Matt Fortuna, writing for The Athletic, has a great profile on University of Illinois Athletics Director Josh Whitman. Having been around the program and Josh a little bit, I know this piece is spot on. March Madness and the eve of Major League Baseball might be what’s taking up most of the sports reporting, but college football is also gearing up. It’s good to see the Illinois AD is lock in step with what Coach Lovie Smith has been building.

“I think we’re in a really strong position with football right now,” he says. “It’s been a tough three years. I think we’ve put a lot of heavy lifting in, laid a strong foundation. We’ve got a team this year that’s gonna be led largely by our junior class, a group that came in, Lovie’s first group, played a lot as freshmen and continue to play a lot. And so I really feel good about the leadership within the program. I feel good about the experience within the program. I think we’re finally getting old after being one of the youngest teams in college football for two years in a row. I’m really pleased with the recruiting that the staff has done — the classes haven’t been huge, which has obviously hampered some of our rankings — but in terms of the quality of players, some of the most highly ranked players we’ve seen in 10–15 years at the University of Illinois. And that’s the kind of success we need on the recruiting trail to turn the tide with this thing.”

This upcoming Illinois football season has all the makings of a bowl year.

Just win six men. Just win six.

Bernie Miklasz, writing in The Athletic, has the right approach to the Paul Goldschmidt signing a five-year contract extension with the St. Louis Cardinals. He sees the organization acquiring a magnificent player for very little in an incredible trade for not just this upcoming season, but for the long haul. He is, of course, right.

Personally, I was certain this was going to blow up in the faces of Bill DeWitt Jr. and John Mozeliak. Thankfully, I was wrong. Goldschmidt is the perfect fit for the Cardinals and landing him through 2024 sets up sustained success.

Plus, he sees how the club will now look to find the extra pieces needed over the course of the season to fill holes and actually compete this year and the next.

Now that they’ve finally ended the chaos at first base, the Cardinals can shift their focus to other positions in the effort to “Win Now.”And “Win For A Long Time.”

It’s certainly a win for the front office.

More from Nicholas Bate:

In the future, we will realise that the Whole Brexit Debacle was simple a long-needed deep spiritual cleansing.

The cluster of islands set in some cold seas but with a great sense of humour, staggering landscapes and cool bands will sort itself out.

So. That was super disappointing.

Mueller filed his report. Barr sent out a summary. Mueller couldn’t find sufficient evidence to convict anyone in the Trump camp of criminal collusion with Russia’s social media and hacking operations to influence the election.

That’s it.

Eric Levitz in New York Magazine tries to put it in perspective.

None of this should obscure the fact that Mueller’s investigation had previously produced criminal convictions of the president’s former campaign manager, national security adviser, longtime personal attorney, among others in his extended orbit. Nor should it banish from memory Donald Trump Jr.’s eager acceptance of an offer of aid from the Russian government, or his father’s decision to pursue a development project in Moscow while campaigning on an aberrantly Russia-friendly platform, or the president’s repeated insistence that Vladimir Putin’s word was more truthworthy than the CIA ‘s, or the myriad other undisputed acts that would, in normal political times, be seen as presidency-defining scandals, in and of themselves.

Of course, the full Mueller report hasn’t been seen by anyone besides Mueller, Rosenstein, and Barr. Plus, I’m sure there’s going to be more in the report, if it ever sees the light of day, that will add fuel to the dumpster fire of a presidency, but the bottom line is Trump will now campaign on the No Collusion Train and the 30–40% of the country who believe whatever he says will go right along with him.

Sigh.

Let’s all remember the multitude of other federal and state investigations into Trump and the Trump crime family. I mean, there are so many legal entanglements I can’t keep track of all of them (although Andrew Prokop at Vox has a decent breakdown).

There are the hush money payments, the inaugural committee financials, how security clearances were granted, his personal and business taxes, the Trump foundation corruption, all the sexual assault accusations, the violations of the emoluments clause, and probably a dozen more I’ve since forgotten because Trump, his family, and his cronies are nothing but career criminals.

Is it possible Robert Mueller did find potential conspiracy amongst Don Jr., Kushner, and Manafort for the Trump Tower meeting, but he’s handed that off to the Southern District of New York? It would make sense because if he had indicted Trump’s family, the case would have been fought for years with the hand-picked, partisan Attorney General possibly pulling the plug on the whole thing plunging the country into a constitutional crisis. This way, the SDNY, which already has a legal case against “Individual-1,” can bring the hammer of justice down within the Michael Cohen case and maybe unknown related cases.

We don’t yet know what’s in the Mueller report, we don’t yet know if Mueller handed off information to other prosecutors who can’t be touched by Trump, and we don’t yet know how the other legal jeopardy facing Trump, his family and businesses, and campaign/administration will play out.

Just like the Game of Thrones character Jon Snow, “We know nothing,” and it’s super frustrating.

Dan Pedersen writes about a better way of thinking.

It’s a common habit to dwell on whatever thoughts pop into our mind. We dwell on our problems. We tell ourselves stories that make us feel superior to others. We pretend that we have answers that we don’t actually have. And when we’re not tooting our own horn, we’re criticizing ourselves and other people.

A lot of these things are inner conversations we have with ourselves — a running dialogue of praise, criticism, and self-delusion. This is the type of thinking we need less of.

The irony is that when we learn to think less in that way, we learn to think more in a different way — a better way. We learn to think without thinking. Instead of creating dialogue in our mind or replaying fantasies, we learn to quiet the distortions which drown out a much more subtle and profound voice beneath the surface.

My inner monologue is so unhealthy at times. I’m not good at quieting the distortions. It is definitely something I need to continuously work on.

Andrew Sullivan seems quite put out by Donald Trump.

In this post-truth world, where Trump has allied with social media to create an alternate reality, lies work. This week, he approached the press corps simply repeating, “No Collusion! No Collusion!” And he will continue to say this regardless of what the Mueller report may reveal, because it doesn’t matter what actually happened. Whatever Trump says will become the truth for 40 percent of the country, while the expectations of the opposition, troubled by pesky empiricism, may well be deflated. Fox, a de facto state propaganda channel, will do the rest.

This remains a surreal state of affairs, does it not? Life goes on; politics has the forms of democracy, even if the substance is now monarchical; and the economy continues to grow. And how did we respond to his usurping the power of the Congress with an emergency declaration, or his marshaling of the military for an election-eve stunt on the border, or his refusing any cooperation with the House committees, or his two-hour, delusional rant at CPAC, or his response to white nationalist mass murder by pivoting to an “invasion” of the U.S., or the blizzard of simply deranged tweets last Sunday? How did we react when he said, in the context of a fight with Democrats, “I have the military.” For what? Mr. President. What plans do you exactly have in mind?

Yes, we’re numb. Yes, this has become normal. And yes, as far as liberal democracy is concerned, this is an extinction-level event.

I disagree that it won’t matter what the Mueller report reveals. I think it’s what everyone is waiting for.

No one knows what the Mueller report is going to say, but I think it will show the Trump campaign and administration has been utterly corrupt from the beginning.

I don’t think 60-70% of the country is numb to the almost hourly scandals of the Trump presidency. I think they are waiting for him to be removed either by vote, resignation, or some other calamity. I think the country would rather vote for a Democrat in 2020 than Trump. The 2016 election foretells 2020.

Seriously, what everyone with a working brain really wants is Mueller to indict everyone in the Trump circle. And I mean everyone. Not just Trump and his immediate family (but that’s a good start), but everyone in the campaign, the inauguration committee (and that means Pence), and probably several members and former members of his cabinet.

Trump isn’t going to go quietly. Even if he is defeated in a 2020 election, he won’t leave until forcibly removed by the Secret Service. And then he’ll immediately be indicted by the SDNY for a variety of crimes which won’t be waved away by a federal pardon. To be honest, it’s entirely possible the SDNY will indict a sitting President for state crimes. Wouldn’t that be crazy?

In any event, I am confident the rule of law is going to ultimately win the day.

My step-daughter Alia is 23 today. She has been thinking and talking about her birthday since March 22, 2018. Today is also World Down Syndrome Day, which is a day to celebrate the lives of people with Down syndrome. So, in regards to Alia, we have two things to commemorate.

Imagine a stereotypical twentysomething young woman, and you have a pretty clear picture of Alia. She loves singing and dancing. She loves doing her make-up and having her nails done. She has her celebrity crush. She wants nothing more than to be hanging out with her friends. She’s excited to start a new job. Her phone with its selfie-creating camera, text messaging, YouTube videos, and her Spotify playlist is permanently attached to her hand. Her favorite drinks are root beer, Moscato wine, and margaritas, not necessarily in that order.

She just happens to have three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the two.

Alia and her sister Brynne were part of the package when I married their mother. I thought I maybe had an idea of what I was getting into, but I was not even remotely in the ballpark. What I’ve learned more often than not is that I have a vast sum of patience, and I’ve learned to temper any frustrations I feel. Of course, I fail at this constantly. However, I’m getting better, and thankfully I have an understanding wife.

Alia brings so much joy and happiness to the house that it can be infectious. Random dance parties are bound to erupt out of the blue, especially if her best friend is spending the night.

Alia is the best judge of character, and I have learned to rely on her observations. If she warms up to you immediately, I know she has an instinctive trust. If she ignores or dismisses you, then something is always amiss. More often than not, she is spot on.

Her smile lights up any room she happens to be in. She is quick to anger and just as quick to laugh. Her emotions are always at the forefront. No one can ignore Alia.

Basically, every day is an adventure with Alia (and her Mom and sister too).

I’m incredibly lucky to get to see her grow up and become more independent. I’m proud of her accomplishments and how brave she’s been lately. Her future is wide open, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Luke Leighfield’s newsletter linked to a New York Times article from 2015 by Frank Bruni about spending time together. After spending a long weekend with several of my wife’s family at a resort, this passage spoke to me:

There’s simply no real substitute for physical presence.

We delude ourselves when we say otherwise, when we invoke and venerate “quality time,” a shopworn phrase with a debatable promise: that we can plan instances of extraordinary candor, plot episodes of exquisite tenderness, engineer intimacy in an appointed hour.

We can try. We can cordon off one meal each day or two afternoons each week and weed them of distractions. We can choose a setting that encourages relaxation and uplift. We can fill it with totems and frippery — a balloon for a child, sparkling wine for a spouse — that signal celebration and create a sense of the sacred.

And there’s no doubt that the degree of attentiveness that we bring to an occasion ennobles or demeans it. Better to spend 15 focused, responsive minutes than 30 utterly distracted ones.

But people tend not to operate on cue. At least our moods and emotions don’t. We reach out for help at odd points; we bloom at unpredictable ones. The surest way to see the brightest colors, or the darkest ones, is to be watching and waiting and ready for them.

I hope our family time blossoms in the same way.

Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, tells the story of one Mike Trout, unquestionably the greatest baseball player of all time, and now nobody knows his name.

There was a time that being the best baseball player made you one of the most famous human beings on the planet. That time is not now.

Trout just earned the largest contract in professional sports history, and I bet most of you probably have never watched him play more than half a dozen times.

Even though Albert Pujols burned me by taking the money and moving to the Anaheim Angels many moons ago, maybe I should call the Angels my American League team just to root for an underdog of a club with the greatest baseball player of all time manning the outfield.

"Every semi-automatic weapon used in the [Christchurch] terrorist attack will be banned in this country."

New Zealand PM @JacindaArdern moves to ban all military style weapons, effective immediately https://t.co/KDsydPBHM4 pic.twitter.com/8z5rUwP5eR

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 21, 2019

This should be the norm everywhere.

Mike Isaac, in The New York Times, has a story advocating email newsletters are better “social network” than Facebook and Twitter.

For me, the change has happened slowly but the reasons for it were unmistakable. Every time I was on Twitter, I felt worse. I worried about being too connected to my phone, too wrapped up in the latest Twitter dunks. A colleague created his own digital detox program to reduce his smartphone addiction. I reckon he made the right choice.

Now, when I feel the urge to tweet an idea that I think is worth expounding on, I save it for my newsletter, The Dump (an accurate description of what spills out of my head). It’s much more fun than mediating political fights between relatives on my Facebook page or decoding the latest Twitter dust-up.

I’ve been leaning toward this for quite sometime.

With my newsletter, I saved things that I thought deserved to shared, I built up a small little audience, but I thought it was taking too much of my time and I closed it down.

I then turned to this blog to do most of what I was doing via a newsletter. I mostly wanted to have complete control over my content. Although, reading this piece makes me kinda want to restart my newsletter.

Judd Legum, in his newsletter Popular Information, takes “an unsparing look at the rise of white nationalism in the United States. It details exactly what Donald Trump has said and done to empower violent racists.”

The bottom line is it’s getting harder and harder to say Donald Trump is not a racist.

More and more I appreciate this type of independent journalism and I’m considering paying the $50 a year to get it four times a week. I think you should too.

More from Nicholas Bate:

We will realise that it would have helped tremendously if we hadn’t been in so much of a hurry.

When I read something like what Andy Weir has written, I get super jealous because it’s literally just under a thousand words of pure brilliance. I wish I had a fraction of the talent of Weir.

Read “The Egg” and then read it again.

Actor and filmmaker Jerry Madison stars in this fan trailer of a 21^st century version of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air made by cinematographer and director Morgan Cooper. It’s darker, grittier and amazing.

What would happen if Will Smith made The Fresh Prince today? Bel-Air, a story of a kid from Philly whose life got turned upside-down… in 2019.

I am honestly surprised this show doesn’t exist like right now. It feels like a natural partner to the Cobra Kai show on YouTube. Are you seeing this Will Smith?

Author Hugh Howey wrote an essay on his website about the definition of existential threats. It is smart with lots of observations that make a lot of sense. Climate change deniers will probably get the wrong message from it and climate change advocates will dismiss it as not quite urgent enough. Still, I think everyone should read it.

No excerpt. Just click and read.

For lunch, I spent $3.14 at Blaze Pizza and then bought a slice of apple pie at work with the money going to a worthy cause. I think that’s enough celebrating for one day.

This excellent piece by Brian Hamilton in The Athletic about the current state of Illinois Basketball highlights the good, the not-so-good, and the ugly. I particularly liked this passage:

…But here we have a Big Ten program in a talent-rich and basketball-loving state with a coach who won 80 percent of his games before he got to town two years ago. As a result, it’s fair to say one of college basketball’s running curiosities is Illinois either being a few particular successes away from greatness or elite-ness, or being bound to more regularly hit its head on the canopy of good enough, and whether everyone inside and outside the program would be good enough with that.

It’s also fair to presume the next 12 months will offer a hint about that. Illinois had four total wins and zero Big Ten victories on Jan. 10, and then went 7–8 to end the regular season. An epiphany, it is not. But it is better than the slog that preceded it, especially since the stretch featured the continued growth of freshmen Ayo Dosunmu and Giorgi Bezhanishvili, along with two victories over ranked teams. It also featured that Senior Night during which Indiana scissored through a listless defense for 21 layups, after what Underwood says were two of the best practices his team has had all year. A second-half collapse in a double-digit loss at Penn State followed three days later. So the last two months of the regular season essentially demonstrate both Illinois’ good intentions and what could be, as well as the maddening inconsistencies that undermine the whole deal.

The (presumably) available talent and a third full offseason of program-building, which will include an overseas trip to Italy, and a far less murderous schedule should create a pivot point by next fall. The direction of the pivot remains TBD.

The pivot point likely will be predicated on not seeing a mass exodus of transfers like last season. Because of his medical condition, I expect Anthony Higgs will transfer out. Samba Kane apparently has some academic issues, but I hope he stays and takes an academic redshirt. Kipper Nichols might be a player a lot of fans wouldn’t mind seeing transfer, but I don’t think he can do it academically because of the wonky way he transferred in.

I really hope Ayo Dosunmu does not leave the program for the green pastures of the NBA. I expect he will go to the combine and get told by plenty of coaches and scouts that he needs to get stronger, faster, add consistency to his handle, master his three-point shot, and see where his stock falls after his sophomore season at Illinois. Hopefully, a season where he helps lead the Fighting Illini back to the NCAA Tournament.