#to join the chiefs in the conference championship

[killa-trav]

trying not to think too much about the chiefs' season possibly ending this coming weekend like wtf

[oofthwoods]

DEBUTANTE! ── ˙ ̟ the echo !!

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 :: derived from the french language, meaning “a first performance or showing.” the original word debutante referred to a new actress making her first appearance on the stage. or, the one where dreams come true in bahrain.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 :: just a little bonus, but i picture jasper as kingsley ben-adir (secret invasion, barbie). if this is the first work of mine you're checking, reader is a driver for porsche and the daughter of rubens barrichello!

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 :: 5.5k

NO ONE ASKED HER A QUESTION IN FORTY-FIVE MINUTES.

Naturally, there were many questions about her. How did the drivers feel about a woman joining their ranks on the track? What were their thoughts on the growing number of female fans who were tuning in to watch Formula One, possibly due to the popularity of the documentary Drive to Survive or the historic moment of having the first female driver in decades?

She wasn't sure if this was better or worse than she anticipated. She vividly recalled her first press conference last year when she was still driving for ART Grand Prix. They asked her ridiculous questions like whether it was professional to wear skirts in the paddock (yes), who the most attractive driver was (herself, obviously), and even if her father was disappointed that she reached a milestone in motorsport before her older brother (Dudu, who raced with their father in Brazilian Stock Series. And no, he had already made it clear he was proud of both of them).

In the first few minutes, she assumed it was because she was a rookie. But then Oscar Piastri answered a fair share of questions while looking at her as if he didn't understand why people were treating her like an invisible presence. She would shrug her shoulders and the australian reluctantly answered reporters' inquiries.

She was sandwiched between Lewis, who seemed impatient as time dragged on without any questions directed towards her, and Max Verstappen, who quickly responded to his own questions and showed his eagerness to leave. Two rookies, two world champions, but only three drivers deemed important enough for interviews.

The world-renowned champion's frustration peaked when asked about his recent vacation activities.

"Is this a joke?" he asked. "Do you really want to know what I did on my vacation more than asking her interesting questions?" He gestured towards the girl beside him.

"It's alright, Lewis-"

"With all due respect, Hamilton," one of the reporters interjected with a sarcastic smirk on his face. "I can't imagine what kind of questions we could ask Miss Barrichello besides her makeup preferences or favorite clothing brands."

"How about the fact that I won four championships in a row as a rookie?" She responded with a fake sweet smile plastered on her face. She could accept to be ignored, but she refused to be underestimated. "Or maybe any questions about Porsche joining the grid this year?"

"I don't think winning a championship by such a small margin of points is anything to be praised." The reporter retorted. His expression implied that he wasn't expecting the young girl to comfort him, but he couldn't hold back.

"Really? So we should just say that the battle between Max and Lewis in 2021-" she indicated towards them "-was nothing worth celebrating? Such an uneventful year for this sport."

Verstappen leaned forward, observing the interaction between the girl and the reporter. This press conference just became much more interesting.

"Strong words from someone who has never stepped foot in a race car." He chimed in, agreeing with the youngest person in the room.

"That's not what I meant." The reporter stuttered, noticing the security chief slowly approaching him. The middle-aged man was one of many security guards in the paddock that had known the driver since she was a child, and she knew that one look in his direction and the man would be escorted out.

"Of course, of course," she replied sarcastically. "You mean it's not worth celebrating because a woman won, right? Please, if you're going to insult me, at least try to make it believable. Or better yet, don't speak if you have no idea what you're talking about"

The tension in the room was palpable as another reporter spoke up, "But Y/n, let's be real here. The races were mostly dominated by your teammate, Frederik Vesti or runner-up Felipe Drugovich. Your victories were purely tactical."

She leaned back in her chair with a smug smile playing on her lips. "Is that so? Yet somehow I managed to come out on top every time."

Verstappen nodded in agreement, "She's definitely got a point there."

The press room fell into an intense quiet, causing y/n to regret her decision to do this interview. She knew that this type of situation would become more common as her fame grew in the coming year. She also understood that Lewis would be praised for defending her while she would face criticism for simply standing up for herself against a man who was only doing his job.

The silence was broken by a female journalist in the back, hidden behind the larger, more muscular bodies of her male counterparts. But y/n could never mistake that blonde hair for anyone else. Mariana Becker was a veteran sports reporter, an icon in Brazilian journalism, and a role model for any woman breaking into a male-dominated field.

“I wish I had raised my hand earlier; I didn't realize it would take so long for someone to ask you a question,” she chuckled. "I don't think anyone will object to two questions, right?" The woman looked around the room, and the other interviewers avoided making eye contact with the veteran.

"So, y/n, you've been asked countless times about being a woman in a male-dominated world and the difficulties you face because of it. However, with such a successful junior career full of records, I honestly don't see the need to ask that question again. Instead, I'd like to focus on the positive aspects. What does it mean to you knowing that a new generation of girls can look up to you as an inspiration and be motivated to pursue their dreams?"

The girl's face lit up with gratefulness for the refreshing question and relief that she wouldn't have to answer the same question she had already answered countless times before.

"It's incredibly inspiring for me as well. Growing up in this environment, surrounded by racing cars, I was also discouraged from pursuing this career. But I can only imagine how much more difficult it must have been for young girls who were ridiculed just for dreaming of driving a go-kart. To know that I can play a role in encouraging them to follow their dreams without fear of judgment is truly exciting."

Lewis subtly raised his thumb in a gesture of approval while she chuckled.

"Excellent," said the reporter with a smile. "One more question, how did your father react when you told him you were entering the world of Formula 1?"

"He cried," y/n answered quickly, eliciting laughter from those in the room. "He's quite the crybaby, so I waited until we were together to share the news of my contract with Porsche. At first, he cried tears of joy, then fear, and eventually a mixture of both. That's when he realized that all three of his children were following in his footsteps as race car drivers and that he'd have to pay for everything he put his own father through."

The reporter chuckled along with y/n. Mari had interviewed Rubens back when he was in Formula 1, and remembers clearly how emotional the man always was. The conference went on like this for another half an hour, with y/n answering everything from her expectations for the upcoming season to her favorite tracks and how she dealt with pressure.

The balaclava, damp with sweat, clung tightly to her face as she stood at attention. Her race engineer, a tall black man with a buzzcut and a calm expression, waited patiently beside her. She smoothed down the folds of her crisp, red-and-black uniform, adorned with her country's flag on the sleeve.

"How was the conference?" Jasper asked.

The girl muttered something that Jasper couldn't make out. "That bad? Did they bring up the issue with wearing skirts in the paddock again?"

"They didn't ask anything at first, but then one guy made a comment about me winning the championship by a narrow margin of points not being worthy of praise. Except it wasn't even a narrow margin; Felipe finished about sixty points behind me., and Fred was more than a hundred points behind, despite driving the same car as me" She complained.

Jasper winced. The relationship between the engineer and the driver had been amazing during pre-season tests with the man acting like a friend and a mentor, and they had found a groove to envy.

"You'll need to come up with a strategy for dealing with these reporters," Jasper advised.

"I already have one."

"Really?" He glanced at the clock on the track and realized that time was running out. He handed her the helmet with both hands. She grinned and smoothly put it on. The colors of her country's flag stood out against the black and red of the car, making it impossible to miss.

"Yes. WWJD."

"What does that stand for?"

"What Would Jenson Do. Originally, it was "What Would Kimi Do," but I quickly realized that Kimi would just tell everyone to go fuck themselves, and I can't exactly do that yet."

The garage was a whirlwind of activity, with mechanics frantically making last-minute adjustments and drivers strapping into their cars. The scent of gasoline and burning rubber wafted through the air, adding to the excitement and tension that crackled in the atmosphere.

Everywhere she looked, there were people moving with purpose, each one focused on their individual tasks to ensure a successful first qualifying session of the season. The roar of engines being revved and tools clanging against metal filled her ears, drowning out any other sound. It was a chaotic but exhilarating scene as the countdown to the race began.

"Why not "What Would Rubens Do"?" He asked.

She chuckled. "My dad is too nice. In his only fight in his entire Formula 1 career, he told the mechanic who wanted to fight him to get someone else because he was too small."

Jasper's phone buzzed insistently, jolting him out of his thoughts and reminding him that only five minutes remained until the start of Q1. After the last few adjustments from the mechanics, y/n managed to squeeze into her car and secure her seatbelt. Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might leap out of her chest, a mix of nerves and excitement coursing through her body as she prepared for the intense competition ahead.

Jasper rested his arms on the halo. "Don't forget what we discussed earlier," he reminded her. "In Q1, six cars will be eliminated, followed by six more in Q2. This means that the top ten fastest cars will battle for pole position. Based on our data, we are definitely faster than Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, Haas, and Williams - a total of eight cars."

The girl nodded eagerly, her eyes glued to the man as he continued. "At the very least, you and Mick should be able to make it into Q2. We're not sure how Alpine and McLaren are doing, but they don't seem to be as quick as us." He gestured towards the track outside where the other teams were busy with their own preparations. "But we can't let our guard down. Anything can happen during quali." The tension was palpable as they both waited for their turn on the track.

"So, we're trying for Q3 then?" She inquired, her voice filled with a mix of curiosity and determination.

"Officially, I was instructed to tell you that Q2 is sufficient, but we can't know our full potential until we're on the track."

A sly grin appeared on her face, hidden behind her helmet. She pushed down her visor, ready to give it her all. "Well, I say let's aim for Q3 then. I want to see what this car can really do."

A gentle laugh escaped Jasper's lips, his eyes shining with admiration. "That's the spirit, echo. Show them what you're made of."

With one final nod, y/n shifted her focus, tuning out the noise and commotion of the pit lane. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, using all her senses to ground herself in the present moment. The smell of burning rubber and gasoline filled her nostrils as she visualized the track ahead. The deafening roar of the engine drowned out all other sounds, sending shivers down her spine.

Jasper's voice crackled through the radio in her ear, sounding like a distant robot. "Radio check," he said, his tone serious and business-like.

She adjusted gloves as she responded, "I hear you loud and clear." Her hands were tightly gripped on the steering wheel as she followed Logan Sargeant's Williams out of the pit lane. It was a tight squeeze with the Porsche garage being the newest addition to the grid. She bit her lip, hoping that their placement in the pit lane wouldn't cause any trouble in the future.

"Great. Warm up your tires and then do a flying lap. We want to get a better idea of our potential and avoid any possible disruptions from a Red Flag," Jasper instructed.

"Roger that," she replied, trying to keep her breathing steady as cars started to move around her. She prayed that the onboard camera wouldn't catch her trembling hands as she prepared for her first real lap on the track.

The engine roared to life as she pressed down on the accelerator, gripping the steering wheel with determination. The car surged forward, its tires screeching against the asphalt, leaving a trail of smoke behind. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, heightening her senses as she focused on the task at hand.

The wind whipped through, carrying with it a symphony of sounds—engines revving, tires squealing, and the distant cheers of the crowd. Her heart pounded in sync with the rhythm of the track, each beat pulsating through her chest.

As the cars whizzed by, she made a conscious effort to stay out of their way while completing her out lap. It was her first Grand Prix, and she wasn't about to receive an impeding penalty. She could feel the engine roaring to life and her car responding with precision, its tires getting ready to set a time that would hopefully secure her from elimination in the initial round.

Jasper's voice crackled through the radio once again. "Alright, you're good to go. Try your best," he encouraged, his voice filled with unwavering support.

"Copy." She smirked.

The pre-tests and free practice had prepared her for what was to come, but nothing could have truly prepared her for the exhilaration of sitting behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. The engine purred like a fierce beast, ready to unleash its power at any moment. The sleek body of the car hugged the track, cutting through the air with precision and grace.

As she approached the first turn, she braked hard, shifting her weight to navigate the corner with precision. The G-forces pressed against her body, threatening to tear her away from reality. But she held firm, refusing to let anything distract her from the objective ahead.

She feathered the throttle, feeling the car respond to her slightest movements. The tires gripped the track, providing a sense of stability as she accelerated out of the turn, leaving her the other car trailing behind. Y/n's focus was unwavering, her eyes fixated on the next set of corners, mentally calculating her approach.

The flying lap was over in an instant, and the sound of the cheering crowd filled her ears as she crossed the finish line and set her initial time.

"Way to go, girl!" Jasper's voice crackled through the radio. "You've got P8, I repeat, P8. We're safely into Q2, but stay on track just in case. Prepare for another quick lap."

"How did Mick do?" she asked eagerly.

"P10, 0.78 seconds behind you," Jasper's voice was filled with pride as he responded. Despite his efforts to maintain professionalism, they were both rookies in the Formula 1 world, even if in different roles. "I got a great feeling about us, Barrichello. This could be the beginning of something legendary."

The minutes seemed to stretch into hours as she waited for the race to begin and she started to feel claustrophobic inside her cramped driver's room.

Finally, unable to bear the suffocating atmosphere any longer, she stepped outside into the bustling garage. The sight of her team, clad in matching uniforms and working tirelessly on their cars, brought a small smile to her face. As she made her way through the maze of mechanics and equipment, she was greeted with reassuring smiles and words of encouragement.

This was not just her first race, but also the team's inaugural race. In a way, they were all rookies, feeling the pressure and nerves just as she was.

Standing outside, it was clear that several eyes were on her. Some, like the veteran Ferrari mechanics who had known her since she was a little girl, flashed comforting smiles and gave her thumbs up, wishing her the best of luck. Others raised their eyebrows with skepticism, as if they believed her presence on the grid was some sort of elaborate prank that hadn't been revealed yet.

Amidst a sea of red and black uniforms, the bright green outfit of the two-time world champion stood out prominently. Fernando paid no mind to the curious glances from his mechanics as he made his way confidently towards the girl.

"You're not allowed in here, Alonso." She teased, playfully crossing her arms in a gesture that made her seem much older than she was.

"Is that how it is now? You qualify in the Top 10 in your first race and all of a sudden I'm just Alonso, not Nando?" He responded with a chuckle. Clutching his heart dramatically, he leaned back as if struck by sudden agony. "What happened to all our pizza days? They meant nothing to you?"

The character she was playing no longer felt right to her, and the words she spoke didn't align with the expression on her face. She fought to suppress a smile as she continued, "That person you knew, Alonso? She is gone now."

As the man approached, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity wash over her. His dark hair and intense brown eyes were etched into her memory, but it was his infectious smile that brought back a flood of childhood memories.

Fernando rested his hands on her shoulders and held onto his helmet, which puzzled her. With only a few minutes left before the race began, he could have easily stored it in his own garage rather than carrying it around. But she pushed those thoughts aside as his gaze softened and he spoke.

"You were the size of a flea when I met you," he said with a chuckle. She smiled at the memory of their first encounter. She had been just six years old at the time, tagging along with her father to one of his races. She remembered being mesmerized by the speed and energy of the cars on the track, but also feeling a little intimidated by the loud noises and bustling crowds.

But then she saw him – Alonso – standing tall and proud in his racesuit. He had noticed her watching him from behind the fence and had flashed her a tight smile. Somehow, from that one interaction, she had become a fan. From then on, whenever she visited the track with her father, she would always seek out Fernando.

Initially, the Spaniard couldn't comprehend why the young girl found him so intriguing. He knew he was talented and quick on the race track, but children were not his forte. Alonso would often try to distance himself from the girl, offering only friendly waves and smiles. However, when she presented him with a drawing of himself on the podium with a trophy (which he still keeps today), everything changed.

"You used to avoid me like the plague," she recalled.

"That's not entirely true," Fernando denied, but quickly changed his tune when the girl raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe I wasn't too fond of being followed around by a little girl. Can you blame me? If anything happened to you, I would have to deal with your father, Michael, Kimi, and all the mechanics that you had wrapped around your finger."

He became somewhat of figure between an older brother and a father figure to her, always ready with words of encouragement and advice.

Now here they were, both grown up and about to race against each other for the very first time.

"I can't believe we're finally racing against each other," she said with a mixture of excitement and nerves.

"It's about time," Fernando replied with a smirk. "I've been waiting for this moment since you beat me in go-karts."

A smile tugged at her lips as she recalled the moment. During one of his trips with her family to cheer her on during her junior career, they decided to have some fun and race go-karts. She had managed to beat him by mere thousandths of a second, and she made sure to remind him of it constantly afterwards.

"What's on the agenda for today, Mija?" He asked, looking around at the girl's garage.

"Hah, like I would share that with you. I love you, Nando, but now we're competitors." She narrowed her eyes playfully. "You're just trying to take advantage because we're close."

"You got me." He chuckled, knowing it wasn't entirely true.

She sighed and crossed her arms with a hesitant expression. "Rule number one is to not crash into Mick. Number two is to avoid crashing into anyone else. Our team isn't expecting a stellar performance, so if we can maintain our starting positions, both cars will score points. That's our main goal."

"Oh, come on. Don't you want to try overtaking someone?" he prodded.

Y/N laughed. "Why? You want to see me in your rearview mirror?"

"Of course I do," he admitted. "Competing for a win with you would be incredible."

He pushed his helmet towards the girl, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Confused, she tilted her head in question. “I appreciate the gift, but I think you’ll need it today.”

Fernando laughed, memories flooding back to him. “Remember when your dad retired and you started coming to races with me?”

The memories flooded back, of her father's days in the high-stakes world of Formula 1. Though he had since retired, Fernando still managed to convince Rubens to allow her to travel with him to races closer to her home, and sometimes even to the grand prix in his homeland.

She quickly caught on to his request and playfully darted away from him before snagging the helmet. It had become a tradition since she was ten years old, and Fernando had unofficially taken on the role of her godfather. She used to do this same routine with her own father, so it felt natural to continue with the spaniard. He stood there, slightly perplexed, wondering if he had said or done something wrong. But just moments later, the young girl returned with her own helmet in hand.

"Wouldn't it be fair for you to do the same for me this time?" she asked playfully.

The two exchanged helmets and planted a kiss on the part of the helmet that would soon cover each other's foreheads.

"Stay safe, Nando"

"You too. Give us hell"

"It's an easy overtake for Barrichello in the Porsche, and she takes the position from Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin!" David Croft's voice rings across the circuit, and the crowd roars, the flags from her country and Germany flying around.

"Great job!" The voice of her race engineer appears in her ear, breaking through her intense concentration. "Russell is 1.2 ahead, close the gap to be able to use DRS when it is enabled."

"Copy" she nods, instinctively, her eyes never leaving the track ahead. She knows what she needs to do, and she pushes her car to its limits, weaving through the curves and straights with precision and skill.

As she closes the gap between her and the british driver, she can feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She's in her element, in the midst of the intense competition that she lives for.

"0.7. Go for it, elbows out" Jasper said again.

The cheers of the pit crew resounded in her ears as she used the extra boost to overtake the Mercedes. It was a challenge to defend against George's attempts at whiplash and reclaim her position, but once they were off the main straight, she managed to create a considerable gap between them.

The rest of the race flew by in a blur. The girl lost track of her position, constantly overtaking some cars only to be overtaken shortly after. However, Jasper's encouraging words kept her going.

Jasper's voice crackled through the radio as she approached the final stretch of the race. "Virtual safety car, slow down," he instructed.

She quickly checked her rearview mirror, looking for her teammate. "Is it ours?" she asked.

"No, it's Leclerc in the Ferrari," Jasper replied, "which puts us in fifth place."

She could see Hamilton was more than five seconds behind, and the yellow flag meant that Alonso was slowing down ahead of her.

"As soon as the VSC is lifted, you'll have a clear shot to overtake," Jasper added.

Who would have thought that she would be right on Fernando's heels after all?

After a few laps of caution due to the previous incident, the green flags were waved and she wasted no time in accelerating towards the Aston Martin driven by the Spaniard. She steadily closed the gap between them until she was right behind him. However, just as she was about to make a move to pass him, he outmaneuvered Carlos Sainz's Ferrari.

In a swift and calculated maneuver, she positioned her car on the inside of Sainz, who seemed too focused on reclaiming his position to check his mirrors. Taking advantage of his momentary lapse of attention, she quickly overtook him.

Jasper's voice was filled with excitement as he shouted, "That's it, echo! What a fantastic move!" She could almost hear the smile in his tone. "Alonso is already ten seconds ahead, so concentrate on defending now."

The final laps seemed like a blur, the girl steadily increasing the gap between her and the Ferrari with each lap.

"It's a flawless performance from Porsche, with both cars scoring points on this historic day. Mick Schumacher equals his best career finish with an incredible P6, and Y/N Barrichello takes fourth place, becoming the first woman to score in a Formula 1 race since Lella Lombardi and achieving the highest position for a woman in history!"

The sound of the bustling cheers from the Porsche garage fills her ears as she struggled to park the car with trembling hands. “Unbelievable! P4, y/n, P4! We scored 21 points and Mick got the fastest lap. What a start,” Jasper exclaims over the radio.

She stepped out of the car on shaky legs and is immediately greeted by Carlos, who had parked his car behind hers. “Where did you come from?” he asked with a chuckle. “I was trying to overtake Fernando, and suddenly you were right beside me.”

She took off her helmet and balaclava, her hair damp with sweat and sticking to her forehead and neck. She culdn't help but laugh. "Next time, check your mirrors," She teases her good-naturedly.

A hand rested on her shoulder, and she was suddenly enveloped in a warm embrace. The sweat that coated both of them didn't matter, nor did the fact that she still needed to weigh herself. She squeezed Mick even tighter and they both seemed too overjoyed to let go.

He took a step back but kept his arms around her. "Fourth place in your first race! I told you not to worry," the German exclaimed proudly.

"And look who's talking with the fastest lap!" She laughed in agreement. "We did it, Mick. We fucking did it."

A bottle of water suddenly appeared in her line of sight, and she turned to thank the person who handed it to her. To her surprise, it was Lewis with a smile on his face.

"If you had just overtaken one more person, you would have joined the club," he joked, pointing to Kevin Magnussem, who appeared to be deep in conversation with his teammate. "It was quite a race for the two of you."

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting to end up anywhere higher than where I started, so P4 is already a great achievement," she replied with a laugh as she took the cold bottle from him. The girl then turned to Lewis again and asked about his own race.

"P7. Mick managed to pass me on the last lap," he responded, glancing over at the young driver who chuckled in response.

The adrenaline was still pumping through her veins as y/n made her way to the weighing machines. She couldn't believe it, a P4 finish on her debut race. It seemed like a dream come true.

She stepped onto the scales, trying to calm her racing heart. The number flashed on the screen, and she let out a sigh of relief. "Phew, just made it," she muttered to herself.

Grabbing a towel to wipe off the sweat from her face, she quickly discarded her race suit at her hips, and made her way to her garage in her white fireproofs.

To an outsider, it might have seemed like the team had just won a world championship, not a P6 and P4. People were clapping her on the back and embracing Mick, and she struggled to decipher the various voices exclaiming with joy.

Jasper appeared in front of her with a bottle of champagne in hand. "Congratulations y/n, you did amazing out there!" he exclaimed before popping open the bottle and spraying champagne everywhere.

She laughed as some of the bubbly liquid hit her skin. "Thanks Jasper! I couldn't have done it without your perfect strategy. Great call with the tyres"

He grinned at her before turning serious. "But seriously y/n, you did a great job out there. We're all so proud of you." The rest of the team joined them in cheers and congratulations.

Before they could continue their conversation, Adrian, the team principle, arrived at their garage looking ecstatic. "Great job everyone! A double-points finish for our debut race, this is just the beginning." He raised his glass of champagne before taking a sip.

Y/n looked around and couldn't help but feel proud of her team. They had come a long way since their first tests together. And now here they were, competing in one of the most prestigious racing championships in the world.

Adrian turned to her with a smile. "Y/n, I must say you exceeded all expectations today. You have proven yourself as a valuable addition to our team." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Keep up the good work."

She couldn't help but blush at his words and nod gratefully. This was everything she had ever dreamed of - to be part of a successful racing team and make her mark in the sport.

As the celebrations continued, y/n couldn't help but think about how far she had come. From fighting for sponsorships to competing against some of the best drivers in the world, it felt like a dream come true.

But amidst all the excitement and joy, there was still one thing weighing on her mind - her family. She missed them terribly and wished they could be here to witness her success.

Just then, her phone buzzed.

"Muito orgulhoso de você filhota. Eu sabia que você ia arrasar! Me liga quando acabar tudo aí" — PAPAI. (so so proud of you, baby. i knew you would rock it! call me once you're done with everything there.)

Soon after, her older brother's name appeard on her phone as well. A quick congrats was followed by a video. Tapping on it, she couldn't contain the tears as she watched her father by the TV, holding tightly their flag and exploding in joy as the checkered flag was waved and his daughter finished in fourth.

He erupted with happiness, leaping and embracing her siblings and close friends who had gathered to witness her debut. He would excitedly point towards the television, shouting with pride, "There she is! My little girl!"

A big smile crept onto her face as she quickly replied back with an update on how things were, and a promise to video call her family as soon as she was cleared from the media.

"Time for the boring stuff now. Ready for the interviews?" Mick pulled her out of her thoughts. He had his phone on his hand, and she imagined he was also communicating with his family. "I can go first, if you want."

She took a deep breath, and smiled. "It's okay, i'll go. There's nothing they can say that could ruin my day. Not anymore."

taglist (tell me if you want to be added or removed <3) :: @studioreader, @fanficweasley, @stinkyjax, @namgification, @judespoision, @cha-hot, @disneyprincemuke, @itsjustkhaos, @trouble-sistar, @ihateyougunthersteiner, @treehouse-mouse, @cherry-piee, @fangirl125reader, @cassie0sstuff

[bluehardtops]

"Vice-Chancellor,

Formula 1 Grand Prix racing is regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport and, even if we are not die-hard aficionados, most of us are familiar with the names of recent world champions. Less familiar, however, are the names of the men and women who provide the expertise and infrastructure essential to the performance of those champions and their cars. Today we celebrate one of the most successful and distinguished of that supporting cast: Andrew Shovlin, the Chief Race Engineer for the highly successful Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team.

Andrew arrived in Leeds to start his undergraduate course in Mechanical Engineering in 1992. His final-year project on the mathematical modelling of car suspension systems directly led to a PhD project, under the supervision of the late Professor Dave Crolla, on the dynamics of military logistics vehicles.  As a member of Dave’s renowned Vehicle Dynamics research group, Andrew presented his work at several international conferences, at one of which he was awarded the prestigious Institution of Mechanical Engineers Viscount Weir prize.

As well as chasing Challenger Tanks around the North York moors as part of his PhD project, Andrew also found time to become involved with our early Formula Student race car activities:  he travelled with the team to the US when, in 1997, we became the first UK university to enter the Formula SAE event.

After receiving his PhD in 1998, Andrew joined British American Racing, the start of his highly successful career in Formula 1. He went on to became Jenson Button’s race engineer – the person responsible for crucial decisions about car setup and race strategy before and during a race – and was much acclaimed when Jenson won the world championship with Brawn in 2009. Andrew became Michael Schumacher’s race engineer the following year, when Mercedes took over Brawn; and was then promoted in 2011 to be chief race engineer for Mercedes.  In that role, he has helped secure three successive world titles, for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, as the team has come to dominate the sport. 

Despite his busy and demanding career in motorsport, Andrew has not forgotten his alma mater, and has returned frequently to give talks to our students and to offer advice to our current Formula Student team. And it is perhaps no coincidence that in recent years we have had at least one of our students undertaking a much sought after year-long work placement at Mercedes F1. 

Through his outstanding success in the demanding world of Formula 1 racing, Andrew is a great ambassador for automotive engineering at Leeds, and a true inspiration to our students.

Vice-Chancellor, I present to you for the degree of Doctor of Science (Engineering) honoris causa, Andrew Francis Shovlin." [x]

[seeminglyranch87]

Taylor & Travis Timeline

January 2024 - part 2

January 18 - Travis listed among Chiefs Playoff captains for 2024 (x)

January 20 - Travis arrives in Buffalo, NY ahead of the AFC divisional game (x)

January 21 - Chiefs v Bills, Highmark Stadium, Buffalo, AFC Divisional Playoff. Chiefs defeat Bills 27 - 24.

Taylor meets Jason & Kylie Kelce. Jason shows his "electric" support for his brother Travis and the Chiefs. Travis scored 2 touch downs.

Chiefs move on to the AFC Championship!

January 22 - Entertainment Tonight (x) publish article with a source revealing:

"Taylor and Travis are doing really well, they try to spend as much time as they can together. Travis also makes it a point to make sure Taylor feels as comfortable as possible at his home. They have discussed their future as a couple and are excited at the idea of it." 

January 23 - Taylor out to dine at Nobu, NYC with Brittany Mahomes, Cara Delevingne and Ashleigh Avignone

January 24 - New Heights podcast Ep 75 (x 48.00) - Travis & Jason recount the game referencing Jason's lack of shirt, jumping out the window and being told to behave by his wife.

"(Kylie) was already telling me to be on my best behaviour cause we were meeting Taylor" says Jason

Travis tells Jason "Tay absolutely loved you".

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SportsCenter (@sportscenter)

Travis comments on the Bills crowd - although being a passionate crowd some Bills fans were disrespectful to his family which we believe included Taylor.

Taylor likes the New Heights IG page promoting Ep 75 (x)

Drue Tranquill - Chiefs Linebacker talks about Travis and Taylor on the Zach Gelb Show (x 10:30)

Tranquill says "we enjoy poking fun at Travis, seems like maybe they are in love"

Gelb asks "Do you expect an invite to that wedding?" Tranquill answers "I think there are a lot of people who want to go to that." speculating that Travis and Taylor will get married.

January 26 - Kansas City Chiefs Press conference (x 17:45) Travis answers questions leading into the AFC championship:

Travis asserts when asked about is focus "you got to compartmentalize what you're hearing and and make sure that you're staying on task and giving everybody in the building the right perception"

A journalist asks "is it sort of thing you and Taylor have talked about how to deal with that? Travis replies "the only thing we've talked about is as long as we're happy, we can't listen to anything that's outside noise that's all that matters" you mentioned the outside noise a lot of

January 27 - Travis arrives in Baltimore ahead of the game

January 28 - AFC Championship Chiefs v Ravens, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD. (x)

Travis had a brilliant game - the stats don't lie (x)

Travis passes Jerry Rice for the most catches in NFL postseason history.

The Kansas City Chiefs defeats the Baltimore Ravens 17 - 10. The Chiefs are declared AFC Champions! They are off to the Super Bowl "baby!!!" (x)

Taylor joins Donna, Ed & Jason Kelce on the field to congratulate Travis and the team on their win and progress to the Super Bowl to defend the title! This is the first time Taylor has walked on the field.

Travis is overheard saying:

"Tay, I'm going in to enjoy with the guys, I love you," Kelce says in the clip. "So much it’s not even funny."  "I love you, too," Taylor responds. "I've never been so proud. Ever." 

Keleigh Teller posts videos of the celebrations inside the suite at Bank Stadium, Baltimore (x x)

January 29 - ET publish article (x)

A source tells ET, "Taylor and Travis are so excited that the Chiefs and Travis are heading to the Super Bowl. They’re very in love and Taylor is super proud of him. They’re both extremely dedicated and hardworking and understand each other. They are relishing in this moment."

January 30 - Andy Reid tells Tom Brady how he knew Taylor and her Dad before Travis did. Reid also address the rumours that Travis may be distracted by dating Taylor (x)

Andy Reid said "there has been no distraction" "Travis handled it right, [Taylor] handled it right, it hasn't been a problem at all.

January 31 - New Heights Podcast Ep 76 airs. Jason and Travis discuss the game that qualified the Chiefs for the Super Bowl. Jason mentions that Taylor joined them on the field after the game...

"Shout out to the newest members of the Chiefs Kingdom," said Jason. "Taylor Swift, who has officially reached the Super Bowl in her rookie year."  Travis responds "Shout out to Tay. Thanks for joining the team." 

Travis is interviewed on the Pat McAfee show and he answers questions about Taylor (x)

"We knew each other close to a month" tells Travis when asked if they knew each other prior to Taylor's first appearance at a game on Sept. 24, 2023.

When asked about his relationship with Taylor,

"Hopefully everybody realizes that we're just two people in a relationship, supporting each other and having fun with it, man, it's nothing more than that," Kelce said of Swift's support. "[No matter] how much the world wants to paint the picture and make us the enemy, we just have fun with it. And we enjoy every single bit of it."

"I love it when Taylor comes and supports me and enjoys the game with the family and friends. It's been nothing but a wonderful year, man," he added.

Travis also confirmed that he is unable to attend the Grammys with Taylor

"I wish I could go support Taylor at the GRAMMYs and watch her win every single award that she's nominated for but... unfortunately, I gotta get ready for this big old Super Bowl and we got a week," he shared.

Go to previous update -> January 2024 part 1

Go to next update -> February 2024 Part 1

Return to the timeline

[hangmanbradshaw]

I have come to you to ask a question related to football: today the chiefs played in New York against the jets, which fine New York can have two teams. But they are not in the same conference so if conferences are not based on geography, what are they based on?

(Full disclosure: my experience here comes from hockey where your conference and division are usually based on who is physically closest to you. So for example, New York has 2 hockey teams (and there’s also one in jersey which I think the jets might have been) and they are all in the same division.)

OOOOOOH FOOTBALL QUESTION. Bless. So short answer: business politics. Long answer, originally there was the NFL (National Football League) and it was small, like 16 teams total. Other people wanted to start teams, but the nfl wouldn't let the new teams in so the AFL was created (American Football League, started by Lamar Hunt actually- the founder of the KC Chiefs. His son still owns the Chiefs (Clark Hunt) which is why the AFC Championship trophy is called the Lamar Hunt trophy and every time we win it they talk about bringing it home). So they ended up merging the two (fascinating story- KC and Dallas kinda went behind the nfl to start talking about it) to create the NFL we know now which became two conferences- the AFC and NFC. The AFC was all the AFL teams and 3 of the nfl teams, and the rest of the nfl teams went to the NFC. Then they created divisions within them so AFC East, AFC West, AFC South, AFC North and same for NFC East, West, South, North. The divisions are a little more based on geography but still not perfect. For example, AFC West is KC, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, LA Chargers. The 4 most west teams in the AFC.

So the Jets were in the AFL originally so they joined the AFC. The Giants were in the NFL and they moved to NFC. Giants are NFC East and Jets are AFC East.

[f1]

Hamilton: Allisons return as technical director will only strengthen Mercedes | 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton is pleased with Mercedes’ decision to return James Allison to the role of technical director in a straight swap with Mike Elliott. Mercedes confirmed last week the two most senior members of its technical team have exchanged roles. Allison, who joined Mercedes in 2017 as its technical director and remained in that position until 2021, has returned to the role. He has swapped places with Elliott, who took over as technical director when Allison became chief technical officer in 2021. Having dominated the seasons which followed the introduction of the sport’s V6 hybrid turbo regulations in 2014, Mercedes has suffered a downturn in performance in recent seasons. It won an eighth consecutive constructors’ championship in 2021 but Hamilton was narrowly beaten to the drivers’ championship by Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances. Mercedes produced a strikingly original design when F1 introduced new technical regulations for the 2022 season. But the car proved unsuccessful, the team spent much of the year labouring to work out why it did not perform as expected, and they only scored a single win at the penultimate race. The team remained faithful to its ‘zero sidepod’ design this year, but when the season began it discovered it had fallen further behind world champions Red Bull. Early in the year Mercedes accepted it would have to change aspects of its design philosophy in order to become competitive. Allison’s return to the role of technical director will move his focus more onto their current car. He had previously invested more time into preparing for the next generation of F1 rules which are due to arrive in 2026. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Hamilton, who hasn’t won a race since December 2021, believes the team’s change at the top of its technical division is the right move. “James has always been a part of the team, obviously he was focused a little bit on another area before,” he said in today’s press conference at the Baku City Circuit. “Having him step back in to support and work alongside Mike I think is only going to strengthen the team moving forwards.” Allison, who is 55, had two stints each at Ferrari and Renault (the latter also competing as Lotus and Benetton during his time) before he joined Mercedes. “He’s obviously got an amazing amount of experience,” Hamilton continued. “So I think moving forwards it’s just going to be great for the team. Particularly with all the things we want to achieve, not only on-track but off-track, I think it’s going to be good. Bringing the F1 news from the source RaceFans strives to bring its readers news directly from the key players in Formula 1. We are able to do this thanks in part to the generous backing of our RaceFans Supporters. By contributing £1 per month or £12 per year (or the equivalent in other currencies) you can help cover the costs involved in producing original journalism: Travelling, writing, creating, hosting, contacting and developing. We have been proudly supported by our readers for over 10 years. If you enjoy our independent coverage, please consider becoming a RaceFans Supporter today. As a bonus, all our Supporters can also browse the site ad-free. Sign up or find out more via the links below: Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Browse all 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.11 (after 1920)

1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on a Sunday. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State. 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1982 – The Italy National Football Team defeats West Germany at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to capture the 1982 FIFA World Cup. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board. 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others. 2010 – Spain defeats the Netherlands to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg. 2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus. 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape. 2021 – Richard Branson becomes the first civilian to be launched into space via his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

[johnmarzka]

Army Black Knights Football - from Independent to AAC

The Army Black Knights Football team, or Army for short, is the United States Military Academy outfit in college football. The team's colors are black, gold, and gray, and they have been playing since 1890. Army is in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Army has played independent football since its inception except between the years of 1998 and 2004 when they were with Conference USA. Things will change for the team in 2024 since Army announced it was joining the American Athletic Conference, becoming the 14th member.

NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision independent institutions (FBS independents), such as the United States Military Academy (Army West Point), run football programs separate from NCAA-affiliated conferences. Army West Point chose to be independent mainly because it did not need the income from television.

Army plays annual games against the Air Force Falcons and Navy Midshipmen, with the three teams competing for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. College football teams typically play 12 games per football season. The Black Knights of West Point schedule games with non-service teams to reach this mark.

West Point's six-year run with Conference USA, from 1998 to 2004, was largely unsuccessful. The team recorded 3-33 in its last three years in the league.

With West Point's past conference experience, one would expect them to remain independent. However, the revenue from TV and bowl appearances is making college football playoffs important for teams. Also, scheduling games outside of conferences is increasingly complicated.

The athletic director of the United States Military Academy, Mike Buddie, said Army will be more competitive in AAC than in Conference USA, and that college football dynamics have changed. The AAC entry will see Army in eight conference games, with four at West Point's home, Michie Stadium.

The games against Air Force and Navy will continue as non-conference games for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Army football has partnered with CBS Sports Network for TV rights, with the contract extending to 2028. The network will exclusively show Army home games, while ESPN, AAC's TV partner, will carry Army away games. As a football-only member of AAC, West Point will have a share of college football earnings from ESPN.

West Point has produced three Heisman Trophy winners: in 1945, 1946, and 1958. The conference entry might see the team having more shots at the Heisman since it will be involved in more games. The Army-Navy football teams' rivalry may get a boon from this move as well. The regular end-of-the-season Commander in Chief's trophy game between the two rivals will continue to be held while the two teams may also meet in the AAC championship. If the two teams finish as first and second in the league, they will play the final against each other. While it is a small chance, fans can hope for it.

In the Black Knights' first season, they will play UAB, East Carolina, Rice, and UTSA at home, then Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Temple, and Tulsa for away games. Army's most recent meeting with any of the teams was with UTSA in 2023, ending at 37-29 in favor of the Black Knights.

[whereareroo]

TOUGH NUMBERS TOUGH GUYS

WF THOUGHTS (2/14/24).

Do you have a friendly relationship with numbers? Or, do numbers make you sick?

I like numbers. Numbers occasionally make me sick anyway.

Here are some numbers that make me want to vomit:

6- -Today is the 6th anniversary of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. The shooter killed 17 people, and another 17 were injured. We haven’t learned our lesson. The bloodshed continues.

3:30- -At approximately 3:30 this afternoon, at the end of the Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City, there was a shooting. As I write this, the details have not been released. It has been confirmed that at least one person was killed and another twenty people- -including children- -were wounded. Those are the most important details. The surrounding circumstances are less relevant. Life will never be the same for at least 20 people and their families.

0- -That’s the number that best describes the gun laws in Missouri. Basically, there are no gun laws in Missouri.

44,000- -That’s the approximate number of gun deaths in America every single year. How can we constantly ignore such a big number? No other country has this problem.

47- -It’s only February 14th. The shooting today was the 47th mass shooting in America this year. (A “mass shooting” is a single event that kills or injures at least four people.) What an ugly number. There were 656 mass shootings in 2023.

14,000,000- -That’s the number of guns purchased by Americans in 2023. Doesn’t that number make you sick? If not, you have a problem that isn’t related to numbers.

14- -That’s the number of schools that were closed in Kansas City today. The kids were given the day off so they could attend the big parade.

1,000,000- -That’s the number of attendees who will never forget the shooting that occurred at the parade today. Many of the spectators were young children. They were there to joyously celebrate the great Super Bowl victory by the Kansas City Chiefs. The joy was stolen from them. They won’t remember the celebration. They’ll remember the shooting.

There was a big stage, in a large public area, at the end of the parade route. The shooting took place, very close to the stage, about an hour after the festivities had officially ended. Thousands of people were still in the area. Only an hour before the shooting, the Kansas City football stars were celebrating on the stage. The biggest stars were Patrick Mahomes (the star quarterback) and Travis Kelce (another offensive star and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend). The beloved coach, Andy Reid, was also on the stage.

The big three legends- -Mahomes, Kelce, and Reid- -are tough guys. They’re a big deal. They’re leaders. People look up to them. They are the embodiment of the concept that great things can happen if you work hard, stay focused on your goal, and overcome all obstacles.

Well, I have a challenge for the tough guys. Let’s see if they really have balls.

If they had balls, they would immediately call a press conference for tomorrow. Every media outlet would automatically attend. They should announce that they’re sickened by the gun violence in their own backyard. They should announce that they’re going to do something about it. They should announce that they’re not playing football again unless the Missouri legislature passes reasonable gun legislation that includes mandatory background checks, license requirements, wait periods, limits on high capacity ammunition magazines, and annual online gun safety training. They should explain that these are reasonable requests that are supported by most football fans. They should ask other championship teams, from all sports, to demand reasonable gun legislation in their states too. Then, they should walk off the stage and let the fans demand action from the Missouri legislature. That should make the legislature sweat! (For good measure, Taylor Swift should join the press conference by video to support the tough guys and to suggest that entertainment stars should also boycott states that refuse to address gun violence.)

I know that my readers include folks associated with the Kansas City Chiefs. Let’s see if the tough guys really have balls. Let’s see if they’re true leaders. If they’re tough enough to win the Super Bowl, they should be tough enough to tackle this issue. If they do nothing, which means that they refuse to protect their fans, they should be renamed the Kansas City Cowards. Nobody will go to a parade for the Kansas City Cowards.

[nbmsports]

Lionel Messi Signs With Inter Miami and M.L.S.

The greatest soccer player of his era, and maybe the greatest of all time, is coming to the United States for the twilight of his career. Lionel Messi, 36, officially joined Inter Miami of Major League Soccer, the club announced in a release on Saturday.His contract commits him to the team through the 2025 M.L.S. season.“I’m very excited to start this next step in my career with Inter Miami and in the United States,” Messi said in a statement. “This is a fantastic opportunity and together we will continue to build this beautiful project.”Messi had revealed his plans to play for Miami last month and was spotted shopping with his family at a Miami-area grocery this week.He is expected to join the team in the next week, which would put him on track to make his debut for Inter Miami in a Concacaf Leagues Cup game against Cruz Azul of Mexico on July 21.A soccer prodigy as a child in Argentina, Messi moved to Spain to sign with Barcelona at age 13 and soon became a talked about young player. He made his debut with the first team at 16 and went on to a spectacular career, winning every major trophy and six Ballons d’Or as the world’s best player. He moved on to Paris-St. Germain in 2021, where he won another Ballon d’Or, and his team dominated the French league, although it failed to win the Champions League.He has been the leader of the Argentine national team almost since his 2005 debut, and added the final trophy missing from his collection when he won the World Cup with them last summer.The consensus of fans and historians has been that his greatness as a player is rivaled perhaps only by Cristiano Ronaldo in his own era and by Pelé and Diego Maradona from any era.Messi’s signing completes what could be described as the quiet Barcelona-fication of Inter Miami that preceded his formal arrival. The team’s chief business officer and its top operations and facilities executive are both former Barcelona employees. Last month, Inter Miami announced that Messi’s former midfield teammate at Barcelona, Sergio Busquets, would be its second marquee signing of the summer.Then, last week, Gerardo Martino, the Argentine known as Tata who had coached Messi at Barcelona, was hired as Inter Miami’s coach. At his introductory news conference, he spoke openly of working with Messi and Busquets, and left little doubt that he saw his new challenge as more than a reunion.“Sometimes we associate the United States, Miami, are linked with the idea of a vacation,” Martino said. “This isn’t that. We want to compete.“They are not players who are going to come here to not compete.”The signing is reminiscent of 2007, when Los Angeles Galaxy of M.L.S. signed the world’s most famous player, if not the best, David Beckham, at age 32. Beckham played in L.A. for six years, winning two championships, and brought the league unprecedented exposure.M.L.S. has long spoken of eventually matching the quality and visibility of the world’s top leagues. It will hope that Lionel Messi’s golden years help push it in that direction. Source link Read the full article

[scottbcrowley2]

Chiefs, Packers join 49ers, Titans in conference championship round - Sun, 12 Jan 2020 PST

San Francisco will host Green Bay after the Packers held on to edge undermanned Seattle 28-23 at Lambeau Field on Sunday. These teams met in November, a 37-8 romp for ... Chiefs, Packers join 49ers, Titans in conference championship round - Sun, 12 Jan 2020 PST

[thecollegefootballguy]

2022 G5 Coaching Power Rankings

As we near the end of the Power Ranking series we once again cast an eye to the best of the best in the G5. Only the top 10 coaches make the list, let’s see who’s the best out there in the mid-majors.

Here’s a link to last year’s rankings.

-

10. Blake Anderson

Record at Utah State: 11-3 Overall Record: 62-40 Division Titles: 1 (2021) Conference Titles: 1 (2021)

Movement: N/A

Blake Anderson returns to the G5 top ten in triumph after leading Utah State to their first ever Mountain West Championship. That’s how you do it. The Aggies are attempting to challenge Boise State as the lead program in the Mountain Division. Anderson so far seems up to the task.

-

9. Jeff Tedford

Record at Fresno State: 26-14 Overall Record: 108-71 Division Titles: 2 (2017, 2018) Conference Titles: 1 (2018)

Movement: N/A

It turned out to be a short retirement for Jeff Tedford, who jumped back into the hot seat after his successor Kalen DeBoer left Fresno for Washington. Tedford returns to the Bulldogs to ensure that things are running up to his high expectations.

-

8.  Chuck Martin

Record at Miami OH: 39-52 Overall Record: 113-59 Division Championships: 2 (2016, 2019) Conference Championships: 1 (2019)

Movement: Down 4 spots

This is more of a correction for placing Chuck Martin too high last year. He’s doing an admirable job at a place that’s very hard to win. The Redhawks made their third bowl in seven years under Martin.

-

7. Jeff Monken

Record at Army: 58-43 Overall Record: 96-59

Movement: Same

Jeff Monken continues to work miracles at West Point. Army won 9 games for the second consecutive year, an unthinkable feat before Monken came on the scene. The Black Knights are well positioned to keep things rolling with somebody who knows the program so well in charge.

-

6. Ken Niumatalolo

Record at Navy: 105-75 Division Championships: 3 (2015, 2016, 2019)

Movement: Down 3 spots

It hasn’t been a good few years for Ken Niumatalolo. Navy continues to struggle with losing, the Midshipmen have only bowled once in the past four years. Their consecutive losing seasons in 2020-21 are also a first under Niumatalolo. Can the man who’s led Navy so capably in the past arrest this downward trend?

-

5. Kalani Sitake

Record at BYU: 48-29 

Movement: Up 5 spots

Kalani Sitake has BYU looking good. The Cougars are playing themselves all the way into the Big 12 in a few years and lot of the credit is due to Sitake, who has done a great job maintaining the program. Brigham Young is building back into one of the West’s powerhouses just in time for a call up to the Big 12.

-

4. Troy Calhoun

Record at Air Force: 111-75 Division Championships: 2 (2015, 2021)

Movement: Up 2 spots

The most consistent winner of all the Service Academy coaches, Troy Calhoun turned in another strong campaign in Colorado Springs. Air Force tied Utah State for the Mountain Division title with a 10-3 record in 2021. The Falcons weren’t able to wrest away the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy from Army, but Air Force is well positioned to compete for some time coming.

-

3. Bill Clark

Record at UAB: 49-26 Overall Record: 60-30 Division Championships: 3 (2018, 2019, 2020) Conference Championships: 2 (2018, 2020)

Movement: Down 1 spots

Bill Clark continues to work miracles down in Birmingham. The Blazers went from a dead program to a promising call-up heading to the American Athletic Conference as C-USA implodes. It was the first year UAB didn’t win the West Division since 2017, not a bad streak. We’ll see just how much Clark can build from here.

-

2. Curt Cignetti

Record at James Madison: 33-5 Record Overall: 100-31 Conference Championships: 3 (2018, 2019, 2020)

Movement: N/A

Many of you haven’t heard of Curt Cignetti, some of you probably didn’t even know James Madison is joining the FBS next year. The Dukes are coming into the Sun Belt with a head of steam. JMU has remained one of the top programs in the FCS in Cignetti’s three years at the helm. James Madison has finished in the top 3 in the FCS rankings every year of his tenure. We’ll see just how well the Dukes will translate into one of the G5′s best leagues.

-

1. Luke Fickell

Record at Cincinnati: 48-15 Overall Record: 55-22 Division Championships: 3 (2019, 2020, 2021) Conference Championships: 2 (2019, 2020)

Movement: Up 4 spots

Well deserved. Luke Fickell has returned Cincinnati to football prominence. The Bearcats capped off an undefeated 2021 season with the first ever trip by a G5 team to the Playoff. All that and two top ten finishes in the row show us that Cincinnati is the best G5 program out there. They won’t be for long as the Bearcats are heading to the Big 12 in a few years to once again play with the big boys in an AQ conference.

[crystalracing]

Archive: The ups and downs of Raikkonen's 2007 F1 title triumphBy:

Adam Cooper

Sep 1, 2021, 8:53 PM

With two races to go in the 2007 Formula 1 season, Kimi Raikkonen appeared down and out. His recovery of a 17-point deficit as McLaren's challenge imploded is one of the greatest comebacks in F1's history and, on the occasion of the Finn announcing his retirement, we dug out the 25 October 2007 Autosport magazine feature explaining his remarkable title season

It took a long time but Kimi Raikkonen has finally won the world championship title that he so clearly deserves. And, of course, it came at the expense of McLaren after his own two near misses with the British team in 2003 and '05.

This was an extraordinary season for the Finn that began with an oh-so-easy victory in Australia that proved to be a false dawn. It was followed by a series of frustrating races that even led some to speculate his future with the team was in doubt. Yet, once everything clicked, Raikkonen was more often than not the man to beat, a position that was obscured by the headline-grabbing battle between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

He had a lot of catching up to do. It's hard to believe now that he was as much as 17 points behind Hamilton at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix, with only 20 up for grabs over the final two races. And a few laps into that race, when he languished at the back after a disastrous strategy gamble by the team, he was staring at a title-losing 23-point deficit.

It's easy to overlook how much is involved when a frontrunning driver changes teams. Raikkonen had, after all, spent five full seasons at McLaren, and was used to the Woking team's systems and way of doing things. Moving over from Renault, the team he'd grown up with, Alonso faced similar challenges.

But Raikkonen undoubtedly had the more difficult job, for he was also filling the shoes of Michael Schumacher. In addition, the departure of Ross Brawn meant he was joining a team that was under serious pressure to maintain its equilibrium, and had also lost the advantages conferred by its special relationship with Bridgestone.

Raikkonen was also up against a team-mate who not only had a year's head start, but enjoyed a special relationship with the team boss. It could all have gone horribly wrong - like it did for Alonso - and the fact it didn't was a reflection of Raikkonen's ability to focus on what really matters.

Alonso had a slight advantage over Raikkonen in that he had a day in a McLaren in December, which accelerated the getting-to-know-each-other process. Kimi had to wait until January until he was free to drive a red car for the first time.

There was a limited amount of testing before Melbourne, and a great deal to learn. And perhaps trickiest of all was the transition from Michelin to Bridgestone, something that caught out many drivers.

"The Bridgestones were like playing on a different field," says David Robertson, who co-managed Raikkonen with son Steve. "Kimi and Alonso struggled. Lewis [Hamilton] when he was on the Michelins [in his early McLaren testing] struggled like hell - he couldn't do anything. He went to the Bridgestones, and it was 'this is it!', because that's the playing field he was used to being on. That's what we all believe, that's what Kimi believed."

Raikkonen left the winter-headline grabbing to others, but when he got to Australia things could hardly have gone any better in terms of making his mark with both the team and the tifosi: pole position, victory and fastest lap. Michael who? But he was flattered by circumstances, not least the fact team-mate Felipe Massa had a problem in qualifying and had to fight through the field.

Things got tougher in Malaysia, where the car's performance was compromised, but he took third and some useful points. Massa's early excursion suggested that Raikkonen had already established himself as de facto team leader.

"The Michelins were quite a bit different when you approached the corner and, in order to avoid understeer, you had to use the tyres in quite an aggressive way. With Bridgestone it's completely the opposite so, if you want to avoid the understeer, you need to be more gentle on turn-in" Luca Baldisserri

That perception changed abruptly in Bahrain, where Massa scored an impressive win, and Raikkonen was some way behind in third. "Australia just stunned us all, I think," says his Aussie engineer Chris Dyer. "It was just such an easy weekend. And really you kind of know that that's not going to last. We came back down to earth with a bit of a thud in Malaysia, especially with Kimi struggling there with the engine, so he was pretty much fighting with one hand tied behind his back. And then Bahrain wasn't glorious."

That weekend at the Sakhir circuit had put a negative focus on Raikkonen, and it was evident that all was not well.

"The problems started more in qualifying, to be honest," says Ferrari engineering chief Luca Baldisserri, "because he was not able to put the lap time together. Even in Brazil he was still struggling a little bit. Then he had problems to understand all our systems, to understand the tyres. At that stage we were not fantastic in terms of starts, and we improved quite a lot.

"The Michelins were quite a bit different when you approached the corner and, in order to avoid understeer, you had to use the tyres in quite an aggressive way. With Bridgestone it's completely the opposite so, if you want to avoid the understeer, you need to be more gentle on turn-in. And that is what he learned. We did some tuning of the set-up, plus he adjusted his style."

That process was still being explored in Spain, the first of a run of four races during which Raikkonen was to earn just 10 points. At Barcelona he suffered a failure after just nine laps, the first retirement among any of the top runners to date.

Another Massa win confirmed that the Brazilian was on the ascendancy. "That was a pretty bad run," says Dyer. "Spain was an electrical problem - we would have been second or third. We probably wouldn't have beaten Felipe there, but I'm pretty sure it was an easy third, with a probable second."

Having been frustrated by the unreliability at McLaren, Raikkonen was hardly impressed. Keen to get home to Switzerland to watch the ice hockey world championship final on TV, he bailed out of the circuit early. The team had let him go of course, but it created the wrong impression at a bad time. Schumacher would never have done that, we observed. Indeed, that very day Schuey left the paddock three hours after the race - and he hadn't even been driving.

The former world champion was a regular presence at that stage of the season, and there's little doubt that Raikkonen was probably as confused as everyone else about his predecessor's exact role. The Finn clearly bristled at naive questions about how much Michael was helping him. After all, he didn't need any fatherly advice from Mika Hakkinen when he started at McLaren and, at that stage, he had just one year's F1 experience behind him.

Early in Q2 in Monaco, Raikkonen made his most costly mistake of the season, clipping the Swimming Pool barrier with the front right after the back had stepped out on him. A trackrod was broken and a wishbone cracked, and he demonstrated his bravery to the team by insisting he still wanted to go out, and would take responsibility. He was overruled, and forced to start 16th. In a race of low attrition, he made laboured progressed up to eighth.

"That was the mistake he made," says Robertson. "Until that point he was right there. I'd say Monaco was the turning point, despite the mistake. He felt he'd conquered it."

Dyer adds: "Monaco was a strange weekend, with an unforced error. He's been looking pretty good up to then, really comfortable all weekend, really happy with the car. A small mistake, and you pay the price.

"Obviously he was disappointed. We're all disappointed when we make mistakes. We're disappointed when the car breaks down on him, we're disappointed when we don't give him quite the right set-up, and he's disappointed when he doesn't do the job."

The pace of the McLarens was such that Raikkonen would probably have been racing for third in Monaco and there was a similar performance deficit in Canada. This time Raikkonen edged out Massa in qualifying, but he had another poor start, and made life difficult for himself by damaging his front wing on the Brazilian's rear tyre. Later he picked up some of Robert Kubica's crash debris, and he was also delayed by having to wait behind his team-mate at the first stops under the safety car. He eventually finished fifth, after what was outwardly another unconvincing performance. The team felt differently.

"To be honest we weren't that bad in Canada," says Dyer. "We had a dreadful start, and then we got screwed like everybody else by the safety car, so it was never going to be glorious. But the signs through the race were that things weren't as bad as they looked."

Indianapolis a week later was to be even better. It didn't look too promising when Raikkonen made yet another bad start and got stuck behind Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen but, in the late stages, he showed impressive speed and set the fastest lap as he salvaged fourth, behind Massa.

"Canada and Indy weren't good results," admits Dyer. "But we would see signs we were making progress."

"The really great thing about Kimi is he suffers for about one hour, and then it's all behind him. It's simple philosophy - and I couldn't do it - which is to say, 'That's behind me now, I can't do anything about it. Let's go forward'" David Robertson

Steve Robertson agrees the US race was significant: "In all honesty, it really clicked at the race at Indianapolis. I think he found his feet there in terms of a car he really enjoyed, and was more to his liking. And from then on I don't think anyone can question the fact that Kimi has been the strongest driver. You can't argue with that."

Nevertheless, after Indy, Raikkonen was 26 points behind Hamilton, and at that stage there seemed to be little hope of stopping the McLaren steamroller. But then things began to swing in his favour. At Magny-Cours he qualified only third, but he got ahead of Hamilton at the start and then made the most of the pit strategy to leapfrog poleman Massa. It was a critical race in many ways, not least because it featured him getting the upper hand on his frustrated team-mate.

"We struggled a little bit earlier in the year with the starts," says Dyer. "And, since Magny-Cours, Kimi's starts have been spot-on. I don't think he's lost a place since then, and more often than not he's gained places. The guys have done a fantastic job with the rest of what's required for the start."

Another win seven days later at Silverstone suggested that Raikkonen might be gaining enough momentum for a title challenge, but Nurburgring was to change that. Significantly, he took his first pole since Melbourne, but then the first-lap rain created a lottery. Raikkonen made his life difficult by understeering out of the pit entry back onto the track, and had to run an extra lap on dry tyres.

Once things calmed down, he was destined for a useful helping of points when he suffered a hydraulic glitch, at the very same track where retirements had cost him two titles at McLaren. It was his second failure of the season - the only other DNF to that point among the top four was Massa's self-inflicted black flag at Montreal.

"It was really gutting for me," Dyer admits. "I'd seen him lose two championships before due to reliability, and it's always been one of our strong points. I was not very happy to think that maybe he was going to lose another one here to reliability."

Robertson says the man himself was unfazed: "The really great thing about Kimi is he suffers for about one hour, and then it's all behind him. It's simple philosophy - and I couldn't do it - which is to say, 'That's behind me now, I can't do anything about it. Let's go forward'."

The next three races featured some efficient points-gathering: an unexpectedly close second to Hamilton in Hungary, another second, to Massa, in Istanbul and a third at Monza on a day when McLaren humbled Ferrari at home.

Baldisserri thinks Raikkonen would have beaten Hamilton in Hungary had he not lost a crucial few seconds when he ran off the road: "He lost two seconds behind Hamilton that didn't allow us to change the strategy in the pitstop, which I think we could have done differently."

Then came Spa, where Raikkonen had won the previous two races for McLaren. He took his third (and final) pole of the season and put in a masterful performance that showed beyond all doubt he was on top of his game.

Top 10: Kimi Raikkonen’s greatest F1 races ranked

A season is fought over 17 races, of course, but arguably it was Fuji that ultimately won Raikkonen the title. After three laps, it looked like he was well out of the game after the team's ill-advised (and, as it turned out, illegal) decision to start on intermediate tyres.

"We took the decision that we took," says Baldisserri. "Until the mathematics put you out of the game, our team spirit is to try, and it was the right approach."

Helped by the safety car, but mostly by a largely unsung virtuoso performance that humbled his struggling team-mate, Raikkonen fought back to third place. He was still in the title picture, but... 17 points in two races?

The impossible dream became a little more likely in China, where he hustled his way past the struggling Hamilton - after keeping his tyres in better shape - and logged a superb wet/dry win. And then came Brazil, where there was only one target: a win, with Massa riding shotgun. Incredibly, all the cards fell into place, and Massa played his supporting role. With six wins to the four of each of the McLaren drivers, no one can deny Raikkonen's claim to the title.

"He did everything right when everybody else was spouting off and saying this or that. He just kept his head down, got on and delivered. That's why Ferrari got him, and I know they're thrilled that he managed to do it" David Robertson

"He's put in some fantastic drives this year," smiles Dyer. "He hasn't let us down, but we've let him down a few times. He's gone from strength to strength, the car's been good, and he hasn't really made any errors in the last two thirds of the season. He's cool and he's fast and he just gets on and does the job."

Robertson adds: "He really is a giant - the right man has won this. He did everything right when everybody else was spouting off and saying this or that. He just kept his head down, got on and delivered. That's why Ferrari got him, and I know they're thrilled that he managed to do it."

Baldisserri offers a fascinating footnote to the season: "Michael had input into the team; he was a lot closer to the team. Kimi has a completely different approach, and he tends to accept what we give to him. It's a lot more complicated for us to understand what he needs. With Michael it was a bit easier. And Kimi drove a very good car this year. Michael showed that even with a car that was not so competitive, he could win. With Kimi, I don't know yet."

Wt happened next?

While Raikkonen's talents have never been questioned, it is remarkable to note since his F1 title-clinching Brazilian GP triumph in 2007, he has gone on to claim a further six grand prix victories, the same total he achieved across his title-winning year.

Despite this, and with the exception of his two years out of F1 in 2010 and 2011, the Finn has never been far away from the sharp end of the F1 grid until his second departure from Ferrari in 2018 to move back to the Sauber-run Alfa Romeo squad.

Raikkonen continues to make F1 history through his longevity. After surpassing Rubens Barrichello's record tally at the 2020 Eifel GP, the Finn made his 341st start in last week's washout Belgian GP and assuming the current TBC 21 November date is filled will end his career on 351 race starts.

PLUS: Why the time is right for Raikkonen to hang up his F1 helmet

While Raikkonen may have never hit the heights of 2007 since, his record remains outstanding in F1 to cement his place as an all-time great.

[f1]

Christian Horner to come out fighting against Red Bull 'cheating' accusations

Christian Horner is ready to come out fighting against 'cheating' accusations ahead of US Grand Prix after Red Bull were found in 'minor' breach of Formula One's £114m spending cap en route to Max Verstappen's first title Christian Horner will come out to defend 'cheating' claims in Austin this week  Red Bull were found to be in a minor breach of the £114million spending cap  Lewis Hamilton was controversially beaten to the 2021 title by Max Verstappen Horner was only told of cap breach an hour after Verstappen won second title By Jonathan Mcevoy For Mailonine Published: 06:22 EDT, 19 October 2022 | Updated: 06:24 EDT, 19 October 2022 Red Bull boss Christian Horner will defend himself against accusations they 'cheated' to help Max Verstappen win the world title last year in a press conference ahead of the US Grand Prix in Austin. His team were found in breach of the £114million budget cap for 2021 and are still waiting to hear what sanction they will face more than a week after the news was broken to them. Sportsmail can reveal that Horner was told of the breach only an hour after Verstappen retained his championship in Japan a week last Sunday.  The timing struck Red Bull as pointed and has added to their feeling of persecution. Since then the dialogue between the FIA and the Milton Keynes-based team has been minimal.  Red Bull, it is believed, want the details made public so they can prove, as they see it, they did not overspend for performance reasons – and instead insist that the overspend, believed to be some £1.8m, related to non-track areas: such as catering, sick pay, gardening leave, which combined may amount to half or more of the total breach amount. Although Red Bull can say nothing while the process is ongoing, it is understood on good authority that they contend the interpretation of the use of unused parts was changed on June 16, three months after they submitted their audited accounts.  That came little more than a fortnight after Shaila-Ann Roe left Mercedes, where she is thought to have acted as a legal adviser to team principal Toto Wolff, to join the governing body as secretary general. Lewis Hamilton was denied a record eighth world championship by Verstappen last season Verstappen passed Hamilton on the final lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the season finale to claim an extraordinary maiden world championship The next public showdown for Horner comes on Saturday in Austin, where he is due to be grouped together in a press conference alongside Wolff and his other chief accuser, Ferrari's Matteo Binotto.  He will at least not have to confront McLaren's Zak Brown, who has written to the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to draw a line between Red Bull and the word 'cheating. Its details were leaked on Monday. Red Bull will have to decide whether to accept the accepted breach agreement (ABA) – thought likely to be both financial and sporting – or challenge the ruling.  Agreeing to the ABA would be an admission of guilt, but going down the legal route opens them up to their doomsday scenario of a heftier sanction that could endanger Verstappen's triumph of 2021, thus handing an eighth crown to Lewis Hamilton, who was pipped on the final lap in Abu Dhabi in December. The FIA declined to comment. Advertisement Share or comment on this article: Christian Horner to come out fighting against Red Bull 'cheating' accusations via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.11 (after 1900)

1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball. 1914 – The US Navy launches the USS Nevada (BB-36) as its first standard-type battleship. 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1982 – The Italy National Football Team defeats West Germany at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to capture the 1982 FIFA World Cup. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737–200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board. 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others. 2010 – Spain defeat the Netherlands to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg. 2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus. 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape. 2021 – Richard Branson becomes the first civilian to be launched into space via his Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 10, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Unbelievably, it was only a week ago—last Sunday—that we learned Trump had called Georgia’s Secretary of State and pressured him to change the results of the 2020 election. Trump demanded that Brad Raffensperger “find” the 11,780 votes Trump needed to win Georgia. The news of the attempt to get an election official to overrule the will of the people was astonishing: at the time, it was the worst domestic attack on our democracy ever, coming, as it did, from a sitting president.

At the time.

Over the past several days, the picture of what happened on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, has become clearer, and it’s bad. While Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser gave a press conference Wednesday night, there has been not a single official briefing from the White House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, or Capitol Police.

The federal government has gone dark.

What we do know is that on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, egged on by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, Don Jr., and especially Trump himself, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol just as Congress was meeting in joint session to confirm Democrat Joe Biden as our new president. They overpowered the Capitol Police—perhaps with the help of some of the officers—breached the doors, and smashed their way through the historic building, shouting for Vice President Mike Pence—whom Trump insisted was at fault for not overturning the count-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and “traitors” who were counting the electoral votes for Biden. While many of the early pictures from inside the Capitol showed rioters gawking like tourists, ones released this weekend showed violent thugs, carrying plastic handcuffs and seeming to have information about where to find specific members of Congress. They breached the Senate chamber at 2:16, just a minute after the senators made it out.

The Capitol Police got the lawmakers to safety, but were not in control of the building. Lawmakers huddled quietly behind barricaded doors waiting for police that took hours to come. When they did arrive, they cleared the area and regained control of the Capitol. After janitors had cleaned the building, lawmakers counted the electoral votes that established Democrats Biden and Kamala Harris as the next president and vice president of the USA.

As videos have emerged and timelines been established, it has become apparent we came perilously close to seeing our elected representatives taken hostage or even executed on the makeshift gallows the rioters set up outside the building.

But here’s the thing: these were not outside insurgents; they were supporters of the Republican president. Trump enflamed the insurgents but he did not create them: years of demonizing Democrats and suggesting they must not be allowed to govern did that. As NPR reporter Kirk Siegler noted, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, infamous for years of standoffs with the federal government, wrote on Facebook that Trump “pointed towards Congress and nodded his head… [and said] go get the job done.” Republicans are now caught in a vise of their own making. They have to stand either with their own voters or with democracy.

The night of the attack, more than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives and several senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), continued to endorse Trump’s lies by voting to reject the electoral votes for Biden in key states. The next day, Trump’s supporters tried to argue that the rioters were “Antifa,” despite their Trump garb and the fact Trump invited them, incited them, urged them to go to the Capitol, and after the riot told them he loved them. (An AP investigation establishes that they were right-wing agitators.) When that didn’t take, supporters tried “whataboutism,” comparing the Black Lives Matter protests of this summer to the storming of the Capitol.

They are trying to rewrite the history of this week to downplay that we have suffered an attempted coup that killed at least five people, and that the people behind it are still in the highest levels of our government.

The realization that we are in the midst of a coup, abetted by Trump’s use of social media, prompted Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to ban Trump permanently, and to take down QAnon accounts. That, not the Capitol attack and the murder of a police officer, has created outrage among Trump, who is allegedly “ballistic,” and Trump supporters. Republican lawmakers spent the weekend noting how many followers they were losing as Twitter took down QAnon, Nazi, and fake accounts. (Trump opponents noted that this was not actually a good thing to call attention to.) Parler has lost almost all of its supporting businesses and might go out of business itself.

Democrats are appalled by what Trump has wrought, and they are joined by plenty of Republicans. In the National Review, for example, Ed Whelan called the Capitol attack “an outrage that ought to have every genuinely patriotic American seething with anger.” He blamed Trump for inciting the attack, and said that “impeachment and conviction of Trump is an appropriate, and probably a necessary, response.”

In a powerful video, former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger called the Capitol attack the American equivalent to Kristallnacht, which marked the beginning of German Nazis’ systemic destruction of the Jews. To puncture the idea that the sort of behavior on display on Wednesday was manly, Schwarzenegger told the private story of his abuse at the hands of his father, who had been swept up in the Nazi movement in Austria, and celebrated the sword from his starring role in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian as a symbol not of toxic masculinity but of democracy, tempered by adversity. He called on all Americans to rally around Biden and to work to make his administration a success.

White House appointees’ resignations show which way the wind is blowing. Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney took to Fox News Sunday to say he had no idea that people might actually do something like attack the Capitol. “People took him literally,” Mulvaney told MSNBC. “I never thought I’d see that.”

Similarly, the rioters themselves, once found and arrested, are either apologizing and saying they were swept up in the moment, or denying they were part of the mob. One man apologized for his “indiscretion.”

Both Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, and health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield have suspended their donations to lawmakers who voted against the counting of Biden’s electoral votes late Wednesday or early Thursday morning. The anti-Trump Lincoln Project has promised to target companies that donate to any lawmakers who voted against the counting of the electoral votes. Hitting closer to Trump, Stripe, the vendor that handles online credit card payments for Trump’s campaign, has announced it will no longer handle his account. And tonight, the Professional Golfers Association of America Board of Directors took the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump Bedminster, his New Jersey club.

At the end of last week, Democratic leaders set out a three-part plan to punish the president for inciting an insurrection. They gave Pence an option to begin the process of invoking the 25th Amendment, which, considering the president had tried to get him killed, was not necessarily a long shot. Pence refused. They gave McConnell the weekend to convince Trump to resign. Trump refused. They announced that, if both of those things failed, they would begin impeachment proceedings on Monday.

McConnell promptly noted that the Senate could not take up such a proceeding until the day before Biden’s inauguration at the earliest. He is bargaining. It is possible to hold an impeachment trial even after a president is out of office, but he knows that Biden does not want the beginning of his term crowded with more Trump business, especially as coronavirus is raging and Biden wants to get it under control. McConnell doesn’t want Republicans to have to vote either for or against the president because such a vote will slice the Republicans in two and make it clear that some of them stand for insurrection. In the Senate, only Republicans Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) have endorsed impeachment.

McConnell is hoping Pelosi will blink and the moment will pass.

She will not, and it will not. She notes, correctly, that the president is “an imminent threat” to “our Constitution and our Democracy,” and she is trying to give the Republicans cover to do the right thing. Tonight, she announced that the House tomorrow will begin proceedings on a resolution by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) calling on Pence to mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment within 24 hours. If he declines, the House will turn to impeachment. She has asked for unanimous consent for the resolution to enable the Republicans to avoid a vote. If they refuse, the measure will go forward the next day anyway.

She also fired a shot across the bow of Republican lawmakers by asking her colleagues for their views on the third section of the 14th Amendment, the one that prohibits anyone who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” from serving in Congress.

As I watch Republican lawmakers try to slip away from the crisis they have made, I think of Black Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, armed only with a nightstick, luring the insurgents in the wrong direction to buy the time Senators needed to escape with their lives.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON