It's just math.
Jocko Willink, Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper, and Bob Marley
Virginia FREE Friday at 4pm today - click here
Stat of the Week:
More than 320,000 U.S. children lost a parent to drug overdose from 2011-2021
On Higher Ed
George Friedman - The Crisis of the University
On the crisis of universities, I see three issues. One is financial; the cost of education has been unsustainable for individuals and the government alike. (The large number of forgiven loans has compounded this problem.) The second is ideological; ideology has been replacing scholarship in the classroom and in the administration buildings. The third is what I would call procedural; the admissions process has tended to screen out social and ethnic groups that seem unattractive to the university’s idiosyncratic values.
Entitlement Reform?
Can you imagine what would happen if college students had even a passing interest in our nation’s fiscal future? Here’s the Debt Clock today:
From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget comes three countdowns until Medicare, Social Security, and Highway Trust Funds are insolvent:
Why aren’t the students looking at these? Well, no one is funding that effort.
Great story here on The People Setting America on Fire An investigation into the witches’ brew of billionaires, Islamists, and leftists behind the campus protests
#FollowTheMoney
Hey, Virginia! Your #1 customer is spending $1.8 TRILLION more than it takes in. Not a great business model. #Math
2024’s #1 polling question - who’s going to show up?
All of these pollsters agree on one thing - poll Registered Voters. None of these are Likely Voter polls. Spidey sense is that RV polling skews to the GOP.
Exhibit A:
Almost 22% of Indiana Republican voters voted AGAINST former President Donald Trump.
Exhibit B:
Here’s my current map for November. It doesn't track the current RCP averages above but I think abortion is going to drive Democratic turnout in the suburbs of the Pre 2016 Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Another reason? Democratic governors.
In the 2016 cycle, Michigan and Wisconsin had Republican governors while Pennsylvania’s flipped to Democratic in 2015. The accompanying political infrastructure along with free and earned media matters in close elections - A LOT.
AZ and NV have higher than national average gas prices and are immigration stressed. I think Trump holds these two even though they tighten up considerably due to abortion.
Where is the Senate going to be decided? Looks like Ohio and Montana. #FollowTheMoney.
Personal News
(I share this because if one person takes the advice that I took from my dad, then GOOD - I will have done my job. Lesson? GET TESTED!!!)
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We went to the doctor Wednesday afternoon for a scheduled follow up on my prostate MRI which was done on May 1st.
While the news was not Excellent, it’s also To Be Determined. The MRI did find a very small lesion which they believe has a 60% chance of being cancerous.
It’s also 40% possible that it is not cancerous.
I have been scheduled for a biopsy on June 20th and then my consult on those results at the end of July.
They were not alarmed and neither am I.
That said - I’m not thrilled but having the information known is helpful.
I am very grateful for the knowledge of my dad’s history with this which led to early and frequent PSA testing.
Update - Dad is 85, plays golf, and is looking forward to witnessing his sixth grand child, John, graduate college in three weeks time.
If it is cancer we found it very early and treatment is nearly 100% effective.
I am also grateful for my doctor and the incredible technology we have today.
And, of course, I am deeply grateful for Michele, our kids, and you.
Cheers - Sax
p.s. GET TESTED!!!
Two videos that have helped me along the way:
Transcript of that entire interview.
Key excerpt:
COLBERT: My experience is the example of my mother and from what I read and experience of my particular faith extremely imperfectly. There is not another time line. This is it. And the bravest thing you can do is to accept with gratitude the world as it is. And then as Gandalf says, so to all people who are in such times.
COOPER: You told an interviewer that you have learned, in your words, "Love the thing that I most wish had not happened".
COLBERT: I don't remember that.
COOPER: You went on to say, "What punishments of God are not gifts". Do you really believe that?
COLBERT: Yes. It's a gift to exist. And with existence comes suffering. There is no escaping that. I guess I'm either a Catholic or a Buddhist when I say those things. I've heard those from both traditions. But I did not learn it, that I was grateful for the thing I most wish hadn't happened. Is that I realized it. And it is an oddly guilty feeling.
COOPER: It doesn't mean you're happy about it.
COLBERT: I don't want to have happened I want it to not have happened. But if you are grateful for your life, which I think is a positive thing to do, not everybody is and I'm not always. But it is the most positive thing to do. Then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can't pick and choose what you're grateful for.
And then, so what do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people's loss which allows to you connection with that other person which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it is like to be a human being if it is true that all humans suffer.
And so at a young age, I suffered something so that by the time I was in serious relationships in my life, with friends or with my wife or with my children, is that I understand that everybody is suffering. And however imperfectly, acknowledge their suffering and to connect with them and to love them in a deep way.
That not only accepts that all of us suffer but also then makes you grateful for the fact that you have suffered so that you can know that about other people. And that's what I mean.
[21:50:00]
COLBERT: It's about the fullness of your humanity. What's the point of being here and being human? If you can be the most human you can be I'm not saying best because you're going to be a bad person and a most human. I want to be the most human I can be and that involves acknowledging and ultimately being grateful for the things that I wish didn't happen, because they gave me a gift.
We’ll be praying for you.