IT’S ALL FOR SHOW
Miami-Dade U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar and, especially, Sen. Marco Rubio, have all railed against normalizing relations with Cuba.
I wonder how many items in their homes were made in China? Are they so hypocritical that they will fight any effort to open relations with Cuba while they help support the communist regime in China, which has a far worse human rights record than Cuba?
They must know that former President Trump, whom they all admire and support, applied in 2008 to register his business trademark in Cuba so he could invest in real estate, hotels, casinos and golf courses in that communist nation.
I wonder if Rubio and the others have ever filled their tanks at Citgo gas stations?
Citgo is majority-owned by Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. If they have, then they are doubly hypocritical.
Before these lawmakers dictate policy and scream about communism and Marxist-Leninist socialism, they should clean up their own acts.
Cuba has been under an embargo and sanctions for six decades.
How has that been going?
– Roger Hammer,
Homestead
In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.
In 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in the Spanish harbor of Palos de la Frontera, two months after concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson met with about 100 reporters for the first formal presidential press conference.
In 1944, during
World War II, Allied bombers again raided German-held Monte Cassino.
In 1964, actor Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal (they divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975, then divorced again in 1976.)
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson, addressing a joint session of Congress, called for new legislation to guarantee every American’s right to vote. The result was passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
UM freshman Earl Timberlake to enter transfer portal,
The resilience it takes to get through a nerve-jangling Sunday at Sawgrass was nothing compared with what Justin Thomas had been through already this year.
An otherwise impeccable start to his career on and off the course came under scrutiny in January with a slip of the tongue when he muttered an anti-gay slur under his breath that cost him one sponsor and led another to publicly reprimand him. Tougher still was the death last month of his grandfather, Paul, part of the legacy of golf pros in the Thomas family.
He found the right time to deliver a gem.
Thomas took on every shot in The Players Championship, right down to the 5-wood that rode the edge of the lake down the left side of the 18th fairway, and closed with a 4-under-par 68 for a oneshot victory over Lee Westwood.
He won for the seventh consecutive year, his 14th career title, and became only the fourth player to win a major, The Players Championship, the FedEx Cup and a World Golf Championship.
“It’s been a crappy couple months. I’ve had stuff happen in my life I never thought I’d have happen,” Thomas said. “Losing grandpa was terrible, and having to play a round of golf dealing with that, and then on top of that not playing well, it just was a lot, and it took a lot on me mentally.
“This week was huge to win a big championship like this in front of fans again, which is incredible. It tested me mentally, physically, emotionally, and I’m very proud of myself for getting it done.”
Like most Sundays at this championship, it was wild as ever.
Thomas was four shots behind when he walked off the green on the par-3 eighth with a three-putt bogey. Four holes later, he walked off the 12th green with a two-shot lead.
He hit a 5-iron to 20 feet to set up a two-putt birdie on the par-5 ninth. He took on a tough pin at No. 10 for a 6-foot birdie. He drilled a 4-iron to 20 feet for an eagle at No. 11 for his first lead of the week, and he capped off the run with a nifty pitch from behind the green on the reachable par-4 12th for birdie.
Westwood was a hardluck runner-up for the second straight week — to Bryson DeChambeau at
Bay Hill, to Thomas at The Players, two major champions who were born in 1993, the year the 47-yearold Westwood turned pro.
He was tied for the lead until he couldn’t match Thomas, playing in the group ahead, on the par-5 16th.
Thomas teed it low and slung a hard, low draw that ran out some 40 yards and set up a 5-wood into 50 feet, which he lagged down for a twoputt birdie. Westwood’s 3-iron clipped a tree and dropped into the sand, and that quirky 65-yard shot went into another bunker
and forced him to scramble for par.
“When you’re in contention, you’d like to win every tournament you’re playing in,” Westwood said after a 72. “But I didn’t quite have my game today.”
He made birdie on the 18th to finish alone in second. DeChambeau (71) and Brian Harman (69) were another shot behind.
Thomas finished at 14-under 274. He was outside the cut line after nine holes Friday, made it with two shots to spare and then tied The Players Championship record with a 12-under 132 weekend.
Thomas still had one more shot before he was in the clear. He took on the water framing the left side of the 18th fairway, the ball moving right-to-left and bouncing straight off the crown of the first cut, safely in the fairway. Only when he saw it on land did Thomas twirl his club, pulling his cap over his face and wiping his brow.
“I’ve seen some crazy stuff happen on TV in the past, and I’m glad to be on this side of it,” he said.
All the crazy stuff came early.
DeChambeau topped a hybrid on the par-4 fourth hole that went only about 140 yards until it plunked into the water.
“Dude! I don’t know
what happened!” he said to his caddie. “I’ve never done that before.”
From 237 yards on a forward tee to a green protected by water, he hit a slice with a 4-iron that landed some 40 yards right of the green.
“Oh my gosh! What is going on?” DeChambeau said.
He made double bogey and was scratching the rest of the way to stay in the game. He still had a chance with an eagle on the 16th hole to get within two, but when Thomas made par on the 17th, his chances were about over.
Westwood hit his tee shot into the water on the fourth hole and had to make an 8-footer to save bogey. He hit his approach out of the pine straw that clipped two branches and found water on the par-5 second hole to make bogey. But he was never far away from the lead, and Westwood regained a share of the lead with an 8-foot birdie putt on the 14th.
His hopes ended with a three-putt bogey on the par-3 17th.
Thomas won $2.7 million from the $15 million purse, and he found some peace between the ears that required talking to plenty of people and pouring out some of his emotions.
Draymond Green had his 26th career tripledouble with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists and the Golden State Warriors held off the NBA-leading Utah Jazz 131-119 on Sunday to end a season-worst four-game losing streak.
Green also had four steals in his second tripledouble of the season. Stephen Curry had 32 points with six threepointers to go with nine assists.
“Now it matters what we do coming out of it,” Green said. “This could be a turning point.”
Andrew Wiggins added 28 points as Golden State returned home for a Sunday matinee at Chase Center, where the Warriors had played just one time over the previous 24 days.
Rudy Gobert had 24 points and a career-high 28 rebounds for Utah (28-10), which became the league’s last team to reach double-digit losses.
Thunder 128, Grizzlies 122: Shai GilgeousAlexander scored 30 points and Aleksej Pokusevski had a career-high 23 for host Oklahoma
City.
Kenrich Williams added 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting for the Thunder, which trailed by as many as 12. Moses Brown had 13 points; Ty Jerome finished with 12.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who missed Saturday’s 119-97 loss to the Knicks with a left quad contusion, went 8 for 17 from the field. The Thunder had seven players score in double figures and shot 57.5% from the floor.
Ja Morant had 22 points and seven assists for Memphis, which lost for the third time in four games. Dillon Brooks scored 19 points, and
Jonas Valanciunas had 16 points and 14 rebounds.
The Grizzlies opened a 102-90 lead on Justise Winslow’s driving layup early in the fourth quarter. But the Thunder responded with a 14-2 run. Williams tied it at 104 with a layup with 8:38 left.
Pokusevski’s 25-footer put Oklahoma City in front 109-108 with 6:10 left. Darius Miller added another three-point shot to push the Thunder ahead by four on its next possession.
The Grizzlies never recovered, allowing 38 fourth-quarter points.
76ers 134, Spurs 99: Tobias Harris scored 23 points, Seth Curry had 21 and host Philadelphia won its first game since Joel Embiid was lost with an injury.
The Sixers’ hold on the top spot in the Eastern Conference appears tenuous with Embiid out for at least two weeks with a bone bruise on his left knee. Embiid had emerged as an MVP candidate, averaging 29.9 points and 11.5 rebounds in 31 games until he was injured Friday night at Washington.
Derrick White and Drew Eubanks led San
Antonio with 17 points.
The Warriors won for the first time since Feb. 26.