D Baker

[Srixon @SrixonGolf]

The New Srixon Irons are getting the Tour treatment. 👀

[Selene Mariposa @Selene_Mariposa]

America turns 250 today.

Let me read back the resume.

We started by telling a king to pound sand, in writing.

By 1803 we bought half a continent from France for about four cents an acre.

We fought a war with ourselves and somehow stayed one country.

We strung a railroad across the entire thing.

We handed the world the lightbulb, the telephone, and the airplane in about thirty years flat.

Then a man named Willis Carrier invented air conditioning and made half the planet actually livable.

You are welcome, Texas. You are welcome, Dubai.

Twice the whole world caught fire, and twice we showed up and helped put it out.

We split the atom.

We put men on the moon in 1969.

Then we went back and hit golf balls up there, because why not.

We invented jazz, blues, rock and roll, and hip-hop, and the whole planet is still dancing to it.

We put a burger and fries on every corner of the earth.

We built rockets that fly themselves home and land standing straight up.

We flew a helicopter on Mars.

We launched a car into actual space and it is still out there cruising.

We also invented ranch dressing and somehow talked the entire world into putting it on pizza.

Priorities.

We even invented three of our own sports so we could win them.

Baseball, basketball, and football.

Real football, the kind with hands, because we named it and we are not taking corrections.

The rest of the planet can keep soccer, which is fine, we are hosting it in our backyard this summer anyway.

And yes, Canadian football exists, wider field, extra man, one fewer down, and we try very hard not to think about it.

Frankly it was generous of us to invent our own games.

If we put all that energy into soccer, nobody else would ever lift that trophy again.

We would win it so often they would just rename it the America’s Cup and hand us the keys.

You are welcome for the suspense.

And in 2026 we threw a birthday so big a German tourist live-tweeted our gas stations to 750,000 people.

Not every chapter was clean.

We argued, we stumbled, we fixed what we broke, and we kept building.

That is the whole trick.

Two hundred and fifty years in, and we are still the loudest, brightest, most improbable experiment on the map.

Not bad for a country that started as a strongly worded letter to a king.

Happy birthday, America.

🦋

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

This article was written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa Ahlgren, who's in grad school for her MBA. What a GREAT perspecitve..👍🏽

My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
I'm sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.

I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook's, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it.

Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought.

We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty One Times!!!

Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. ??

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, "An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity."

Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I've ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.

My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let's just say I didn't have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.

People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they've never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.

Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn't see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.

We don't know what it's like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague."

[Dan Rapaport @Daniel_Rapaport]

U.S. Women's Open at Riviera was one of the best tournaments I've watched in years. Course immaculate. Nelly birdieing 16-17-18 on Saturday. Charley Hull's charge on Sunday. Nelly's incredible short game display all week. The putt that somehow dropped on 18. What a week.

[Rick Golfs @Top100Rick]

Mesmerizing. 😍

Linn Grant is known for having one of the best golf swings on earth.

First watch, you will focus on her club position in the backswing.

But I’m kind of blown away by her left arm at top of swing. Its barely passed 90 degrees. Even with driver.

Maybe I need to shorten my swing!

I know so little about the golf swing lol.

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@gh0stprotocol @ryanmouquegolf Looks like the pro sender training aide or a copy of it

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@ryanmouquegolf I wonder how much of the palm facing the sky came from the often mentioned at least in the past about feeling like a waiter with a tray at the top.

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@Fit_For_Golf If I may ask what is the size/weight of that medicine ball you are using in this clip?

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@ChuckRehm4 @acaseofthegolf1 Damn!

[Dutch Rojas @DutchRojas]

In 2010, 80% of physicians owned their practice.
In 2024, less than 20% do.

Where did they go?

They got bought by “nonprofit” hospital systems.

Here’s the playbook:

1) Hospital identifies successful independent practice

2) Hospital offers to “partner” (buy)

3) Physician sells, becomes employee

4) Hospital raises prices 145% for the same services. Thanks @cmsgov

Competition eliminated

The physician gets a salary and a boss.
The patient gets higher bills.
The hospital gets market control.

This is called “vertical integration” in business school.

In healthcare, it’s called Monday.

The Dutch Line:
Every time a nonprofit hospital buys a physician practice, competition dies, and health insurance rise.

They call it “expanding access.”

I call it what it is: consolidation dressed in scrubs.

The hospital called it a partnership.
The physician called it bullshit.
The patient received a 40% premium increase.

Only one of them was surprised.

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@Joe98252575 @NUCLRGOLF Been a number of PGA who have, but Mike Malaska comes to mind.

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

They put a micro camera in a hummingbird feeder and magic happened.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

BREAKING: USAID official and 3 company executives plead guilty in fraud and bribery scheme involving at least 14 contracts worth over $550 million

USAID Official Roderick Watson took bribes, was showered with lavish gifts— including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cell phones, and jobs for relatives.

In exchange for the bribe payments, Watson influenced the award of contracts by manipulating the procurement process at USAID.

Watson faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Imagine how much more fraud there is…

[Buitengebieden @buitengebieden]

Rudolph is ready for Christmas.. 😅

Sound on

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@VDORUS1 @IsaacRowlett It is still there was sold a few years ago now to new owners but still operating and the have another location in iirc Chicago area as well now

[A Man Of Memes @RickyDoggin]

Common sense is missing in today's politics. Here's a little bit of common sense from the past.

[Kevin Casey @KevinCaseyGC]

Whoever did this to Talor Gooch's Wikipedia page, I can't. 😂

[Buitengebieden @buitengebieden]

Here's your first smile for 2024! 😊 https://t.co/iCMLfv0KN2

[D Baker @ForgedbladesDB]

@CorgiLoverClub2 110

[AstroDude @__AstroDude]

An amazing timelapse of Earth's rotation.