The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Why do they even play the game?
by Charles Krauthammer
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Top Headlines
Why Trump's vengeful tweeting matters. (National Review)
GOP senator proposes Transferring Sanctuary Cities’ Federal Funds to Border Wall Budget (The Daily Signal)
CBO: Treasury to run out of cash in next three months, leading to default or delay of payments. (The Washington Free Beacon)
California's gun control efforts suffer two legal setbacks. (ABC News)
"liar-nObamaphone" program stashes $9 billion in private bank accounts. (The Washington Times)
Low-income families spend 40% of their money on luxuries. (Market Watch)
Iraq declares end of caliphate after capture of Grand Al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul. (Reuters)
Twitter considering addition of a "fake news" button. (Hot Air)
More fake news: CNN trots out Elmo to spout leftist talking points about Syrian refugees. (Pajamas Media)
Policy: Making high-quality career training central to American schooling. (City Journal)
Policy: Government monopoly money vs. personal choice in currency. (Heartland Institute)
Humor: Trump takes to Twitter to viciously attack White House step he stumbled over. (The Babylon Bee) ~The Patriot Post
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Should Anyone Care
about the Iranian Missile Strikes?
by Behnam Ben Taleblu
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ Although there is no precise open-source tally of every single Iranian ballistic missile, according to the former Director of National Intelligence, Iran has “the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.”... Iran’s experiences during the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War pushed the country to procure and produce this arsenal, underscoring the importance of these weapons for purposes of deterrence, intimidation and retaliation. Fast forward almost three decades and ballistic missiles have become a central part of Iran’s security strategy and a highly valued regime asset. In addition to retaliating against ISIS, Iranian officials implied that the missile strike sent a message to the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel. While Iran may have sought to intimidate its adversaries and attempt to signal resolve via a highly public move, the most important target audience for Tehran was likely its domestic constituency. Make no mistake, the twin terrorist attacks that rocked the Iranian capital on June 7 terminated the fiction that Iran could act with impunity in the region and not face repercussions at home... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/behnam-ben-taleblu-should-anyone-care-about-the-iranian-missile-strikes/.
LaVoy Finicum shooting:
FBI agent faces 5-count indictment
by Maxine Bernstein
{oregonlive.com} ~ An FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots at Oregon standoff spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum faces a five-count indictment, charging him with three counts of making a false statement and two counts of obstruction of justice... W. Joseph Astarita, 40, dressed in a dark pinstriped suit, white dress shirt and red-and-blue striped tie, made his first appearance on the indictment Wednesday in a packed federal courtroom, with heightened security inside and in the corridors of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. A lawyer standing beside Astarita entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to all charges. Astarita will remain out of custody pending trial... http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonstandoff/2017/06/fbi_agent_indicted_in_connecti.html
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Mystery Solved of What
Happened to Oil from Deepwater Horizon Spill
by Steve Byas
{thenewamerican.com} ~ “This provides the most complete account yet of what was happening in the hydrocarbon plumes in the deep ocean during the event,” observed Gary Anderson, a microbial ecologist at the National Laboratory of the Department of Energy, located in Berkeley... The “event” was the largest oil spill in history — the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It is estimated that the total discharge of oil into the Gulf was 4.9 million barrels. British Petroleum (BP) eventually agreed to pay $18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in American history. At the time, there was great concern about how so much oil was going to ever be cleaned up, using the available technology. But amazingly, the oil virtually disappeared on its own, leading to various explanations. One explanation was that natural causes — oil-eating microbes had done the trick... https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/26369-mystery-solved-of-what-happened-to-oil-from-deepwater-horizon-spill.
John Podesta - A Question of Patriotism
{freedomoutpost.com} ~ We hear that Congress is calling John Podesta for a hearing about liar-Hillary Clinton. However, many do not even know who John Podesta is or what his ideology is, which is something that goes against the Constitution among other ideas... So, let's disclose who this man is and what his ideas are to show the evil man that liar-Hillary Clinton and Barack liar-nObama both had working for them. John Podesta was the White House Chief of Staff for liar-nObama and that gave him a lot of power, which he seemingly abused. John Podesta is linked to Center for American Progress (CAP), which perhaps is a Socialistic group determined to undermine and eventually destroy the United States Constitution. But the first thing we learn about CAP is that it is also funded by the one person linked to liar-Hillary Clinton, Barack liar-nObama, John Podesta, Harold Ickes, and a number of others. That person is none other than George Soros, but we will dig a bit deeper into Mr. Podesta’s background. John Podesta engaged in the smearing and filibustering of any and all Republican judicial nominees. Podesta helped his first Democrat to begin his attempt to “circumvent” the Constitution...So you thing he will tell the truth or lie? http://freedomoutpost.com/john-podesta-a-question-of-patriotism/
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FSM VIDEO
Nets Dedicate 28X More Cover to Trump Tweet than Kate’s Law Passing
VIDEO: https://www.mrctv.org/videos/nets-dedicate-28x-more-cover-trump-tweet-kates-law-passing
VIDEO: https://www.mrctv.org/videos/nets-dedicate-28x-more-cover-trump-tweet-kates-law-passing
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Podesta (chairman for liar-Hillary's campaign) Clashes with Maria Bartiromo over Russia Ties: "Go Back and Get Your Facts Straight"
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TUCKER: takes on Kate's Law opponent
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Mark Levin to the Media: Want Trump to Act Presidential? Then Have Respect for the Office of the President
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Why do they even play the game?
by Charles Krauthammer
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ In mathematics, when you're convinced of some eternal truth but can't quite prove it, you offer it as a hypothesis with a portentous capital H and invite the world, future generations if need be, to prove you right or wrong. Often, a cash prize is attached.
In that spirit, but without the cash, I offer the Krauthammer Conjecture: In sports, the pleasure of winning is less than the pain of losing. By any Benthamite pleasure/pain calculation, the sum is less than zero. A net negative of suffering. Which makes you wonder why anybody plays at all.
Winning is great. You get to hoot and holler, hoist the trophy, shower in champagne, ride the open parade car and boycott the White House victory ceremony (choose your cause).
But, as most who have engaged in competitive sports know, there's nothing to match the amplitude of emotion brought by losing. When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals to Golden State, LeBron James sat motionless in the locker room, staring straight ahead, still wearing his game jersey, for 45 minutes after the final buzzer.
Here was a guy immensely wealthy, widely admired, at the peak of his powers -- yet stricken, inconsolable. So it was for Ralph Branca, who gave up Bobby Thomson's shot heard 'round the world in 1951. So too for Royals shortstop Freddie Patek, a literal picture of dejection sitting alone in the dugout with his head down after his team lost the 1977 pennant to the New York Yankees.
In 1986, the "Today Show" commemorated the 30th anniversary of Don Larsen pitching the only perfect game in World Series history. They invited Larsen and his battery mate, Yogi Berra. And Dale Mitchell, the man who made the last out. Mitchell was not amused. "I ain't flying 2,000 miles to talk about striking out," he fumed. And anyway, the called third strike was high and outside. It had been 30 years and Mitchell was still mad. Justly so. Even the Yankee fielders acknowledged that the final pitch was outside the strike zone.
For every moment of triumph, there is an unequal and opposite feeling of despair. Take that iconic photograph of Muhammad Ali standing triumphantly over the prostrate, semiconscious wreckage of Sonny Liston. Great photo. Now think of Liston. Do the pleasure/pain calculus.
And we are talking here about professional athletes -- not even the legions of Little Leaguers, freshly eliminated from the playoffs, sobbing and sniffling their way home, assuaged only by gallons of Baskin-Robbins.
Any parent can attest to the Krauthammer Conjecture. What surprises is how often it applies to battle-hardened professionals making millions.
I don't feel sorry for them. They can drown their sorrows in the Olympic-sized infinity pool that graces their Florida estate. No state income tax. I am merely fascinated that, despite their other substantial compensations, some of them really do care. Most interestingly, often the very best.
Max Scherzer, ace pitcher for the Washington Nationals, makes $30 million a year. On the mound, forget the money. His will to win is scary. Every time he registers a strikeout, he stalks off the mound, circling, head down, as if he's just brought down a mastodon.
On June 6, tiring as he approached victory, he began growling -- yes, like a hungry tiger -- at Chase Utley as he came to the plate. "It was beautiful," was the headline of the blog entry by The Washington Post's Scott Allen.
When Scherzer gets like that, managers are actually afraid to go out and tell him he's done. He goes Mad Max. In one such instance last year, as Scherzer labored, manager Dusty Baker came out to the mound. Scherzer glared.
"He asked me how I was feeling," Scherzer recounted, "and I said I still feel strong ... I still got one more hitter in me."
Asked Baker, demanding visual confirmation: "Which eye should I look at?"
Scherzer, who famously has one blue and one brown eye, shot back: "Look in the expletive brown eye!"
"That's the pitching one," he jokingly told reporters after the game.
Baker left him in.
After losing her first ever UFC match, mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey confessed that she was in the corner of the medical room, "literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact second, I'm like, 'I'm nothing.'" It doesn't get lower than that.
Said Vince Lombardi, "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." To which I add -- conjecture -- yes, but losing is worse.
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ In mathematics, when you're convinced of some eternal truth but can't quite prove it, you offer it as a hypothesis with a portentous capital H and invite the world, future generations if need be, to prove you right or wrong. Often, a cash prize is attached.
In that spirit, but without the cash, I offer the Krauthammer Conjecture: In sports, the pleasure of winning is less than the pain of losing. By any Benthamite pleasure/pain calculation, the sum is less than zero. A net negative of suffering. Which makes you wonder why anybody plays at all.
Winning is great. You get to hoot and holler, hoist the trophy, shower in champagne, ride the open parade car and boycott the White House victory ceremony (choose your cause).
But, as most who have engaged in competitive sports know, there's nothing to match the amplitude of emotion brought by losing. When the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals to Golden State, LeBron James sat motionless in the locker room, staring straight ahead, still wearing his game jersey, for 45 minutes after the final buzzer.
Here was a guy immensely wealthy, widely admired, at the peak of his powers -- yet stricken, inconsolable. So it was for Ralph Branca, who gave up Bobby Thomson's shot heard 'round the world in 1951. So too for Royals shortstop Freddie Patek, a literal picture of dejection sitting alone in the dugout with his head down after his team lost the 1977 pennant to the New York Yankees.
In 1986, the "Today Show" commemorated the 30th anniversary of Don Larsen pitching the only perfect game in World Series history. They invited Larsen and his battery mate, Yogi Berra. And Dale Mitchell, the man who made the last out. Mitchell was not amused. "I ain't flying 2,000 miles to talk about striking out," he fumed. And anyway, the called third strike was high and outside. It had been 30 years and Mitchell was still mad. Justly so. Even the Yankee fielders acknowledged that the final pitch was outside the strike zone.
For every moment of triumph, there is an unequal and opposite feeling of despair. Take that iconic photograph of Muhammad Ali standing triumphantly over the prostrate, semiconscious wreckage of Sonny Liston. Great photo. Now think of Liston. Do the pleasure/pain calculus.
And we are talking here about professional athletes -- not even the legions of Little Leaguers, freshly eliminated from the playoffs, sobbing and sniffling their way home, assuaged only by gallons of Baskin-Robbins.
Any parent can attest to the Krauthammer Conjecture. What surprises is how often it applies to battle-hardened professionals making millions.
I don't feel sorry for them. They can drown their sorrows in the Olympic-sized infinity pool that graces their Florida estate. No state income tax. I am merely fascinated that, despite their other substantial compensations, some of them really do care. Most interestingly, often the very best.
Max Scherzer, ace pitcher for the Washington Nationals, makes $30 million a year. On the mound, forget the money. His will to win is scary. Every time he registers a strikeout, he stalks off the mound, circling, head down, as if he's just brought down a mastodon.
On June 6, tiring as he approached victory, he began growling -- yes, like a hungry tiger -- at Chase Utley as he came to the plate. "It was beautiful," was the headline of the blog entry by The Washington Post's Scott Allen.
When Scherzer gets like that, managers are actually afraid to go out and tell him he's done. He goes Mad Max. In one such instance last year, as Scherzer labored, manager Dusty Baker came out to the mound. Scherzer glared.
"He asked me how I was feeling," Scherzer recounted, "and I said I still feel strong ... I still got one more hitter in me."
Asked Baker, demanding visual confirmation: "Which eye should I look at?"
Scherzer, who famously has one blue and one brown eye, shot back: "Look in the expletive brown eye!"
"That's the pitching one," he jokingly told reporters after the game.
Baker left him in.
After losing her first ever UFC match, mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey confessed that she was in the corner of the medical room, "literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact second, I'm like, 'I'm nothing.'" It doesn't get lower than that.
Said Vince Lombardi, "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." To which I add -- conjecture -- yes, but losing is worse.
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