Great news on the college basketball front. Dick Vitale announced Tuesday that he is cancer free, more than four months after he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Vitale, 82, the former head coach at University of Detroit and the Detroit Pistons before he went into broadcasting, shared the news on Twitter. With all the work Vitale has done for cancer prevention through the Jimmy V fund, it is great news for Vitale and college basketball. Love him or dislike him, he has been great for college basketball for the last 40 years. He has meant as much to college basketball as John Madden meant to professional football.
I love reading Heather Cox Richardson’s daily Letters from an American. Today she talked about how democracies world-wide are standing up to Vladimir Putin in a show of cooperation not seen since World War II. Here are excerpts from today’s letter.
The ability of European countries to come together to stand against Russia, as well as the global cooperation in cutting Russia off from the world economy, has offered an illustration of how countries can enforce a rules-based world and showed the strength of democracies.
The widespread crackdown on illicit Russian money will have an equally important long-term effect.
A recent study revealed that Russian money has corrupted British politics; now we are beginning to learn just how much of it has done the same in the U.S. A piece today in the Washington Post by Peter Whoriskey explained that, according to the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, oligarchs associated with Putin have donated millions of dollars to U.S. philanthropies, museums, and universities since Putin rose to power, using their money to buy access to elite circles. Also today, a former campaign staffer for Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has been charged with funneling Russian money into the 2016 election.
Also clear over the past month is that the U.S. seems to have finally begun to take on Russian propaganda. The administration was ahead of every Russian false flag operation and warned the world what our intelligence community believed was going to happen. This took away the element of surprise that has worked so well for Putin in the past
President Biden’s announcement that he is banning the import of Russian oil into the U.S. is going to test our citizens resolve and support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Gasoline is now at record prices in the U.S., and it will only go higher in the next few months. For people with means this is a small price to pay. For people who are living from paycheck to paycheck, higher gasoline prices are a big deal that creates a big burden on families. Although Biden’s action received bi-partisan support, look for politicians to use the rising gasoline prices as political fodder in the future.
Chalk one up for the good guys. Per the Detroit News today, a Texas man was convicted on Tuesday of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, a milestone victory for federal prosecutors in the first trial among hundreds of cases arising from last year’s riot. A jury also convicted Guy Wesley Reffitt of interfering with police officers who were guarding the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and of obstructing justice for threatening his two teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement after the attack. Jurors deliberated about three hours and convicted him on all counts. The verdict could be a bellwether for many other Capitol riot cases. It could give Justice Department prosecutors more leverage in plea negotiations and discourage other defendants from gambling on trials of their own.
Republican Michigan House candidate Robert Regan’s advice to his daughters in case of rape is receiving justifiable from the leaders of the Michigan Republican Party. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser on Tuesday criticized Regan’s comments saying, “Mr. Regan’s history of foolish, egregious, and offensive comments, including his most recent one, are simply beyond the pale. We are better than this as a Party and I absolutely expect better than this of our candidates.” Kent County GOP Chairman Rob VerHeulen, a former state representative called on Robert Regan to apologize for his comments. And then there is this from one of my friends who happens to be a Republican, “Put him in Jackson (Prison) for a couple nights unprotected and we shall see how he lays there and gets violated.” Until both parties quit accepting radical extremist, the party leadership is going to be continually put into a position of apologizing for the hateful action and words of these radical extremist.
Pray for peace and cool heads. What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Orchid of the Day: Dick Vitale, for being cancer free.
Onion of the Day: Guy Wesley Reffitt, for being convicted of obstructing justice for threatening his two teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement after the attack. No further explanation needed.
| Quote of the Day: “The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead. Potemkin military[.]” Andrei Kozyrev, Russia’s foreign minister from 1990 to 1996. |
Video of the Day: Sean Penn on his meeting with Ukraine President Zelensky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XAKa–ugVo&list=TLPQMDkwMzIwMjIvmk3pY63qGg&index=2