Occam’s Aftershave 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

Retired cop; public defender. Defending the Bill of Rights since 1981. Harboring aspirations to leave the Legal Aid Society and join an "elite strike force."

[Occam’s Aftershave 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 @Exit56N]

Worth reading, again and again:

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

A “razor” is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making.

The most powerful razors I’ve found:

[Bette Dangerous @Heidi_Cuda]

Same as it ever was … never forget.

[Tipping Pitches @tipping_pitches]

everybody wants to be a “question authority, don’t believe everything they tell you, open your third eye” guy until it comes to questioning whether the 30 oligarchs who own MLB teams and Rob fucking Manfred are telling you the truth about the economics of sports ownership lol

[Scott White @CBSScottWhite]

Based on other things we were hearing today, this seems like good news.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

WTF timeline are we on. Someone called me the MAGA whisperer and I’ll gladly take the title. Left, right, D or R we all want the same things. We’re being divided on purpose by the Epstein Elite Oligarch class because as long as we’re at each other’s throats, they get fat and rich off of our misery. The second we figure out we agree on more than we disagree, they’re done. Love your neighbor. Be yourself. Radical honesty. No fucks given, no fucks taken. Everything else is just noise. (But still fuck Jake “Brick Tamland” Tapper on any time line)

[GingerSpice❄️💙 @thedesertginger]

Who agrees that @HunterBiden has made this shitty app entertaining again?
I'm back for the takedowns
Bravo, sir 👏

[S.V. Dáte @svdate]

He is crazy.

I know we don’t want to shame people for their mental illness, but maybe they don’t belong in the Oval Office with the nuclear launch codes?

If he truly believes this, he is certifiable.

[Occam’s Aftershave 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 @Exit56N]

@TrueFactsStated @WalshFreedom In fairness, Lee Zeldin could put a crack addict to sleep.

[Turnbull @cturnbull1968]

This is an opportunity for the big boys to cash out by dropping the stock on people that have no idea they’re the marks.

The biggest rug pull in the history of the stock market.

[Covie @covie_93]

Shouldn't a requirement of being energy secretary is knowing how energy works????

[Jermaine Curtis @JermaineCurtis]

When I was with the St. Louis Cardinals, we had a team meeting about hitting with two strikes.

Albert Pujols was leading it.

At the time, he was hitting something ridiculous with two strikes.

I want to say it was around .265.

Naturally, everyone wanted to know how.

So somebody asked:

"What's your two-strike approach?"

Albert's answer surprised me.

He said:

"I think fastball inside and hit it back through the middle."

That was it.

No complicated mechanics.

No secret formula.

Just:

Fastball inside.

Back through the middle.

I remember sitting there thinking:

"Why would you think fastball inside with two strikes?"

So somebody asked him.

And Albert said something I'll never forget.

He said:

"If I can hit a fastball inside back through the middle..."

"I can hit the fastball away."

"I can stay on the changeup."

"I can stay on the slider."

"I can stay on the curveball."

Then he paused.

And said:

"The ball gets deeper."

That's when it clicked for me.

He wasn't trying to pull the inside fastball.

He was using one thought to cover everything.

The more I thought about it...

The more it made sense.

So I started trying it.

And it changed the way I thought about hitting with two strikes.

Instead of worrying about every pitch...

I focused on one.

Fastball inside.

Back through the middle.

See it DEEP.

If you're struggling with two strikes, here's what I'd do tonight:

Round 1: Short Box

(Set the distance somewhere between front toss and batting practice.)

Have a coach throw only fastballs inside.

Your only thought:

"Fastball inside."

Drive the ball back through the middle.

10 swings.

Round 2: Mix Speeds

Now the coach mixes:

- Fastballs
- Changeups
- Breaking balls
- Sliders

But your thought never changes.

You're still looking:

"Fastball inside."

10 swings.

Round 3: Two-Strike BP

Every pitch starts 0-2.

Compete.

Battle.

Use the same approach.

"Fastball inside."

Back through the middle.

10 swings.

That's it.

30 focused swings.

One thought.

One approach.

One goal.

Drive the baseball back through the middle.

One thing I've learned:

Most hitters get worse with two strikes because they add thoughts.

Albert got better because he removed them.

With two strikes, simplicity is a weapon.

Thank you for reading,
Jermaine Curtis

P.S. - If you enjoyed this and thought it was helpful, please share it.

(When you share it, it tells me you want more content like this.)

[NYTPitchbot @DougJBalloon]

This is my shocked face

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

[Sandi Bachom 📹 @sandibachom]

I was in court with Epstein for 3 days and after he died when his survivors read their victims impact statements.

He had cameras in every room. Those tapes were seized by the FBI. they talked about it at the SDNY press conference I covered

[John Jackson @hissgoescobra]

Russia and the U.S. will play a hockey game on July 1st in Moscow. This is humiliating and disgraceful. Any U.S. hockey player that attends this barbaric sportswashing of Russian genocide should be canceled and shunned for life. Let’s start exposing them.

[Marlene Robertson🇨🇦 @marlene4719]

Comparing a pool that is horizontal to skyscrapers that are vertical is peak insanity.

Why are Republicans allowing this demented clown to embarrass your country like this?

[Tipping Pitches @tipping_pitches]

the most clarifying thing I’ve learned by paying attention to MLB labor relations for the last decade is that some of you are just losers. you are sad losers who wish that a billionaire would smile at you for a fleeting moment while sticking his hand in your wallet

[Occam’s Aftershave 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 @Exit56N]

@HQNewsNow Well, in fairness, it is @LeeMZeldin speaking.

[Jumbo Elliott @JumboElliott76]

I remember when conservatives used to be all about private property right's and individual freedom. Then they went MaGa. UnAmerican. SMH

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

He's French. What's the supposed problem here?

[Three Year Letterman @3YearLetterman]

He mastered this app in 72 hours in a way I haven’t been able to do in almost 9 years

All you can do is tip your cap