The UK men’s basketball season ended last night with a thud. The Cats came out flat in the first half and were down by 14 at halftime. Then, as usual, Coach Pope rallied them for a better second half and we outplayed TN by a point or two for that half, but the final score was 78-65. Hated to see us lose to those low-down, dirty and sneaky Vols, but…it was a great season. Pope brought hope back to a cynical, pissed off Big Blue fan base, against all odds. Starting with zero players, then dealing with a historic cluster of injuries at the point guard position, Pope led the newly-transferred Cats to some glorious moments. We beat Duke, TN (twice), Florida, Gonzaga, Texas A&M. When healthy, we could play with anyone. So the 2024-2025 season will go down in UK history as a successful reboot of the program and the start of a hopefully long Mark Pope era. Coach Pope has earned the right to do it all again next year. But now we fans have to wait seven months for the next episode in the series.
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Note to self – do NOT fly in or out of Reagan National Airport for the foreseeable future. It’s just too dangerous: Collision warning sounds in cockpit of Delta plane due to close call with Air Force jet near Reagan National Airport .
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My prediction a while back that Mad King Donny’s actions would crater the stock market is looking good (sadly). The Dow is down 2000 points over the last month, or about 5%. I predicted a 20% drop, and we’ll likely get there. To all my wealthy Republican friends – *this* is your economic policy hero? How’s your 401K looking right now?
Meanwhile, Donny’s rapid assault on government agencies, documented history, the judiciary, on healthcare and universities, on law firms that oppose him, on our previous international allies…continues more or less unchecked. Donny’s team is simply ignoring the many legal rulings against their actions. This all very clearly ends with Donny being installed as sole decision maker in a system that used to have mostly-effective checks and balances – that system will be gone. While Donny won’t live to be a long-term king, some other MAGA sewer rat will be annointed to take his place when he dies or decides to step down from power. I just don’t see how this all ends well without a citizen-led revolution taking place, and the American populace is way too complacent to hit the pavement. Though that may change when Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid start failing. Unlike the Vietnam War, when young people protested and demanded change (and got it), this will be a gray revolution – those 50 and up will have to do the hard work of protest. I’m not looking forward to that.