first-quarter mistakes.
…
… 18 turnovers…
That is so not the Culture.Hot Hot Hoops
@hothothoops
(https://twitter.com/hothothoops)Terry Rozier: “Heat Culture, there’s nothing like it.”
True, nothing matters more than getting on the plane with the W but Miami has to do more than this if they’re going to be all that they can be. They lost 7 straight for crissake, they’ve futzed away too much of the early season. They have to bring their A game every one of these last 24.
Worth noting...Butler again started the fourth quarter – subbing out for a break in the middle...– reflecting the rotational change that started a couple weeks before All-Star.
Yes. One of locals pointed that out, may have suggested it. We need Jimmy's presence with the second unit to prevent an El Fourth Quarter Foldo.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
And that's the half. The "Heat" whittled a measly 3 points off their 1Q deficit. Not good enough.
I sense a lack of being "intentional", a lack of focus, sloppiness. Half-time Spo has got to get the guys right. We've never led in this game once, a damning indictment. 50-50 game as I see it. We're the far better team and have much more to play for but we're not playing like we have much more to play for than Portland. Good night, good wishes, "Heat". I'll probably check in when I get up at night.
Poof! The "Heat" Push Fizzles, 45-34, 5:53 2Q
This lead could balloon back up to 15 or more or the "Heat" could whittle it down to 7 or 8 and the game may likely ride on whether ballooning or whittling takes place.
30-20, 10:35 2Q
It looks bad but is getting marginally better. I think we're going to good to lose this game to this dreck.
Cronin's Disease 28 "Heat" 15, End 1Q
That is surely one of the most inept quarters Miami has played this season against an abysmal opponent.
Oh God. Cronin’s Disease TWENTY-FIVE “Heat” THIRTEEN, 2:58 1Q
That’s okay, Portlandia is shooting 50% (66.7%). I doubt that that is sustainable shooting 🤷🏻♂️.
AH! I'm so Happy for the Musician 👉👈
Great reaction pics! 😀 Elation, disbelief, dejection. Great snaps.
My GOD! Beer 96 Bobcats 49, End 3Q
Doc's Biermeisters outscored them by 16 in the 1Q, by 16 in the 2nd, and fell off in the 3rd, "only" +15.
☠️Gilberts Being Stampeded by Fat Cuban Horse 105-98
My-name-is-Luca,-I-live-on-the-second-floor 45 points
Bed-bugs-in-the-middle-of-the-floor 23.
Not again: Sacramento Kings fall to shorthanded Miami Heat while Jimmy Butler is suspended
The Kings have lost a number of games this season due to their maddening tendency to play down to the level of competition against shorthanded opponents.
They did it again Monday night against the Miami Heat.
Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kevin Love taught the Kings a lesson in Heat Culture, leading a depleted team to a stunning 121-110 victory before a crestfallen crowd of 17,832 at Golden 1 Center.
[Missing players] didn’t stop Miami from doing what it has done for years under team president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra, executing a winning brand of basketball no matter who is on the floor.
Just last season, the Heat went to the NBA Finals with several undrafted players, including Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Haywood Highsmith. [Sac HC Mike] Brown was asked if there is a way to replicate the Heat’s culture, which is defined by professionalism, toughness, fitness, consistency and a next-man-up mentality.
“You can’t replicate it. You’ve got to have your own culture in my opinion. It’s hard to do the same thing that somebody else is doing, but the reality of it is, from top to bottom, they believe in toughness and they believe in playing hard and playing the right way.”…
…
I do think they beat us to a majority of the 50-50 balls, so some of the effort, we need to be better, but they just played better than us.”—point guard De’Aaron Fox
“It’s like a running joke. Regardless of who Miami puts out there, it looks like that’s a team that played in the Finals or played together for a while. They have guys who do their job and they have guys who come out, regardless of how long they’ve been with the team, they play hard. ... So it’s just their continuity. They play hard. …—De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento “Kings”
Are you fucking kidding me?
How Pep Guardiola, Manchester City have
He put on a Manchester City match for the Celtics. He explained the philosophies that have made their manager, Pep Guardiola, one of the sport’s best.
He showed his team that, like soccer, basketball is a continuum.
“That is what the game of basketball is about, to me, and what counterattacking in soccer is about,” Mazzulla told The Athletic. “So I study a lot of Man City. I study Pep a lot. I think he’s the best coach at any level, in any sport. It’s had a huge influence (on me).”
We don't counterattack. That's Liverpool; that's Lester back in the day. We're tiki-taka possession.
Mazzulla wanted to slowly challenge the idea that offense and defense exist on their own planes. Over the past decade, both basketball and soccer have grown more into transition sports...
Eleven has been much calmer
I’m hardly interacting with her, hardly speaking and then in a calm, soft voice (she does not like sudden, sharp noises) and sleeping with the door closed. I may have been overstimulating her with all of my play. Maybe the cause of her alopecia? Cats are naturally flight, not fight, ergo “scaredy cat”, and they like their hiding spots. Eleven is finding more and more.😊
"Heat" Are in Portlandia Tonight
Orlando Robinson, Tyler, and Terry are game time decisions to play. The "Heat" went nine-deep last night with the starters all playing 35+'. Expect Jimmy to get major minutes tonight and Tyler and Terry too, if they play. Shows you how deep the trust is in these players. Back-to-backs are tough and when you can get a big win on the road over a quality opponent using a second platoon, it's huge. "Heat" go for five straight against Cronin's Disease (15-41).
"Kings" Hadn't Seen That Since High School.
"Bruh, you see what I'm dealin' with here? Li'l help please."
Yeah, mon
El Plethora
@ELPlethora
Right now the East would be
Celtics/Magic
Cavs/Pacers
Bucks/Heat
Knicks/Sixers
Might put some coins on Heat and Pacers
1:16 PM · Feb 27, 2024
·
162 Views
“Let me tell you about “Heat” Culture” (an imagined conversation)
Newbie: “Let me tell you about “Heat” Culture.
“First of all, when you come here you feel like you’ve been…chosen.
“You’ve been somewhere else where they felt that you didn’t have what they needed; they wanted ‘to go in a different direction”, or whatever. You’re not a star and never have been; you’re too old or too young without enough upside, or you’re a tweener or whatever. And all of a sudden you’re snatched from oblivion by this legendary operation. They, Coach Pat, Coach Spo, the best there is and ever was, choose you of all fucking people. It's like the Oracle in The Matrix, man. It must be true. They see something in you that your other teams and coaches didn’t see, maybe something you didn't even see in your own self. They think you can help them win as a team, not just any team, them, a team that competes for a championship every damn year.
"Then you walk into the locker room and meet your teammates and there's this thing in the air. There's like a secret. They give you sly glances out of the corner of their eye, smiling. I don't know, like 'He's here'. 'We always knew he'd be here.' You want to look around to see if LeBron walked in (laughter). But no, it's you. 'Me?' I said that when I first walked in, for real. And there ain't no LeBron in there or D-Wade or K.D. There's guys just like you. K-Love, Caleb, Terry, undrafted guys like Duncan, Haywood, and you're thinking 'Damn, did I walk into the right room? This the Y locker room?' (laughter). How they do this? How they make me and these guys into contenders?'
"Then there's the secret sauce. Nah, I ain't gettin' into the schemes and the particulars and all that. There is that but it's all part of the Culture. It's painted on the damn court. It's all over the arena. It's in the locker room. It’s the team, man. You don’t win or lose as an individual, you win as a team. Next man up. That’s the Culture. ”
And so last night, in its 57th game this Culture beat a very good team on the road by double digits with a starting lineup, its 30th different of the season, of,
Nasty
Brutish
Short
Flotsam
Jetsam
They won without Jimmy Butler, without Tyler Herro, without Terry Rozier, without Nikola Jovic, without Josh Richardson, Thomas Bryant, and Orlando Robinson.
But that didn't derail the Heat, who got plenty of contributions from unheralded players like Delon Wright, who scored 13 points in his Miami debut, and reserve Haywood Highsmith, who scored all 15 of his points in the first half.
They won with rookie Jaime Jaquez, Jr. playing 38' and scoring 26 points on 12/17 shooting and grabbing five rebounds and snagging three steals and still somehow finishing -5.
They won with Kevin Love scoring 19 points and nabbing seven rebounds in only 15'.
They won with "Heat" Culture.
“When you’re missing a guy like that [Butler], everybody has to step up. He’s such a big part of our team and missing him is something that we obviously feel. But no matter, we've still got to play a game. Guys have to step up...”-Jaime Jaquez, Jr.
This Y team has won four straight and eight of ten. They are now in the playoffs, however evanescently, in sixth place, only a game behind faltering Philadelphia, only 2.5 behind stumbling New York and playoff home court. They have a 32-25 (.561) record, which projects to only 46 wins, and somehow they will make a deep run in the playoffs again.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Underway in Sac Town 0-2
Spo's starters tonight:
D. Robinson FC. Martin SF
B. Adebayo C
D. Wright SG. FIRST START FOR D.!
J. Jaquez Jr. G
Miami (FL) was ranked 15th in the nation on Dec. 10 when they were clobbered by Colorado
They haven't sniffed those heights since that I can see. They've sniffed ass since that I can see, going 8-12. They lost tonight at #9 UNC, their seventh straight L and are 15-14 on the season, a dramatic fall that might augur HC Jim Larrañaga's last season in the Edward Wasko Center.
FTs
905 upset Indiana Marymount in Penceland 130-122.
🍎barely avoids a XXX embarrassment to Z in the Apple Garden 113-111.
Rust is disarming the 9mms in FedEx 89-64.
Eleven
She chose me, according to the adage.
I gave her, I thought, the best, most carefree life. In me, I supposed, she chose her rescuer and I poured out my love, attention and protection, and reveled in her beauty, her tininess, her vulnerability, and her love for me. She won my heart and, I thought, I won hers.
The violence was heartbreaking and shocking. She meant to do me harm and to cause me pain. Not all the time but also not just last night. She seemed to adapt. When I was bare-legged she would begin to climb but then, sensing my body tense or heat up, she would relent. I kept a pair of my sturdiest denim jeans at the handy by my desk. I accepted the biting and clawing as part of my unconditional love for her. I didn't want to change her, I would adapt to her. And so I did, wearing "cat body armor", full length pajama bottoms and tops, even with socks on my hands for extra protection for months.
And then last night. She hooked her claw into my thigh so firmly that my skin distended grotesquely with the pull. Even in exasperation and pain I steadied myself, fearful that any sudden move would cause the skin to rip open. I slowly and gently reached around with my left hand to remove her barbed fish hook claw. She then violently attacked the thumb, causing a slice whose pain I could not steel myself against.
I slept with the door to the bedroom closed and she without last night. I was so upset that I dreamed of her, she was being put to sleep as I watched. I awoke this morning still too upset to engage with her. I ignored her as I made coffee and ate a bit and then sat at my desk, barelegged. She started to climb. I firmly yelled "NO!" and she desisted. That is the only word I spoke to her today.
"Get her spayed!" my family advised. I wasn't going to do that. Didn't want her to change. Wanted her just the way she was. "Take her to the vet!", which I was going to do today for her worsening alopecia. "The vet can help with her behavior!" She chose me, but I can unchoose. If that's her natural behavior around me, she chose unwisely. Never called the vet today to make an appointment. She's not worth it.
I have decided to take a hands off approach: no thrilled, affectionate words, no stroking or caressing. Her behavior under this new regimen in the next few days will determine if she continues to have a life with me, or any life at all.
Originalism vs Traditionalism
What could that be about? What else, the law.
Federal judge Kevin C. Newsom, a Trumpie appointee, has given fire to a smoldering debate in conservative legal circles with a speech at Harvard to a group of conservative law students and scholars.
In his speech Newsom pointedly criticized the Supreme Court, itself a rarity, and two SCOTUS decisions, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the one ruling unconstitutional state gun regulation, the other overruling Roe v Wade and the right to abortion.
Newsom's critique is that both cases exemplify jurisprudential "traditionalism" rather than originalism and textualism. Originalism and textualism are the gold standard of conservative legal thinking. Under it, the Constitution is not a living document whose meaning changes with the times but rather one whose provisions are welded to the time they were adopted and the words that were used at that time. A traditionalist approach however pours new wine into old casks by taking account of how the provisions have been applied since ratification. It makes the Constitution a document that lives but only in a subsequent past untethered to date and text.
Although Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. decried logic in the life of the law, there is logic, for what it is worth, in Newsom's critique. If the law is not to change with the times ("experience" to Holmes, by which he meant culture), then it should not change with the experience of the legal times since ratification. It should remain rooted to date of effect and language.
In Newsom's critique, traditionalism does violence to the sine qua non of judicial rule-making: predictability. Lawyers, law enforcers, business people and the common man need to know the rules of their society to engage in the behavior that makes their society work.
A valuable critique.
Official: Sweden Becomes 32nd NATO Member
It is a sea change for the country that remained neutral through two world wars. The move occasioned, of course, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Everton up to 15th!
Why? They didn't win a four-point game. The Premier League reduced their 10-point Profit and Sustainability Rules penalty handed down in November to six. So Nottingham Forest now sits in 17th place, one place and four points from relegation.
The Premier League is botching its rule-making atrociously. VAR has not improved the English game. The Everton punishment was handed down--twice--after the season began. And they still have Manchester City's punishment, if there is to be any, for violations going back to 2009, to levy. What are they going to do, vacate titles won? Relegate the world's greatest club to the Coca-Cola League? This is a fast-moving world. The Premier League's adjudication process is slow as 19th century English Chancery Court.
La-La Clip-Clip
To me, the newspaper masthead gothic font of the Los Angles "Clippers" current logo is sublime, distinctive, iconic.
Not so to Steve Ballmer and Clip ownership. These are the new logos, the first for domestic use, the second for international:
To me, ridiculous, busy, a la mode, like Manchester City's "steering wheel" logo. That's a slow, comfortable, geriatric cruise ship, not a bold adventuresome clipper. The letter to emphasize when you represent one of the world's great cities is not the C of the nickname, it is the city's name or initials. Fail.
Nearing Midnight for Eleven
Text message sent to my family last night.
I’ve had it with Eleven.
She tunneled under the comforter like a Hamas terrorist and clawed my right leg. It was like a fish hook in me and she wouldn’t release her own. I tried to take the claw out gently and then she sliced my thumb open.
The cut was deep and painful and blood drops fell onto the bedding.
I was so angry that I threw my phone onto the lump under the covers to scatter her and screamed, “YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YOU’RE HURTING ME!” She ran and I threw my phone at her again.
She ran into the living room. I was still so furious I yelled, “YOU BETTER HIDE!”and kicked the boxes she was hiding between until I heard her bell jingling.
I’m not letting her in the bedroom tonight. This may be the last straw. I have been so loving and indulgent toward her. I've slept in full cat body armor for months. I’m not putting up with this any more. I may turn her in to the shelter. Fuck her.
Daughter: when you take her to the vet consult the dr and ask for advice on the behavior
Son: Wtf is happening.
JUST WHAT I EXPLAINED IS WHAT IS HAPPENING!!! She attacked me like a terrorist through her tunnels. I’VE HAD IT! I’m not going to engage in behavior modification with some goddamned therapist like she’s a Public Defender client who needs a loving intervention. I’m not taking her to a vet for her goddamned hair loss. I couldn’t give a shit about her fucking hair loss when she’s attacking me and really hurting me in sneak attacks. She’s a scaredy cat and I am MORE than capable of ruling by abject FEAR. Or abandoning her back onto the streets or having her put to sleep. This episodic behavior is UNACCEPTABLE and I will not tolerate it, or her.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
FTs
Army NoVa 105 💀Gilberts 114
Rockettes 112 OKC 123
Pigeons 109 🐭92
🌞123 La-La Lake-Lake 113. Team LeBron is in 10th place in the West with a 31-28 record. That's a) embarrassing and b) not good. But. However. They are only 3.5 games out of fifth place. The West so far this season is like the English Premier League used to be: a Big Four and everybody else. 🧊,⛈, La-La🧔-🧔, and The Champions are separated by tyoo games. LAL has the nous and the time remaining for a five seed.
The Eastern Conference is like the Premier League now: a Big One and everybody else. Dig this: The eighth place team in the West is closer to number one than is the second place team, 💀Gilberts, in the East. Tonight Miami is in the play-in at seven, one game out of sixth and the play-offs, and 2.5 games from fourth place and home court in the first round. We can do that.
HT Jizz 63 Chaparalls 39
I know they need time with Wemby, but they're also 11-46 and fittin' be 11-47. That's unacceptable behavior.
20 Points? Sorry, that’s not “crushing”, “humiliating”
That’s “better than expected” is what that is.
CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Russia
Toward the end of 2021, according to a senior European official, Mr. Putin was weighing whether to launch his full-scale invasion when he met with the head of one of Russia’s main spy services, who told him that the C.I.A., together with Britain’s MI6, were controlling Ukraine and turning it into a beachhead for operations against Moscow.
But the Times investigation found that Mr. Putin and his advisers misread a critical dynamic. The C.I.A. didn’t push its way into Ukraine. U.S. officials were often reluctant to fully engage, fearing that Ukrainian officials could not be trusted, and worrying about provoking the Kremlin.
That is not a "misread" that the U.S. was "controlling Ukraine", nor that our intent was to use Ukraine as a "beachhead" against Russia.
Yet a tight circle of Ukrainian intelligence officials assiduously courted the C.I.A. and gradually made themselves vital to the Americans.
...
“The relationships only got stronger and stronger because both sides saw value in it, and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv — our station there, the operation out of Ukraine — became the best source of information, signals and everything else, on Russia,” said a former senior American official. “We couldn’t get enough of it.”
Then why did Ukraine distrust the correct U.S. intel that Russia was planning a full-scale invasion two years ago?
The C.I.A.’s partnership in Ukraine can be traced back to two phone calls on the night of Feb. 24, 2014, eight years to the day before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
...
“For a Russian, allowing oneself to be recruited by an American is to commit the absolute, ultimate in treachery and treason,” General Kondratiuk said. “But for a Russian to be recruited by a Ukrainian, it’s just friends talking over a beer.”
The new station chief began regularly visiting General Kondratiuk, whose office was decorated with an aquarium where yellow and blue fish — the national colors of Ukraine — swam circles around a model of a sunken Russian submarine.
...
It can often take years for the C.I.A. to develop enough trust in a foreign agency to begin conducting joint operations. With the Ukrainians it had taken less than six months. The new partnership started producing so much raw intelligence about Russia that it had to be shipped to Langley for processing.
But the C.I.A. did have red lines. It wouldn’t help the Ukrainians conduct offensive lethal operations.
“We made a distinction between intelligence collection operations and things that go boom,” a former senior U.S. official said.
It was a distinction that grated on the Ukrainians.
...
This time, he didn’t ask the C.I.A. for permission. He turned to Unit 2245, the commando force that received specialized military training from the C.I.A.’s elite paramilitary group, known as the Ground Department. The intent of the training was to teach defensive techniques, but C.I.A. officers understood that without their knowledge the Ukrainians could use the same techniques in offensive lethal operations.
...
“This is our country,” he [General Kondratiuk] responded, according to a colleague. “It’s our war, and we’ve got to fight.”
...
The head of Russia House, the C.I.A. department overseeing operations against Russia, organized a secret meeting at The Hague. There, representatives from the C.I.A., Britain’s MI6, the HUR, the Dutch service (a critical intelligence ally) and other agencies agreed to start pooling together more of their intelligence on Russia.
The result was a secret coalition against Russia — and the Ukrainians were vital members of it.
In March 2021, the Russian military started massing troops along the border with Ukraine. As the months passed, and more troops encircled the country, the question was whether Mr. Putin was making a feint or preparing for war.
That November, and in the weeks that followed, the C.I.A. and MI6 delivered a unified message to their Ukrainian partners: Russia was preparing for a full-scale invasion to decapitate the government and install a puppet in Kyiv who would do the Kremlin’s bidding.
U.S. and British intelligence agencies had intercepts that Ukrainian intelligence agencies did not have access to, according to U.S. officials. The new intelligence listed the names of Ukrainian officials whom the Russians were planning to kill or capture, as well as the Ukrainians the Kremlin hoped to install in power.
That happened but how was it possible that the U.S. and Brits had what even the Ukrainians did not have?
President Zelensky and some of his top advisers appeared unconvinced, even after Mr. Burns, the C.I.A. director, rushed to Kyiv in January 2022 to brief them.
As the Russian invasion neared, C.I.A. and MI6 officers made final visits in Kyiv with their Ukrainian peers. One of the M16 officers teared up in front of the Ukrainians, out of concern that the Russians would kill them.
...
Often, the C.I.A. briefings contained shockingly specific details.
On March 3, 2022 — the eighth day of the war — the C.I.A. team gave a precise overview of Russian plans for the coming two weeks. The Russians would open a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged city of Mariupol that same day, and then open fire on the Ukrainians who used it.
...
Within weeks, the C.I.A. had returned to Kyiv, and the agency sent in scores of new officers to help the Ukrainians. A senior U.S. official said of the C.I.A.’s sizable presence, “Are they pulling triggers? No. Are they helping with targeting? Absolutely.”
...
The C.I.A. and the HUR have built two other secret bases to intercept Russian communications, and combined with the 12 forward operating bases, which General Kondratiuk says are still operational, the HUR now collects and produces more intelligence than at any time in the war — much of which it shares with the C.I.A.
“You can’t get information like this anywhere — except here, and now,” General Dvoretskiy said.
Yeah, you can Dvoretskiy! We and the Brits had better intel than you did!
We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day
Thirty-nine years ago March 5.
NBA Suspends Bryant (3 games), Jimmy (1), Jovic (1) for Fight With Katrina
Disgruntled Pelicans Alvarado (3) and Marshall (1) also suspended.
However strange our customs are to others, and theirs to us, however difficult it is even to understand ourselves, we all want the same things. The flying Bolivian cocaleros do what they do for the same reasons that Robert and Samantha do what they do, for the same reasons that I do what I do, for the same reasons that Chinese do what they do. All people throughout history,
...have struggled constantly to understand the world, to protect themselves from its ravages, to organize it more effectively, and to make it a place in which their children might live without hunger or fear.--Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China.
It is a universal human desideratum: to provide our children with better lives than we had.
Americans at Play: Chasing Sage
This is a celebration of childhood, parenthood, and adoring love. To Sage and Robert and Samantha with love.
And this is the best comment.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Pitt and Va. Tech Were Tied at 36 at the Half...
On a 22-8 run the "Panthers" lead 58-44 with 11:20 left to play.
Justice MeOW Holmes
My son’s cat, Bird.
Captioned by him, "lounging in his poop box" (referring to Bird).
"Trump Says Indictments, and His Mug Shot, Are Helping Him With Black Voters" (NYT)
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me, because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said Friday evening in front of a crowd of 500 gathered in Columbia for the Black Conservative Federation’s annual gala. “Maybe there’s something to it.”
You know, because all “the Black people” are criminals just like me! 🤦♂️
(i want to move to another country)
What is the Karen haircut?
"Do they really expect people to give up what they paid extra for?" wrote one redditor, adding that, "The airlines should take some accountability here too. Before they upgrade someone they should ask if they are traveling with anyone. And if they see the Karen hair cut 'No upgrade for you.'"
The Karen haircut is an inverted bob or lob and is also known as an A-line cut. It also features short, blonde hairs with thick lowlights and long side-swept bangs. This hairstyle is always longer in the left front and short in the back. Due to this, it creates a sharp angle when seen from the side.
Penn State Is A Problem
Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, through her attorney, responded Friday to one of House Republicans' top impeachment witnesses, Tony Bobulinski, claiming in a letter first obtained by ABC News that comments he made in his recent interview with the House Oversight Committee were "defamatory," with her attorney providing a photo of an alleged encounter between Bobulinski and former White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows that he says refutes Bobulinski's claims about the incident.
"In the shadows of the bleachers, I observed Mark and Tony Bobulinski's interaction through a gap in the vehicles. When they said their goodbyes, I saw Mark hand Tony what appeared to be a folded sheet of paper or a small envelope."--Cassidy Hutchinson, in her book, Enough.
"Cassidy Hutchinson is an absolute liar and a fraud," Bobulinski told the [House impeachment (Biden)] panel, saying he wasn't wearing a ski mask and that "[Meadows] didn't hand me a single thing."
During his testimony with the House Oversight panel, Bobukinski said he remembered meeting Meadows at the Georgia rally and having private security with him at the time.
"Are you wearing a ski mask?" Bobukinski was asked and replied, "I was not wearing a ski mask."
"Mr. Bobulinski claims under oath that he was not wearing a mask, that Mr. Meadows did not hand him anything, and that Ms. Hutchinson was 'fabricating facts,'" Hutchinson's lawyer wrote in the letter. "Perhaps Mr. Bobulinski's memory is impaired about the meeting, and a picture would help refresh his recollection."
"They're killing our country"
“It will be the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we have no choice. And it's not a nice thing to say and I hate to say it. Those clowns in the media will say, 'Oh he's so mean.' He's ... No, no. They're killing our people. They're killing our country, they're killing our people, we have no choice."--Trumpie today at CPAC.
“Donald Trump will not win the general election."
“Donald Trump will not win the general election. You can have him win any primary you want — he will not win a general election."--Haley.
"Trump Set to Crush Haley in South Carolina Republican Primary"-WSJ
COLUMBIA, S.C.—Donald Trump is poised to deliver a humiliating defeat to Nikki Haley in her home state’s Republican presidential primary Saturday...
So, I have watched all or most of four movies, each of which is rated "best of all time" by someone
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Godfather (viewed previously)
Citizen Kane
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
The Godfather (viewed previously)
Citizen Kane
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
And I have begun La Dolce Vita.
Now, I am not, and do not hold myself out as a film aficionado. I do say that I have an appreciation of fineness in all the arts, and I must say I am disappointed. I have posted about 2001 and Jeanne Dielman already. Citizen Kane I've watched an hour of and I don't see the big fucking deal! I looked up "memorable lines" and there aren't any that would be memorable to me. The dialogue, in fact, to my ear, is tinny. The acting, to my eye, is stilted, as if the actors were over-directed, and the whole thing has soured me on continuing with Fellini. I thought this was going to be a revelation. It has been disenchanting. One ol' head's opinion, that's all.
FT Footie
Fulman beat Manchester Unitard 2-1 at Old Hosiery.
Child Porn shelled Barley 3-0 in London.
Everton and Brighton and Hove White People drew 1-1 where the Seagulls fly.
Nottingham lost at the Villains 4-2.
City and Bourne-Cum-in-My-Mouth are just underway at Vitalis Stadium.
Christians Hate America
“I just wanted to say, welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it. “We’ll replace it with this right here (Christian cross). That’s right, because all glory, all glory is not to government, all glory is to God."--Jack Posobiec at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee)
His comments got big applause and an “amen” from moderator Steve Bannon...
The right wing wants to topple our democracy and replace it with Trump’s authoritarian rule. This is not hyperbole. It is not fear-mongering. They are saying it. Out loud.
Jimmy Butler on the win over Katrina
On the fight:
"I put my hand around his neck. He put his hand around my neck. And it just took off the way that it did. ..."
You don't do that. The neck is out of bounds. Jimmy admits to starting that dangerous tête-à-tête.
“We’ll beat them the next time, too. We're just a better team. I'm not going to say that they're not a good team. But I don't think this [fight] really matters. I think that when we get them on our home court, it’s gonna be a different game. I hope they’re healthy. It’s gonna be the same outcome.”
I LOVE that in Jimmy.
Today is the last day of Nikki Haley's political life
She is an embarrassment even to the Party of Embarrassment.
*
*Oh no! It was Alvarado who threw the first punch! Thomas just retaliated. The fight broke out in a few different areas of the court and it happened so fast that one camera angle, or two, didn't capture everything.
7:55 a.m. I like a lot that Thomas Bryant didn’t play a minute last night but reignited the fight and got ejected lol.
Beer Improve to 4-7 Under Doc
Nice win last night in 🧊 112-107.
The only team in the East that has been better (☠ Gilberts and 🐭 as good) than Miami in the last ten is Beans. We have picked up two games on Indiana and three on Philly.
There is another reason why I loathe the New Orleans franchise so intensely
They are the transplanted original Charlotte "Hornets", the jewel of the late '80's expansion. The original "Hornets" imploded under owner George Shin and his demands for a new arena, which was a palace. I had been there. But Shin ran them into the ground and turned off the passionate, numerous Charlotte fans. The NBA tried to make amends and gave the city an expansion team, the Bobcats, and a new owner, Michael Jordan. And the result was the consensus worst team in NBA history. Meanwhile, the transplanted "Hornets", renamed the "Pelicans" have been historical detritus and the NBA was pressured by the "sympathy" for Katrina's destruction to vow to keep the team in N.O. come hell and high water, of which they got both. Grievous mistake was compounded by grievous error and the result is this horrible team playing in a swamp.
Oklahoma City Beat The Army of Northern Virginia Tonight by 46 Points
Fort Wayne, Army NoVa, the Chaparrals, and Bobcats, and are absolute embarrassments to the Association this season: 8-47, 9-47, 11-45, and 14-41, respectively. The Bobcats have a 4W win streak so they may crawl out of the gutter, but they also have the worst cumulative point deficit of any other team, -10.4, and San Antone is building something--s-l-o-w-l-y, but those are five horrible franchises, except San Antone, horribly run historically, with G-League players. They are huge disfiguring pock marks that turn the face of the Association into the Elephant Man.
Friday, February 23, 2024
No, that was a real FIGHT
Naji Marshall grabbed Jimmy’s neck with one hand, which led to the entire “Heat” team rushing Marshall and any and every Disgruntled Pelican. Then, when things were calmed, Thomas Bryant and Jose Alvarado were still in each other’s faces at the scorer’s table, separated by some guy, and Thomas threw a few punches at Alvarado. Alvarado in retreat. The whole gang gathered for another kaffeeklatsch and Alvarado got up on the scorer’s table to try to get at Thomas before he was pulled down.
The team is soft, just like the Fat Thot Fucker is. They’re trash. The city should not exist, it's below sea level, and should have disappeared under Katrina and her waves. The NBA should not exist there, and barely does. I hope another hurricane this summer wipes them off the map once and for all.
Tonight was the start of a 4-game road trip
Feb. 26 @ Sac Town
Feb. 27 @ Cronin's Disease
Feb. 29 @ The Champions
There's a push-shove fight
K-Love fouled the Fat Thot Fucker, grabbed him round the waist, not a hard foul, but the "Pelicans" were most Disgruntled. The fight stopped and then restarted again. Glad to see that it was the "Heat" players who were running the "Pelicans" off and not vice versa.
80-84, End 3Q
This should not be a game. The "Heat" should be in command. It is a game because we lack, in this game, size. New Orleans has out-rebounded us 43-30 and 14-4 on the offensive glass. Spo has desperately tried to counter by exchanging shooters for rebounders but it's still a game through three.
74-79, 2:45 3Q, N.O. FTO
Jimmy impacts "Heat" games more than any other player. (Duh) We would be a lottery team without him.
Jovic had 0 points in 12' in the 1H
He played fewer minutes than any other starter and fewer than Duncan and 3J off the bench.
Oof
HT N.O. 58 "Heat" 58.
A well-coached, very good team does not give lose a 19-point lead in less than a quarter in an important game. We are well-coached, but we are not very good.
'Embryos, to me, are babies'--Nikki Haley
1) "When you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that’s a life....
2) Haley: I didn’t say I agreed with Alabama IVF ruling
3) “I think that the court was doing it based on the law, and I think Alabama needs to go back and look at the law."" ...Our goal is to always do what the parents want with their embryo. It is theirs.”
4) “We don’t want fertility treatment to shut down, we don’t want them to stop doing IVF treatment, we don’t want them to stop doing artificial insemination,” Haley said on CNN on Thursday. “But I think this needs to be decided by the people in every state. Don’t take away the rights of these physicians and these parents to have these conversations.”
You know, this dipshit just isn't ready for prime time, not even on GOP-TV.
The "Heat" play their first game after the All Star break below sea level tonight against the Disgruntled Pelicans. The latter will be playing their second game back-to-back at home after blowing out the Rockettes last night. The "Pelicans" have no reason to be disgruntled! Four straight Ws, 8-2 in last ten.They are 34-22 and headed to the playoffs, currently as the 5th seed in the Western Conference.
The "Heat" are 8th in the East, a half game behind Orlando with a game in hand, one game behind Indiana Marymount in 7th with two in hand, and two behind plummeting Procedure Addresses in 5th with one game in hand.
Terry Rozier is out tonight with that sprained knee and Tyler is a GTD. Don't know if newbie Delon Wright is available. This is a game that Miami should win and must win to make the big push envisioned here over the regular season's last third. N.O. is -3.
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