TXcyclist72

#leadersandthebest #Bet #Hail #GoBlue #MichiganVsEverybody #nationalchampions

I’ve waited a few days so I could read everything insightful and watch as many videos as possible. I try to never immediately comment on complicated, breaking news where “facts” are subject to change. Here now are my observations on the attempted assassination attempt on Pres. Trump: 1) It wasn’t perfect, and mistakes were made, but the USSS did its job and did it well. Most people don’t know it, but the USSS agents who form the PPD (presidential protective division) are the most highly trained evacuation force you will ever meet. Their only job when things go wrong is to get the President out of there to an always-existing designated evacuation route. They did their job. 2) It’s not the USSS’s job to ask for IDs or to check tickets at an event outside the WH. The USSS could care less if someone was sitting at the wrong table or didn’t pay to get in. That’s the job of the host organization, the WH Correspondents Association. The USSS’s only job is to protect designated people. 3) Presidents routinely hold events and stay overnight at hotels. Their routes in and out are out of sight and reach from hotel guests and visitors. Stairways are blocked and elevators can’t open on certain floors. They use different elevators, hallways, ingress and exit points than the general public. For overnight trips, the travelling party blocks off a certain number of floors, but the overall hotel is typically still open to guests. Perhaps Presidents in the future need to stay at smaller hotels so they can reserve the entire place. But no hotel will make itself available to a President if it means no one else can stay at the location if that means hundreds of rooms must go empty. 4) Who tackled the gunman? Did he fall and trip? How was he captured? Could he otherwise have breached the ballroom? There still is a lot we don’t know. 5) Why were the magnometers taken down when they were? The event had begun and guests were already in their seats. But agents, including the Uniform Division officers who man the mags, let down the perimeter that must always block entrance to a potus event. No one should be able to run in a straight line and get past the outer perimeter, not even by 60 feet, which is not a great distance, but that’s the distance it’s been reported of the breach past the mags. They need to keep in place physical obstructions, in addition to human ones. They also should consider pushing the perimeter back so there is a greater distance between the mags and potus. Note: There must always be a perimeter somewhere. On one side, the “dirty” side is regular life, meaning people with guns, knives and craziness. On the other side is the “clean” side, protected by an army of security. It’s impossible to stop the dirty side from approaching the clean side. But it’s the USSS job to make certain nothing gets beyond the perimeter. There are layers of defense inside the perimeter, but it’s troubling the gunman ran past the perimeter even for only sixty feet. 6) Who shot the USSS agent? Was it the would be assassin or was it friendly fire. One video indicates it was friendly. If that’s the case, the USSS should have admitted it already. I don’t rule out friendly fire. We need to learn the truth. 7) Shooting and hitting a running target is not easy. Even expert marksmen often miss. Is USSS training adequate? Bottom line: In an atmosphere like this, things will go wrong. But unless the gunmen fell on his own before he could be captured or tackled, it appears the USSS layered defense did the job. PPD certainly did their job. Good questions remain about better perimeters, checkpoints and training. But the excessive criticisms and allegations of failure by the USSS are off the mark. I want the USSS to learn the right lessons. I’m grateful to them for doing their job and protecting the president.

David Cross: “I’m politically more Democrat Socialist.” Bill Maher: “You’re plainly to the left of me if you even say you’re a socialist.” David Cross: “Well, I said Democratic Socialist.”

Last night, another act of political violence shook the nation. At this point, no one should be surprised. “The President is a fascist.” “Eat the rich.” “Let the streets soak in capitalists’ blood.” “Globalize the intifada.” “By any means necessary.” This isn’t fringe rhetoric anymore. It’s been normalized, echoed on campaign trails, and amplified on podcasts where politicians regularly appear. You don’t get to indulge this language, elevate those who use it, and then act shocked when it turns into violence. We need to get back to sanity before we lose our country.

Relative to Americans with a high school education, Americans with graduate degrees are twice as likely to support political violence. More education = higher support for political violence. It couldn't be otherwise.

If CEOs really believed AI improved thinking, they would use it in strategy. Instead, they mostly want it aimed at low-wage workers and repetitive tasks, while executive judgment remains “sacred.” That tells you a lot. Good for thee, not for me. It is a class-protective story.

Platforming Extremism Hasan Piker is an influencer who said America “deserved” 9/11, believes America is so rotten that murder of healthcare executives and stealing can be justified. You can imagine the rest of his views — no need to spread this kind of extremism further. And so the downside of social media is that any kook it seems can spew outrageous anti-society drivel dressed up with words like “social murder” and attract a following of some kind. The more out there it seems, the better. And then you can get profiled and interviewed by the New York Times. Rather than ostracizing such views and condemning them, the Times instead has now decided to broadly empower them. It’s not a stretch to say that the presentation is so flattering as to suggest the Times is implicitly furthering them. A few Democrats and some centrist groups have condemned his rhetoric but others have stood back. The left has mostly supported him as an antidote to winning over young men even as the president has not hesitated to condemn Carlson and Owens. Free speech is put to the test with people like Piker, especially when they back violence. And social media gives it an ability to spread in ways it never could before. And we are overall a better society for our tolerance and protection of speech we disagree with. But no political tent should be big enough to include these destructive views. No paper should so uncritically platform these social media Pied Pipers.

Shots fired With shots fired at the bipartisan press dinner, maybe it’s time for the media and the politicians to stop platforming extreme influencers (like Hassan Piker or Candice Owens) preaching as Piker did the other day at the NYTimes “social murder” and trying to depict the most freedom-loving country on earth as an evil force to be taken down by violence and looting. Enough is enough.

In maybe the most convincing defense of Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah that anyone has yet put forward, @tomfriedman proposes the only alternative he can think of: US boots on the ground that will fight fiercely, risking life and limb, to save both Lebanon and Israel from the Iranian proxy. I, um, don’t know if, erm…what do you even say? This isn’t really a critique of Friedman. His desperate flailing for an alternative is a function of his honesty. He knows what Hezbollah is. He knows its plan is to fight for all time, martyring both themselves and their fellow countrymen on the religious promise that the Israelis will inevitably be cut down and annihilated, ushering in a new age of Islamic triumph. He knows that must be confronted or it will again drag everyone to never-ending war. Most critiques of the offensive pretend that this isn’t true. Friedman won’t pretend, and I have great respect for that fact. But his flailing for an alternative to the current situation still shows that once you grasp what Hezbollah is — undeterrable, messianic, self-destructive for Lebanon — you’re kind of stuck with the broad outlines of Israel’s current policy. Even most Lebanese understand this. They have no love lost for Israel, but they blame Hezbollah for what’s happening right now. Maybe Friedman’s next column should tell us about that part of the story. About how real-life Lebanese, rather than a fantasy American expeditionary force, might cut this Gordian knot.

@marcthiessen He is now.

Phil Collins isn’t in the Rock N Roll hall of fame? WTF??

Glad to see the @rockhall is finally inducting @PhilCollinsFeed, @IronMaiden, @neworder and @BillyIdol but @INXS was a big omission.

Every single current senior and junior has seen this team win the national championship in football and basketball as a student. We are the luckiest people in the world

My message here clearly struck a nerve. A few friends from when I was press secretary, domestically and abroad, don’t like what I said. Instead of seeing how Western European nations must change, they just want to attack Trump. The reason it struck a nerve is because they recognize that this time NATO nations are being held to account. They know they’ve come up short for decades and by denying us overflight rights, they’ve gone too far. Americans are fed up, especially with France and Spain. Trump won’t stand for it and they know it. They now fear the consequences of their inaction. The UK, unlike its days under Thatcher or Blair, is wishy-washy. They’ve often been a good allie, but this time they want to sit it out and have it both ways. We can use their bases, but only for limited operations. At least the UK spends real money on defense. France, Spain, and Italy are another story. So too is Canada. None of these four contribute seriously to NATO. They’re laggards, trying to get away with it. Spain and France force our pilots to fly thousands of miles out of the way (I thought they didn’t like carbon footprints) en route to Iran. Eastern Europe is a different story. They spend more on defense and they understand power. They lived under Soviet domination and recognize weakness when they see it. They won’t be weak. Western European governments, especially France, are good at issuing communiques and statements. They enjoy hosting conferences. They love to ponder deeply. Getting them to act is another matter, unless it’s to purchase Russian LNG, which they still do. The world is changing. Out of this war will come a new group of younger nations that understand real power and the importance of strength. The UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Eastern Europe will emerge stronger than ever. Western Europe will continue to fall behind. As for Trump, you don’t have to like him. He often says things none of his predecessors would say. But don’t underestimate the fact that US taxpayers are fed up with nations that don’t pull their weight, and then force our pilots to take risks and longer flights so we can rid the world from the menace that is Iran. Today’s Western European leaders would rather mollify Iran and pay them ransoms (trade) than support the US. Things are different today. We all know it. The UK, France, Spain and Italy (despite its Prime Minister) have earned the consequences that will unfold. They could have and should have supported us. Not as a NATO alliance. But as individual free nations. All we wanted was overflight rights and full access to airfields. They’ve made their choices. Soon, they’ll see the results.

OSU dodged a bullet with Dusty May. Not sure if Jake Diebler will be great, but May’s claim to fame is a lucky postseason run last year. You had never heard of him before that. And don’t forget, FAU got to play 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in the 2nd round.

BREAKING: Britain has fewer than 50 Storm Shadow cruise missiles left. The stockpile that once exceeded 200 was drained over two years of transfers to Ukraine to help Kyiv strike Russian targets deep behind the front line. The missiles worked. They hit command posts and ammunition depots and naval headquarters across occupied Ukraine and Crimea. They helped Ukraine survive. And now Britain has almost none left for itself, during a war being launched from its own airfields against a country that just hit a British oil facility with drones. Brimstone anti-armour missiles sit at 25 to 35 percent of pre-war stocks. Paveway IV precision-guided bombs, the same weapon the RAF used over Libya and Syria, are at 30 to 40 percent. The National Audit Office estimates that Britain can sustain high-intensity combat operations for three to six weeks before requiring American resupply. Three to six weeks. The Iran war is already in its fifth week. If Britain were fighting it rather than hosting it, the cupboard would already be empty. The Army is 10,000 soldiers below target. Type 45 destroyers suffer chronic propulsion failures requiring six to twelve months of repair. The F-35 and Typhoon fleet operates at 60 to 70 percent availability. The industrial base that would replenish stocks runs on rare-earth magnets manufactured in China, the same China that controls 90 percent of the permanent magnets in every guided missile Britain would need to fire and is currently being asked to broker the peace. Any direct involvement beyond basing would require 8 to 15 billion pounds in emergency supplemental spending. National debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. There is no majority in Parliament for funding a war the Prime Minister says is not Britain’s, fought with weapons Britain does not have, replenished by supply chains controlled by a country Britain needs to broker the ceasefire. This is why Starmer says “not our war.” Not because of principle. Not because of legality, although his own advisors have told him the strikes are legally questionable. Not because of Iraq, although the ghost of Blair hangs over every press conference. Because of arithmetic. Britain gave its missiles to Ukraine. It gave its bases to America. It gave its diplomatic capital to a 35-nation meeting about reopening Hormuz “after the fighting stops.” And it has nothing left to give except words, which cost nothing and accomplish less. Trump knows this. He mocked the Royal Navy in the Telegraph interview. He dismissed Starmer’s windmills. He called NATO a “paper tiger” because the paper is literal: Britain’s defence capability exists on paper. On the tarmac and in the magazines and in the recruitment offices, the numbers tell a different story. The story says that one of the six largest economies on earth, the country that once ruled a quarter of the planet, cannot sustain a shooting war for longer than six weeks without calling Washington for resupply. The bases are full. The aircraft are American. The missiles are gone. The debt is real. And the Prime Minister stands at the podium and says this is not our war while the war takes off from our runways carrying weapons we could not replace if we tried. Britain is not refusing to fight. Britain cannot fight. The doctrine is not a choice. It is an inventory report. And the inventory says zero. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

Dusty May Final Fours since 2023: 2 Tom Izzo Final Fours since 2011: 2

Michigan is averaging 95.3 points per game in this tournament, the most by a team en route to the Final Four since 1993 Kentucky averaged 97.0 😤 It's the highest mark ever by a Big Ten team and ranks as the third highest by any team since the tournament expanded in 1985 👀

@TheCureForever_ Saw it last night. Great movie.

Who has seen this Project Hail Mary film? My wife & I don’t go to the cinema often lately. Worth it?

Only one school in America has a team in the Men’s Basketball Elite 8, the Women’s Basketball Elite 8, and the men’s hockey regional finals: the University of Michigan

RT @sbell021: The last time a 1 seeded Michigan beat 4 seeded Alabama in tournament play, the wolverines ended up winning a National Champi…

Statement from FBI Assistant Director of Public Affairs Ben Williamson regarding Joe Kent claiming he was blocked from pursuing leads in the Charlie Kirk murder investigation: "Joe Kent is being a dishonest hack. He worked for the NCTC which is not a law enforcement or investigative agency - he had ZERO role or 1811 investigative authority in this. This is like me saying I was “blocked” from playing receiver for the Commanders - it’s an issue of having no business or frankly ability doing something, not an issue of access. Furthermore, FBI actually made an early exception and allowed NCTC to assess intelligence reports, and International Terrorism returned zero connections. None. Joe Kent kept making things up anyway. The shameless media tour he’s on reeks of being desperate for attention and the baseless conspiracy theories he’s spreading about the admin, particularly Charlie’s murder, could very well make it more difficult to get justice for our friend. If he had any shame, Joe Kent should be ashamed of himself."