Malinda Gregory

Mother to Spencer G and Cobey Levi and wife to Bill! Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined! ~Henry David Thoreau

[Baseball Quotes @BaseballQuotes1]

In his final career at bat, with his parents in the stands and his brother playing second base for Oklahoma, Kolby Branch goes yard

What a moment 🥹

[Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian]

Symbolic

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

VIA~~~Charlie Thornton

Let me tell you why I'm with the Brown folk and queer folk and the women folk - somebody just reminded me of this - I was born and raised less than 10 miles from where I live right now. I'm a white dude, a southern dude, I own a gun, I have a job, I vote,  I drink beer, I fish, I pay my taxes, I grew up raising hell and listening to the Allman brothers ....
But the flag-waving Uber-patriots still come at me foaming at the mouth and telling me I'm not American enough, not straight enough, not man enough to be part of what they think belongs in "their America." Literally happened completely unprovoked about 10 minutes ago.
Now, if these crazy jackasses come at me??? - when I have a redneck pedigree that goes back to the Civil War.... how much more are they gonna try to persecute people that aren't like me? I'm literally everything they say they want, except I won't vote for institutionalized racism and a war on women and queer folk.
Screw them!
Persecuting people and hating people is no way to go through life. Miss me with all that
I'll be hanging with the womens and the queers and every color that the Good Lord made us in. And we will be looking better and eating better and having hell a lot more fun.
Bet on that.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

BREAKING: Fox News Just Spent 3 Straight Minutes Airing A Detailed Case For Corruption Inside The Trump Administration.

Think about that.

This wasn’t MSNBC.

This wasn’t CNN.

This was Fox News.

Rep. Jamie Raskin walked viewers through what he says is a pattern of corruption, conflicts of interest, and abuse of power inside the administration.

And Fox aired the entire thing.

When even Fox can no longer avoid the conversation, it suggests the story has become too large to simply ignore.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

BREAKING: Scott Pelley Just Made A Pretty Stunning Allegation.

According to Pelley, CBS leadership wanted a story about the killing of ICE protester Renée Good changed to better match Trump's version of events.

Pelley says he was told management wanted protesters portrayed as more violent and wanted Good described as driving toward the officer who shot her. He says the video evidence showed otherwise.

Then came the admission.

"There was a thumb on the scale for the president's version of events."

A veteran journalist with 37 years at CBS is alleging political pressure was applied to change the facts of a story.

That's a remarkable accusation.

[MLB Pipeline @MLBPipeline]

Hagen Smith (@whitesox) reaches a career-high 92 pitches in a scoreless outing for Triple-A @KnightsBaseball:
4 2/3 IP
3 H
0 R
3 BB
9 K (T-season high)
19 swings-and-misses

[Little Rock Trojan Baseball @LittleRockBSB]

Trojans Ranked for First Time Under Chris Curry

https://t.co/eSgZws7QQ8

[Malinda Gregory @malindagreg24]

😡

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents in Thermal, California literally admitted, ON CAMERA, that they stopped a man on his way to work because they saw him leaving a mobile home park.

Not because he committed a crime, or they had a warrant. Not because they had evidence he was undocumented.

Because he came from a mobile home park.

The Constitution requires police and federal agents to actually have reasonable suspicion before detaining someone.

You do not get to stop people because they live in a poorer neighborhood.

You do not get to treat an entire community as inherently suspicious.

And if the ONLY reason for the stop was “he came from a mobile home park,” that starts looking a whole lot like profiling based on class, ethnicity, or assumptions about immigration status… which is exactly why constitutional protections exist in the first place.

The man was a LEGAL permanent resident and was released once they verified it.

Which means this man was detained, questioned, and interrupted on his way to work because ICE agents decided where he lived was suspicious enough.

That is not how constitutional rights work in America.

The Fourth Amendment does not disappear because federal agents “have a feeling.”

[11Point7 College Baseball @11point7]

LITTLE ROCK HAS DONE IT. HATTIESBURG SWEEP.

THE TROJANS ARE GOING TO SUPERS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY 🔥🔥🔥

[Malinda Gregory @malindagreg24]

Known this my whole life. I have never been able to comprehend how anyone voted for.

[Richard @ricwe123]

When the illusion finally shatters, what’s left isn’t just disappointment,it’s total embarrassment.
The man you invested your faith in wasn’t a savior at all, just an empty act stitched together with arrogance, noise, and relentless self-promotion.
All that confidence, all those grand promises, all the swagger,it collapses into something painfully small the moment it’s tested against reality.

There’s no hidden genius, no bold disruptor underneath it all.
Just a loud, impulsive figure flailing through responsibilities he clearly wasn’t equipped to handle, drowning incompetence in a flood of bluster.

In the end, what once looked like strength turns out to be nothing more than cheap theatrics.
Not leadership,just a gaudy performance.
A caricature.
A spectacle.
And the real sting isn’t that it was absurd,it’s realizing how long it took to admit you were taken in by his bullshit...

[I TELL IT LIKE IT IS - LIKE IT OR NOT @DawgzRuul]

Remember - inflation under Biden was due to a global pandemic - the world's supply chain shutting down. Simple economics - low supply, high demand => inflation

When Biden left, inflation was BELOW 3%. Biden handed trump what Wall Street called a "Goldilocks" economy.

trump did this all on his own - his own decisions, failures.

TRUMP LIED TO ALL OF YOU JUST TO GET BACK IN OFFICE AND OUT OF HIS CRIMES

Now, corruption like never seen before - AND MASSIVE ELECTION FRAUD BY TRUMP INTERFERING WITH OUR UPCOMING ELECTIONS (check the constitution - executive branch has ZERO authority over elections)
https://t.co/WS8zN8WTn1

[CONSEQUENCE @consequence]

Jimmy Kimmel responded directly to Melania Trump during his opening monologue on Monday night after the First Lady called for his firing: "I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it."

"You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? We've all been there, right? What a day.

"As you know, they had to cancel the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington on Saturday night after a man with multiple guns and knives crashed the party and may have shot a Secret Service officer. Fortunately, the guy was wearing a bulletproof vest and is okay. He was charged today. No one was hurt, thank goodness. A lot of people were shaken up on a night that is supposed to be light-hearted.

"The White House Correspondents' Dinner, if you don't know, it used to be an annual event before Trump showed up, but every year they'd have a comedian roast the room. The President, the Vice President, members of the press—everybody got roasted. I did it once; I hosted it. It was a lot of fun.

"But this year they said, 'No comedian. We're bringing in a mentalist instead.' So on Thursday, three days before the event, in order to keep that cherished tradition alive, I did my own version of the correspondents' dinner on my show. I put on a tuxedo. We pretended we had an audience of luminaries. We used old footage of the Trumps, of Pete Hegseth, J.D. Vance, Kid Rock, Vanilla Ice, all the members of his cabinet, and we made it seem like they were all together in a room. We had a little roast.

"Again, this was Thursday, and there was no big reaction to it until this morning when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm, and a call to fire me from our First Lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made, again, five nights ago.

"It was a pretend roast. I said, 'Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at her. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.' Which obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that. I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular.

"But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it... because, by the way, I also should point out: Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you, and as am I, as are all of us. Because under the First Amendment, we have as Americans a right to free speech."

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

He drives a school bus in Dallas, Texas. But the kids on his route call him something else — Dad.

Every morning before the sun is fully up, Curtis Jenkins pulls his yellow school bus to the curb and waits. Not just to pick up kids. To see them.

For seven years, Curtis noticed things other people missed. The little girl who folded her paper lunch bag perfectly every day but left it on the bus — because there was nothing inside. The boy whose shoes were too small. The kids who got on quiet, eyes down, carrying weight no child should have to carry alone.

So Curtis did something simple. He made his bus a community.

He gave every child a job — a greeter, an assistant, a "police officer" keeping order in the aisles. Every morning he'd call out, "We're going to care about each other and love everybody, right?" And 50 small voices would answer back.

But it didn't stop there.

Over the years, Curtis spent thousands of dollars of his own money — money he saved by skipping his own Christmas gifts with his wife — on birthday cards, bikes, backpacks, turkeys at Thanksgiving, and 70 hand-wrapped Christmas presents. He didn't buy random gifts. He asked each child what they wanted. Then he went and got exactly that.

No donation page. No announcement. No cameras.

When the story finally got out and people questioned how a bus driver could afford it, Curtis just smiled.

"It doesn't take money. It takes discipline."

But here's the part that will stay with you.

When a reporter asked the kids what they loved most about Curtis — not one of them mentioned the gifts.

A fifth grader named Ethan, whose parents had divorced when he was four, looked up and said quietly:

"He's the father that I always wanted. In some ways, I wish my dad could have been like that."

Curtis heard it. Didn't flinch. Just nodded.

"That's the paycheck right there," he said later. "If I can get that, you can keep the money."

He wasn't looking for a medal. He wasn't going viral on purpose. He was just a man who decided, every single morning, that his bus would be the safest place those kids walked into all day.

Sometimes the person who changes a child's life forever isn't a teacher or a coach or a counselor.

Sometimes it's the person behind the wheel of a yellow bus at 7 a.m. — who chose to show up, and chose to care, when nobody was asking him to.

Tag someone who needs to read this today. 💛

[Peak Thinkers @PeakThinkers_]

Denzel Washington: "If you don't fail, you're not even trying"

"I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said there is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that's less than the one you're capable of living."

Denzel challenges the common advice:

"I'm sure people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on. 'Make sure you got something to fall back on, honey.' But I never understood that concept. If I'm going to fall, I don't want to fall back on anything except my faith. I want to fall forward. I figure at least this way, I'll see what I'm going to hit."

He gives examples:

"Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career, the most in the history of baseball. But you don't hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward. Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn't because the 1,001st was the light bulb. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success."

Three lessons about failure:

Lesson 1: You will fail. Accept it.

"You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There's no doubt about it. I know that's probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony, but embrace it, because it's inevitable."

Denzel shares a story from early in his career:

"I auditioned for a part in a Broadway musical. Perfect role for me, I thought, except for the fact that I can't sing. The guy in front of me is singing like Pavarotti. I'm shrinking. So I come out with my little sheet music, 'Just My Imagination' by The Temptations. I hand it to the accompanist. She looks at it, looks at me, looks at the director... I start singing. 'It was just my imagination...' They said, 'Thank you very much, Mr. Washington.'"

He didn't get the job. But here's the kicker:

"I didn't quit. I didn't fall back. I walked out of there to prepare for the next audition. And the next. And the next. I prayed. But I continued to fail and fail and fail. There's an old saying: you hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later you're going to get a haircut. Last year, I did a play called Fences on Broadway. Won the Tony Award. And here's the kicker, it was at the same theater where I failed that first audition 30 years prior."

Denzel asks the graduates:

"Every graduate here today has the training and the talent to succeed. But do you have the guts to fail?"

Lesson 2: If you don't fail, you're not even trying.

"My wife told me this great expression: to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did."

He shares a powerful analogy:

"Imagine you're on your deathbed. And standing around your bed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential. The ghosts of the ideas you never acted on. The ghosts of the talents you didn't use. And they're standing around your bed, angry, disappointed, upset. They say, 'We came to you because you could have brought us to life. And now we have to go to the grave together.' So I ask you today: how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?"

Denzel continues:

"The world needs your talents. Man, does it ever. You've got to give it everything you've got, whether it's your time, your talent, your prayers, or your treasures. Because remember this: you will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. You can't take it with you. The Egyptians tried it, and all they got was robbed."

Lesson 3: Sometimes failure is the best way to figure out where you're going.

"Your life will never be a straight path. I began at Fordham University as a pre-med student. I took a course called cardiac morphogenesis. I couldn't read it. I couldn't say it. I sure couldn't pass it. So I went into pre-law. Then journalism. My grades took off in their own direction down. I had a 1.8 GPA one semester. The university very politely suggested it might be better to take some time off."

Then something happened:

"I remember the exact day, March 27th, 1975. I was helping my mother in her beauty shop. There was this older woman, one of the elders in town. She kept staring at me in the mirror. Finally, she took the dryer off her head and said, 'Young boy, I have a prophecy. A spiritual prophecy. You are going to travel the world and speak to millions of people.'"

Denzel reflects:

"I was 20 years old. I'd just flunked out of school. Like a wise-ass, I'm thinking, 'Maybe she's got something in that crystal ball about me getting back into school next fall.' But later that summer, working as a counselor at a YMCA camp, we put on a talent show. After the show, another counselor came up to me and asked, 'Have you ever thought about acting? You're good at that.' I changed my major one last time. And just as that woman prophesied, I have traveled the world and spoken to millions of people through my movies."

He closes with this:

"Taking risks is not just about going for a job. It's about being open to people and to ideas. It's about taking small steps. It's about overcoming your fears until your heart becomes flooded with love. The chances you take, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that you have, that's what's going to define you. So when you fall throughout life, and you will remember this: fall forward."

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: NBA legend Charles Barkley bravely risks his job at CBS Sports by condemning Trump's brutal treatment of immigrants as a "travesty and disgrace" on air.

The MAGA corporate overlords are seething right now...

"I want to be very careful with my words right now. Okay. Because this is a really touchy subject for me. I love that kid and his family," Barkley began, referring college basketball star, Alex Karaban, who is the child of immigrants.

"But the way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace. I think there's a difference between amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants," he said.

As has been well-documented in countless news publications, Trump's promise to focus solely on violent criminals was a lie. Instead, his masked ICE thugs have gone after innocent families and hard-working members of our communities in order to inflate their deportation numbers and appease his white nationalist base.

"And I think what's going on in our country, what we're doing to some of these amazing immigrants is really unfortunate and it's really sad," Barkley continued. "And that's a great immigrant story. We have a lot of great immigrant stories out there. These stories need to be told."

"But some of the stuff that's happening to immigrants in our country right now is really unfortunate and it's really unfair," he continued, "But immigrants built this country and we should admire them and respect them."

Barkley made his courageous remarks while sharing the stage with hardcore Trump supporter Bruce Pearl, a former Auburn coach. Pearl is so pro-MAGA that he has even voiced support for Trump's illegal, child-murdering Iran War. Barkley knew who was in the studio with him and still he chose to speak out.

On top of that, CBS Sports is owned by Paramount Skydance which is run by MAGA fanatic David Ellison, the same David Ellison who installed Bari Weiss at CBS News to tilt its coverage in a more pro-Trump, pro-Israel direction. By speaking out like this in honest, compassionate terms, Barkley was putting his job on the line. He should be commended for his bravery!

Please ❤️ and share to thank Charles Barkley!

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Charles Barkley risked getting fired on CBS last night, calling out Trump for attacking immigrants: “The way some of these immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace. What we’re doing to some of these amazing immigrants is really unfortunate and really sad.”

[Nas @Nas_tech_AI]

18. Drive them somewhere without telling them where. Surprise your parents. They spent decades surprising you.

19. Eat at the restaurant they went to on their first date. Some places hold love that Google reviews can't rate.

20. Travel with them once. Just once. Before their body says no. The trip doesn't have to be fancy. It has to happen.

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Kobe Bryant: "Failure doesn't exist, it's a figment of your imagination"

An interviewer asks: "Are you someone who loves to win or hates to lose?"

Kobe responds:

"I'm neither. I play to figure things out. I play to learn something. Because if you play with a fear of failure or you play with the will to win that supersedes fear, I think it's a weakness either way. If you play with fear of failing, you'll capitulate to that fear. If you play with the sense of 'I want to win, I want to win,' then you have the fear of what happens if you don't. But if you find common ground in the center, you're unfazed by either. That enables you to stay in the moment and not feel anything other than what's in front of you."

The interviewer asks: "How did you become someone who doesn't seem afraid of failing?"

Kobe responds:

"What does failure mean? It doesn't exist. It's a figment of your imagination."

He explains with an analogy:

"Let's use happy endings. Everybody wants a happy ending, right? Snow White finds her prince and lives happily ever after. Well, I call BS on that because two months later, they had an argument and he's sleeping on the couch. The point is: the story continues. So if you fail on Monday, the only way it's a failure is if you decide to not progress from that. If I fail today, I'm going to learn something from that failure and try again on Tuesday. That's why failure doesn't exist."

The interviewer asks: "If you finished your career without a championship, would you have looked at that as a failure?"

Kobe:

"No. I would look at it as being extremely disappointed, because I had a dream and goals I wanted to accomplish. If I didn't accomplish those goals, I'd have to ask myself why. Poor leadership? Failure to communicate with my teammates? Lack of preparation? Those would be reasons why I didn't win. So I'd have to analyze that. And as I evolved post-basketball into business, those same weaknesses would reveal themselves there too. If I don't learn from that, I'm going to struggle again."

He concludes:

"I can take those situations and learn from them and have them make me a better person later in life. But if I don't take that stuff and apply it someplace else, that's failing. The worst possible thing you can ever do is to stop. It's to not learn."

[cryptonj @Adam36972065634]

@Timesofiraan

[Acyn @Acyn]

Taylor: The day that I decided to quit that administration was the day when a mentor of mine from capitol hill had died. His name was John McCain. The flags were at half staff around the country, and the president was trying to call us in Australia on the other side of the world, to say, not put out a statement in honor of John McCain, but to say, raise the flags back up. I don't care if you agreed with John McCain or disagreed. It didn't matter like Bob Mueller, he served this country in uniform. He was a sitting united States senator. He deserved to be honored with the flags at half staff—for the president of the United States to be so petty, so small and petty, to tell us to raise the flags back up in an act of active dishonor, tells you everything you need to know about that man and his lack of integrity and character.