Em the gem

emotionally glitter-coated ✨ follow back guaranteed

[Trumps Nephew @ForgiatoBlow47]

JUST IN: A Pennsylvania Minor League Baseball Team has been issued a loss after all the players REFUSED to wear Pride Themed Jerseys! Let's make these guys famous for being TOTAL Patriots!

[Em the gem @mspick7]

@tropicalupdate Wow! No thank you!

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award, becoming the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs, multiple sources tell ESPN.

[Enes Kanter FREEDOM @EnesFreedom]

To my Oklahoma family;
this piece comes straight from the heart.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read it and feel what I felt.
Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of it.

I came to @okcthunder to play basketball. I left carrying 168 lives.

When I was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was thinking about basketball, nothing more.

I didn’t know that before I ever stepped on the court, this place would show me something that would stay with me far longer than any game.

Like any player, my mind was on the game. A new team, a new city, a new opportunity. I expected the usual routine when I landed in Oklahoma City. Physicals, practices, meetings, and a jersey waiting in a locker.

But before any of that, Sam Presti pulled me aside and told me there was somewhere we needed to go.

He didn’t explain much, and I didn’t think to ask. I was focused on the next step in my career.

What I didn’t understand was that, before I could represent the place I was about to play for, I needed to understand it.

So instead of heading to the facility, he took me to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

I walked in without knowing what I was about to see, and within minutes, everything slowed down.

There are 168 chairs at the memorial, each one representing a life lost on April 19, 1995. They are arranged in quiet rows, each engraved with a name, each standing where a person once stood in that building. Then you notice something that is impossible to process the first time you see it. Some of the chairs are smaller.

They belong to children.

There is no speech that prepares you for that, no headline that captures it. You simply stand there, and the silence carries a kind of weight that is hard to describe but impossible to ignore.

As you walk through the memorial, you pass between two gates marked 9:01 and 9:03. At first, they seem like simple numbers, but then you understand what they hold. One marks the last minute before the attack. The other marks the first minute after. And in between those two gates is 9:02, the moment when everything changed.

That minute does not feel like history when you are standing there. It feels present.

The reflecting pool stretches across what used to be a city street, its surface calm and still. When you look into it, you do not just see water. You see yourself standing in a place where unimaginable loss occurred, and for a moment, everything else in your life becomes quieter.

Nearby stands the Survivor Tree, an American elm that was damaged in the blast but endured. It is not untouched. Its scars are part of what it represents. But it is still standing, and in that, it carries a kind of strength that does not need to be explained.

We did not speak much while we were inside. It did not feel like a place for conversation. Some places ask for words. This one asks for reflection.

When we stepped outside, Sam Presti looked me in the eye and said, “This is what this state has been through.”

Then he said something I will never forget.

“Every time you step on that court, you are not just playing in front of fans. You are playing for a state that carries this with it. Give them everything you have. They deserve that.”

In that moment, basketball felt different.

Not smaller, but clearer.

Because what I had just seen was not only about what was lost. It was about what remained. A state that had experienced unimaginable pain and still chose to come together, to rebuild, and to move forward without losing its humanity.

From that day on, every time I stepped on the court, I carried that with me.

On the nights when I was tired, when I was hurt, when I was dealing with challenges that felt heavy in the moment, I would think about those chairs, about that minute, about the people behind those names. And I was reminded that what I was going through did not compare to what this state had endured.
https://t.co/XfNLliRVaO

[Em the gem @mspick7]

@laralogan For sure!

[Patriot🇺🇸Newswire @NewswirePatriot]

On the night of September 11th 2012, Benghazi erupted into chaos. Gunfire echoed, explosions lit up the sky, and the situation rapidly spiraled out of control.

Tyrone Woods, a former Navy SEAL and security contractor was told an American Ambassador was in danger.

Woods, a husband and father, could have just ignored the call and saved himself, but that wasn't who he was.

Instead, he drove to the State Department facility under heavy fire, fought his way inside, and tried in vain to locate Ambassador Stevens.

Learning that his friend was under attack, and calls for rescue were going unanswered, Glen Doherty knew what he had to do.

Doherty immediately boarded a plane from Tripoli to join the fight.

Woods and Doherty made it to the roof of the CIA annex building where they were able to protect those below and buy time.

The bullets rained down upon them, but with every second they held their ground.

There was no thought of retreat. No surrender. Just two men, side by side, protecting their brothers.

Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died on that rooftop, fighting until their very last breath.

Because they stayed, others lived.

The headlines about the Benghazi attack have long faded. Many may never know the names of the two men who took a stand when it mattered most.

But we should NEVER FORGET the ultimate sacrifice they made for our country. 🇺🇲

RIP Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty—Benghazi, 2012.

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Airport Wait Times Eliminated After TSA Checkpoints Taken Over By Chick-Fil-A https://t.co/aOaGRhtVZQ

[Em the gem @mspick7]

@iamrodneysmith Such a great program you have started! No group needs more than elderly & kids! Thank you for your servants heart & guiding our children ❤️

[MAGA Voice @MAGAVoice]

BREAKING 🚨 Bill Maher’s audience erupts when Rep Anna Paulina Luna drops the 🎤 on voter ID:

"If you cant do your JOB in the Senate and get voter ID and proof of citizenship passed, you should find a DIFFERENT JOB”

LET’S FREAKING GO 🔥

[Em the gem @mspick7]

@Braves @andruwjones25 @baseballhall Yay! Finally!! Well deserved 🤩

[Paul Hembekides (Hembo) @PaulHembo]

Most fielding runs by OF:

Baseball Reference
1. Andruw Jones
2. Roberto Clemente
3. Willie Mays

FanGraphs
1. Andruw Jones
2. Willie Mays
3. Paul Blair

The bedrock of Jones’ HOF case: he could go get it better than any outfielder, ever.

[Em the gem @mspick7]

@bekahj Or mani/pedis

[MLB @MLB]

Greg Maddux would like to see his former teammate Andruw Jones join a team of baseball’s greats in Cooperstown 🤩

Find out if Jones gets the call to the Hall this Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 6 pm ET on @MLBNetwork.

[Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar]

SGA telling the story of Sam Presti giving him The Tortoise and the Hare book during his Sportsman of the Year speech is a must watch.

"I'll never forget when I first arrived at OKC and you gave me the book The Tortoise and the Hare. You explained to me the meaning behind it and I’d be lying if I said I hoped I didn’t need it at the time.

And boy were the next few years very, very rough. I think we won 25 games one of the following seasons and that was a lot. Eventually, when we started to weather the storm, I revisited that story and I started to see how it relates to my own path and our own path.

This past season, when we won the championship he gave me a statue of the tortoise, and that's a very Sam Presti way of saying 'I told you so.'

I keep that beside my championship ring, my MVP trophy, and thank you for that."

(@SInow)

[Byl Holte @SirBylHolte]

I was born in 1961.

Nobody had food allergies.

There were no TRANS kids.

I could ride public transportation without being set on fire.

I could go to school without getting jumped.

We played outside until the streetlights came on.

Cartoons didnt try to turn us gay.

Movies and TV shows didn't try to depress us about our lives.

Families didn't break up over politics.

You could say "Merry Christmas" without starting a war.

A man was a man, a woman was a woman, and nobody pretended otherwise.

Nobody lost their job or their home for merely stating biological facts.

We respected cops, teachers, and the flag.

Nobody was "offended" by EVERYTHING.

And if anybody WAS offended by anything, it was THEIR PERSONAL PROBLEM, not a national crisis.

Call me old-fashioned and outdated - but I really miss those days.

I'd give anything to go back to BEFORE 24/7 cable news, social media doom-scrolling, and algorithm rage machines.

Because tech turned families into enemies, politics into war, and every keyboard warrior into a lie-spreading narcissist.

So Santa, if you're following me:

All I want for Christmas is a global time machine.

So we can get back to the glorious days of real community, actual news, personal responsibility - AND SANITY.

[Right Scope 🇺🇸 @RightScopee]

🚨BREAKING: Trump is gifted a Cowboy hat AND HE PUTS IT ON IN THE OVAL OFFICE ❤️.

MAKE THIS GO VIRAL ON 𝕏. LET’S GO 👏

What’s your level of support of Trump?

A)25% B)50%

C)75% D)100%

[Chipper Jones @RealCJ10]

Preach Carroll…..