Wednesday, March 27, 2024

FTs

Ice 106 Zollner Pistons 91.

905 101 Manny Hatty 145. Lordy, Lordy, watch out for those Mad Hatters!

Procedure Addressers 107 La-La Beard-Beard 108.

Pigeons 120 Cronin's Disease 106.

Monumental Wizards 119 Alibaba Nets 122.

Disney 93 Peaceniks 101. Asshole Draymond "Flush It" Green got ejected for the fourth time this season, this was the second time he got thrown out in the first quarter!

Male Cows blew out Indiana Marymount 125-99.

FT 9mm's 124 La-La Bron-Bron 136

Lebron was back tonight and had a 3W, 23, 14, 12 in 35'. The "Lakers" are playing impressively. They have won five straight and last night survived two OT's in a win at Beer. Anthony Davis played an astounding 52' in that game. It was an heroic, willful performance. He was given the night off tonight. LAL is in 9th place in the excellent Western Conference but only 2.5 games out of 6th and the playoffs.

What?

The Charlotte Bobcats beat the Dead Gilberts 118-101...Man. Cle. led them 43-33 after 1Q.

I am most disillusioned by what is happening to the 🎪🔥. What is happening in Cle. is, I have to think about this and it's getting late so this may not be coherent, it's sorta similar, ain't it. Viz. Last season Cle was the shiny new thing, sparkly regular season record and a face-plant in the first round of the playoffs. ...Ah, it's similar in reverse to the 🎪🔥, who belly flop for the first 82 to sprint in the next 16. Cle. did the opposite last season and, are they doing it again?! They've lost three of four, including getting crushed by us down here, lost to us four days before in Eerie, seemed to right the ship with a blow-out over these same Bobcats Monday, and now blow a ten-point end-1 lead that became 14, to...the BOBCATS?! They don't have Donovan Mitchell, I know; lots of teams don't have Donovan Mitchell, they still don't manage to lose to the Bobcats.

I wouldn't let Chris Fedor purchase any firearms right now. Talking to you, ATF.

No Army of Northern Virginia!😢

The Monumental Wizards were going to move from D.C. to Alexandria but Virginians in the government there couldn’t get a deal done to make the Army NoVa a reality. Pity that, with a ready-made name.

Oh, Joe Lieberman has died.

Former CT Senator, Gore’s veep candidate. Disowned by Dems but reelected anyway. One of “Three Amigos” with McCain and the cracker Graham. Really liked Lieberman. One of the few who had a “Joe!” bumpersticker on my car when he ran for president.

I KNEW this guy was different.

When Mike Johnson put his hat into the ring for Speaker of the House, I noticed that Republicans didn't immediately go into their rooms and commence firing again. McCarthy, Scalise, Jordan: the cannonading was immediate and unceasing. Then--Who is this guy?--we were all asking that, Dems and Repubes alike, didn't know anything about him, looked like an intern, he was calming. And then the motherfucker gets elected with unanimous or near-unanimous Republican support. No drama.

But then, Matt Gaetz (rhymes with rapes) effused. "MAGA Mike" Johnson, and I thought oh hell. Johnson was a blank slate for all of us, you could have written anything on it and we would have been like, "Oh." But then when Johnson shepherded many early stopgap funding bills through Congress I started reading some Dems, like one of them a Black Dem from the South if I remember correctly, saying things like, "He's been pretty honest, it'd be a shame if we let them (the phascist wing) take him hostage." That guy, if I recall, went on record by name (I don't recall the name) but there were other stories that like a secret cabal of Dems all named Jacques was communicating by hand signals and encrypted notes hidden in flower pots on windowsills, about working with Johnson, saving his Speakership if push came to shove, Gaetz came to Greene, as it were. Last week it almost did, or did, but in a proxy war.

Ahead of a full budget vote in the House, Johnson met with PoJo, Harris, Schumer, Jeffries in the White House and pledged, to them in their meeting and afterwards to the press that the government would not shut down on his watch. He brought the budget to a vote and the damn thing passed and everything :o PoJo signed it into law. 

But Johnson did it with Dems. A majority, not a frigging Gang of Eight, not the goddamned Taliban, a MAJORITY of House Republicans voted against their own Speaker's bill. Almost all Dems voted for it, that's how Johnson got it passed and that was the only way it could get passed.

So push came to shove and Greene filed a motion to vacate the Speakership. Here we go agayne, but no, it wasn't the same motion that Gaetz filed against McCarthy that called for an immediate vote. This was like a trap-gun motion to vacate. It set the trigger but the trigger didn't get pulled. Only if Greene (or some other phascist) called for an immediate vote would the weapon fire.

And immediately after Greene did her thing, reporters asked Repubes who had voted to dump McCarthy what they thought and there was no real stomach to eat shit again. Which was surprising.

Now the thinking is, if some phascist pulls the trigger Greene set Dems will vote to save Speaker Johnson if he will agree to some modest demonstration of good faith such as a vote on aid to Ukraine. We shall see but lawd we have come a long way in a year.

Trump is selling ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills (AP headline)


Out of his coat on the streets of Manhattan.

Spoelstra the Map Maker

This is "Heat Culture" in answer to one question, from Ira Winderman.

"Different package offensively", meaning the lineup of Jovic, Adebayo, Mills, Rozier, Jaquez, Jr.--a package pretty empty of offensive potential. No Butler, no Duncan, no Tyler.


                                                             Did you have "enough", Coach? Enough offense against the Splash Brothers?

                                                  Oh, "Yeah, definitely enough".

                                                                  

                                                        The "Heat's" identity is defense. Defense creates offense. It all starts on defense.

                                                  "We weren't able to do those things consistently enough", that is, make shots.

                                                      

                                                     This is the beginning of a revealing answer.

                                                                    For "Heat Culture" teams the most gratifying wins are those without much offense, that are "ugly" physical and mental grapples "in the mud" Pause: Why is “ugly” more gratifying than beauty? Unpause. …
                                                 ...that start with "inspiring defensive plays".

                                                      It has always flummoxed me, this preeminent focus on defense. I know that the adage in all sports is "Defense wins games." The problem with the adage is that it is not true. In every sport the winner is the one who scores the most points. If you play perfect defense and no offense, you don't win, the final score is 0-0. In basketball the other team is going to score points, an average of 115 in the NBA this season. Spoelstra likes his teams to play great scoring defense, which to him is holding an opponent to under 100 ppg. Fine, let's say the "Heat" played great scoring defense last night and held THE GOLDEN STATE "WARRIORS" to 95 points. They would have lost the game 95-92. You have to score more points than your opponent. You have to have players who can score more points than their opponents.

 He had it all "mapped out" in his head.

                                                       And the "Heat" have won games, hugely consequential games, that he has mapped out like that, games where they hang around, hang around, not letting the opponent get too far ahead, he says in another segment of this answer keeping it to 4-6 points, and then seizing the thing in "pivotal skirmishes". Spoelstra acknowledges that they could never get it to 4-6 points but if you listened to this press conference without knowing the final score you would never think that this was a 21-point blowout loss; you'd think maybe 10, maybe 12; you wouldn't think 21. Nor would you think that they never got close to keeping it a 4-6 point game in the second half. 

This is the "map" of the entire game. Look at it! That was not the map in Spo's head.


The “Heat” ended the 1H +2. At 10:09 3Q, less than 2’ in, they were already -5--still on Spoelstra’s mental map but having drifted listlessly seven points. They then got it to -3; GSW got it back to -5; then -7; -5 at 8:51; -7, -5, -7, -5. The game map now was -5 to -7. Then Curry made a three at 7:18, the biggest deficit, -8, so far and getting farther off the map. -6, -4 at 6:46, back on the map; -6, -5, and then at 4:05 Curry pushed it off the map again to -7. -4 to -6 became -5 to -7 and now -7 to -13. The game was over less than 8’ into the 3Q.

There was an unreality to the mapping that was going on in Spoelstra's head. The map in his mind did not correspond to the reality that his surveyors, Niko and Patty and Caleb and Jaime were navigating on terra firma. Not once does Spoelstra mention the deficiencies of his surveyors, they were good "enough", "definitely", for him. Not once does he mention the absent, Duncan and Tyler, above all Jimmy. Yet, they are why the real map diverged so sharply from Spo's mental map.

With inspirational defense as the spur, the players just "will find a way to make shots".

Pause, for this is key. The talent that this org demands in players is for defense, not offense. You have to be able to play defense. They want great playmakers on defense. The shots that these offensively challenged, defensive savants take will then just miraculously begin to go in. They "find a way to make shots"--not with shot-making talent (as with, e.g., Steph Curry and Klay Thompson) but through "inspiring defensive plays" that please the basketball gods and lead to divine intervention via earthly instruments named Patty and Haywood and Caleb. Faith in an almighty can be beautiful to gaze upon. An earthly boxscore that reveals reality to be 40.2% shooting with 24.2% from distance is "ugly", and destructive to Faith.

                                          "The moments of truth", i.e. "the pivotal skirmishes".


                                                   This is curious to me. It is a repeat of what he said after another one of the brutal recent home losses, either to Washington or New Orleans.


 Maybe the home fans booed? Maybe the write-ups leveled the "don't care" charge? I don't know for sure but this is the second time he has said that. I think they care, I think they laid it all out there, I don't think they have the talent.

Ira Winderman Answers a Ticket-Buyer’s Question

Q: Might as well reduce the season down to 70 games along with players’ contracts. If I would’ve called in sick this much when I was working, I would have been fired. Granted, they play a physical game. Then why 82 games with a long postseason? – Pipsy.

A: Except this way the league can still get 82 games of revenue. And the Heat still have listed every game as sellout, meaning whether all their players are available or not, they still are selling all of their tickets. Also, the television ratings still are such that they can support an 82-game product during the regular season. It’s almost as if, as a fan, you have to accept that you will see the complete product only some of the time. It’s certainly not as if the 65-game requirement for NBA postseason awards has changed much if anything.

All true. It’s all about the Benjamins. The economic term for this is “inelastic demand”, no matter the quality of the product the consumer keeps on consuming. It’s why billionaires give up their building a better mousetrap companies and buy sports teams.

Tempest in a Pencil Holder

NBC reversed its hiring of Ronna McDaniel after a public revolt by other network preening peacocks. McDaniel was RNC chair from 2017 to just recently. She carried much fetid water for Trumpie, dumped it on the “enemies of the people” at this network and others, and on Democracy in America. Trumpie forced her out at the RNC. NBC’s hiring of McDaniel was so quick she barely had time to pack before she had to unpack. Now she has to pack again. 

The hiring decision was unanimous in the C suite at 30 Rock, as was the virulent opposition among the great unwashed underneath the Rock and on air. How this could have been done with unanimity among the execs is a profile in corporate governance tone deaf-ness. McDaniel was a notorious peddler of Trumpie’s lies, a gleeful press basher and a trafficker in election denial. “Okay, so it’s unanimous? We bring Ronna McDaniel on board?” What were they thinking?

FTs

In the game of the night La-La Bron-Bron came from 19 down in the 4TH QUARTER to beat Doc's Brew in doublay Oh-Tee in Beer. The victors are ninth out west while Mil. is an extremely distant second in the East. Two extremely talented teams in late March. It doesn't get much better than that whatever their records.

Down here, two glamour franchises, fraying with wear and tear, the "Heat" and "Warriors". GSW ran away with a close game after half-time. 113-92 the final. Miami didn't have its wounded warrior, Jimmy Butler. Golden State is fighting to stay in a play-in slot in the West; the "Heat" are solidly in that last four group in the East. Ten games left for Miami, eleven for Golden State.

Pepper

Guys, I put pepper in my COFFEE. Just common black table pepper. I put pepper in/on EVERYTHING now. I LOVE it. I'd put pepper on ice cream. It's an incredible spice.

hello

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Golden State Running: 77-70, 3:22 (24-15 3Q)

Spo started:

Niko
Bam-O
Patty
Scary Terry
3J

That is the 35th different starting lineup. Bam and Heywood Highway are team-high with 13; Klay game-high 15.

HT 🎪🔥55 ☮️53


HT Doc's Brew 58 La-La Bron-Bron 42 :o

Requiem for a Heavyweight


He just can’t do it anymore. I bet it’s true. This guy's a long time "Heat" reporter. Makes me feel bad. Jimmy is 6’7”, 230 lbs but has a bigger heart. He plays physically and among the biggest, strongest players in the Association. He takes a lot of pounding, fears no one and fears no pain. He never complains. If he can go, he goes, and when he can’t he really can’t. He has been doing it all of his career and at 34 years old…As the Big O says, he’s just worn down and broken physically. This is an important and painful to read report.

The line moved from Peaceniks -1.5 to Peaceniks -4.5

 Anthony Slater
@anthonyVslater
No Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson tonight for the Heat vs Warriors
Quote
Anthony Chiang
@Anthony_Chiang
·
24m
Jimmy Butler (non-COVID illness) and Kevin Love (heel) are OUT tonight.
5:48 PM · Mar 26, 2024
·
70K
 Views

Eleven Reading Churchill

She is over her latest heat "season". Four days and BY FAR the easiest for me.🙏

*

Two articles by 🎪 🔥 beat writers today accentuate some perennial quirks at 601 Biscayne. 

Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel answers a reader's question, why the difference between the Katrina "Heat" and the Gilbert ☠ "Heat"?

…there...was more energy and commitment from the Heat [against Cle]. To me, the problem is that the Heat all too often this season have been a “sometimes” team. This Heat roster is not good enough to be a “sometimes” team. And oftentimes, the result is where the Heat currently stand, as a middle-of-the-pack team. That said, sometimes can turn into all the time, as happened with the Heat in last season’s playoffs.—Ira Winderman

So four things there: 1) lack of consistent effort. That's an uncommon criticism. Why there would be less against Katrina when Jimmy Butler put a target on his team's back and when both games, at home, were in the last few during a playoff push is incomprehensible by me. 2) lack of talent. That's an uncommon criticism coming from the local pencils, not elsewhere (including here). 3) "oftentimes...middle of the pack", yeah like for ten regular seasons running. 4) The only thing that matters to this org with this team is the 'loffs. An "eighty-two game league"? They don't accept that. Let the ticket-buying public eat cake.

Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald:

The Heat has already set a new franchise record with 34 different starting lineups used this season. The previous Heat record for most different starting lineups used in a season was 31 in the 2014-15 season.

2014/15 was the first season post-LBJ, and when Chris Bosh developed heart problems. That was Year Chaos. 

The broader point though is that Erik Spoelstra is a tinkerer at heart. The org has made no major changes to the roster in the last few off-seasons. The team's core has been together for a few years. They are playoff-seasoned. Injuries happen. "Fourth-most this season!" as every local pencil feels compelled to write in every article. "It's not an excuse" as Spoelstra feels compelled to say after every L. Then Spoelstra is tinkering too much or the org's vaunted Culture, "hardest working, best conditioned", is wearing the players down. There are marquee players who don't want to come to Miami because of the demands of "Heat" culture. The 2013/14 Finalists to a man told Pat Riley in exit interviews that they were mentally exhausted after four Finals appearances. Riley didn't accept that.

That lack of clarity and continuity could be driving the Heat’s inconsistent play this regular season, ... But those within the organization believe it will turn into an advantage this postseason.

 “Yes, you do need continuity and chemistry, which plays a big part. But I think we have that between our guys. …—Caleb Martin

It's not just this season, it was last, too. Lack of clarity and continuity has been a deal-breaker for some players in past seasons, Hassan Whiteside several years ago and Dwayne Dedmon last season are two who immediately come to mind and two who got a one-way ticket out of town by going public with their frustrations with "lack of clarity and continuity".

“There’s always going to be a benefit,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “A lot of guys get to step up and earn the opportunity to impact winning. The more players that can be engaged in a season and impact wins, that helps. Our versatility is super important for our team. So we feel like we’ve been able to weather some of the missed games.”

When anyone uses a categorical such as "always", that person should be met with skepticism and a psychiatric team. Point out the "always a benefit" in these numbers, Spo: 39-32, 45-37. Chiang, not a shrink, meets Spo's pollyannaism with skepticism:

That’s one way to view it, but a look at the Heat’s lineup data shows that injuries have prevented Miami from establishing a reliable go-to combination this season.

That's just 601 Biscayne's talking point, delivered before any article is written and made compulsory reading by those who write them. So let's test the sturdiness of that crutch: What has the team's record been when its new "Big Three" have been able to play together?

…the Heat’s leading trio of Adebayo, Butler and Tyler Herro to just 21 games played together this season, with Herro sidelined since late February because of a foot issue. The Heat went just 10-11 in those games…

Oh. Frowny face. Anthony, you just kicked your own crutch away. The crutch then gets broken into pieces with this two-season stat:

Since Tyler became a starter in 2022/23 the "Heat's" record with the "Big Three" starting is at this writing, 36-36.

...

Only one Heat lineup, whether starting or not, has logged more than 100 minutes together this season. That’s the unit of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic and Bam Adebayo, which has been outscored by 4.2 points per 100 possessions in 115 minutes together this season.

So the Big Three lineup and the most-used lineup haven't worked. That doesn't sound good.

In contrast, the Boston Celtics’ primary five of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis entered Monday with 554 minutes played together this season.

Is there a talent disparity there or do my eyes deceive me? Terry, Duncan, Jimmy, Niko, Bam vs Holiday, White, Brown, Tatum, Porzingis.

…. “You got to have different guys out there. I think coach is trying to figure out who jells well together, so it’s the long game.”Terry Rozier

That long game needs to produce positive results soon, with just 11 games left on the Heat’s regular-season schedule. 

The "Heat" is playing a disingenuous, cynical, and dangerous hand. 

Disingenuous: "We have enough". Whoever we have on the roster plus the Wizard in the penthouse who collected and assembled it is enough to win a championship. We haven't had enough since 2013! 

Cynical: Because we don't have enough, 601 Biscayne has narrowed its focus to the playoffs at the expense of the regular season and to the expense of the ticket-buying fan. Cynical also because success has been redefined from hoisting the gold Larry O'Brien Trophy to, at best, taking the silver medal in the Finals. In our two recent Finals appearances we have not come close to winning. 

Dangerous: The team needed a game-two W in the play-in to begin the playoffs as the eighth seed and make their run all the way to the Finals in 2022/23. They are in a play-in slot now. If they survive the play-in this season they guarantee themselves the hardest or second-hardest path in the playoffs. If they finish sixth they play the three-seed. NBA basketball is not Olympic gymnastics. You don't get points for degree of difficulty. The playoffs are a Darwinian gauntlet in which only the strongest, fleetest, fittest, most-skilled survive. Through *72 games [including the GSW game march 26] this season the "Heat" are 17-24 against those teams, statistically defined here as those that have a record of .500 or better. (Hindsight is always 20/20: In 2022/23 we were 24-24 against .500 and better teams, fourth best in the East. We should have seen it coming.) There is no reason-based expectation that this team will repeat last season's Miami Miracle. 

If they don't make another deep run, what becomes of "Heat Culture"?

Hey

Monday, March 25, 2024

PIGEONS DO IT! MIRACULOUS COMEBACK! BEAT BOSTON CITY 120-118!

A famous win for ATL. An infamous loss for Boston City who led by 22 after 1Q and by as many as 30. CONGRATULATIONS TO ATL! As for Boston, they should be embarrassed.

120-116, :9.2 LEFT, BEANS FTO! PIGEONS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT!

117-116, :32.3 4Q

Pigeons 115 Beans 114, 1:17 4Q

Boston City Led ATL…44-22 end 1Q. Now: 107-107, 5:56 4Q

Beans get bored. Mental weakness is their soft spot. One through fifteen there is no team in the Association with as much talent. But they let their talent go to their heads.

Sleeping Beauty


I think little Eleven’s latest heat term is over. At this time last night she was mate-calling as if from a loudspeaker and even this morning she was rubbing and humping on me. Four days this period lasted and no violence. I can handle that easily.

Misc.

  •  A New York state appellate court reduced Trumpie's appeals bond today to $175M from the full judgment of $454M. I don't remember if I judged that reduction or pause was reasonable in print. If I didn't, I thought it. It's not reasonable that a bond be set so high that it deprives a defendant of his right to appeal. The judgment in this case was extraordinary. No bonding company had ever guaranteed so humongous an amount and none would. If it is NY s.o.p. to require the full amount in bond to appeal then s.o.p. had to yield. That's what I thought. Now that I think about it, I do remember writing here that Trumpie's "I have $500M cash!" statement doomed his efforts to get this paused or reduced. I don't know how the NY Court of Appeals got around that, but they did. The reduction today, which carries with it a 10-day period for Trumpie to come up with the $175M, is not in any way shade on NY AG Leticia James case or Judge Arthur Engeron's ruling.
  • In Manhattan, also today, Judge Juan Merchan dismissed Trumpie lawyers pleas for a distant (like after the election (which Trumpie will lose anyway)) trial date in the Stormy Daniels case, The judge set trial for April 15 and that date was etched in fast-drying cement by Judge Merchan.
  • Bitcoin reached another record high today. One bitcoin now trades for $70,597.60 per.
  • The big legal news of last week, the past year, the past many years, was the settlement that the National Association of Realtors made with plaintiffs in several states accusing the trade group of being essentially a cartel and fixing housing prices. NAR has controlled the market for 100 years. The settlement, a total defeat for NAR, came after five Missouri plaintiffs and a personal injury attorney who didn't know MLS from Major League Soccer scored a complete victory at a jury trial over NAR's high-powered, silk-stocking lawyers. The verdict and settlement liberate, no other word will do, something like 20% of the American economy from the NAR cartel's clutches and is enormous victory for home buyers and sellers. Home prices will drop, benefiting buyers, and sellers will benefit by not having to fork over their half of the 6% commission that NAR all but mandated.

Everytime I listen to Kai Ryssdal talk I get a tickle. His diction is so, so, soooo SoCal. And everytime I wonder: does he, do SoCallies, talk like that with each other? If you meet them on the street do they talk like that? It tickles me the more to imagine a conversation with Kai on a chance meeting.

I’M GONNA PROTEST!



La-La Bron-Bron Beat Indiana Marymount 150-145 Last Night

Indiana remains in sixth place (the last slot to avoid the play-in) in the East but fell to only .5 game ahead of 🎪Heat who have one game in hand. Indiana Marymount is at La-La Beard-Beard tonight while 🎪is idle. If Marymount loses they would fall to seventh and the "Heat" would ascend to sixth. The "Heat" play Tuesday night home to Golden Pond. The Peaceniks have a better record away from home (18-15) than the "Heat" have under the Big Tent (18-16).

Happy Holi, the Hindu Festival of Color

 

Look at that! Gorgeous. Holi celebrates the arrival of Spring. And those are so Spring colors.

 This is Day Four of my little girl’s latest “season”.


The NBA season is fascinating to me. It lasts so long, the teams play so many games, only the former American "pastime" sport of baseball, before it folded, lasted longer. 

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Each NBA season is a segment of a compressed life. The average NBA career is 4.5 years. The average American life is 77 years. Each NBA life is 17 normal person years. Each game of those 4.5 NBA life-years is three weeks of normal life. Every night there are up to thirty different team mini-life segments playing out in public at venues in every major city in America, and in Charlotte. 

Take last night. My team won. That was great. That wasn't what was compelling about last night. It was what was going on with the other team’s three-weeks of NBA life. What the heck was that from Cleveland last night? I would love to have been there as Chris Fedor was to see what he saw, to study the players and the huddles, the interplay and the intraplay, the body language.

In every NBA game there are these team mini-lives that you can see playing out if you watch closely and if you know the teams. Not every team game-life is going to be as dramatic as Cleveland's last night, but there is going to be something, something beyond and above the final score.

As I lay awake before getting up today I wondered if I could reasonably spend, say a week, traveling the NBA circuit from city to city, sitting among the fans, but in really good seats, with a pair of opera glasses and take notes. I have the wherewithal to do it, I have the time to do it, but I don't know if I could or would. I could watch all the night's games over a couple days, read all the local roundups, see if there was anything as significant as what went on with Cleveland last night in Miami. That would be more doable.

👋 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

I just watched JB Bickerstaff’s press conference after the game and after a couple of questions from others, the Cavs presser moderator could be heard calling on “Chris” for the next question, Chris Fedor. Fedor’s question was,

“…Was there something specifically about tonight that troubled you?”

i.e.:

“It was an… unacceptable top-to-bottom no-show.

“No heart or effort. Missed layups. Comical turnovers (three of them in the first five possessions). Absurd fouls. An inability to solve the Heat zone. Baffling lineups. Abysmal body language. An overall nonchalance…”

Bickerstaff knew exactly what Fedor was referencing, he saw it, but he wouldn’t go there. 

"I'm not going to take away from what our guys have done to get us to this point, um, you know again, this is uncharacteristic, it's not who our team is..."

“Why’d you pull your starters in the 3rd quarter?”

“Oh just I mean you know you could feel there wasn't anything there...so, you know, just go to the bench and see if we could find a spark from the bench..."

Pencils seldom get anything out of coaches at these things. The coaches are experienced in parrying while saying nothing. There is no doubt in what Chris Fedor saw and wrote, and for Bickerstaff and Cleveland observers and fans tonight was shocking, disturbing, ominous with the playoffs coming fast.

"Cleveland is a sensitive city" wrote Richard Sandomir for the New York Times almost 30 years ago. The city and its residents are haunted by ghosts, the city is crowded with them, there are ghosts in every Clevelander's closet and under every bed. Doom is in every room. Today, in basketball, the ghost is 2023 when Cleveland won 51 regular season games, earned the 4th seed and home court in the first round of the playoffs, and then were bullied and out-hustled and out-effort-ed and dispatched to the off-season four games to one by New York. What Fedor saw and said and what Bickerstaff saw and wouldn't say was that ghost of shrinking submission rising again and stalking this "sensitive city". Are they to see another stellar regular season humiliatingly obliterated in the post-season--again?

So this loss, to a Miami team that had lost three straight at home, that has the worst home record among playoff hopefuls in the East, this "embarrassing" blow-out to this "Heat" team who have their own compound issues, where Cle was a "no-show," with "no heart or effort", "abysmal body language," "an overall nonchalance," that causes the heebie-jeebies in Cleveland. And with good reason.

The Numbers From Tonight Are Staggering

Bam Adebayo totaled 15 points, 16 rebounds, five steals and four assists in just 28 minutes…

Miami (39-32) got a team-high 18 points from reserve Haywood Highsmith. Starter Jimmy Butler had 15 points and six assists in 24 minutes.

For the game, Miami shot 51.8% from the floor and 39.5% on 3-pointers (15-for-38). Miami outscored Cleveland 50-34 in the paint and 24-2 in fast-break points.

Cleveland shot 41.7% from the floor, including 9-for-29 from deep (31.0%).

Miami was without Jaime Jaquez Jr. (knee/ankle), who is new to the injury list; Duncan Robinson (back), Tyler Herro (foot), Kevin Love (foot) and Josh Richardson (shoulder).

Cleveland was without two starters: Donovan Mitchell (broken nose) and ex-Heat wing Max Strus (knee).

This is a FURIOUS Indictment of Cle’s Night

Cavs hit rock bottom in embarrassing 121-84 loss to Miami Heat


By Chris Fedor, cleveland.com


MIAMI — The Cavs hit rock bottom Sunday night.

Cleveland got embarrassed by the Miami Heat, 121-84. It’s the third straight loss and fourth in the last five games. This was, by far, the ugliest of the year.

Sunday was supposed to be an exciting night in Miami. Not just because it was the finale of the popular and untamed Ultra Music Festival that took over much of downtown. But because it was the return of young forward Evan Mobley.

Mobley scored the first points of the game — a smooth 3-pointer from the left wing. That was the Cavs’ first, last, and only lead of the night. They got clobbered the rest of the way, trailing for XXX
[sic] total minutes, by as many as 45.

This wasn’t just an off night. …

It was an uncharacteristic and unacceptable top-to-bottom no-show.

No heart or effort. Missed layups. Comical turnovers (three of them in the first five possessions). Absurd fouls. An inability to solve the Heat zone. Baffling lineups. Abysmal body language. An overall nonchalance against a no-nonsense opponent that outclassed them in every way, sending another clear message with the playoffs just weeks away.

By the end of a listless first half, the Cavs trailed by 21 points. It only got worse from there.

After Miami opened the third quarter on an 11-5 run, Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff pulled all five of his starters — Darius Garland, Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro, Jarrett Allen and Mobley. The only one who re-entered the game was Mobley, as he clearly needs game reps and conditioning work following a nine-game absence…


HE PULLED HIS STARTERS EARLY IN THE 3Q!

With 10 games remaining, the Cavs suddenly have some soul-searching to do.

I know this reporter's writing and he was pissed. I cannot ever remember reading a Cleveland pencil letting the home team have it like this. EVER.

"Heat build biggest lead in more than a decade, roll past Cavaliers 121-84"-AP

...the Heat...led by 45 in the fourth quarter. Their biggest lead this season entering Sunday was 33, also against Cleveland on Nov. 22, and the 45-point cushion was their largest since leading Chicago by 46 in a playoff game on May 8, 2013.

 The last year we won a championship; the penultimate year of the Big Three.

😳



I’ve always believed in the “Heat”

Fucking 112-72, 5:25 4Q. Unfuckingbelievable.

HT 60-39

42-26! Are the Gilberts ⚰?

 

La-La Beard-Beard Lost at Home-Home to Procedure Addressers :o 107-121

Carnival 32 Rocket Mortgage 22, End 1Q

"Georges Niang" Two 3-pointers, 26-20, 1:07 1Q, Rocket Mortgage Full Foreclosure

Haywood Highway Trey, 24-14

18-9, 4:35 1Q. Jimbo 9 points, 3 rebs

Carnival 14 Rocket Mortgage 7, Carny Full Set Change

9-3. See, I told you.

0-3. It's early.

Carnival Starters

Niko
Jimbo
Bam-O
P-Mills
T-Ro

HT La-La Beard-Beard 56 Procedure Addressers 63

 


I love the "Heat" but  there are a lot of things to do in Miami from November to April.

Zollner scored TEN points in the 1Q against Katrina. TEN! HT 41-57

“At least 137” Now Killed in Russian ISIS Attack-CNN

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Well, the "Ducks" got oblitered by Illinoise.

NC State beat Oakland in OT. 

Gonzaga ousted Kansas, and North Carolina routed Michigan State. The two C'lina schools may be on a collision course.

Oy vey

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a famous speech in the well of the Senate on March 14 on Israel and the Palestinians. You can read the entire, unedited version here.

The speech has caused great introspection among Jews worldwide, as if Jews for their entire Pause: Eleven is in heat again; she wants me to give her sex. I'm not going to give her sex but I'm also not going to get her spayed. Yet. Unpause. existence as a people have not done enough of that. I just listened to a nytimes The Daily podcast devoted to this speech. I don't know if the host of The Daily is Jewish or if the NYT reporter who followed up Schumer's speech with an interview is Jewish but it is anguished and self-examining listening.

I am sure that you know of Schumer's speech and probably read some accounts of it. I will summarize the main points but only in this consideration of the speech from my non-Jewish, American, Democratic point of view, which is viz,

For me and for many Americans, Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu are one entity. It is as if Netanyahu has swallowed Israel whole. He has been prime minister so long that, old as I am, I cannot except with difficulty and a refresher course remember what Israel sans Netanyahu was--nor envision what it may be in the future. Schumer wants to separate Israel from Netanyahu. Me too. EASIER SAID THAN DONE AND IT'S NOT OUR PLACE TO SAY OR DO! IT'S THE ISRAELI PEOPLE WHO MUST SEPARATE THE TWO!

This confluence has inured to Israel's detriment for me and for many American Democrats. Netanyahu is an asshole, as my president says, an asshole who, in making himself one with the Jewish state has opened daylight between that state and the United States, and an asshole who is changing Israel from a liberal Jewish democracy to a right-wing theocratic Jewish state without an independent judiciary. My personal opinion on Israel changed to the point that in the year before October 7, I became disenchanted and disillusioned with America's umbilical cord connection with Israel and advocated cutting that cord. 

At the most bedrock level of consideration I asked many times in print, how a state can be independent if after 75 years it is still dependent on another state, the U.S. for its survival?

And is a Jewish theocratic, only quasi-democratic, state still the state that the U.S. wishes to support with its aid, material and materiel?

So my top level objection to Schumer's speech is his acknowledgment of that life-or-death tie. Without U.S. support Israel would cease to exist. And I, until Oct. 7, did not want my country, the U.S., to support this metastasizing tumor that is the Israel-Netanyahu Jewish theocracy.

Schumer called for new elections in Israel--as if there haven't been enough elections in Israel in the last few years. Schumer called for new elections in Israel for the Israeli citizenry to replace Netanyahu

Dude...

Schumer said he didn't want to be seen as interfering in Israel's internal affairs--Wait what?--which is why he wasn't calling on Netanyahu to resign. 

The key fallacy to Schumer's argument is his conflation of Netanyahu's unpopularity as prime minister. Schumer wants Israelis to vote Netanyahu out of office when the war is over because of his conduct of the war and opposition to a two-state solution to the eternal Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, to Israelis, those are not the same issue. In a late December poll, only 15% of Israelis wanted Netanyahu to continue as prime minister after the war in Gaza ends. But in separate polls in Feb. 2024 nearly 66% support an invasion of Rafah, which President Biden and Sen. Schumer oppose (unless priority is given to Palestinian civilian lives) and 55% reject a Palestinian state. In short, Schumer wants Netanyahu replaced for all the wrong reasons from Israelis' point of view.

Schumer believes that an Israeli-controlled state from the River to the Sea "guarantees certain war forever".

"If Israel were to...tighten its control over Gaza and the West Bank, as some in the current Netanyahu administration have suggested — in effect creating a de facto single state — then what reasonable expectation can we have that Hamas and their allies will lay down their arms? It would mean constant war."

The fallacy there is in the belief that negotiations yield peace while total victory in war "guarantees certain war forever." That was the belief behind the World War I armistice, which merely gave Germany time to rearm and start World War II. That was the belief behind Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's peace at any cost agreements with Hitler which enslaved Czechoslovakia and led to the subjugation of all of Central and Eastern Europe. War until unconditional surrender is forced on the opponent led to peace in the American Civil War, in World War II in Europe and in Japan.

And what Schumer's position on continued aid to Israel would be if Netanyahu were returned to power by Israelis, Schumer did not explicitly say. He did implicitly say that American moral support and material aid would be jeopardized.

Schumer said that if Netanyahu were to continue in power (as voted by Israeli citizens) then the U.S. would have no other recourse but to use its "tools" of influence. Which means money, aid military and civil. But he doesn't want to interfere!

So my top level disagreement was confirmed rather than dispelled. All others are secondary to me but for the record:

Hamas' goal in the October 7 attack was not to drive Israel into the sea, it was to drive a wedge between Israel and other Arab states inching toward peace with Israel, and between the U.S. and Israel.

"Their goal on October 7 was to provoke a tough response from Israel by killing as many Jews as possible in the most vicious manner possible — by raping women, executing babies, desecrating bodies, brutalizing whole communities."

"Hamas launched their attack on October 7 to provoke Israel, given that Hamas sought the ensuing civilian toll in Gaza, given that Hamas wanted both Israelis and Arabs to be at each other’s throats…"

"Before October 7, things were moving in the right direction. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia both were on the path to normalization with Israel...Many believe that Iran motivated Hamas to disrupt this process..."

"Hamas...has undermined any hope for peace at every turn. It was Hamas who began its vicious campaign of suicide bombings against innocent Israelis to derail the nascent peace process in Oslo."

Schumer called for a two-state solution--but a "demilitarized" Palestinian state. I opposed, post-Oct. 7, two states but a demilitarized Palestine is a horse of a different color! Schumer did not say how he proposed to make an independent Palestine demilitarized without Israel policing it, which would make it not quite independent, but perhaps the international community could. 

There were a couple of other points of interest mainly to me and my cogitations. Democracy is not the answer:

"This state would be majority Palestinian, and in the past, some Palestinians have voted to empower groups like Hamas, which seeks to eradicate the Jewish people. 

Hamas received 44% of the vote in the 2006 Palestinian elections. In December, 2023, two months after Oct. 7, a poll conducted in Gaza showed popular support for Hamas at 42%--up from 38% in September, 2023.

Yet, Schumer says, "Palestinian civilians do not deserve to suffer for the sins of Hamas..." Well, 42% of them DO.

"It is longstanding American policy to support democracy overseas, but in this hypothetical single state, democracy could cost Israeli Jews their safety if extremists were to take control of this new state of affairs to ultimately achieve their true aim: the violent expulsion of Jews from the Holy Land.

"This is no abstract fear. Thousands of years of Jewish history show that when things go badly, the people of the country in which Jews live — even in a democracy — all too often turn on them as convenient scapegoats. There is no guarantee this wouldn’t happen again in a single Israeli-Palestinian state."

Schumer is thinking quite directly and correctly of Hitler's ascension in Germany by popular vote. Democracy is not a one-size fits-all solution to all the world's problems. I agree.


Coat of Arms Palestine           Nazi insignia

Yet, Schumer places faith in democracy:

"Once Hamas is deprived of power, the Palestinians will be much freer to choose a government they want and deserve. With the prospect of a real two-state solution on the table, and for the first time, genuine statehood for the Palestinian people, I believe they will be far more likely to support more mainstream leaders committed to peace.

"Middle Eastern powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and other mainstream Arab states can have immense power and influence with the Palestinians..."

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the "mainstream Arab state" of Saudi Arabia!

"The United States...can be a partner to a grand bargain in the Middle East by deepening our relationship with the Saudis and other Arab nations to induce them to make a deal — but only if they actively guide Palestinians toward a more peaceful future."

"Deepening our relationship" with the homeland of 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers!

"I think the same is true of the Israeli people. Call me an optimist, but I believe that if the Israeli public is presented with a path to a two-state solution that offers a chance at lasting peace and coexistence, then most mainstream Israelis will moderate their views and support it."

He wants a Palestine free of its democratically elected leadership; he wants an Israel free of its democratically elected leadership. Other than that his wants are realistic.

Another point,

"Second, Jews have a right to their own state."

No, they don't! No people do. Schumer is talking out his ass and using that naturally fertilized source to elevate his commitment to a Jewish state to the rarefied air of Immutable Truths. 

Where did this fakakta notion of statehood as a right come from? Schumer answers,

"...a national homeland for all peoples of the world has been the driving goal of the anticolonial movement of the last century..."

Oh, from the last century! You mean mid-20th century to today? Yeah, that's worked out well, huh. Give everybody who wants their own state a state and that'd be the end of war! NOT.

 "...Jews have a human right to their own state just as any other people do, Palestinians included."

Oh, it's a human right now! Not just a man-made right of disturbed thought from the 20th century, it's right up there with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! I see. NO. 

Statehood is not a right, not man-made, certainly not an eternal human right. You have to fight for statehood and, coming full circle now, if Israel can't prevail in that fight alone then it is not entitled to a state and would not be in any meaning of the word "independent" since its survival, admitted by Schumer, depended on another state, the United States.

This talk of rights: What is undisputed, without question, is that Americans have the right to choose which people, if any people, to support in their quest for statehood with our tax dollars and our military hardware. Schumer engages in a puerile, feel-good equivalence of non-existence rights. Not all peoples are created equal in American eyes for our, American, financial and military support. We choose who, if any people to support in that other people's fight for the survival of their own state, we the American people choose. And I, as one American, choose to support the Jewish people for a homeland, and that homeland is in, now and forever, Israel. 

Israeli society is as united as it has been recently in this existential fight against Hamas Nazis. I choose to support Israel at this time. 

When this war ends with the inevitable Israeli victory then I will reassess whether continued support for Israel-Netanyahu is consistent with America's values. But under no circumstances do I choose to let Israel be destroyed by Hamas Nazis. 

And for the same reasons I choose against a state for the Palestinian people. (If it can be demilitarized, if Schumer, et al can present a detailed workable plan, mebbe.)

I love Biden: "From ‘I Love You’ to ‘Asshole’: How Joe Gave Up on Bibi"-Politico

I love when mainstream pencils write like me.


What brought this about is the Washington Post is about to drop an investigative piece on this asshole and today the asshole devoted the first portion of her press conference ahead of LSU's NCAA game Sunday on the WaPo article, threatening to sue them and the reporter, award winner Kent Babb. That'll work!😁Next you hear of Mulkey she'll be unemployed and selling knockoff watches out of her jacket on the streets.                    

Manny Hatty Prevails Without OG Wankenobi 103-95

Half-time in Madison Square Garden and Manny Hatty trails Rust 56-57. OG Anunoby is out and 🍎 are just not the same team without him.

Manners

During Thanksgiving 2022 I was told that an ex-brother in law (I had been divorced 20 years and hadn't seen or heard from this person in excess of that time), an avid Trump supporter, had specifically asked if I was going to be present at my daughter's place in Rhode Island along with his sister-in-law (my (second) ex-wife) and his nephew, my son. He wanted to see me. I was greatly touched at this unexpected attention and to my family's puzzlement and annoyance, directed particular affection, which I had never felt for him when I was married, toward him during the visit. We went to a college hockey game, the tickets for which for all, I paid, insisted that I pay. I there met his nephew, a confused, slight, bullied 14-year old who had been taken in by my former b-i-l and former s-i-l. I extended my hand and he refused to shake until prodded by his aunt, my former s-i-l. We sat next to each other at the hockey game but he was non-interactive with me.

In 2023 my (second) ex-wife texted me that my ex-brother in law's birthday was whenever it was, I forget, and gave me his cell phone number. We had never extended birthday greetings before. I texted him affection birthday wishes. 

He didn't respond.

On a different occasion that same year my ex-sister in law texted my (second) ex-wife, myself, and my son, that the wayward nephew had received certain certificates of merit at school, including one for effort in phys ed. My former s-i-l thanked us as proof that "a little kindness" goes a long way. My (second) ex-wife and I responded with effuse congratulations to the boy. I went a step further. "Is there some small gift I could send him?"  She answered with a list of his wants and I ordered a plasma ball or something, it was a plasma something, from Amazon. I asked my form s-i-l for his address and had it sent directly to him.

He didn't respond.

After a few weeks, and concerned that maybe there was some fatality in the conveyance of the gift from Amazon to the boy, I inquired via text of my ex sister-in-law. "Oh yes! He received it."

During Thanksgiving 2023, now in Connecticut, I repeated the kindness I had shown to my ex brother-in-law, to the like annoyance of my family.

In 2023 I got a Twitter account. There is really some brilliant, witty work going on there by many people. One of those brilliances was by a young woman who covered Trumpie's legal trevails with particular faithfulness. I greatly appreciated her work and at one time clicked on the "pay me" button on her feed and gave her $100 and in words expressed by admiration for her and her work.

She never responded.

I also contributed money to the Senate campaign of Ruben Gallego in Arizona, I believe on more than one occasion, after seeing his Twitter feed.

I got no response other than more solicitations.

And I contributed money to a Texas Democratic candidate for Congress, a Muslim as I recall.

No response.

Then, just a few weeks ago, I received an invitation to a reelection event for a judge on whom I had extended particular career protection to on an occasion when I supervised her as a lawyer in the 1990's. I was her model, she told me once in court when she was still in the same office as a lawyer, for the supervisory position she had applied for, the same position that I once held. I was greatly touched. Didn't even remember the incident that earned me her gratitude. Had to be prompted by her. So, when I got the judicial invite, I clicked on the event, and made a donation. At first, $100; then thinking about it, and about her, $500. I contributed $500 to her campaign. 

Didn't get a response.

There is a lack of manners in all of these incidents, a want of the most basic courtesy with which we are imbued by our parents and teachers from the earliest age. "Please", "thank you", a note, an acknowledgment, something. Nothing. I got nothing. I deleted my Twitter account partly because of these experiences there. It is not a generational thing. The ages of the people in this post range from 15 to 20's, to 40's, to 70's. It's strangers and knowns, friends acquaintances and former extended family members, all "raised right". There is a common fatality in the conveyance of thanks in all, a failure even to acknowledge or respond that amounts to rudeness. I find this mystifying.

May 14, 1896, Coronation of Nicholas II of Russia

The scale and pomp of the preparations significantly exceeded previous coronations.

...

 On 19 May, an official government agency issued a telegram from Moscow that read: 

May 18, 1896 Picnic

"Moscow, May 18th. The brilliant course of coronation celebrations was darkened by a regrettable event. Today, 18 May, long before the start of the national holiday, a crowd of a few hundred thousand moved so swiftly to the place of distribution of treats on the Khodynka field, that the elemental force crushed a multitude of people ...". Coronation events continued according to schedule: in particular, on the evening of the same day a ball was held at the French embassy. The sovereign was present at all the planned events, including the ball, and that presence was perceived ambivalently in the wake of the tragedy.

The Khodynka tragedy was considered a grim omen for the reign of Nicholas II...

Tsar's response

The parties, receptions and balls after the Coronation were darkened by the catastrophe at Khondinka [sic], where 2,000 people were crushed to death. The same day as the catastrophe, I was taking a walk along the Khondinka [sic] and I met many groups of people coming back from that site and carrying the Tsar's gifts. The strange thing, though, was that not one person mentioned the catastrophe, and I did not hear about it until the next morning, at the Governor General's palace, where General Prefect of Police Vlasovski brought a special report. Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich was very depressed by what had happened; he gave Vlasovski orders to return to him every hour with detailed reports on the progress of the investigation into the causes of the disaster.

--Alexei Volkov

A festive ball had been scheduled that night at the French embassy. When Nicholas heard of the stampede, "he did not display the slightest emotion and that night attended a ball given in his honor".Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich warned the tsar not to go to the French ball, but Nicholas II attended nonetheless. Li Hongzhang, China's Imperial Commissioner on a European tour, was the most notable witness. Li was amused and said a Chinese emperor would not have attended the ball.

The government distributed a large amount of aid to the families of the dead, and a number of minor officials were dismissed. The negligence and the tone-deaf response of the imperial authorities, however, caused further public indignation. "The radiant smile on the face of Grand Duke Sergei prompted foreigners to remark that the Romanovs lacked judgment," Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich wrote.Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, then Governor-General of Moscow, became known as "the Prince of Khodynka" and the Emperor received the nickname of "Nicholas the Bloody".

19th of May. Saturday. Until now, everything was going, thank God, like clockwork, but today there was a great mishap. The crowd staying overnight at Khodynka, awaiting the start of the distribution of lunch and mugs pushed against buildings and there was a terrible crush, and awful to say trampled around 1300 people!! I found out about it at 10+1⁄2 hours before the report by [minister of war] Vannovski; a disgusting impression was left by this news. At 12+1⁄2 we had lunch and then Alix [Czarina] and I went to Khodynka to be present at this sad "national holiday." Actually there was nothing going on: we looked from the pavilion at the huge crowd that surrounded the stage from which the orchestra played all the time the anthem and "Glory." Went to Petrovsky [palace], where at the gate I received several delegations and then entered the yard. Here dinner was served under four tents for all township heads. I had to make a speech, and then another for the assembled marshals of the nobility. After going around the table, we left for the Kremlin. Dinner at Mama's at 8. Went to the ball at [French ambassador] Montebello's. It was very nicely arranged, but the heat was unbearable. After dinner, left at 2.
    

— From the diary of Emperor Nicholas II

(Wikipedia)


March 15-17, 2024 Coronation of Czar Vladimir

March 22, 2024 Attack at concert given by pop group Picnic

Terror attack by Islamic State, forewarned by U.S., on concert hall holding 6,200, site also of 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant that featured Donald Trump and other VIPs, on outskirts of Moscow, kills hundreds. “People began to panic, started to run and collided with each other. Some fell down and others trampled on them.”

Just three days before the attack, Putin had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society.”

After the attack, Putin canceled all other large public gatherings.

The attack, the deadliest in Russia in years, is a major embarrassment to the Russian leader and happened just days after he cemented his grip on the country for another six years in a vote that followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet times.

Some commentators on Russian social media questioned how authorities, who have relentlessly suppressed any opposition activities and muzzled independent media, failed to prevent the attack despite the U.S. warnings.

(Associated Press)

Go “Ducks”









Now, I like both of those nicknames. “Ducks” is whimsical for a school with the name Duquesne, and “Illini”, well that’s the fucking Indian tribe that the state gets its name from!

I’m for the “Ducks”. 

  • They’re from Pittsburgh. 
  • They’re underdogs—this is the first time they’ve made the NCAA tourney in 47 years! 
  • I rooted for them in my earliest years.
In the 1960’s the NCAA tournament was nothing, the NIT was the Big Dance. In the 1960’s Pitt was nothing in basketball, Duquesne was Pittsburgh’s major college basketball team. Duquesne made the NIT—they were good—Pitt played like Grove City College. Pitt played in Fitzgerald Field House, an ancient band box so small that Northern Cambria High School won the state (the state of Pennsyltucky, Class B (excluding teams from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia)) championship in 1965 in a game “staged” at Fitzgerald Field House. Madison Square Garden it was not.

So, Ich bin ein Duquesner. Go “Ducks”.


THE U.S. GOV'T DIDN'T PARTIALLY SHUTDOWN!

Man, when Wally says something, I listen! I won't anymore. Well, congratulations mostly to Dems, but also to those Repubes who had the bones in their brains adjusted. PARTIALLY FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT!

In Russia "More Than 100 Dead" (CNN); 115 (Yahoo); 143 (Reuters)

Friday, March 22, 2024

Partial U.S. Gov't Shutdown at Midnight

 

Senate Set to Miss Deadline to Keep Government Fully Funded (Wally)

House earlier passed $1.2 trillion bill to keep government funded over GOP conservatives’ objections

Updated March 22, 2024 10:17 pm ET

Houston, you have Longwood

A great porn name wasted on a college.

FT Katrina 🌬️ Out “Heat” 111-88

It was a 🤡show in the 🎪. Miami played no defense, couldn't shoot and got out-rebounded 56-34. Katrina hit Orlando last night and damaged only herself. She took aim at Miami and it was a direct hit.

 U.S. intelligence officials confirmed the claim by the Islamic State group’s branch based in Afghanistan that it was responsible…AP

AP: “Many” Killed in Russia; CNN: “At Least 60”

The street was lit up by the blinking blue lights of dozens of firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles… (AP)

That was the most remarkable scene to me.

Miami “Heat” Fans: This Ain’t Last Year

We’re not going to pull another Miami Miracle into the ECF. We’re going to pull a normal 45-37 eight-seed and get bounced in the first round. If we make it out of the play-in to the playoffs.

This is the last rodeo for this team. It’ll be broken up in the off season.

FTs

Zollner Pistons 102 Boston City 129
905 103 The Next Dynasty 123


Fittingly, it’s blowing rain like a hurricane in the 305

LETTT'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

The Zollner Pistons led Boston City 34-32 after 1Q.😁It's 53-69 at HT.

NCAA RELAYS! Colorado (10) 102 FU (7) 100

No OT, either. Regular Marymounts, these two.

Stupid, Putin

Putin dismissed US warnings about a potential terror incident as 'blackmail' just 3 days before concert hall attack


"The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours," the March 7 security alert said.

 Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB…called the incident a "terrorist attack."

Putin addressed the warnings a couple weeks later, criticizing the warning three days ago as "provocative."

"All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society," Putin said, according to state media reporting on his remarks.

YALE (13 SEED) BEATS SEC CHAMP AUBURN (4) 78-76

He is such a strange man, Donald Trump

I thought he had the instinct for self-preservation, at least. His mental affliction has deepened to erode that bedrock of the animal kingdom.

Another Republican Resigns; Majority +1



Dumb, Trump









 




“Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash,” he wrote in all caps, adding that he had planned to use “a substantial amount” on his presidential campaign.


With those dumb words, whether true or not, he just lost his motion to reduce or postpone. 

Why he would put that in writing 🤷🏻‍♂️.

ISIS Claims Responsibility

Per Noodles at 5:34.

130 Ambulances, Apie!



"Russia says 40 killed and more than 100 wounded in attack on Moscow concert hall"-AP

Guys, your own report says 50 emergency vehicles are outside! You and others have livecams outside.



Here’s NBC:


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It looks like one of my blue Christmas trees. Who are you going to believe, Russia or your lyin' eyes?





Elles and Gees, there are going to be HUNDREDS killed in this. The concert hall held 6,000 people.