Left Coast Sports Babe

Congrats to Joe Mauer, former Twins star catcher, for being inductied into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

While I still think it’s a travesty that Barry Bonds isn’t in, at least this means that SF Giants catcher Buster Posey should be a first ballot lock.

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Not a typo - Utah Jazz scored 124 tonight and New Orleans Pelicans beat them by 29. 153 to 124. 

NBA equivalent of arena football?

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ESPN reports the Milwaukee Bucks firing first year head coach Adrian Griffin. The Bucks are 30-13. There is literally one team in the NBA- Boston Celtics – with a better record. 

Unless there’s something they’re not telling us, overly high standards much?

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Media is so desperate to make this GOP primary a competitive horserace. They’d have watched the 1973 Belmont and made most of the coverage not about Secretariat but Sham.

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So how many more times does Trump have to insult Nikki Haley before she endorses him?

Joe Biden wasn’t even on primary ballot in New Hampshire & he beat Dean Phillips. In 2020, Biden wasn’t polling well & didnt campaign in Minnesota but when Amy Klobuchar endorsed him day before Joe won primary. Dems in NH & MN know good politicians. Phillips isn’t one of them.

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51 years after Roe V. Wade – Anti-choice bots & trolls on Twitte claim it’s about life. None of them want to help poor moms w/ welfare assistance, nor do they want to cover medical expenses for women w/ unviable fetuses or babies born w/ serious birth defects. Pro life my a**

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Hey media. Bridges matter. President Biden and Democrats got over $1 billion to help replace the Blatnik Bridge between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It’s a BFD. And even some Republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill are taking credit for it.

But MSM doesn’t make successes like this major headlines. They only care about bridges when they fall down.

Miami TE Cam McCormick, due to various injuries, COVID, and transfering, was just granted his ninth year of eligibility for college football.

Maybe it will improve Cam’s draft stock. How many rookies reduce their team’s costs by being eligible for Medicare?

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So now that SI has fired all their staff, are they going to use AI to computer generate swimsuit models?

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I am so old I remember when the top college football stories weren’t all about the transfer portal.

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GOP: We’re going to support a twice-impeached several-times indicted former-President to return to the White House. Also GOP: We’re going to impeach President Joe Biden as soon as we can figure out something he might have done wrong.

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Minnesota has some great Democratic politicians: Gov. Tim Walz, Senators Amy Klobuchar & Tina Smith, Rep. Angie Craig….For starters.

So why is media focused on covering narcissistic multi-milionaire running frivolous vanity campaign that will only hurt Democrats? #DropOutDean

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Not that any of us need more reasons to know how toxic, and dishonest, #NoLabels is… But Joe Lieberman said “Nikki Haley would be welcomed into the No Label movement if she doesn’t win the 2024 Republican nomination. Toxic angry birds of a feather…

Meanwhile Mitt Romney, asked about GOP support for Trump:

“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them. You had a jury that said that Donald Trump raped a woman. And that doesn’t seem to be moving the needle. There’s a lot of things about today’s electorate that I have a hard time understanding.”

I would never vote for Romney, but he seems to live on planet Earth.

Jerry Jones says Mike McCarthy will be back for a fifth season as head coach of Dallas Cowboys “I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach.”

Translation, can’t find anyone else now to take this job.

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Fifteen people attending Saturday’s game in Kansas City between the Chiefs and Dolphins ended up in the hospital due to the cold. . Well, this weekend’s game with the Chiefs heading to Buffalo to play the Bills should be in balmy 20 degree weather. Hope fans show up with at least a sweater.

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There are Senators working hard on a bipartisan basis for a resolution to keep the government open. Guessing most Americans don’t know their names.

Why. Well in large part it’s because media prefers to make celebrities of the crazies who just want to shut it all down.

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Thought it was a joke but Trump posted about sparring with Cassius Clay. Leaving aside that it’s Muhammad Ali, who Donald for some inexplicable reason wanted to pardon in 2018 after his death… Even MAGAs know if it were THEIR parent they’d be looking at assisted living.

“I wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing Donald has posted because he’s losing it. We need someone with judgment and the temperament to keep this country safe.” Some liberal politician or pundit?

Nope, Ted Cruz, 2016.

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Roger Stone claims the tape of him talking about assassinating Eric Swalwell was “AI generated BS.” He didn’t condemn violence. How long until Stone says “When murder is done in the service of a President it’s not illegal.”

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In case ANYONE believes House GOP is negotiating in good faith . MAGA Mike Johnson: even if Dems agreed to all border demands, GOP still “needed answers about “strategy, endgame & accountability from Ukraine” before sending funds. Translation – Turn over all info Putin wants.

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Here’s what I don’t get. If Republicans are willing to go along with the idea of a President having complete immunity, and GOP refuses to fund Ukraine, what’s to prevent Joe Biden for insisting US send $$$ by executive order?

The last time the Detroit Lions won a playoff game was January 1992. How long again and far away was that? In January 1992, Bill Clinton’s Presidential primary campaign was almost derailed by the simple story that he’d had an consensual affair with Gennifer Flowers…

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Even the refs couldn’t save Jerry Jones and his Cowboys today.

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Jerry Jones says he hasn’t made a decision yet about the future of coach Mike McCarthy. Translation, Jerry hasn’t figured out who he wants to hire to replace him yet.

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And just thinking, had the Saints just held onto a 17 to 0 lead in the fourth quarter against the Packers, New Orleans not Green Bay would be in the playoffs.

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Meanwhile, little Lions supporting big Lions.

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True confession, I don’t listen to Taylor Swift’s music. But I LOVE how she triggers MAGAs.

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The same Tony Dungy who says Taylor Swift has “disenchanted” NFL fans has also claimed you cannot be pro-choice and be a Christian. While I respect athletes and coaches’ rights not to “stick to sports,” millions of fans, and Christians, know he’s flat out wrong.

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Hah, some MAGA troll/bot responded to one of my posts with the comment “as if you know anything about football.”

Still remember winning an argument as a kid in 1972 about which three teams had been in 2 Super Bowls.

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So what’s the over-under on the number of GOP politicians who will both wish Americans a Happy MLK Day but would have demanded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be arrested if he were alive and preaching now?

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Watching all these MAGAs lose their minds over Taylor Swift dating Travis Kelce.. Darn good thing neither of Obama’s daughters are dating pro athletes.

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Trump’s grandparents came from Germany. DeSantis’s great-grandparents immigrated from Southern Italy. Nikki Haley’s parents came from India.

And one talks about “poisoning the blood” of our country and the other two cowards won’t challenge him.

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So Texas, which won’t even allow emergency abortions to save a woman’s life, is fine with a migrant woman drowning with her children. Now, what happens if women migrants seeking asylum all claim they are pregnant at the border?

So how many folks in attendance at tonight’s -28 below Chiefs playoff game will be telling their grandchildren? “When I was your age I walked to get beer in the frozen tundra, five miles, uphill both ways.”

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So for the safety of fans, the Bills and Steelers had their game moved in Buffalo until Monday, MLK Day, while the Dolphins-Chiefs game played tonight in subzero weather.

Did Peacock say they wouldn’t pay if the game was moved?

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Meanwhile as all these football fans complain about sitting through games in cold weather we long time SF Giants fans are just giggling.

So if it’s Taylor Swift’s fault when Travis Kelce drops a ball does she get credit when he catches one?

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Not that it mattered, but several blown calls today, including a major missed pass interference in Miami Dolphins-Kansas Chiefs game that should have gone against Dolphins. Didn’t really care who wins, but as a New Orleans Saints fan, I felt the Chiefs’ pain on this one. If only the NFL could afford full time officials.

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Texas faces power grid worries with an upcoming week of frigid temperatures. But today at least football fans can take solace in the Houston Texans running away from the Cleveland Browns faster than Ted Cruz ran away to Cancun.

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Per CNN apparently Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson have agreement on a short-term funding bill to keep the government funded into March. This of course, assumes the House Speaker keeps his job until March.

Likely to be a high of 20 with wind chill well below zero and perhaps a foot of snow on Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Buffalo Bills this Sunday.

And that game will be good weather compared to Saturday’s night’s Dolphins Chiefs game in Kansas.

(Update, NY Governor decided game wasn’t worth people dying for. The Dolphin-Chiefs game, OTOH, will go on. Wonder how much Peacock is paying NFL for the game.)

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Yeah, okay it was the Pistons and the Hornets, but who had the San Antonio Spurs not only winning back to back games, but winning by 22, and then 36 points?

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Temperatures in Iowa for GOP caucus night will be coldest on record, with wind chill putting weather to minus 40 degrees. Maybe even God doesn’t like any of the GOP choices

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Why is anyone surprised Trump canceled rallies this weekend in Iowa due to cold weather? This man who wouldn’t attend commemoration in France for U.S. soldiers killed during World War One because of a little rain. Only his cult members need to risk cold to get him re-elected.

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So if Republican voters die or get killed in accidents going out in subzero winter conditions on Monday for the caucuses will Trump refer to them as “suckers and losers?”

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CNN finally has Dem on supporting BIden’s strikes on Yemen -MA Rep. Seth Moulton, Iraq war veteran. “President doing what he’s supposed to do w/ War Powers act.” He points out GOP House can’t even pass procedural votes -“It’s a long shot they’d secure national security of US..

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But mostly give me a bleeping break. CNN is talking about the strikes in Yemen adding to Biden’s political problems. Yes, progressives are not happy. But most Democrats and even many if not most Republicans support the strikes. (Some GOP said Joe should have done it sooner.) Where’s THAT story?

Two classic exciting playoff games last week before tonight’s National Championship championship game.

And yes, tonight’s game between Michigan and Washington was exciting. Kinda sorta. For at least several minutes.

Maybe next year they can take a page from the Super Bowl and have a bunch of new commercials.

Washington coach Kalen Deboer thinks his team was “not that far off” in the Huskies 34-13 loss to Michigan.

QB Penix “They’re a good team. We just didn’t execute in the moments when we needed to,” Penix said. “It’s just about executing. I don’t feel like they did anything — I feel like we beat ourselves.”

Brings to mind former Tampa Bucs coach John McKay’s answer to the question: “What do you think of your team’s execution coach?” To which McKay replied, “I’m in favor of it.”

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Silver lining with the College Football Championship being between two Blue State public universities, at least we know Donald Trump won’t show up to cause security and other nightmares. He knows both fan bases would boo him. Loudly.

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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has words of advice for the New York Jets for 2024: “Flush the bulls–.” Starting by kicking Aaron’s narcissistic anti-science anti-vax a** out of town?

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“Idea his brain is just average is unfathomable to him. We learned during COVID he knows more science than scientists. He went to community college, then got into Cal on football scholarship & didn’t graduate.” Jimmy Kimmel obliterates Aaron Rodgers

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As Elise Stefanik becomes latest Republican to indicate she may not accept election results in 2024 if Trump doesn’t win, imagine both GOP and media outrage if Democrats started using talking point that Joe Biden won’t leave White House if HE doesn’t like the election results.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Jake Tapper “now is not the time for immigration reform, it’s too complicated.”

MAGA Mike doesn’t have time. But GOP House has time their first week back in 2024 for an impeachment hearing for DHS Secretary Mayorkas. Make it make sense..

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While I understand stories of pieces falling off planes are terrifying, this reminder – in 2023 there were zero fatalities in United States as result of commercial aviation accidents. Whereas there are about 115 fatal automobile accidents in United States every single day.

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An Apple Iphone sucked out of that Alaska AIrlines flight when the door blew off was found intact, in airplane mode, and with half its battery left. And how many people have stories of phones that broke or died when they fell off a table?

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Uh oh, we should not share this story. It will really upset Donald Trump. ”‘Barack Obama wins Creative Arts Emmy for outstanding narrator for ‘Working: What We Do All Day’”

Well, he’ll be out until the All-Star break but at least the SF Giants traded for a player most of us have heard of …. #RobbieRay

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“You can’t love your country only when you win.” President Biden, again today. You’d think at least GOP sports fans would get this one.

And we don’t storm NFL, MLB, NBA etc headquarters trying to kill people even when we think our teams were cheated.

(And as a Saints fan I feel particularly qualified to post the above. This year the team loses a lot. And they WERE cheated.. All New Orleans fans did was boycott the Super Bowl.)

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Great jobs report for December And you know how good it was for President Biden because the Fox News top headline was about Hunter Biden.

Rancho Cucamonga was trending today on social media and it was an earthquake. Can’t sadly be the only person whose first thought was “Not ANOTHER mass shooting.”

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“We all know who Donald Trump is, the question is ‘Who are we?” Dark Brandon

So SCOTUS says they will hear Trump’s Colorado ballot appeal. Too soon to start a pool as to how long until Donald attacks the justices as RINOs?

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To sum up -The man who still can’t get over President Obama making a joke at his expense tells us we need to get over children being massacred in school.

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I’d say that Donald Trump wouldn’t be so cruel with his “get over it” line about school shootings if he himself had a child murdered. But truthfully, I don’t think Trump would care that much. He doesn’t love anyone but himself.

SCOTUS just allowed Idaho to throw health care providers in jail for providing emergency abortion care while they consider this case. This is a chilling reminder that the anti-abortion movement doesn’t care if women live or die—as long as they’re forced to give birth.

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Has someone asked Trump regarding his rants how President Biden can be so weak and ineffectual yet at the same time so almighty and powerful to have taken over the entire government,elections AND justice system? Logic has a liberal bias.

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Velveeta Voldemort “I’ve gotten indicted more than Al Capone.” And his point is?

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Thinking we’ve passed the pandemic & no one needs to be careful anymore? Have one travel agency client this week in their 50s who had to cancel due to flu that became pneumonia, and another had to cancel with COVID. Be careful out there, and get your vaccines. Now back to snark.

College football has tradionally made a big deal of “Signing Day.” Where high school athletes make their decisions on where they will start their collegiate careers.

So when is ESPN going to come up with a made-for-TV event on when NCAA comes up with a “Transfer Portal SIgning Day?

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One thing that might keep “student-athletes” in college longer.. they have a lot more flexibilty to leave for a better deal with the NILs and transfer portal than when they actually sign an NFL contract.

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So for anyone parsing the #CNNTownhall responses from Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, here’s a simple question: Why can’t either of them articulate a clear answer why it would be a disaster for our country for Donald Trump to return to the White House?

Nikki Haley tweeted “My heart aches for victims of Perry, Iowa & the entire community.” When asked on Kate Cox, “my heart broke for her…” We don’t need a President who talks about their heart. Americans need a President who supports gun control and protects women.

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A 6th grade student is dead in Iowa, and five others are in hospital. Will ANY of the GOP candidates running for President offer anything more than thoughts and prayers? It’s the guns, stupid

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Meanwhile those in todays’ GOP who are against any reasonable change in gun laws put today’s shooting down to “mental illness”

Same in GOP who want to cut Obamacare and other government programs including mental health funding

Makes sense, many of the same GOP scream about the border while opposing funding for border control.

“Thoughts and prayers” cost nothing. And they are uneffective.

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“What’s his name who’s running for President.” Nancy Pelosi with one of the best nicknames for Donald Trump yet.

Alabama had nine players enter the transfer portal today.

Now that it’s an all future Big-Ten National Championships, wonder if they’re getting out of the second-tier SEC?

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Washington coach Kalen DeBoer said of moving to the Big Ten “I think it will be a transition that will be pretty smooth for us…” 

Well, the Huskies probably will take chartered planes. Unlike their poor fans about to discover the joys of say, flying to Chicago and driving to Champaign or Madison, for example, But leaving aside time zones, thinking the team is going to get a crash course in appreciating Seattle weather.

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If Elayne Stefanik claims she cares so much about anti-semitism, why hasn’t she said one word about Trump’s dog-whistle phrase “Soros-funded Democrats?”

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Matt Gaetz “If this border is not shut down, then we must shut down the government.” Shut down? No President has ever shut down the border. Which Gaetz should know since he was elected in 2016…. Missed his outrage during the Velveeta Voldemort years.

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Jake Tapper to Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson ‘You would turn down a compromise on immigration or the border if it wasn’t everything in HR2?” Johnson comes back with a long-winded way of saying “Yes.” GOP doesn’t want to fix the problem.

If a woman who had a miscarriage can be charged with abusing a corpse, can we charge a man self-pleasuring himself detroying future babies? Cue a rousing chorus of Monty Python’s “Every sperm is sacred.”

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It’s not just living in Texas now. Imagine being pregnant while visiting the state and having a life-threatening emergency, including discovering an ectopic pregnancy… you could die before you have a chance to get home. Why does GOP hate women?

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Trump and GOP now are “Forget the constitution, let the people decide.” Okay then, so that means Republicans are also declaring voters can limit the Second Amendment!

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Matt Gaetz “If this border is not shut down, then we must shut down the government.”

Shut down? No President has ever shut down the border

Which Gaetz should know since he was elected in 2016…. Missed his outrage during the Velveeta Voldemort years.

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And if President Biden did issue some sort of Executive Order about the border, GOP would call him a dictator and declare it reason for impeachment.

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Seriously, If House GOP really gave a damn about the border crisis they’d be working on bipartisan legislation with Democrats, as the Senate is doing. Instead of more performative BS with impeachment inquiries, now including DHS Sec Mayorkas.

House GOP is all about crisis and drama

Referee Brad Allen, who muffed pivotal call in Lions-Cowboys game AND shafted both Chiefs against Packers & Saints against Falcons with missed PI calls in 2023, will now call Steelers-Ravens Sunday. Good thing neither team has postseason aspirations. Oh wait, never mind.

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National Championship for college football will be next Monday with Michigan vs Washington. Wonder if ESPN and the CFB Playoff committee are working to see if there’s a way the winner can play another game against SEC’s Georgia?

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Amazing job by cabin crew on JAL flight to safely evacuate 379 passengers in 90 seconds after jet collided w/ small plane at Haneda Airport. Wonder what if 379 Americans were on board? Would they have followed instructions? Or stopped to grab bags, post on social media etc.

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College admissions applications are in, but acceptances/decisions are months away. Young women considering schools in Texas, know now if you get pregnant, even choosing to have baby, if you have ectopic pregnancy or other live-threatening condition, state says you should die.

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Meanwhile conservative pundit Scott Jenning, ranting on CNN about Claudine Gay repeatedly refers to Harvard as “our national flagship university.” He’s going to be real popular at Yale and Stanford. For starters.

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Ivy League presidents absolutely fumbled question about genocide and Jews in a GOP=led congressional hearing. Now under pressure, presidents of Harvard and Penn have resigned. But would be President of United States fumbled a question about slavery and Republicans shrug it off.

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While Elyane Stefanick is gleefully all over Claudine Gay for alleged antisemitism I missed her condemnation of the man who said about Nazis in Charlottesville there were “many fine people on both sides.”

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CDC shows respiratory virus activity is high and rising across United States, COVID, flu and RSV. At same time GOP is leaning into the anti-vax mentality. No wonder Republicans are fighting against voting rights, they’re killing off many of their base.