The best thing about my job...

of course is the weekly paycheck.
Beyond that, it's the interesting documents we get to read and review.

And finally, it's the flexible schedule that permits 11.5 hours days, with a shortened Thursday and workweek freeing us up to pursue other options once our 40 hours are completed.

I'm not talking about jobs that have you working for 5 or so hours a day, 3 times a week, for 9 months at a time...

No tenure here, not many benefits either.
But it works for me --  I am able to sacrifice, live out of a commuter apartment, and maintain my expenses to live within my means while paying off the interest-free credit card loans I was forced to take during the economic hardship years when work was harder to find, and I am ashamed to say I was not making enough to pay my daily bills without credit.

The wolf will always be outside, close to the door, for me now.
I invested in education, in a time when that was no guarantee; that what you knew -- as compared to who you networked with -- was devalued.

Still, I celebrate my independence this year more than ever.
May you, and yours?, too have a happy holiday weekend, overcoming any obstacles, and carving out a place for yourself in our great nation.

Best Country on Earth, a democracy if we can maintain it,
and I am ever grateful to my own father, and mother, for making the journey and sacrifices necessary to make me a legal citizen from birth of this great land...

Yes, I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free...
And I won't forget the folks who worked
to ensure that right for me...
And I'll gladly stand Up! -- next to you?
and defend her, still today,
'cause there ain't no doubt I love this Land...
God Bless the U.S.A.*
~Greenwood, Lee.

(Not schmaltzy, or a war anthem, to me.)
See you back here next week, God willing...
-------------------

* From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennesee...
Across the plains of Texas,
from sea to shining sea...
From Dee-troit down to Y'ouston,
from New Yawk to LA,
well there's pride in every American heart,
and it's time we stand and say...

Yes, I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free...
And I won't forget the folks who worked
to ensure that right for me...
And I'll gladly stand Up! -- next to you?
and defend her, still today,
'cause there ain't no doubt I love this Land...
God Bless ...the ... U.S.A. !

Presidential Duties Not Keeping His Busy Enough?

Can't this wait until he is safely out of office, and can do the planning on his own time?

Obama Picks New York Architects to Design Presidential Library

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

The president and his wife, Michelle, spent months poring over proposals for the project and meeting with prospective architects at the White House

----------------------------

He's just a symbolic figurehead really,

no concept of the work he's shirked at all.

Nothing going down in our country, or around the globe, is too important for America's commander-in-chief to worry about but building his legacy?

"Obama... Out".

Never forget.

Hmm...

How to Swallow a Sword

By MALIA WOLLAN

Desensitize your gag reflex. Concentrate.

------------------------

I thought it was a "family" newspaper...
They need a street-smart editor in there, badly.

The President Rants but was Unable to Act on his Promise.

The president said he cares about poor people, about workers having a collective voice in the workplace, about kids getting an education and ensuring that the U.S. has a fair tax system.

"I suppose that makes me a populist," Mr. Obama said.
------------------

If only he had been willing to stay home and work to overcome the resistance of others to make the needed Change he promised, instead of arming the world and meeting with the upper-classes of nations across the globe...  Hillary has outshined him there.

During the press conference, Mr. Obama also addressed Trump's comments Tuesday in which he talked about withdrawing from trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"The prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market, that's the wrong medicine. It's not feasible," Mr. Obama said.

Maybe Mr. Trump will be able to implement the promises Mr. Obama made?  We will see, we will see...

Simple Solution.

The Hasidic community that has religious restrictions against men and women mixing in public places should simply fundraise and finance their own pool, privately.  Then, they could set their own rules, religious-based or otherwise. 

We've been here before, afterall.

When Catholic parents did not like the educations their children were receiving in public schools because they preferred to teach their children their own religious values during school hours, they went private.  After 20 years of discrimination against boys and men who do not share their faith, why should the Hasidic community be allowed to impose their religious restrictions on others?

For 20 years, the center has blocked off female-only hours to accommodate the area’s large Hasidic population. The pool has no male-only hours, and some Hasidic men swim during the hours that are open to all genders. An anonymous complaint was lodged recently with the city’s Human Rights Commission, which sent a notice to the parks department this spring saying that the policy might violate a city law barring gender discrimination in public accommodations.

...

Women’s hours are held three times a week during the summer months. At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, a lifeguard’s whistle squealed. “Everybody out,” she said.

In fact, the message was just for the men. The women’s hours would begin at 10:30 a.m. (There was a half-hour break in between.) Swimming freestyle in the lane marked “Slow,” Tim Main stopped and gripped the pool ladder, peeling off his goggles. He turned to the nearest pool-goer and threw up his hands. “I hope this goes all the way to the Supreme Court,” he said before climbing out and shaking off.

“The idea of being kicked out from swimming time isn’t really the issue,” Mr. Main, 56, said later, now dry and standing on Bedford Avenue in front of the brick pool house. “It’s the creeping of religious stricture into public space.”

...
Gripping a yellow pool noodle, Miriam Kahn, 77, treaded water in a pink dress and a pink ruffled swimming cap on Wednesday morning. “In our religion, women don’t go to no beach, don’t go to no movies, nothing,” she said in a thick Israeli accent. “Can’t we have this something?”

Sure you can, Mrs. Kahn.
But you cannot do it while discriminating on the public dime.

Take a lesson from the Catholics:  privatize if you feel so strongly about gender roles, segregation and modesty.  But please understand:  you do not have the power in America to impose your religious values on others in public spaces.

Too bad the Supreme Court got that ruling wrong about publicly imposing Christian prayers at the start of public meetings... That too will change one day, sooner rather than later, I hope.  Nothing prevents politicians and the public from gathering together before such meetings to pray privately, but that should not be mandatorily imposed on others either, who might or might not share the prayer leader's faith and religious practices.

That's America, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.  God knows where he stands in our hearts and souls, and he'd much rather be present in our actions rather than be used to divisively favor this group or that.

Imagine...

I want you to imagine how much better your life can be if we start believing in America again.

I want you to imagine how much better our future can be if we declare independence from the elites who've led us to one financial and foreign policy disaster after another.
...
If we're going to deliver real change, we're going to have to reject the campaign of fear and intimidation being pushed by powerful corporations, media elites, and political dynasties.

The people who rigged the system for their benefit will do anything - and say anything - to keep things exactly as they are.

The people who rigged the system are supporting Hillary Clinton because they know as long as she is in charge nothing will ever change.

The inner cities will remain poor.
 The factories will remain closed.
 The borders will remain open.
 The special interests will remain firmly in control.

Hillary Clinton and her friends in global finance want to scare America into thinking small - and they want to scare the American people out of voting for a better future.
------------------
 More?

Today, we import nearly $800 billion more in goods than we export.

This is not some natural disaster. It is politician-made disaster.

It is the consequence of a leadership class that worships globalism over Americanism.

This is a direct affront to our Founding Fathers, who wanted America to be strong, independent and free.

 Oh yes we can!
(Don't believe me, just watch...)

And on that note... make it a great workday America: stay cool, stay strong and happy hump day.

3 hours later, the police responded...

Orlando Police Radio Calls

Radio transmissions by Orlando Police Department dispatchers reflect hours of chaos that followed the first reports of gunshots at the crowded Pulse nightclub on June 12.

--------------------If it hadn't been a gay nightclub, you have to wonder if the police would have summoned the courage to go in earlier?

The first call was made to Orlando police department at 2:02 a.m., from a caller informing cops of “shots fired” inside the gay club where people had turned out for a Latino night.

Cops were at the scene of the shooting less than two minutes after that first call, but it wasn’t until after 5 a.m. that 11 Orlando SWAT team members burst into the club...

In the three hours it took for police to take action, victims inside the club stayed on the line with police dispatchers, many of whom had been shot and were clinging to life, the logs reveal.

Let Them Rest in Peace Already.

The NYT dredges up another tale of failure amongst the victims.  Why?

Escape Tunnel, Dug by Hand, Is Found at Holocaust Massacre Site

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

In 1944, 80 captive Jews who were being forced to burn bodies at a Nazi extermination site attempted an escape.

-----------------

But ultimately, they failed and we all know the rest of the story...

Who in the audience demands these stories of the NYT, and the persistence of the ongoing narrative that Jews are but victims?  Not any victims, history's ultimate victims.

Who is still buying into these stories, I wonder?

"Oh, He Got Up!"

Secure your loads before you travel...
and always wear your helmet.

The life you save might be your own...

Brendan Jankowski was the man at the handlebars of that motorcycle, a 2015 Yamaha he had just purchased for his 20th birthday two weeks prior to the crash. The dashcam video (taken by Linda Leverty and posted both to her YouTube and Facebook accounts) captures a black Chevy SUV passing her vehicle in the left lane pulling a ski boat with the the large rolled-up water mat on the back deck.

As the video continues Jankowski also passes Leverty's car, and is approximately three or four car lengths behind the boat when the mat rolls off. He tries to change lanes but is unable to avoid the mat, and both Jankowski and his new bike are sent cartwheeling down the pavement at highway speed.

Jankowski rolls like a log down the interstate, coming to a rest square in the middle of the left lane of I-94. He is extremely fortunate another vehicle is not right on his heels, or he would have been run over.  

Jankowski tells KARE 11's Dylan Wohlenhaus he only suffered minor injuries, scrapes, bruises and road rash, likely because he was wearing a helmet and a new jacket he had purchased just 30 minutes before the crash.

Heh! Ride, Sally, Ride...

With Warren on Clinton’s stump, 

it’s double trouble 

for Trump...

 

By Kathleen Parker

RIP Buddy Ryan.

Never forget the level at which men will compete when they LOVE their leader! (the '86 Super Bowl Bears, and Buddy, taught me that...)

In 1978, George Halas brought in Ryan as defensive coordinator. With the Bears, Ryan created the 46 defense, but it wasn't until 1985 that the scheme was perfected. This was due in large part because of Mike Singletary's ability to single-handedly dominate the middle of the field.  

Then Bears head coach Neill Armstrong was fired in 1982. The defensive players lobbied Bears owner George Halas to let Ryan take over, or pleaded for the owner to retain Ryan as defensive coordinator.  

Mike Ditka was hired as the head coach. Ryan and Ditka feuded openly, though Ditka delegated the defense to Buddy and left him in charge. 

Ditka challenged Ryan to a fight during halftime of the Bears' 1985 matchup versus the Miami Dolphins, with the team at 12–0 and trailing 31–10 in a nationally televised Monday Night Football broadcast. The guys on the team had to separate them—the offense getting Ditka away from Ryan and defensive guys holding Buddy. The Bears went on to lose the game 38-24, which was their only loss of the season.  

However the team would go on to Super Bowl XX where they would dominate the New England Patriots 46–10. The Bears defense carried Ryan off the field on their shoulders ...right behind Mike Ditka, who was also being carried off the field.

Defense, defense, defense...
------------------
ADDED:  Learn something new every day...  I knew about the Purple People Eaters.  Did not know Buddy Ryan was behind that too:

In the mid-1970s Ryan served as defensive line coach for the Minnesota Vikings where he was integral in directing the team's dominating defense. The defensive unit known as the "Purple People Eaters", was heralded for the defensive line's ability to punish rivals. Their motto was to "meet at the quarterback." This unit helped the Vikings to post-season appearances from 1973 to 1978, including three appearances in the Super Bowl - two of those seasons with Ryan as defensive line coach.

Country Boy Can Survive.

Hank Williams, Jr -- turn it up:

The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River she’s a goin’ dry
The interest is up and the Stock Markets down
And you only get mugged
If you go down town

I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Because you can’t starve us out
And you can't make us run
Cuz we're them old boys raised on shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn

We came from the West Virginia coalmines
And the Rocky Mountains and the western skies
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trout line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a businessman
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights
And I’d send him some homemade wine

But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For 43 dollars my friend lost his life
I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my old 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Cause you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
Cuz we're them old boys raised on shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn

We’re from North California and south Alabam
And little towns all around this land
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

Hitting Below the Belt...

Not content to surrender their journolism cards* to the biased political reporting this political season, the NYT went out of its way to hire an African writer to develop a short story based on ... MRS. Trump.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s interest began with Ivanka Trump, who “seems to me too thoughtful and too intelligent to truly believe that her father’s erratic, ungrounded policy positions would genuinely be good for the United States. And so I imagined her as a kind of unknowable character, and I needed a foil of sorts for her, which is how Melania Trump became the center of the story.”

“Fiction can remind us — and because of the blood-sport nature of politics, we constantly need reminding — that the players in politics are first human beings,” Adichie said.

Why can't you leave the private political players alone, and concentrate on those who put themselves in the spotlight based on the issues that need addressing?  This really is hitting below the belt -- going after somebody's wife.

Turns out, Ted Cruz had nothing on the folks at the New York Times, afterall.  Who will they target next?
--------------------------

I think the journolists who are behind-the-scenes hoping to elect Mrs. Clinton are afraid to discuss the current issues:  American foreign policy, the growing inequality between the do-ers and the takers/taxers, the future of the country, economics, politics, and race.  Much much easier to pay off an unknown to take on somebody's immigrant wife.

Never Forget:  The elites know best...
and they'll go to their graves thinking that.
(Y'all come back now, y'hear?)

* I hope Trump pulls all the press passes today associated with the New York Times political coverage.  Get 'em off the bus already.  Why feed the hand that bites you and yours?

Over The Hills And Far Away,

Oh darling, darling, darling...walk a while with me?
Ooooh, you got so much (too much) so much...

In his column today, David Brooks plumps for "Hillbilly Elegy", a young Yale writer's take on the white working-class.  Brooks eats this shit up!

Many have I loved - Many times been bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open road.

Many times I've lied - Many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.

Many dreams come true and some have silver linings
I live for my dream and a pocketful of gold.

Mellow is the man who knows what he's been missing
Many many men can't see the open road.

Many is a word that only leaves you guessing
Guessing 'bout a thing you really ought to know, ooh!
You really ought to know...

 Maybe Vance will be the white Teh-Nehisi Coates.  Using his "people" to further his bankroll.  And then debarking for ... Paris?

Why is it the elites love them some 'merican memoirs of folks gone wrong?  Do it help them think they understand others who share their nation?  Don't they understand that people are only too happy to serve up the slop the elites say they want to consume?

Doesn't make it objective non-fiction though...  just a subjective "I was there" new style of fiction for the new century.  Cashing in on your own kind.  That's easy.  Understanding cotext?  That's harder, and likely something they no longer can teach at Yale...

This honor code has been decimated lately. Conservatives argue that it has been decimated by cosmopolitan cultural elites who look down on rural rubes. There’s some truth to this, as the reactions of smug elites to the Brexit vote demonstrate.

But the honor code has also been decimated by the culture of the modern meritocracy, which awards status to the individual who works with his mind, and devalues the class of people who work with their hands.

Most of all, it has been undermined by rampant consumerism, by celebrity culture, by reality-TV fantasies that tell people success comes in a quick flash of publicity, not through steady work. 

 How come we can call white people hillbillies, anyway, and yet we shudder at those using words like nigger or redskin?  Riddle me that, Mr. Brooks, next time you have a book-of-the-moment to push...

Liberian Girls...

Michelle, her mother and the two Obama girls visit... Liberia.
Where they encounter... Mayor Eddie Murphy.
And... classes are cancelled!  All to spread Michelle's message to African girls that it is important to stay in school to prepare their minds to meet the world.

 (You couldn't write this kind of comedy if you tried...  And dig the way NBC worked "mother land" into their headline...)

Michelle Obama, Daughters, and Mother Land in Liberia for Visit

First lady Michelle Obama landed in Africa on Monday with her daughters and her mother for an overseas trip promoting education for girls, starting with a country recovering from the recent Ebola epidemic.

The Obamas were welcomed in Liberia's capital with a red carpet and traditional dancers wearing the red, white and blue colors of both the American and Liberian flags. They also will visit Morocco and Spain.

While in Liberia, the first lady will meet with the president of the West African country, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the continent's first elected female head of state.
...
The Obamas then visit a leadership camp for girls in the town of Kakata.
"People are going to consider her to be a sister to them," Mayor Eddie Murphy said. "We are overwhelmed."

A main topic of the trip is how to address the barriers facing girls trying to get an education after the Ebola outbreak. More than 4,800 people died in Liberia, and children missed several months of school.
 ...
The Obamas' last stop in Liberia is at a school in Unification Town to speak with adolescent girls, according to Tina Tchen, the first lady's chief of staff.
 
Founded as part of an effort to resettle freed American slaves, Liberia has deep ties to the United States. The country's oldest technical and vocational high school, located in Kakata, is named for the African-American educator and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington.

The school suspended mid-term exams scheduled to start Monday "to allow the students to give Mrs. Obama a rousing welcome to appreciate what the United States has done for us," principal Harris Tarnue said.

"She will be a real inspiration to the young girls around here," he said.

 Now I'm sure Michelle and the girls will visit the South Side someday soon, to inspire the living little girls there, in America, to keep up hope despite the lack of progress by her husband's administration.  They're not global elites, afterall.  They are American girls...

Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinkin'
That there was a little more to life somewhere else.

After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to...

 Now don't be jealous of Michelle.  What can she tell those Liberian young ladies?  Marry well and pin your hopes to a man who might one day become president? Personally, I think the trips outside of America are her payoff for staying sweet, smiling and standing by her man.

Do you think she'll be qualified to one day run for president herself?  How many miles is she racking up on these foreign visits anyway?  Surely somebody is keeping track...

Bill Cunningham: He's no David Carr...

I mean that as a compliment.
But of course, David the druggie is the one with the movie coming out, the memoirs written by the daughters he had while inebriated...

Poor Bill.
He was just a responsible man, dedicated to his craft.
Sadly, he will be forgotten while Carr is lionized.

Que sera...

What You Are Celebrating in Texas Tonight...

For all the ladies cheering their "rights" tonight, and insisting Texas had no reason to place medical restrictions on abortionists, click this link and look at the pictures of some of the aborted, dead babies -- almost full term -- who apparently needed to be taken out...

After the conviction of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell on murder charges, Operation Rescue has been repeatedly asked if there is any evidence that similar practices exist at abortion clinics elsewhere in the nation. That documentation has now been released.
...
Three informants, Deborah Edge, Gigi Aguliar, and Krystal Rodriguez, have come forward to tell of their horrific experiences working for abortionist Douglas Karpen, at one of three of his Texas abortion clinics, the Aaron Women’s Clinic in Houston. A fourth informant has co-operated with Operation Rescue, filing an affidavit about her experiences, but remains at this time anonymous.

As shocking as their stories are, these women did more than just talk; they brought forward evidence of illegal late-term abortions in the form of photos taken on their cell phones at the Karpen’s clinic on Schumacher Lane in Houston.

We can do so much better, ladies.
Don't let them convince you that killing your unborn children is the way to demonstrate bodily autonomy, or your feminist credibility.

Wouldn't it be better not to conceive until you are mature and responsible enough to accept the responsibilities of being a mother?  That would be impressive -- teaching women how to control their bodies so that they not only remember having sex, but remember practicing birth control before conception.  That's your right too, never forget.

ADDED:  The facts of life...

“When he did an abortion, especially an over 20 week abortion, most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he cut the spinal cord or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus, in order to kill the fetus,” said Deborah Edge, who worked as a surgical assistant for Karpen for about 15 years until leaving in March, 2011.

“I thought, well, it’s an abortion you know, that’s what he does, but I wasn’t aware that it was illegal…Most of the time we would see him where the fetus would come completely out and of course, the fetus would still be alive,” Edge continued.

How often did this happen?

“I think every morning I saw several, on several occasions,” she said. “If we had 20-something patients, of course ten, or twelve, or fifteen patients would be large procedures, and out of those large procedures, I’m pretty sure that I was seeing at least three or four fetuses that were completely delivered in some way or another,” said Edge, acknowledging that these babies would be alive.
She described how some babies would emerge too soon and would be alive, moving, and breathing. She also told of how Karpen would sometimes deliver the babies feet first with the toes wiggling until he stabbed them with a surgical implement. At the moment the toes would suddenly splay out before going limp. Sometimes he would kill the babies by “twisting the head off the neck,” according to Edge.

Women would be given doses of Cytotec, a drug that causes strong and unpredictable uterine contractions, and would deliver while they were waiting in line to see Karpen, some in toilets, one in the hallway.

“He just picked it up with one of those [chux] pads and put it in the trash bag,” said Krystal Rodriguez of the baby born in the hallway.

“As long as the patient had the cash, he was going to do it past 25 weeks,” she said.

But not all the babies came out intact. When there was difficulty, Karpen would dismember them, a process that was, according to the surgical assistant Deborah Edge, a bloody mess.

“Sometimes he couldn’t get the fetus out” she explained. “He would yank pieces – piece by piece – when they were oversize. And I’m talking about the whole floor dirty. I’m talking about me drenched in blood.”

...

It all began in early 2011, when Operation Rescue was conducting an undercover investigation of several Texas abortion clinics when it discovered that Karpen appeared to be violating the Texas informed consent law that required that abortionists give the state-mandated information personally on patient conference calls set up for that purpose. In addition to the improper use of a recording, he was not on the line to answer questions, as the law required. Operation Rescue’s Cheryl Sullenger filed a complaint with the Texas Medical Board concerning this violation.

Sullenger submitted a statement to the TMB noting Karpen’s documented history of problems, including series of botched abortions stretching back to 1988 when 15-year old Denise Montoya hemorrhaged and died after a 26-week abortion done by Karpen.

She told the TMB of a documented incident on February 6, 2005, when a sewer broke at Karpen’s Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center, located at 2421 N. Shepherd in Houston, causing sewage to spill into the parking lot of a neighboring car dealership. Maribeth Smith, an employee of the car dealership said she is convinced she saw human body parts mixed in with the sewage. She took photographs, believing the human tissue came from the clinic.

“Whether it’s legal or not, it’s not right,” Smith said. “This whole area is nothing but raw sewage and bloody pieces. There were little legs coming out from one side.”

A Health Department worker called 911 to report a second spill at the same abortion clinic. When asked who she was with she told the dispatcher, “Health Department…and we handle normal medical waste, but this is beyond us. He says he can see fetuses and fingers and everything.”

U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Turns out, President Obama is a better killer than George W. Bush!

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — American airstrikes in northern Afghanistan killed at least seven hostages being held in a Taliban prison on Saturday, according to accounts from the families of victims and local officials from the immediate area. Some accounts put the death toll as high as 16.  ...

President Obama recently expanded the authority for American forces to use airstrikes against Taliban targets. Under the new rules, airstrikes no longer need to be justified as necessary to defend American troops. The first such strikes were carried out earlier this month, the Pentagon said.

Way to go, Chief!
Who sets the rules?
WE set the rules...

(Don't let those libs tell you guns and killing aren't the answer.  More violence, please.  It's what America is good at these days:  death and destruction, and anonymity and unaccountability...)

"Obama... Out!" indeed.
With a killer bang, at that!
I suspect we'll see many more such military actions, to compensate for Obama's lack of diplomatic leadership on all fronts:  economic, racial, international and domestic.  But hey, destroying... that he's good at!

(Besides... enemies/allies?  Who can tell those brown people apart anyway?  Only good Afghan is a dead Afghan, right?  Military's calling the shots now;  president O. be sitting this one out... Likely safer for everyone that way.  He sure would make a good figurehead though -- Queen of America, a symbolic role similar to Queen E. of Great Britain -- all the pomp and circumstance, but with none of the attendant political responsibilities...)

Tisket a Tasket... Brisket a Brexit...

Meanwhile, closer to home:

Cincinnati Reds Retire Pete Rose’s No. 14

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rose’s number was retired a day after he joined the team’s Hall of Fame. Major League Baseball had to approve the ceremony because of Rose’s lifetime ban for gambling.

----------------
Still closer to home:
The storm that passed through this region Saturday night closed the strawberry patch.

Mommsen's Produce Patch LLC

18 hrs ·

We are very sorry to say that our patches suffered extensive damage from the heavy rain and the hail. Therefore, our strawberry patches are now CLOSED FOR THE SEASON.
Thank you to all of our wonderful customers. We have never had to close early in our 38 years of growing berries. We hope to see you next year.

Luckily, I picked my buckets full, now fresh frozen for the year, early Saturday morning.  If you can get out there early enough, you can beat the heat.  Sunshine is good for plants, but shady places and coolness are underrated by too many living creatures in this kind of heat...

Make it a great week!

Let's Not Forget the Real Tragedy...

It's not Britain leaving the European Union.
It's Britain leaving the Civilized World.

The husband and two young children of Jo Cox gathered with her friends in Trafalgar Square for a vigil on what would have been her 42nd birthday. The Labour MP was stabbed and shot dead outside a constituency surgery in Birstall less than a week ago.

Her widower Brendan and the couple's two young children left their home, a houseboat along the Thames, and travelled by boat up the river to prepare for the rally. They towed a small flower-covered boat named the Yorkshire Rose as a memorial to the campaigner.

Beautiful pictures at the link.

ADDED:  Her killer, in his own words:

In 2011, Mair spoke of how he had volunteered to work as a groundsman at the nearby Oakwell Hall County Park, which had helped ease his mental health problems.

He told a local newspaper: "I can honestly say it has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world. "Many people who suffer from mental illness are socially isolated and disconnected from society, feelings of worthlessness are also common mainly caused by long-term unemployment.

"All these problems are alleviated by doing voluntary work. Getting out of the house and meeting new people is a good thing, but more important in my view is doing physically demanding and useful labour.

A Nation Once Again...

A Nation once again,
A Nation once again,
And lreland, long a province, be
A Nation once again!
...
For, Freedom comes from God's right hand,
And needs a Godly train;
And righteous men must make our land
A Nation once again!

"Britain ... Out."

Suddenly makes "Obama... Out" (*mic drop*) look like child's play, eh? Perhaps a smart numbers guy, a businessman who understands populism via human psychology would not be such a poor leader right now. So much for symbolic, but ultimately ineffective, figureheads.

Henry's Going to Dee-troit!

Stan Van Gundy's Pistons
Pick Up Ellenson
in Round 18

Before the NBA Draft, Van Gundy, the Detroit Pistons' president of basketball operations and head coach, told reporters there a group of 10 to 11 players he really didn’t examine closely because the team felt there was no way any of them would fall to No. 18.

But the Pistons are ecstatic their 10th-ranked player – Marquette power forward Henry Ellenson – was available.

And after a night of unexpected results, Pistons snagged a guy who fits perfectly when you consider the team needs.

It was just unexpected.

“I watched a little on him, I watched two games, but quickly just so I knew who he was. I didn’t even take notes, to be quite honest,” Van Gundy said at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Thursday night moments after the Pistons made their selection.

“I liked what I saw and have great faith in our staff. When they have a guy that high, there’s no doubt at 18 that you’re making the right move. And he’s such a great fit for what we need, too.”

The move fits because Ellenson provides size, measuring 6-foot-11 1/2 in shoes and 242 pounds at the NBA combine in May, enabling the one-and-done collegiate to play power forward and center.

He has a polished offensive game, as he got his start in basketball as a point guard.

He averaged 17 points and 9.7 rebounds in one season at Marquette.

Right now, he is more of a midrange shooting threat, but can also drive to the rim. He shot 30-for-104 from three (28.8%). He is a solid rebounder and can take defensive rebounds and go coast-to-coast.

The knock?

He is slow-footed and considered a defensive liability.

So much for the predictor markets:

Draft night proved once again mock drafts should be perused only for entertainment value.

With “lower” ranked prospects flying off the board, the Pistons were able to sit back and wait.

“We were really surprised,” Van Gundy said. “(Ellenson) was a guy we had as basically no chance to get at 18 so we didn’t bring him in here for a workout. We loved him … all the scouts loved him, but he was guy we just didn’t think we had any shot at. Everybody thought he was going to go higher so you can’t get those guys in that go higher.”
...
Most mock drafts had Ellenson going around the top 10, but a player the Pistons targeted early in the process was available.

“I didn’t expect to be on the board at 18, but God has a plan and I feel this is a right place for me to go to,” Ellenson said. “It’s in the Midwest. It’s a great team that made the playoffs last year. I feel like I can contribute a lot right away.

“I’m just excited to be playing for the Pistons.”

After saying during the entire draft process the Pistons would more than likely take a prospect not quite ready for prime time, Van Gundy said Ellenson’s game does offer the potential of a possible rotation piece in Year 1.

With the top seven players returning and with a goal of addressing roster holes in free agency, the Pistons went into the draft with a best-player-available mantra.

This is the first time since 2009 the Pistons’ first-round pick isn’t in the lottery.

That’s by virtue of the Pistons finishing 44-38 and reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

ADDED:
forbes.com:

18. Detroit Pistons: Henry Ellenson (PF, Marquette)
Ellenson is definitely one of the most interesting players in this year’s draft class, especially after falling this far. He excelled as a freshman at Marquette, showing prowess in stretching the floor while also developing his game in the paint in both the low post and on the pick-and-roll. Ellenson should be a great fit alongside Andre Drummond and provides the Pistons a strong presence at power forward, making him an absolute steal at No. 18 even if he does have some bust potential. Grade: A-

Behold: An American Genius in Paris!

I hope he's not spending it all in one place*...

Does the class difference between how you grew up and how your son is growing up ever worry you?

No. I feel like I learned certain stuff the way I grew up, and those things helped me later. But the amount of violence in black communities is just off the hook, so I think it’s a net negative. You’ve got to put it on balance. I think everybody who goes through that says, “Well, I’m gonna toughen him up.” See, these white folks ain’t got to be tough. Tough is for people without money.

Btw, didn't we all learn in middle school that mo-fo is a pretty sexist term?

Odd that men like Coates, the son of a librarian working on a campus, and Kanye West, the son of the English Department head at Chicago State, ape the language of the streets still.

How do you spell poseurs again?
-------------------------

* Something tells me it would be hard to hire him as a writing professor at MIT after his language here.

ADDED: Coates lost me when he argued, in the pages of the whiteman's NYT, that some words were off-limits to white people in America, reserved exclusively for our nation's black stock. Might be nice to think, but once descriptive phrases spill off the reservation onto the corners where white people can all see -- and hear -- you lose exclusivity.

Some elite white people might buy what Coates is selling, but I'm thinking John T. and Catherine MacArthur would be rolling over in their graves to see what genius their foundation money is going to support... It wasn't supposed to be a charitable fund, but an investment. But without a solid educational foundation, this is what you get.

How good do you think you are at writing?
I’m a good writer. I think there are very few people who can do journalism, do history, form an argument, an argument with a brain, and then write in such a way that it gets at your heart also. I’m thinking about Isabel Wilkerson. I think of Nikole Hannah-Jones. I think Elizabeth Kolbert at The New Yorker is really good at that. I’m talking about making an argument that’s simple, with all this evidence, and writing about it in a beautiful way. There are very few people who can do all of it at the same time, and that’s because very few people actually try.

Coming up on hip-hop really taught me the beauty of poetry. Reading comic books taught me the beauty of poetry. Studying poetry after that, I had this obsession with how language sounded. Coming out of my household and being a history major at Howard gave me a deep appreciation for history. Working under David Carr as a journalist gave me a deep appreciation for actually going out and talking to people. So I had a variety of experiences, but it’s not mystical. It’s not in the genes or in the bones.

He ain't got it. And he knows it, despite all the white man's money and praise. That's where the vulgarity comes in... the self-clowning and female degradation.

This is what the white liberals think an educated black man will sound like... sad!

Blacks Win, But Browns (without papers) Lose.

The Supreme Court today upheld continued discrimination in college admissions on the basis of skin color/race, but upheld the rule of law regarding immigration laws.

This "white" writer will remain silent,
quietly remembering when the country was more catholic, and we weren't so keen to split Americans up by identity groups.

e plu·ri·bus u·num. Never forget.
(It's not too late to Make America Great Again!)
Go Go Go, Ale' Ale' Ale'!

And when you feel that heat,
the world is at your feet.
No one can hold you down
if you really want it.
Just steal your destiny
Right from the hands of fate
Reach for the cup of life
Cause your name is on it.
Do you really want it? ...

But I Can See That Dark Horizon Looming...

Ever Close to View.
...and I know what it is
that made us live
such ordinary lives...
the where to go
the who to see
no one can sympathize...

You know,
I wouldn't trade it for the world,
but sometimes it is hard living with an artist's brain -- taking the loooooong-term view, in our fast-paced modern world of commerce. Still, I wouldn't change it, if I could.

An entertainment editor at the Daily Southtown Southtown Economist and I were discussing, one summer in the 80s, the playwright Sam Shepard (Ford Sheridan!). She liked him too, but said... he's dark.

"Life is dark" the younger me blurted.
She laughed. I wasn't trying to be funny.

Good to be thinking of life's darkness now, on the brightest days of the year. We've not gotten too hot here -- plenty of well-timed rain cooling us off, and keeping the farmers happy.

Happy Hump Day, if you're working,
and hope you had a wonderful Wednesday,
if you're keeping cool at home.

In the Community Garden???

This is just wrong sad, in so many ways...

Marijuana Discovery Closes a Beloved Brooklyn Community Garden

A garden that brought a breath of fresh air to East New York was shut down by the city, after the plants were discovered by inspectors.

Who would do that?
I hope it was someone young and dumb...
getting the community garden shut down for everybody.
Sheesh.

The Twins Played at Home Yesterday...

and they rallied and won, beating the Yankees.

By PAT BORZI
...
Brian McCann broke a lengthy slump with two long home runs among his three hits. But the Yankees, leading by 2-0 in the fourth and seemingly on the verge of sweeping four games from the last-place Twins, could not quell a decisive four-run Minnesota rally in the sixth, one that featured two bloop hits and an acrobatic slide by Trevor Plouffe around McCann’s tag.
...
McCann had been 0 for 15 and batting .125 since returning from a hyper-extended left elbow when he homered in the second inning, a drive reaching the edge of the second deck in right-center. His homer leading off the ninth landed on Target Plaza beyond the right-field seats.

Souvenir!

“Instead of weak ground balls to the second baseman, I was able to get through the baseball and drive it,” McCann said. “I’ve been swinging at good pitches. When I get ready to hit the baseball, I’m cutting my swing off, not getting through it. Today is a good day.”

But the Twins, who blew a 4-0 seventh-inning lead in Saturday’s loss, rallied to avoid being swept in a series for the 10th time this season.

You take the good news where you can...

Eduardo Escobar tripled in two in the sixth to give Minnesota the lead, the second run scoring when Plouffe evaded McCann’s diving tag. The plate umpire, Paul Emmel, called Plouffe out, but a video review reversed the call. McCann did not argue.

“I don’t know if I got his jersey or not,” McCann said. “You don’t know because you’re just diving. You just hope for the best. He made a good slide and slid over my glove.”

Good slide! There you go...

Two Minnesota errors in the eighth — a bad throw by reliever Taylor Rogers and a grounder through first baseman Plouffe’s legs — let in one run and brought Carlos Beltran and Rodriguez to the plate with one out, each with a chance to tie the game with one swing. ...

Neither succeeded. The left-hander Rogers fanned Beltran swinging at a curve, and the right-hander Brandon Kintzler got Rodriguez on a slider, prompting Rodriguez to pound the plate once with his bat.

Whew! That was close....

The Yankees are finding bright linings too...

Rodriguez chose to be optimistic. He and Beltran are hitting. McCann broke his slump. The Yankees averaged six runs a game on this trip. And Mark Teixeira begins a rehabilitation assignment on Tuesday.

“I think we’re chipping away,” Rodriguez said.
“For us, it’s been frustrating that we get to that threshold of .500 and take a step back.”

If you won more than you lost, it's a winning season in my book.

Nice.

All Summer on the Stoop

Dear Diary:
Dreams were born on Brooklyn stoops,
Comic books read, and friendships forged.
Secrets shared, and hopes revealed.

“Hey, Jerry, here’s six cents, go and get the Nooz and Mira.”
Crazy Ralphie told us jokes, and babes in arms were sleepy.
Someone shouts, “Hey, Babe Ruth died!”
The boys could not believe it.

A girl named Mary Pellegrino met a boy
strolling by on Graham Avenue.
His name was Maxie Witkin.
Their union produced children whose
Art is now shown in museums and galleries.
They live in fancy houses that have no stoops.
They would trade it all for only one more night
With Mom and Grandma
On a Brooklyn stoop.

~By Sara Jane Witkin Berman, June 19, 2016
Metropolitan Diary

Warriors for teh Win!

That's my call.
OK, good night...

Cavaliers

89
Game 7
Live - Q4 3:40
Warriors

89

All times are in Central Time

ADDED:

Cleveland

Cavaliers

 

93 - 89

Final

Golden State Warriors

=====
Guess I jinxed 'em.

The Twins were at Home Today...

and they rallied and won, beating the Yankees.

By PAT BORZI
...
Brian McCann broke a lengthy slump with two long home runs among his three hits. But the Yankees, leading by 2-0 in the fourth and seemingly on the verge of sweeping four games from the last-place Twins, could not quell a decisive four-run Minnesota rally in the sixth, one that featured two bloop hits and an acrobatic slide by Trevor Plouffe around McCann’s tag.
...
McCann had been 0 for 15 and batting .125 since returning from a hyper-extended left elbow when he homered in the second inning, a drive reaching the edge of the second deck in right-center. His homer leading off the ninth landed on Target Plaza beyond the right-field seats.

“Instead of weak ground balls to the second baseman, I was able to get through the baseball and drive it,” McCann said. “I’ve been swinging at good pitches. When I get ready to hit the baseball, I’m cutting my swing off, not getting through it. Today is a good day.”

But the Twins, who blew a 4-0 seventh-inning lead in Saturday’s loss, rallied to avoid being swept in a series for the 10th time this season.

You take the good news where you can...

Eduardo Escobar tripled in two in the sixth to give Minnesota the lead, the second run scoring when Plouffe evaded McCann’s diving tag. The plate umpire, Paul Emmel, called Plouffe out, but a video review reversed the call. McCann did not argue.

“I don’t know if I got his jersey or not,” McCann said. “You don’t know because you’re just diving. You just hope for the best. He made a good slide and slid over my glove.”

Good slide! There you go...
Two Minnesota errors in the eighth — a bad throw by reliever Taylor Rogers and a grounder through first baseman Plouffe’s legs — let in one run and brought Carlos Beltran and Rodriguez to the plate with one out, each with a chance to tie the game with one swing. ...

Neither succeeded. The left-hander Rogers fanned Beltran swinging at a curve, and the right-hander Brandon Kintzler got Rodriguez on a slider, prompting Rodriguez to pound the plate once with his bat.
Whew! That was close....

The Yankees are finding bright linings too...

Rodriguez chose to be optimistic. He and Beltran are hitting. McCann broke his slump. The Yankees averaged six runs a game on this trip. And Mark Teixeira begins a rehabilitation assignment on Tuesday.

“I think we’re chipping away,” Rodriguez said. “For us, it’s been frustrating that we get to that threshold of .500 and take a step back.”

What if it was a Sham Marriage?

And this man is not the president's biological father, but married his pregnant mother and briefly served as legal father in name only?

I can see where he might not want his father's pleas for financial assistance and scholarship help splashed across the NYT. Nor to go out of his way to read the documents. The legal father served his purpose, early in life and early in the political life too. That book's already been written...

Just a little critical thinking this Father's Day.

“Where does this stop?”

President Obama talking about terrorism Donald Trump.
The president is a good comforter-in-chief, but as a defensive-minded commander-in-chief?  Not so much...
Great at the symbolic parts of his job -- the campaigning -- but ineffective at foreign policy and economics.  You're not really so funny anymore, Mr. President.  We're at war, remember?
---------
#clueless

"You cannot simultaneously arm the world, and disarm American citizens here at home."

What If...

the answer to ending terror attacks here at home
is to do something Obama promised 7 years ago?

To end America's wars of opportunity across the globe,
to bring home our soldiers, and to end the ongoing destruction
OUR high-powered military weapons and drones are doing to civilian areas everywhere.

We Americans don't give a second thought to who our weapons kill -- not 50, but THOUSANDS of dead, and now the guns are turned on us and we can finally recognize the tragedy.  (You see it now, right?)

What if... we could turn back the clock 7 years, and Obama had fulfilled the promises he was elected to keep?  Instead of spreading mass killings in the name of national security, justice and protection, we had kept our guns here at home and let the civilians in other nations fend for themselves?

We are reaping what we have sown.
And Obama still does not get it:   preaching gun control here at home, while exporting our deadly weapons to the world.  Why?

What Do We Do?

We've got to give a little love.
Have a little hope
Make this world a little better...
Try a little more,
harder than before,
let's do what we can do, together...

First, start an inquiry on why the FBI closed theirs, on Omar "Mateen".
Second, look into his father and what he's been broadcasting.
Third, ask respectful questions about whether -- in retrospect -- we need our SWAT teams to be capable of responding more quickly than 3 hours between threat identified and BearCat through the wall..
Fourth, listen to Donald Trump about profiling and political correctness.  There are stories out now about how people -- co-workers, wives -- identified this man as a potential threat, enough to get him interviewed by the FBI.  Did the surveillance stop because he was Muslim, and it was thought to be politically incorrect if he was a true innocent?  I'm not saying harass suspected Muslims, but when he purchased those guns ... shouldn't that have triggered FBI follow-up?  Immediate FBI follow-up?

Like with the 9-11 warnings that went unheeded, it sounds like too many government agencies are incapable of acting in real time.  We've got to improve the performances of people getting paychecks to provide national security.  It's not the guns; it's what we do with credible information and who we target for surveillance.

If we want to preserve everyone's American freedoms, we need to be smarter about profiling and assessing true threats and dangers.  Otherwise, it's just performance art, and pretty words and promises (and paychecks!) for post-tragedy work.

Justifying Illegal Actions in the Face of Tragedy

Hillary Clinton:

“We need to redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad. That means defeating international terror groups, working with allies and partners to go after them wherever they are, countering their attempts to recruit people here and everywhere, and hardening our defenses at home.”

Oh, I get it.
We failed in our efforts to export Western values into the Middle East's civil wars, and now we are going to double down on our unconstitutional efforts to change their home societies, now that they are exporting their non-Western values here?

Funny how a terror tragedy just reinforces that the Obama administration has been doing it right all along, and we just need more action abroad.

(I wonder if it might be better for Feds to develop an effective active-shooter protocol, to be delivered to local authorities when they take ownership of military weapons.  Perhaps better training might have led the local authorities in Orlando to go in earlier, and not wait 3 hours after a gunman has been initially identified and stopped at the door.  What a loss! of time and lives.)

I also wonder if the Obama administration will be forthcoming regarding the FBI error(s) that dropped the ball on this Mateen fellow.  "Case closed" on him they said, even though an associate of his allegedly went to Syria to train; his father had been posting pro-Taliban messages in his webcasts;  the shooter allegedly expressed hatred of others, and spoke of killing them, to co-workers who reported their concerns. He was determined not to be a threat?

The F.B.I. investigated Mr. Mateen in 2013 when he made comments to co-workers suggesting he had terrorist ties, and again the next year, for possible connections to Moner Mohammad Abusalha, an American who became a suicide bomber in Syria, said Ronald Hopper, an assistant agent in charge of the bureau’s Tampa Division. But each time, the F.B.I. found no solid evidence that Mr. Mateen had any real connection to terrorism or had broken any laws. Still, he is believed to be on at least one watch list.

Mr. Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, Fla., was able to continue working as a security guard with the security firm G4S, where he had worked since 2007, and he was able to buy guns.

If this guy was on the FBI list, why was he able to easily purchase these weapons, with no red flag going up to ... "reopen" his file?  Doesn't the killer Omar Mateen fit a profile?

A former co-worker, Daniel Gilroy, said Mr. Mateen had talked often about killing people and had voiced hatred of gays, blacks, women and Jews.

I wonder if the Obama administration can find out why this lone wolf, once on the FBI's radar, had fallen off?  Inaction matters and leads to death, the president tells us.  Here's a perfect case study:  what more will it take to keep these individuals under surveillance, and stop them BEFORE they use their guns against us at home?  How can we overcome that type of 3-hour delay that surely upped the death count as victims in the club bled out?

Those are questions worth asking...

(Is our FBI too involved in entrapping Somali teens with no resources to carry out the FBI-plots planted into their heads, and proclaiming judicial victories there, while the real threats go unchecked?  Inquiring minds want to know what our intelligence agencies are doing to protect the American people.  To hell with taking the fight elsewhere -- defensively, let's start here at home.)

Champion Penguins.

Get 'er Done:

By Dave Molinari / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

SAN JOSE, Calif. — These Penguins rarely did anything the easy way.

They needed a coaching change and series of personnel moves to lift them out of an early-season sputter, then had to go on a late surge just to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Seemed only fitting, then, that they had to fight hard to earn the victory that has made them champions.

But the Penguins got it done Sunday night at the SAP Center, as they defeated San Jose, 3-1, in Game 6 of the Cup final to secure the franchise’s fourth championship.

Off-line, Off the Grid.

There's something to be said for tubing the cold river rapids on an old innertube on a summer Saturday, and spending an evening unwinding with a dog and an old friend.  Staying cool swimming in an old Wisconsin watering hole, complete with kids jumping off a bridge...

All I can say about this weekend's tragedy -- Life is Tough; You Be Tougher.

and, "God Doesn't Give Us What We Can Handle.  God helps us handle what we are given..."

Getting ready tonight for another beautiful summer week, working in the city:  "'Cause none of them-a can stop-a the time..."  Redemption song. ~Marley.

ADDED:  Now, do we have a score in that Penguins game...?

Don't Miss This!

Pat Borzi, a Minnesota sportswriter freelancing for the NYT, sums up last night's OT victory by the Mets over the Brewers, keeping his copy tight:

Asdrubal Cabrera scored the winner when Brewers shortstop Jonathan Villar, with the bases loaded and one out, dropped Matt Reynolds’s liner. Instead of an inning-ending double play, which would have been the third time the Mets had loaded the bases and failed to score, Villar got only one out, tagging Kelly Johnson between first and second.*
...
Five Mets relievers combined to allow one hit over the final five innings, with Jeurys Familia closing for his 21st consecutive save.
...
The Mets left the bases loaded in the fifth, while the game was still scoreless, and again in the ninth after the first three batters reached base.
...

The Brewers briefly appeared to have scored a run in the third on a quirky play that required two replay reviews, covering almost six minutes, to resolve.

With Aaron Hill on second and two out, a Villar grounder struck Harvey in the foot and caromed toward the left side of the infield. Cabrera, the Mets’ shortstop, headed toward the middle but scrambled back in a change of direction to knock down the ball just short of the outfield grass. Villar slid home ahead of Cabrera’s throw, and the plate umpire Larry Vanover, the crew chief, emphatically called him safe.

Mets Manager Terry Collins challenged the call, which was reversed following a 3 minute 1 second deliberation. Then Milwaukee Manager Craig Counsell asked Vanover to review whether Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki had blocked the plate. Two minutes 49 seconds later, the out call stood, keeping the game scoreless.

The Mets loaded the bases in the fifth on two singles, Harvey’s sacrifice and an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson, who was passed despite his .091 average with runners in scoring position. Alejandro De Aza grounded out, stranding them all.

The former Met Kirk Nieuwenhuis tripled and scored the game’s first run in the fifth. The lead lasted only three pitches into the sixth, when Cespedes homered to left-center. Nieuwenhuis stole Johnson’s bid for a go-ahead homer in the sixth with a leaping catch at the center-field wall.

The Brewers put two on with Hansel Robles pitching in the seventh, but Cespedes in center and De Aza in left ran down fly balls on the warning track.

 

In the ninth, the Mets wasted a glorious opportunity, with Wilmer Flores and Johnson following Cabrera’s leadoff walk with singles, putting the go-ahead run 90 feet away with nobody out.

With about 100 Mets fans near the third-base dugout chanting, “Let’s go, Mets!” (and the remaining Brewers fans at Miller Park booing), Milwaukee second baseman Scooter Gennett ran down Plawecki’s pop-up in shallow right, the runners holding. Pinch-hitter Neil Walker took a 1-2 curveball from Jeremy Jeffress for strike three, and Granderson grounded out to second.

Mets reliever Jim Henderson walked two in the ninth, but Milwaukee couldn’t capitalize, leaving runners on second and third. In the 10th, Milwaukee’s Ramon Flores overslid third on a ball in the dirt and was tagged out, a call upheld on video review.

 .....

Collins was willing to take the stroke of luck.

“I’ve seen a lot of major league baseball games,” he said. “That might have been one of the wildest I’ve ever been involved in. You just take the win and go get ready for tomorrow. You don’t try to analyze that one."

--------------------------
*But Borzi tries, on Twitter:

Patrick Borzi ‏@BorzMN 8h8 hours ago

I've watched video of the Villar play 6 times and still can't decide what his first move should have been. Throw home? Tag everybody? #Mets

We've Got to Give a Little Love...

Have a little hope
Make this world a little better...
~Marley, Ziggy.
(the next generation)

A little Saturday morning music to get your day off to the right start...

You're welcome!

Try a little more
Harder than before
Let's do what we can do, together...

Only If We Try! 

-------------------------

ADDED:

And something beautiful too for the little children this morning:   

Ziggy Says! 

(Faster, Mamas and Papas, faster!)

Ziggy says lift up your hands
Ziggy says lift up your feet
Ziggy says smile
Ziggy says make the sign of peace

Ziggy says wiggle your waist
Ziggy says wiggle your nose
Ziggy says wiggle your toes
Ziggy says hug who you know

Ziggy says stand real tall
Ziggy says bend real low
Ziggy says look up and down
Ziggy says smile some more

Ziggy says look to the left
Ziggy says look to the right
Ziggy says turn in a circle
Ziggy says stop and say hi

Ziggy says sing like a bird
Ziggy says hiss like a snake
Ziggy says roar like a lion
Ziggy says talk like an ape

Ziggy says close your eyes
Ziggy says open them wide
Ziggy says spread your wings
Ziggy says imagine you can fly

Imagine you can fly
Imagine you can fly...

Pure Interdependence?

Doug Glanville:

A baseball defense is a collection of individuals with skill sets suited for the job at hand: the shortstop needs range and a good arm, the center fielder needs speed and an understanding of ballistics, the catcher need to be iron-tough and cerebral.

Or so it always was. The third baseman never had to understand how to turn a double play at second, for instance. But the shifting has made us focus on the highest goal of defense: to be a living, breathing single organism, to work in concert with pure interdependence. If you have a weakness, it can be masked much more readily. It is a shared burden.

or,
Why Defensive Positioning Matters
(and What We Can Learn From Our Ballplayers Today...)

More E-Mail Troubles for Clinton.

Reports the Wall Street Journal:

Emails in Clinton Probe Dealt With Planned Drone Strikes

Some vaguely worded messages from U.S. diplomats in Pakistan and Washington used a less-secure communications system

Top-secret emails at the core of a criminal probe involving Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information were, officials say, vaguely worded messages concerning CIA drone strikes. How did they end up on Mrs. Clinton's email server?

By Adam Entous and Devlin Barrett
 

At the center of a criminal probe involving Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information is a series of emails between American diplomats in Islamabad and their superiors in Washington about whether to oppose specific drone strikes in Pakistan.

The 2011 and 2012 emails were sent via the “low side’’—government slang for a computer system for unclassified matters—as part of a secret arrangement that gave the State Department more of a voice in whether a Central Intelligence Agency drone strike went ahead, according to congressional and law-enforcement officials briefed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.

Some of the emails were then forwarded by Mrs. Clinton’s aides to her personal email account, which routed them to a server she kept at her home in suburban New York when she was secretary of state, the officials said. Investigators have raised concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s personal server was less secure than State Department systems.

The vaguely worded messages didn’t mention the “CIA,” “drones” or details about the militant targets, officials said. The still-secret emails are a key part of the FBI investigation that has long dogged Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, these officials said.

They were written within the often-narrow time frame in which State Department officials had to decide whether or not to object to drone strikes before the CIA pulled the trigger, the officials said.

Law-enforcement and intelligence officials said State Department deliberations about the covert CIA drone program should have been conducted over a more secure government computer system designed to handle classified information.

Worth Reading.

Something to consider:

By Joseph A. Mussomeli 

Joseph A. Mussomeli served in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1980 to 2015, including periods as U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and Slovenia.
 

Most of my former colleagues at the State Department will be appalled by the assertion, but much of the media-fed angst about Donald Trump’s dearth of foreign policy expertise is contrived. 

Our cadre of neoconservative foreign policy experts, unhumbled after marching us into a reckless war in Iraq and a poorly conceived one in Afghanistan, who applauded as we bombed Libya and bitterly resent our having failed to bomb Bashar al-Assad in Syria, are frightened. 

Wisely, they often focus on comments that Trump has made on issues that are of less genuine interest to them — from his strident stance on immigration to his “threat” to our liberties to his sometimes deplorable commentary about women and some minorities.

But what really troubles them is his generally level-headed and unmessianic attitude toward foreign affairs:

Trump has no desire to make the rest of the world in our image; he is concerned only about the world not making America in its image. 

The neocons bemoan Trump’s rejection of a global role for the United States, but Trump has no intent to withdraw the United States from the world stage. He only rejects the wanton use of our young men and women on foreign adventures of questionable value.

The neocons have two clear foreign policy objectives, and Trump may grant them neither. For many of them, their deepest yearning, ungranted even in the waning days of the George W. Bush presidency, is an air campaign against Iran. 

Trump doesn’t like the Iran nuclear agreement, but his instinct is to make a better deal rather than attacking, while Hillary Clinton has a strong record of supporting the prodigal misuse of military force.

Summer.

It's not official, but it's here!

After yesterday's rains, the sun came out, but the temperature levels did not rise to the levels predicted.  Today, perhaps.

Good growing weather:  all the rains, and the sunshine, the longer days...

Enjoy your weekend!

(((Jeffrey Goldberg)))

Jeffrey (not Jonah, of the National Review) is perhaps best known for recently attempting to summarize the president's across-the-board foreign policy choices in something called "the Obama Doctrine" in the Atlantic, a magazine most younger mainstream readers are not familiar with, at least not outside the East Coast.

He is a propagandist:  giving as good as he gets, a journalist trading access to the president for glowing articles, like that about the Obama Doctrine.  Purely spin, but it pays off if he is able to convince Americans that politically their national security interests are safe in the hands of Democrats.

Clearly, he has his work cut out for him this year of political revolt.

Workers, soldiers, voters and youth have all weighed in to tell the Washington establishment -- and the media whose love sustains them -- enough.  Enough mindless wars, enough taking from the American people to line your own pockets, enough rigged games that make you think you are winning a championship, when more and more, our country loses stature.

The easy out, of course, would be to blame Donald Trump.  Foreign leaders won't know how to deal, if Donald is president, voters are told.  Be afraid, be very afraid!  Except, most Americans do not scare easy.

Still, on the East Coast, there is a whiff of desperation.  At first content to ridicule the huge numbers of supporters responsible for the Trump primary victories, the newest media memes include mockery and fear-mongering.

Jeffrey is responsible for the (((hugz))) online campaign, which he created, he says, to push back against all of the neo-Nazi's who are allegedly targeting Jewish journalists online, with the same symbolic imagery.  (In traditional Yankee Doodle fashion, he has thus tried to turn the tables on these alleged haters:  done "stuck a feather in his cap, and called it macaroni" to use an earlier example of successful re-branding):

A very small number of Twitter geeks and online pundits have thus included the parentheses around their names -- choosing to self-identify as Jewish writers, spouses or wannabe's -- in an attempt to claim the (((hugz))) back in a good way, I think. (read more here).

As I stated yesterday, I don't expect this online campaign to last any longer than the purple-finger pundits, or the green-avatar bloggers because true political revolutions are rarely sustained by gimmickry. (The Yankee Doodle tune, of course, being but an accessory to the fight, not the driving meme of the American Revolution...)

Jeffrey Goldberg fancies himself as somewhat of a foreign policy expert on all things Israel, and his writings reflect this.  As the American people have begun to question why our own national borders are not secure as the Iron Dome defense our taxes have contributed to building over there, the pundits have had to double-down

So while the killings this week in Tel Aviv are quite correctly condemned, it is no surprise that coverage all of the daily terror attacks worldwide have blended into a whole in many minds.  The numbers of lives lost is almost incalculable;  they compete for our sympathies in time and attention, with the refugee babies washing up on foreign shores a contrast today to the recent D-Day anniversary observations that more than half-a-century ago saw such deaths as soldiers' fare...

How does Washington then respond?

How can one simultaneously praise the president's performance, and accept such imagery? (Even the most hard-hearted cannot justify or ignore the innocents dying, especially when foreign media capture photos of the dead and drowned children, who look an awful lot like our own...)

We've come full circle then, from reporting to propagandizing.  And apparently Washington has decided to pump up the president's foreign policies -- ineffective, at best; dangerously misguided, if honestly analyzed.

Expect to see more of this, then, this summer.  The online campaigns, the tribal sorting, the attempts to paint the majority of independent Donald Trump voters as a danger to the world, and of course, to Jews like Jeffrey...

Without further ado, here is Mr. Goldberg's work in the Atlantic this week:

A Brief Introduction to Pro-Holocaust Twitter

Donald Trump has expressed no interest in opening up death camps for Jews should he win the presidency, but his ardent supporters on the racist right have their hopes.  

 Jeffrey Goldberg  Jun 8, 2016

If there’s one thing I hate more than Illinois Nazis, it’s Twitter Nazis.

Correction. I don’t hate them. Mainly I pity them, because their souls are so corroded, and because they are so pathetically frightened by Jews and blacks and Mexicans and gays and change ... and pluralism and, by the way, Hillary Clinton. 

But I also feel pity for them because they’re so bad at anti-Semitism. 

I recognize high-quality, handcrafted Jew-hatred when I see it, and the far-right, which has lately been gaining attention for supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy for president (and for trolling Jews such as yours truly), is so over-the-top obvious in its deployment of anti-Semitic memes; so uncreative in the manufacturing of Judeophobic tropes (call this the banality of oven jokes); so bad at Photoshop; and so awful at spelling, that I find them as pathetic as I find them offensive.

 When the physical attacks against Donald Trump supporters failed to shut down his rallies or stem his support, it apparently became preferable to try and label his supporters as haters.  But it appears, the numbers are there.

Americans who know nothing of "Jew hatred" or the "pathetic fright" of our fellow Americans that Jeffrey cites, would be surprised to learn that their desire to right a listing American ship is tied in to an organized neo-Nazi campaign to target writers like himself.

Perhaps this meme is taking hold on the East Coast, or in the dark-paneled boardrooms where presumably somebody still reads the Atlantic, but something tells me... he's whistling Dixie:  that media efforts to steer the upcoming campaign away from the real issues confronting our country and onto the shoals of hatred and fear of our fellow citizens will not take.

It's not that the summer season is too filled with life activities to take seriously the threats of any hate campaigns.  It's that too many of us intermingle now -- we know Trump supporters, we speak and listen to their concerns, we are Trump supporters -- that's it is easy to understand and dismiss characters like Meryl Streep, who want to play with presidential politics and craft their own performance-art pieces explaining what they see, through their artistic lenses...

A photo of Goldberg published in the Atlantic

 Goldberg is right to push back against hatred, of course, but one wonders if he is exaggerating the true level of personal threats to himself for being a Jewish writer, and is simply on the outs as a member of the Washington media in a time and place where American voters are rejecting such drama, and seeking -- via Trump -- a stabilizing presence within our own borders, here at home.

Hatred will not last, have no fear,

because good men everywhere will not be silenced by Photoshops, face paint or biased reporting that buries the facts to promote the fears.