Tom Baker (he/him)

Jokic had an all-time great season, but SGA led the league in scoring and win shares, and he also led in *defensive* win shares and was 3rd in defensive rating. No one is as good on both ends of the floor as SGA. He's got to be the MVP.

The idea of "Presidential immunity" was transparently farcical until the Supreme Court took it up.

A challenge to birthright citizenship is transparently farcical. But here we are. And with this Supreme Court, everything is in play.

1. Fuck Duke. I hate Duke. I can't express my hatred for them enough, dating back to Christian Laettner stomping on Aminu Timberlake. Fuck Duke.

2. That foul call on Cooper Flagg was bullshit. That's not a foul in the first 39 minutes of a game and it's *really* not a foul in the last minute.

I have no patience for think pieces today that try to explain the method to the Trump administration's tariff madness.

Trump is a stupid man who surrounds himself with incompetent sycophants who either won't or can't, because of their own stupidity, explain to him what a dumbass he is.

Tariffs = import tax
More tariffs = tax increase
In this case the tax increase is potentially the largest non-wartime tax increase in US history. The concept isn't difficult to grasp. The messaging should be clear.

The Wedding Singer was released in 1998 and took place in 1985. So, if it were made today, it would take place in 2012.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your day.

If you told me 10 or 12 years ago that 2025 would be the first year of this decade in which John Calipari and UK would make it to the Sweet 16 I would not believe you. Doubly so if you told me they would do so apart from each other.

The more I see the current state of the GOP the more I think that those of us who were taught that "real men" own up to their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions were done a great disservice.

Apparently, they didn't do the thing you very clearly saw them do, but if they did it's Biden's fault.

It's amazes me how they always act like middle schoolers who know they're caught but assure you that this time, unlike all of the other times, they actually didn't do it. You gotta believe them.

Adults own up to their mistakes. Children don't. Adults take responsibility for their actions. Children deflect and blame others.

There are no adults in the room.

I don't know how to explain this, but people who argue that there is traveling on every single play in basketball are the reason Trump won.

I am not delusional enough to believe that Mark Pope is the best coach in college basketball. But I do believe that he is the best coach for Kentucky in this moment, and I wouldn't trade him for anyone in the world.

Me, just now, as I punt on making breakfast: "Cooking is a joy I don't want to experience today."

Some people have titles like "doctor" and with letters like PhD, MD, or DMD. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here with the label "bipolar" and the letters GAD, PTSD, and ADHD.

Life ain't fair.

I've got one kid with a 504, another with an IEP, and another receiving Pell grants to help pay for college. Today is a dark day.

Totally inconsequential, non-political post:

I'm tired of the narrative that the only reason SGA scores so much is all foul calls he gets.

SGA averages 33 points per game. Jordan averaged 33 or more 3 times. 2 of those 3 he shot more FTs per game than SGA this season.

The FT narrative is stupid.

If anyone presents themself as being morally upstanding, virtuous, honest, principled, etc. they absolutely are not. People who are those things never have to tell you. Ever.

This man has won THREE statewide elections (AG, governor, governor reelection) in KENTUCKY.

Democrats can win elections without throwing queer and trans people under the bus.

The Onion nails it again.

If the Dems allow the CR to pass in exchange for a doomed, ceremonial vote...

We're doomed. We're just doomed. That's all there is to it. The opposition party is there to OPPOSE and especially to oppose this lawless, fascist regime. This really isn't that complicated.

Do your fucking jobs.

I'm not saying my band is better than Tool, who I actually like, but we've never played a show so bad that we've been booed off the stage and threatened with a class action lawsuit.

It's really hitting hard that if HB 495, or anything like it, passes, then my family will have to move from Kentucky, where I've lived for nearly 46 years now. Maybe not immediately. But inevitably.

This one may not pass, but something will. Maybe not this session, but soon. My heart is breaking.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to ban gender affirming care for all trans people. It's a genocidal movement, one step at a time.

And only banned for trans people. Elon Musk can still get all the surgeries, hormone injections, hair plugs, and whatever else he wants. All cis people can.

HB 495 is irrefutable proof that SB 150 was *never* about "protecting" children.

I quit buying Gibsons for a while after their decision to spend more time suing other manufacturers than they did improving their products. Combine that with the EIA issues and violations of the Lacey act. They've got their shit back together but they had a really bad decade.

What shook me was Moody's downgrading Fender. Fender came out of the pandemic in good shape relative to other brands. And now their operating costs are expected to go up $25 million. Even a large company like Fender is going to struggle with that. And Gibson isn't far removed from bankruptcy.

One thing I'm wondering is how PRS is going to come out here. Their SE line is popular, well regarded for what it is, and made in Indonesia. They could be a big winner and the next generation could all play Silver Skies and McCarty Single Cuts like ours did Strats and Les Pauls.

Absolutely. And a cursory glance at Reverb right now shows that the second hand market for instruments is high enough as it is. I haven't purchased any instruments in the last few years for that reason, and it's only going to get worse.

Tariffs will not bring down the cost of American made instruments. They will just make everything more expensive and potentially destroy an industry that has been struggling for years to begin with.

Even instruments and amplifiers made in the US depend on some parts made overseas. No one can make everything in house. So prices will go up, and a lot of working musicians will be priced out, disrupting the entire music industry.