Prairie Gates
Prairie Gates's JournalFifa plays down reports that ticketless fans breached security at England World Cup game
Source: The Guardian
Fifa has played down reports that ticketless England supporters were able to gain entry for the World Cup opener against Croatia after evading security checks at the Dallas Stadium.
An unspecified number of fans without tickets are said to have made their way into the ground despite a huge security operation being put in place at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington. Officials said that snipers were in place inside the stadium, with the Arlington police department deploying “highly trained personnel and specialised resources” at the venue.
But despite those measures and some fans having paid thousands of pounds for tickets, there were widespread reports of supporters without tickets gaining access.
“It was ridiculous,” one fan told the Daily Mail. “There were big gaps at the side of the ticket barriers and people just strolled through. There were volunteers who were basically old ladies and they weren’t stopping anyone. I scanned my ticket because I had one, but nobody checked my flag or my trophy. Loads just walked through while others just jumped over the top. There were huge gaps.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/18/fifa-england-ticketless-fans-security-world-cup
The truth of the matter is that American arena entries - relative to security in place in other countries - is slightly more elevated than an honor system - very slightly. So I'm not surprised to hear this.
That this is a huge security concern should be clear enough, but it's nearly certain that lazy-ass FIFA just told the local vendor stadiums to take down sponsor names but use their usual entry protocols.
It's funny and all when it's the England supporters acting a damn fool, but remember that if they can sneak in with pints and Millwall bricks, then anyone can sneak in with anything.
Hezbollah's Fiber-Optic Drones Expose Cracks in Israeli Defenses
Source: New York Times
An explosive drone snaked between the hills of southern Lebanon before striking an Israeli armored personnel carrier. Two days later, another slammed into a tank. Three days after that, a third pounded into a missile-defense system.
Each day, multiple drones attack Israeli forces, the Israeli military has said, and with lethal effect. In the past week alone, they have killed three soldiers.
The relentless drone attacks by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, have exposed cracks in Israel’s defenses, shocking its public and forcing a rushed search for solutions by its military and political leaderships.
They have sown fear among Israeli ground troops in Lebanon and challenged Israel’s longstanding air superiority in Lebanese skies. The drones have also revealed a shortcoming in Israel’s strategy to seize territory in southern Lebanon, build a buffer zone and displace Hezbollah militants beyond the range of antitank missiles that have plagued tens of thousands of civilians living in northern Israel.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/world/middleeast/hezbollah-fiber-optic-drones-israel.html
Anyone who has been paying attention on Reddit (where many of these drone videos are posted) could tell you that the occupation forces in Lebanon are getting hammered by these drones. The New York Times finally picked up on it.
Not Loving Iowa Senate Numbers
Somehow, more Republicans voted in a more-or-less uncontested race for Ashley Hinson than Dems voted in a contested race between Turek and Wahls (two great candidates, by the way). Across the country, I think, we're seeing GOP turnout exceed expectations.
Disappointing.
Probable car attack - Modena, Italy
Rai News ItaliaSi tratta di un 31enne italiano di origini marocchine, è piombato sui pedoni a 100 km orari. In passato è stato sottoposto a cure psichiatriche. Una donna ha perso le gambe
Pedestrians Run Over by a Car: 8 injured, 4 seriously. The driver fled and attacked another person. Stopped by bystanders
It was a 31 year-old Italian of Moroccan origin, who floored it into pedestrians at over 100 km an hour. He has been under the care of a psychiatrist in the past. One woman has lost a leg.
The Silence that Meets the Rape of Palestinians (Nicolas Kristoff - NY Times)
The Silence that Meets the Rape of PalestiniansIt’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.
Supporters of Israel made that point after the brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu and many U.S. senators, including Marco Rubio, condemned that sexual violence, and Netanyahu rightly called on “all civilized leaders” to “speak up.”
And yet in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.
The details in the column are horrendous.
Ossoff's "They're Crooks" is good rhetoric - Trump/Miller/Cheung will try to steal it
Jon Ossoff's speech from the other day is going viral, at least in part because he landed on a simple but elegant summary of the Trump family (and Trumpism): They're Crooks.
It's a perfect slogan to capture the corruption of Trump and Trumpism. It's elegant and short, and speaks across generations and other divides. The use of a contraction makes it homey and informal. One need hardly even ask who is being referenced, but the antecedent is mobile and can be applied across the Administration and Trump family. It also others them. The problem with Waltz's "That's weird" is that some people like being weird, and it seemed a little bullying. They're Crooks has the virtue of avoiding improper identifications.
They're Crooks.
Good. Good! More of this.
But watch the Trump/Miller/Cheung response. They will recognize the value of "They're Crooks" immediately. Look for Trump to try to claim and turn it around, like he did with Fake News and other expressions. If I was on Polymarket, I would bet on Trump using the term "crooks" a lot over the next several weeks to months.
Trump is producing a force posture that suggests land invasion
Sorry, I don't trust this guy and what's going on.
Do not sleep on these fuckers.
I gotta think even Stephen Miller is losing it over the message discipline
One of Trump's chief antagonists has crashed an burned in the California governor's race. From a Trump-Miller-Bannon perspective, today should have been all-Swalwell-all-the-time, a non-stop Swalwellfest across the news stations and podcast-space. Instead, it's Trump v. Pope, Trump-the-Blasphemer, Trump Christ, and Trump's embarrassing, ridiculous, third-grader lie about it.
Trump has taken an absolute gift and chucked it in the trash. The seething in the Miller residence must be stratospheric.
Did Trump/Miller Send Vance on Two Fool's Errands to Block the 25th Amendment?
Yesterday, the much publicized peace talks between the US and Iran collapsed in failure. It seems clear that the US went in with non-negotiable positions that it absolutely insisted on, pretty much paving the way for failure in advance.
Earlier this week, Vance was sent to Budapest to shore up the crumbling fortunes of Victor Orban, in a very prominently publicized campaign appearance. While not yet decided, there's a coin-flip of a chance that Orban goes down in ignominious defeat in today's election.
Should the latter come to pass, combined, Vance will be the very public face of two doomed missions, and will come out looking very much like a loser and a fool.
At this point, I don't think Trump is capable of strategic thinking. But Stephen Miller is. And I think Miller is the head of the main faction against Vance in the White House. It's notable that these two very public failures would come immediately after vociferous and public demands for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against Trump. Now, let's be clear. I don't think the 25th is even remotely possible, and if you comment below that I'm leaving out that the 25th isn't remotely possible, you will only be exposing yourself for not having thoughtfully read the post. However, I do think Miller wants to kneecap Vance just in case, especially if Trump truly is slipping into derangement, as he very clearly seems to be.
How the IDF's outrageous airstrikes on Beirut yesterday are playing in Europe
The headline of RAI Italia: Massacro a Beirut, oltre 200 morti. Ghalibaf: "Basta attacchi al Libano o la risposta sarà forte"
Massacre in Beirut, more than 200 dead. Ghalibaf: "End the attacks on Lebanon of the response will be strong."
From the New York Times:
Jean-Noël Barrot, the foreign minister (of France), condemned Israel’s escalating strikes on Lebanon, arguing that they undermined a tenuous cease-fire.
Mr. Barrot told France Inter radio that “Iran must stop terrorizing Israel through Hezbollah.” But, he added, Lebanon should not be the “scapegoat” of an Israeli government that is “frustrated because a cease-fire has been reached between the United States and Iran.”
Kaja Kallas, the top E.U. diplomat, condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying: “Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war, but Israel’s right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction.”
The Israeli airstrikes on Beirut yesterday were a petulant and horrendous crime. More from RAI:
My translation: In the course of a few minutes crowded commercial areas of the Lebanese capital were attacked, causing panic among the people gathered there and in the residential neighborhoods. Buildings in flames, burned cars, ambulance sirens at full volume: in an instant, one of the most lively main streets of Beirut, the Corniche al Mazraa, was tranformed into a place of devastation. At least five neighborhoods were hit, and black columns of smoke rose from many points of the capital.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE THE ISRAELIS DOING???? How can anyone support this slaughter?
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Member since: Thu Oct 19, 2023, 05:04 PM
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