October 28, 2022: Elon Musk Buys Twitter -- and Aids Russia

2021

October 28, 2022: Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion. That's forty-four billion dollars.

He had tried to buy it for a while, and it was hard to work out the kinks of the deal.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams; and was launched in July of that year. The social media service grew quickly: By 2012, more than 100 million users produced 340 million daily tweets. Twitter, Inc., was based in San Francisco, California, and had more than 25 offices around the world.

A signature characteristic of the service initially was that posts were required to be brief. Posts were initially limited to 140 characters, which was changed to 280 characters in 2017. The limitation was removed for subscribed accounts in 2023. In 2020, it was estimated that approximately 48 million accounts -- 15 percent of all accounts -- were run by Internet "bots" rather than humans.

One of its biggest users was Elon Musk, the South African-born tech billionaire who bought out other people's creations and passed them off as his own. Born with a thin skin, he couldn't handle the fact that, of the people on Twitter who didn't fall for his bullshit, half of them mocked him, and the other half blocked him -- even when he created new accounts with fake names, known as "sockpuppet" accounts. He said it was an insult to free speech. So he decided to buy Twitter, and set his own rules about free speech -- which, of course, had nothing to do with free speech.

Musk had begun buying shares of the company in January 2022, becoming its largest shareholder by April, with a 9.1 percent ownership stake. This was mere days after Time magazine named him its Person of the Year for 2021. Twitter invited Musk to join its board of directors, an offer he initially accepted before declining. On April 14, Musk made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company, to which Twitter's board responded with a "poison pill" strategy to resist a hostile takeover, before unanimously accepting Musk's buyout offer of $44 billion on April 25. On October 27, Musk and Twitter closed the deal, with Musk tweeting "the bird is freed."

In essence, the richest man in the world spent $44 billion to force people to pay attention to him. And we thought Donald Trump was an egomaniac.

UPDATE: As it turned out, Musk and Trump had more in common than we thought. Having changed the name of the company to simply "X," Musk used it to promote Trump and smear President Joe Biden and, after he dropped out of the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris. He even appeared with Trump at campaign rallies, making them the ultimate in toxic masculinity.

But it was even worse than that. On October 25, 2024, Politico revealed that, also in October 2022, Musk had stopped giving aid to war-torn Ukraine through his Starlink program, and shifted it to the country trying to destroy and take over Ukraine, Russia -- the country that had been helping Trump. Musk had even been aiding Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Both Trump and Musk had thus become agents of an enemy nation. Trump, as an American, should have been prosecuted; Musk, as a foreign citizen, should have been deported.

In the end, Musk got what he wanted: Trump got back into the White House. This led a lot of people to call Musk "the Co-President." It could also, legitimately, be said that Musk had now gotten what Trump previously wanted and got: The power of the Presidency without the responsibility.

Late in 2024, a new social media platform named BlueSky moved into operation. The idea is that it would be what Twitter had been before, even looking like it, but that people would get blocked as soon as they told easily proven lies, meaning right-wingers wouldn't last long. As Craig Brittain, a tech entrepreneur who ran for the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Arizona, but opposes Trump, wrote:

Elon Musk/Adrian Dittmann is the most blockable man on the planet, who literally changed Twitter against everyone's will because he was being blocked by the majority of users, so that they'd have to keep seeing his posts in their feed. The idea was that no one would block him anymore. Wrong again.

In a 2018 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Musk, while "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In hindsight, they did this battle way too early: Musk looked like something of a hero at the time, but has since revealed himself to be even more villainous than Zuckerberg. And while each character accused the other of racism, Musk's has since been revealed to be truly abhorrent.

*

October 28, 2022 was a Friday. Game 1 of the World Series was played. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 6-5 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. J.T. Realmuto hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning, after the Astros had come back from being 5-0 down after 3 innings. However, the Astros went on to win the Series in 6 games.

Two college football games were played. Florida International beat Louisiana Tech, 42-34 at Riccardo Silva Stadium (now Pitbull Stadium) in the Miami suburb of Miami. And East Carolina beat Brigham Young University (BYU), 27-24 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.

There were 11 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 119-108 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics, 132-123 in overtime at the TD Garden in Boston. Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert each scored 41 points for the Cavs.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors, 112-90 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Tyrese Maxey scored 44 points for the Sixers.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Wizards, 127-117 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Hornets, 113-93 at the Amway Center in Orlando.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 136-112 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Trae Young scored 36.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 111-102 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Chicago Bulls, 129-124 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Arena) in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat their arch-rivals, the Utah Jazz, 117-101 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-111 at the Footprint Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 125-111 at the Moda Center in Portland.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-2 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche, 1-0 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Arizona Coyotes, 3-2 at the Mullett Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona. Blake Wheeler scored the winning goal, 32 seconds into overtime. The Jets had been the Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2011. The Coyotes had been the original Winnipeg Jets from 1972 to 1996.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-0 at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

July 16, 2018: Donald Trump Meets With His Master, Vladimir Putin

Left: A man who knows he's owned

by the man on the right.

July 16, 2018: A summit meeting is held at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, between the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the man who made sure he would get that job, and was now expecting something for it, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

With Trump were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Kelly's Deputy Zachary Fuentes, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr., and Presidential Advisor Fiona Hill.

Among those with Putin was Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom Trump had met with in the Oval Office, along with Russia's Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, on May 10, 2017. That meeting had Russian reporters and photographers present, but no Americans were in the room, other than Trump himself. As of July 16, 2022, no one in America knows what was said, but it is suspected that Trump gave Lavrov and Kislyak classified information.

Trump and Putin met privately for 2 hours, without aides or note-takers, accompanied only by their respective interpreters. The private meeting was followed by a working lunch that included senior advisors. No agenda was published for their discussion, and no communique was issued afterward.

Jonathan Lemire of the Associated Press asked this of Trump: "Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you sir is, who do you believe? My second question is would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you want him to never do it again?

Trump's response:

So, let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months, and I've been tweeting it out, and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server, and what is the server saying?

With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia.

I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server, but I have, I have confidence in both parties.

I have great confidence in my intelligence people,, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. Okay? Thank you.

(Dan Coats was then the Director of National Intelligence, and had previously served Indiana in both houses of Congress, and had been U.S. Ambassador to Germany.)

Jeff Mason, of Reuters, asked Putin whether he had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, and had he directed any of his officials to help him do that. Putin replied: "Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal." Clearly, this was an admission to the 1st half of the question. Whether it was an admission to the 2nd half, an admission of interference in the election, was less clear.

Ever since, Trump has insisted that the evidence proves that there was no collusion between him and Russia, on anything. It does not prove the negative. It doesn't prove the affirmative, either, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest it. Had the evidence suggested implication of the Democrats, Trump would have argued words to the effect of, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

Upon becoming President, Trump removed President Barack Obama's economic sanctions on Russia, and offered no opposition to anything Putin did. Someone, I forget who, asked a potent question: If Trump is not an active Russian asset, would he be acting any differently if he were one?

*

July 16, 2018 was a Monday. The only major league sport in season at the time was baseball, which was in its All-Star Break. So there were no scores on this historic day.

July 15, 2018: Croatia Win the World's Hearts, But France Win the World Cup

July 15, 2018: The World Cup Final is held, at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, built on the site of the Lenin Stadium, the main stadium of the 1980 Olympics. This made it one of the few sites, although not one of the even fewer stadiums, to have hosted both an Olympic Opening Ceremony and a World Cup Final.

Fox broadcast the tournament in America. They had billboards advertising their broadcasts, featuring some of the biggest stars in the game. For Lionel Messi of Argentina, it read, "Men Become Gods." For Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, it was "Never becomes Now." For Neymar of Brazil, who lost a Semifinal to Germany, 7-1 on home soil, it was "Disgrace Becomes Redemption." For Javier Hernandez of Mexico, a.k.a. Chicharito, it was "A Curse Becomes a Challenge." And for Harry Kane of England, it was "Lions become Kings." And yet, none of these men and their countries reached the Final.

For those of us who oppose Donald Trump (and for those of you who don't, What the hell is wrong with you?), the nightmare scenario would have been a match at the tournament between the U.S. and the hosts, whose President, Vladimir Putin, would not only be lording it over the tournament -- as had Benito Mussolini in Italy in 1934, the Junta in Argentina in 1978; and, at the Olympics, Adolf Hitler in 1936, Leonid Brezhnev in 1980, and the Chinese bigwigs in 2008 -- but was scheduled to meet with Trump at a summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland, 3 days after the Final. Who would Trump have been supporting? But the U.S. team didn't even qualify, preventing that scenario.

Instead, the fear was that Putin would intimidate the officials into fixing the games for Russia. The 1st game didn't assuage those fears, as the hosts won, 5-0. Then again, the opponent was only Saudi Arabia. But when they won their 2nd game, 3-1 over Egypt, suspicions grew. Uruguay beat Russia, 3-0 in the last Group Stage game, but Russia still finished 2nd in the Group, and advanced to the Knockout Stage.

Not so lucky were Russia's longtime rivals and the defending Champions, Germany: They lost 1-0 to Mexico, beat Sweden 2-1, and then lost 2-0 to South Korea, finishing last in their Group.

In the Round of 16, Russia came from behind to take Spain to penalties, and won, and suspicion increased. Denmark scored in the 1st minute, Croatia in the 4th, then they played all the way to penalties with no further goals, and Croatia won the penalty phase. France won a 4-3 shootout with Argentina, Uruguay beat Portugal, Brazil beat Mexico, Belgium beat Japan, Sweden beat Switzerland, and, in the most shocking event of the round, England won a knockout stage game on penalties, defeating Colombia after allowing an equalizer in stoppage time.

In the Quarterfinals, Brazil were upset by Belgium, England beat Sweden, and France beat Uruguay. And, at the 2014 Winter Olympic stadium in Sochi, Croatia ended all concerns of corruption by taking Russia to penalties, and winning that round, 4-3. Danijel Subašić, goalkeeper for AS Monaco, stopped Fyodor Smolov. And Mário Fernandes, born and raised in Brazil but accepting Russian citizenship, missed his shot. Ivan Rakitić of FC Barcelona scored the decisive penalty.

That earned Croatia a lot of goodwill, and reminded people of what had happened between each side's predecessor nation: Yugoslavia had stood up to the Soviet Union. Croatia became the darlings of the tournament, at least for people who accepted that Putin was evil.

In the Semifinals, France beat Belgium, 1-0 in St. Petersburg. In Moscow, England and Croatia went to extra time, matching England's best performance since winning in 1966 (they lost to West Germany on penalties in a 1990 Semifinal), before Mario Mandžukić of Turin, Italy team Juventus scored the winner in the 109th minute. Thus did Croatia surpass Yugoslavia's best performance. They reached the Semifinals in 1930 and 1962.

Managed by Didier Deschamps, who had starred for Olympique de Marseille and Juventus, and had played on France's 1998 World Cup winners, France were loaded, and their players came from all over France's former empire.

Their Captain and goalkeeper was Hugo Lloris of North London team Tottenham Hotspur, half-French and half-Catalan. Right back Benjamin Pavard played in Germany for VfB Stuttgart. Raphaël Varane, a Real Madrid centerback of Martiniquais descent, nicknamed "The Rolls-Royce of Defenders." Centerback Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon, grew up in Lyon, and played there for Olympique Lyonnais. Left back Lucas Hernandez was born in Marseille, of Spanish descent, and played for Atlético Madrid. Also at Atlético was midfielder Antoine Griezmann, of German descent.

Midfielder Paul Pogba of Manchester United was the son of immigrants from the African nation of Guinea. Midfielder N'Golo Kanté of West London team Chelsea was the son of immigrants from the African nation of Mali. Midfielder Blaise Matuidi had Angolan and Congolese parents. Forward Olivier Giroud had starred at Tours FC, Montpellier HSC, and North London team Arsenal, and now played at Chelsea. And forward Kylian Mbappé was from the suburbs of Paris, with a Cameroonian father and an Algerian mother.

But Croatia had proven themselves worthy of being on the same pitch with anyone. They were managed by Zlatko Dalić, a former star at Hajduk Split. Their captain was midfielder Luka Modrić, probably the best player ever to come from any of the countries that once made up Yugoslavia. After starring for Dinamo Zagreb and Tottenham, he was, by this point playing for Real Madrid. In addition to Modrić, Mandžukić, Rakitić, and goalkeeper Subašić, they had Liverpool centerback Dejan Lovren, and Internazionale Milano left wing Ivan Perišić.

I guess what I'm saying is, with all these accent marks, French and Slavic alike, typing this post was hard!

Both teams wore their 1st-choice uniforms: France wore all blue, and Croatia wore red-and-white-checkered shirts with white shorts. The game got underway, before 78,011 at the Luzhniki Stadium, at 6:00 PM Moscow time, 5:00 PM in both France and Croatia, and 11:00 AM on the U.S. East Coast. The weather was a bit warm by European standards, but turned out not to be a factor.

In the 18th minute, Croatia tried to defend a free kick, with disastrous results. Mandžukić became the 1st player, and remains the only player, to score an own goal in a World Cup Final. Perišić tied the game in the 28th. In the 38th, referee Néstor Pitana, from Argentina, called a handball in the box on Perišić, and awarded France a penalty. For the 1st time, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used in a World Cup Final, and it revealed that Pitana got the call right. Griezmann converted the penalty, and it was 2-1 France at the half.

In the 59th, Pogba shot, and Lovren was only able to deflect it back at him, allowing him to score on the rebound. Young sensation Mbappé, 5 months from his 20th birthday, scored in the 65th, joining Pelé of 1958 Brazil as the only teenagers ever to score in a World Cup Final.

At 4-1 down with 25 minutes and change to go, Croatia refused to go down without a fight. Just 4 minutes after Mbappé's goal, Mandžukić took advantage of a Lloris mistake and redeemed himself. It was now 4-2 with France, with plenty of time to go, and the Russian crowd -- perhaps sensing a Slavic brotherhood -- seemed to be behind Croatia. But, try as they might, they could not find a 3rd goal, let alone a 4th, and France had won the World Cup for the 2nd time.

It was the highest-scoring Final since 1966, and the 1st decided in regular time since 2002. Deschamps joined Mário Zagallo of Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany to become only the 3rd man to win the World Cup as both a player and a manager.

Sometimes, a World Cup team is remembered more fondly than the team that actually won. Hungary over West Germany, who beat them in the Final, in 1954. Wales and Northern Ireland over Brazil in 1958. Portugal and North Korea over England in 1966. The Netherlands over their Final conquerors West Germany in 1974 and Argentina in 1978. France and Brazil over Italy in 1982. England over West Germany in 1990. Italy, Sweden and Bulgaria over Brazil in 1994. South Korea over Brazil in 2002. France over Italy, who beat them in the Final, in 2006. Hosts South Africa over Spain in 2010.

The Balkan nation, once part of a Yugoslavia team that was usually stronger but had never made a World Cup Final, became one of those teams. Croatia had won the world's hearts. But France had won the World Cup.

The England fans had said, "It's coming home." They forgot: Jules Rimet, founder of the World Cup, and for whom its trophy was named, was French. It had come home.

UPDATE: An article for ESPN.com, published after the 2026 World Cup, ranking all 23 tournaments, rated this one 19th, the worst since 1978 and the 2nd-worst of the post-World War II era, basically saying the tournament was dull. I didn't think so.

*

July 15, 2018 was a Sunday, as the World Cup Final usually is. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Masahiro Tanaka started for the Bronx Bombers, Trevor Bauer for the Tribe, but neither factored in the decision. Cleveland scored 3 runs off Chad Green in the bottom of the 8th, including a home run by Michael Brantley, making a winning pitcher out of Carlos Carrasco. Neil Walker hit a home run for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the Washington Nationals, 6-1 at Citi Field. Corey Oswalt started for the Mets, but the Nats scored 5 runs in the 7th inning. The Mets' were not helped by their bullpen: Anthony Swarzak walked the 1st 2 batters of the inning (Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety), and Jerry Blevins hit back-to-back batters. In between, former Met Daniel Murphy singled 2 runs home.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 6-5 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-5 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-1 at SunTrust Park (now Truist Park) in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The Pirates scored a run in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to send the game to extra innings. The Brewers scored a run in the top of the 10th, but Josh Bell singled 2 runs home in the bottom of the 10th.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 11-7 at Target Field in Minneapolis. Brian Dozier hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 7-4 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* In an Interleague, inter-metro-area matchup, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And in an Interleague, inter-metro-area matchup, the Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

May 10, 2017: Donald Trump Meets Sergey Lavrov & Sergey Kislyak In the Oval Office

Left to right: Sergey Lavrov,

Donald Trump & Sergey Kislyak

May 10, 2017: Just 1 day after firing FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump invites Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak to a meeting at the Oval Office in the White House. Lavrov was the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, he had been a Colonel in their intelligence agency, the KGB. Kislyak was the Russian Ambassador to the United States.

This meeting received significant coverage as it was closed to the U.S. press, but the Russians brought in a photographer from TASS, their state news agency, and released photos of Trump, Kisylak and Lavrov laughing together. 

(The initials had stood for Telegrafnoye agentstvo Sovetskogo Soyuza, or "Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union." After the fall of the Soviet Union, the replacement government, the Russian Federation, officially renamed it Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia, but kept the informal name "TASS.")

On May 15, it was revealed, that during this meeting, Trump disclosed classified information about ISIL's bomb-making capabilities to the men, without taking the appropriate protocols, which was leaked to the press.

And that's what we found out. The really scary part is, what don't we know about this meeting? What else did Trump tell Lavrov and Kislyak -- and, by extension, their boss, President Vladimir Putin?

A friend of a Facebook friend of mine put it this way. I haven't changed a word, including the asterisks:

Remember when the GOP lost their collective shit over President Obama taking off his suit jacket in the Oval office?

Or when he wore a tan suit? Or when he awkwardly saluted with a coffee cup in his hand? Or when he didn't hold his umbrella? Or the fist bump? Or bowing? Dijon mustard? Teleprompters? Celebrity President? Beer summit? Feet on desk? Paper clip-gate? Golfing? Vacations?

Remember all that nonsense? I remember. And I remember the gullible clowns that played along?

Now, remember this: Yesterday, the president* held secret meetings in the White House Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a former COLONEL in Russian intelligence, along with Henry Kissinger. Remember him?

he American press was shut out, and the only press allowed in the Oval Office was the Russian press, the day after the president* fired the FBI director for investigating his collusion with Russia.

Three months after this meeting, Kislyak resigned as Ambassador, and was elected to the Russian Senate. (A payoff from Putin?) As of May 10, 2022, Lavrov is still Russia's Foreign Minister.

UPDATE: On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives crossed from Gaza into Israel, and committed terrorist attacks, starting a war. This was a massive intelligence failure on Israel's part, as Hamas knew exactly where Israel was weak enough to strike. They got their intelligence from Iran. Iran got it from Russia.

Where did Russia get it from? Did they get it on their own? Maybe. Did they get it from Trump? We cannot rule it out.

*

May 10, 2017 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. One game was played in the NBA Playoffs: The Boston Celtics beat the Washington Wizards, 123-101 at the TD Garden in Boston.

Two games were played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Citi Field. The Mets led 3-2 going into the 9th, but reliever Jeurys Familia melted down in the top half, allowing the Giants to score 4 runs, and the Mets could only score 2 in the bottom half.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-6 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Nationals beat the nearby Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Miami Marlins, 7-5 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Texas Rangers beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-7 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Coors Field in Denver. Germán Márquez pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and Greg Holland finished the 3-hit shutout.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-1 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins were rained out at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 21. The Twins won the opener, 10-2. The White Sox won the nightcap, 7-6.

* And the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds were not scheduled.

February 24, 2022: Russia Invades Ukraine

February 24, 2022: The Russian Federation invades Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has declared that Ukraine has never had the right to exist as a country separate from Russia or the Soviet Union -- as it was from 1917 to 1922, and had been again since 1991 -- had already, in 2014, annexed the Crimea and supported a Moscow-friendly "breakaway republic" in the Donbas.

Now, he has sent his forces in to take the country, launching not only tanks but missiles, targeting the capital of Kyiv, and the port cities of Odessa and Mariupol. The whole world has sided with Ukraine against Russia, but Putin doesn't care.

By the end of this calendar year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine will either be dead, or captured, or victorious. If he somehow survives, he will probably be named Time magazine's Person of the Year, and the olive drab T-shirt he has worn in his public statements may become as iconic as Queen Elizabeth's purse, the Mao suit, the Che beret, the Nehru jacket, Yassir Arafat's keffiyeh, Barack Obama's tan suit, Donald Trump's red tie, or Joe Biden's aviator shades.

UPDATE: At the end of the year, Zelenskyy was still alive and in charge, and Time did, indeed, name him its Person of the Year.

By June 1, 2026, over 4 years into a war that Putin thought would last a few weeks, of Ukraine's 40 million people, 500,000, or 1 in every 80, were believed to have been killed; and another 7 million, nearly 1 in every 6, had been displaced. But U.S. estimates said that a roughly equal number of Russians have been killed, about 20 times as many as Putin's government would admit to.

The Ukrainians' fighting to defend their homeland has been courageous, and has earned the world's admiration. Zelenskyy refuses to give up.

Following viewer demands for a battle with a Russian, a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, featured a five-man "battle royale": "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Rasputin, Vladimir Lenin and Vladimir Putin; while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev. This, of course, was before Putin tried to conquer Ukraine, but was already seen as a villain all over the world.

*

February 24, 2022 was a Thursday. Baseball was about to start Spring Training. And football season had recently ended with the Super Bowl. There were 7 NBA games played:

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 129-106 at the Barclays Center.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 106-103 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 112-108 at the United Center in Chicago. DeMar DeRozan scored 37 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-114 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. D'Angelo Russell scored 37.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 124-104 at the the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Sacramento Kings, 128-110 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 132-95 at the Moda Center in Portland.

There were 8 games in the NHL, and all 3 New York Tri-State Area teams played:

* The New York Rangers beat the Washington Capitals, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The New York Islanders lost to the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the SAP Center in San Jose. (I said all 3 New York area teams played. I didn't say they all won.) In this game, Zdeno Chára set a new NHL record for most career games played by a defenseman. I have a separate entry for that event.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-1 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Florida Panthers, 6-3 at the FLA Live Arena in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida. (It's now named the Amerant Bank Arena.)

* The Boston Bruins beat the Seattle Kraken, 3-2 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Jake DeBrusk needed just 33 seconds of overtime to score the winner.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames, 7-1 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.