2025 Indiana Hoosiers > 1972 Miami Dolphins

Ironic this warning coming from Deutsche, given the bank’s prior relationship with Trump, as his lender of last resort.

@nytimes.com When you make this statement you help change the expectations of what is acceptable: "Not long ago, the notion of a White House press secretary casually threatening a lawsuit if a journalist does not obey her orders would be shocking" Its still shocking and should be condemned, period

Uefa and Fifa suspended 🇷🇺 from international football competition after its 2022 invasion of 🇺🇦. If US Administration proceeds with its plans related to 🇬🇱 / 🇩🇰, will response be similar? Uefa & Fifa should make their positions clear. Fifa should also reiterate expectations for Peach Prize winners.🙄

Logic here is dizzying: -Tariff authority asserted under auspices of national security -Targets of tariff are part of alliance whose sole purpose is to protect national security -Advancing territorial claim linked to tariffs would likely destroy alliance and thereby undermine national security

….or ‘political pay’ for pardons. Difficult to imagine a multi-time drug offender not related to a political ally receiving the same treatment.

If we see the other side of this, serious reform (e.g. constitutional amendment) is needed to significantly curtail presidential pardon powers. Much of what this Admin is doing appears to be pay for pardons. Also, appears multiple mortgage fraud convictions are worthy of pardons...curious.

#RedSox missed out on Bichette, after being unable to re-sign Bregman, and missing out on Schwarber Hard to argue offense is better than '25 Sox, but did make a couple of quality pitching staff additions If strategy is to recreate 1982 Cardinals, hope the players got much faster in the off-season😉

Canada - China announce trade deal. PM Carney says China has been a more predictable partner in recent months than the US. Watching the PM's news conference you are reminded what boring competence looks like and, sadly, its quite refreshing.

CBO estimates cost of a broad implementation of “a secondary title for the Department of Defense” (i.e. ‘Department of War’) may be as large as $125m. That’s a very expensive AKA! Note: None of this wasteful nonsense changes legal name of the Department of Defense, which only Congress can change.

The Kennedy Center Board (or whatever its called now) is going to be terribly disappointed to hear there is a better Board out there. Hope someone broke the news gently to Lee Greenwood, Maria Bartiromo, et al.

To clarify: Veruca Salt the Roald Dahl character, not the alternative rock band.

Free idea for Saturday Night Live and the show's next cold open: "President Trump" as Veruca Salt singing 'I want it Now!'

Scratch the surface of just about any international policy being pushed by the current US administration and what you will often find below the purported strategy is just a grift.

The NY Times is out on safari again. This time they seek insights on national politics and federal immigration policy from people drinking at a bar at 10am. 🙄 Do the Times' reporters get their own pith helmets or do they pull from a shared pool when they get assigned to go into the hinterlands?

Diminutive French Leader confirms alliance with Denmark to counter global naval power. Trump is making the Continental System great again.

Someone should ask Trump question implied in the statement made by McConnell: From US national security perspective what would be different from the current situation if the US "owned" Greenland? Also, probably should remind him that Greenland's security is already guaranteed as a member of NATO.

China imported record level of soybeans, just not from the US. In 2024 China imported nearly 27 million tons of soybeans from the US. In 2025, as a result of Trump trade policy, they imported 10 million tons. The cost of decimating that market will be borne by US farmers and US taxpayers.

Chatham House Dir. urges UK Gov to show some backbone toward US: “The risk of staying silent and not standing up for the principles that have underpinned the liberal international order is that those principles...become an article of history and not the foundation of the world we want to live in.”

Assuming Bregman not doing some PR on way out of town, #RedSox logic on no-trade is confounding: -Sox willing to pay 32yo $30M+ for 5 years -If player performs, no-trade meaningless -If not and no no-trade, unlikely to trade til mid-year 2 and Sox will eat most of remaining 3yrs to move 33-34yo

Interesting piece on the fallout from current US regime’s decoupling from the America-led world order. Probably overly optimistic and will likely be a messy process to get through, but might be America’s most enduring legacy if some form of the rules-based order survives the US abandonment of it.

Against what might the PM be suggesting Canada stands in solidarity with Denmark? The idea a NATO country would need the solidarity of another NATO country due to threat posed by another, larger NATO country would have been unthinkable not that long ago. Moscow could not have scripted this better.

Another side-effect of Trump trade policy appears to be getting the EU-South America trade agreement finalized. The pact had been in negotiations for 25+ years. Amongst other impacts, the free trade pact may be another hit for US soybean farmers (due to 🇦🇷 & 🇧🇷 production): EU was 10% of US exports.

Are the #RedSox still paying Pablo Sandoval? Maybe they could have him play third base…he’s still under 40. 😭

Ugh!!

Mississippi has some of the oddest welfare fraud cases: Disgraced NFL quarterbacks, former pro wrestlers, ghost of William Faulkner (ok, last one is not real…as far as I know). As paragons of non-partisan consistency, Trump Admin will no doubt be freezing Mississippi welfare funding any day now. 🙄

We do not have enough food based political protests in this country. And, the retired farmer has done the breaking eggs on far right politicians protest twice…guess he decided once was not un œuf. (😉 & Sorry)

Maybe there are logistical issues to be worked-out on a coordinated move to another platform, but really hard to fathom the dilemma here: The UK Gov is not on social media to monetize clicks. There are other, less odious platforms available and if the UK Gov posts something, the public will see it.

If Machado wants to see if Trump is really interested in helping Venezuela, she should follow Dmitry Muratov’s example: Offer to sell him the Nobel for $100m with proceeds going to a worthy Venezuelan charity How much does Trump value the Nobel and how much does he really want to help Venezuela?

A very good essay / book review* by @robertpbaird.com on Ross Douthat's 'Believe'. *Accessible w/ free registration

Happy Birthday David Bowie! He would have been 79 today. So much brilliant music, but this song has worryingly even more resonance these days…well beyond the concerns about cultural homogenization believe Bowie was thinking about when he and Eno wrote it 3 decades ago.

Kazuma Okamoto on his daughter's role in his decision to sign with the Blue Jays. Not my team, but think I already like this guy and have to admit the Jays have a pretty good logo.

Photo caption - Coalition of Willing summit in Paris today: "US President's son-in-law and businessman Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner" US representatives: -Real Estate Guy -Convicted Felon -President's son-in-law Nice to see Charles doing a bring your kid to work day.

Hopefully one day we will have the maturity as a country to reflect and fully appreciate the threat January 6th was to our constitutional system and to commemorate the day with the humility and solemnity it deserves…but sadly, that day will not be tomorrow.

Watching @lucyrohden.bsky.social and @rodger.bsky.social provide near real-time commentary about the silliness in the FCS Championship game, a game I’m not watching, is one of the more enjoyable things happening on this site. Need more of this…

-36 Days* until Pitchers & Catchers -59 Days until first game of WBC * #RedSox P&C Date Hope Springs…something, something. 😁

Is she going to be the Venezuelan Ahmed Chalabi?

Needless destruction of a public good. In a 2022 report commissioned by the CBC, the US was already last amongst countries surveyed in funding for public service broadcasters. Studies have shown robust funding for public service broadcasting is correlated with reductions in polarization.

Article 1 Brain: Under what legal authority did US invade another country and kill dozens of people? And, why did the Admin not seek prior authorization from Congress, as required by law? GOP Brain: How big are you going to make the "Mission Accomplished" sign this time?

Good reporting by @nytimes.com on the effects of congestion pricing in Manhattan. Think we need more of this type of journalism: A largely data based evaluation of the effects of a specific public policy against the goals set out for the policy.

The combination of Patrimonialism, the belief that 'Might-Makes-Right', and the most powerful military on the planet does not make the world a safer or more secure place...particularly for smaller states.

Wonder if the wedding party that had to be moved to setup his “war room” will get a refund. Be too bad for the loving couple if there was a toppling the government of a Latin American country provision in the wedding banquet contract.

One consequence if a lot of that Venezuelan oil does come onto the market may be to put a lot of US onshore producers out of business, particularly small and mid size firms. WTI is currently about $57 bbl

Another example of this Administration being stuck in the 1980s: -The US has been a net exporter of oil since 2020. -The US does not need Venezuela’s oil, though it may be in commercial interests of US oil companies -Regional stability is a much more important strategic US interest than oil

The gentlemen from Kentucky makes an interesting point. Imagine he would agree that the state of Kentucky, which annually receives about $45b ($10k per capita) more from the federal government than it pays in taxes, should start taking the hard earned tax dollars from other states more seriously.

Over the holidays watched 'The Thinking Game' documentary. Interesting story of very smart people at the AI company DeepMind trying to figure out how to develop artificial general intelligence. Thought about the doc when reading this story about the misuse and downside risk of AI. 1/5

Optimist: #RedSox are going to re-sign Bregman Pessimist: #RedSox are not going to re-sign Bregman and have started the 'we really tried' PR messaging Realist: Absent re-signing Bregman (or adding Bichette) '26 Sox do not look as good as '25 team...and the shadow of the Devers debacle grows larger

A tourist friendly Japanese 'Watership Down' emerges on an island once home to a 20th century chemicals weapon programme.

Is 2026 the year enthusiasm and evangelism by many on Wall Street for Tesla stock start to reflect reality: -70% of revenue comes from auto sales -Auto sales are declining -Revenue from new markets uncertain / unproven -Company CEO perpetually over-promises / under-delivers and is a PR disaster

Occurring just before Christmas, maybe has not really registered: Admin continues to decimate diplomatic service. “number of vacant U.S. ambassadorial posts will now climb to well over 100 — about half of all such positions in the world. Before the recall, around 80 of these positions were vacant.”