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Sean Strickland, the Only American UFC Champion shows up to the 250th Celebration fight night for America and is arrested and escorted out.
All because he criticized the administration, the government and the obvious corruption when it comes to Israel’s influence in both.
Wild.
Let that sink in for a minute.
America is compromised.
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The UFC is hosting fights at the White House tonight.
Here's what you need to know:
1. The UFC is spending $60 million to put on this event.
That's way more than the $3-4 million the company typically spends to put on an event and three times the $20 million it spent at the Las Vegas Sphere in 2024.
2. The UFC sold $30 million in corporate sponsorship deals — Ram Trucks, Crypto(.)com, Polymarket, Bud Light — with individual packages selling for $1.5 million.
3. Since tickets are being given out for free, the event is expected to lose about $30 million.
4. The UFC's $7.7 billion media rights deal with Paramount allows some fights to be simulcast on CBS, but tonight's entire event will only be available on the Paramount streaming service.
5. There will be 4,000 people on the South Lawn for the event — Trump controls about 1,000 tickets, with Dana White and Ari Emanuel controlling another 500 or so. The remaining seats were given to active duty military members. These military members had to meet body composition standards and pay for their own travel.
6. The UFC installed a giant arch over the octagon known as the Claw. The structure is massive — 60 tons, 154 feet wide, and 92 feet high, with a 100-by-100-foot canopy and 800 lighting fixtures — and since the UFC isn't allowed to dig into the South Lawn, engineers added 40 tons of weight to each leg to hold it down.
7. The Claw was flown from Belgium to Philadelphia, test-assembled in Philly, and then trucked down to DC. Each truck was placed in storage before being searched by the Secret Service, and the UFC needed 38 days to assemble everything (compared to their normal 2 days).
8. The UFC is covering all production costs, but taxpayers are still on the hook for $10-12 million in supplemental security costs. The White House says this money would have been spent anyway and that it comes from a federal fund (approved by Congress) specifically allocated for events surrounding the country's 250th birthday.
9. Since attendance on the South Lawn is invite-only (and limited to 4,000 people), the UFC is holding a watch party at the Eliipise. Roughly 85,000 tickets have been distributed for free, and while the UFC plans to sell food, beverages, and merchandise, Dana White told ESPN that "the government will get a piece of it."
10. Every fighter will be wearing custom red, white, and blue gloves with an American flag stitched on the wrist.
BONUS: Trump's latest financial disclosure indicates that he purchased up to $50,000 in TKO stock, the parent company of the UFC. Some say this is a conflict of interest, while others claim it is insignificant, given that his full financial disclosure included over 3,700 stock and bond trades worth more than $220 million.
That's it for today. Enjoy the event, and if you want to learn more about the business and money behind sports, join 135,000 others who read my newsletter.
Sign up: huddleup.substack.com/
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Jun 14
Journalist Janine di Giovanni:
"If a missile hits a hospital in Ukraine,
Europe calls it a war crime."
"But if missiles hit a hospital in Gaza and 100 people die, it’s Israel's right to defend itself."
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Jun 13
Israel flattened Beirut in 1982.
No Hamas. No Hezbollah. No October 7 to point to then.
Just 17,000 dead Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.
Even US president then Ronald Reagan, who armed Israel, called Begin furious after seeing a photo of a 7-month-old baby with its arms blown off and said “It is a holocaust”.
They killed so many innocent people that the survivors had no choice but to pick up weapons.
Then Israel had the audacity to keep using “Self-Defense” excuse every decade.
Israel didn’t stumble into endless war. Israel built it. Brick by brick.
Own it.
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False. The fact is that Israel wants US military bases everywhere EXCEPT Israel. The US, having effectively destroyed its own basing capabilities in the region bc of its ill-conceived Iran war, wants to re-station in Israel. Tel Aviv will come up with every excuse to prevent this.
Israel warns 2.4 million summer flight tickets at risk over US aircraft at airports
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Transportation Minister Miri Regev warned on Sunday that Israel could face widespread flight disruptions unless numerous US aircraft currently stationed at Ben Gurion Airport are relocated without delay. According to Regev, up to 2.4 million passenger tickets booked for the busy summer travel period and upcoming holidays could be affected.
In a letter sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Regev warned of a “direct economic loss of billions of shekels to airlines, the tourism industry, and the economy as a whole.”
She argued that the ongoing situation could undermine confidence in Israel as an aviation hub and discourage carriers that only recently resumed service to the country after the April ceasefire with Iran. The current circumstances, she wrote, would “severely damage Israel’s credibility as an aviation destination and may put off airlines that have only recently returned to flying to Israel following the April ceasefire.”
Regev also cautioned that major disruptions during the peak travel season would have broader social consequences. “Mass flight cancellations for summer vacations and holidays at a time when the Israeli public needs calm and normalcy more than ever will damage national morale and civic resilience,” she said. “Flight cancellations will be another blow to the public, and responsibility for this will be rightly attributed to the government’s inability to provide a solution to a solvable problem.”
According to Regev, approximately 72 US refueling and cargo aircraft are currently parked at Ben Gurion Airport, while an additional 26 American aircraft are stationed at Ramon Airport in the Negev.
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UFC Freedom 250 is facing a chaotic weather setup on the White House South Lawn, with a 60% chance of thunderstorms, heavy downpours, and wind gusts up to 34 mph threatening to delay the outdoor fights. On top of the storm risk, brutal D.C. humidity is driving a triple-digit heat index alongside massive swarms of mosquitos and gnats that fighters will have to battle inside the cage. While the venue’s massive 92-foot overhang will keep the octagon dry, a single lightning strike within eight miles will trigger an automatic 30-minute freeze on the entire event.
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Consolidated Freightways: The Labor Day Blindside youtu.be/pQtfapM0JhI?si=W7mq… via @YouTube
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Jun 12
autonomous robot driving through the field at night. no chemicals. no pesticides. just UV light killing pathogens and pests while everyone sleeps. this is @tricrobotics.
this is what chemical-free pest control looks like at scale.
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Jun 14
High-speed e-scooters and e-bikes are prohibited on Port Authority roadways and bridge pathways under our Traffic Rules and Regulations.
Help keep our facilities safe for everyone.
Review the rules and regulations for more information: share.google/bziXvKS74a0VEnq…
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RT @AmoneyResists: $14 million “beautification” and just 3 days later it looks worse than ever because there was a reason we didn’t paint…
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Another chapter in a legendary career ✍️
Sir Lewis Hamilton becomes Ferrari’s latest race winner in Formula 1, securing the 106th victory of his remarkable career 👏
#FIA #F1 #BarcelonaGP
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🔴 LEWIS HAMILTON WINS FOR FERRARI 🔴
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William Shatner spent YEARS having to apologize for this joke!
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Jun 13
With Tulsi Gabbard's new revelations about US bio labs in many countries around the world including Ukraine, it's fascinating recall the bizarre series of events that gave rise to this controversy in the first place:
In May of 2022, some of us began asking whether the US had bio labs in Ukraine, what they were for, and why the US had them there. For asking those questions, we were instantly branded as "pro-Russian conspiracy theorists" in official Ukrainian intel reports, on our Wikipedia pages, by countless media outlets, etc. This was and remains one of the most bizarre episodes I've ever seen.
Before May 2022, when we asked those questions, barely anyone had ever thought about let alone asked about "bio weapons in Ukraine"! I certainly hadn't. Like most people, I had never mentioned a word about it because it had never occurred to me we had them there.
But then, Marco Rubio summoned Victoria Nuland to the Senate and asked her in a televised hearing under oath about these "rumors," clearly expecting her to immediately debunk them as obvious Kremlin lies and to proclaim the US had no such bio labs in Ukraine.
Instead, Nuland did the opposite! She *confirmed* key aspects of these "rumors," and she explicitly warned that the US has several "bio research labs" in Ukraine that are so dangerous that they must not be allowed to fall into Russia's hands.
When some of us heard Nuland's rather shocking admission -- the first-ever disclosure about these labs -- we of course asked: wait! what? Why does the US have bio labs in Ukraine, and what are the US and Ukraine doing in those labs that make them (in Nuland's eyes) so dangerous?? (Note: nobody ever suggested that the presence of these bio labs in Ukraine justified the Russian invasion; we just wanted answers about these US bio labs that Nuland had casually divulged).
We never got real answers. We got smear campaigns. To this day, our names are formally attached to claims that we spread "conspiracy theories" for asking about these labs even though it was Victoria Nuland herself who was the one who accidentally revealed them for the first time in a Senate hearing in response to a shocked Marco Rubio. They then quickly tried shutting down any questioning by pretending that Nuland never said this, and it was just a bunch of paid Kremlin mouthpieces who were spreading lies.
You see the same tactics now being against Tulsi for releasing this new intelligence report. Watch the Nuland testimony in question:
Jun 12
Today, I’m releasing never before seen intelligence revealing new evidence of past US government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries, including Ukraine.
In support of President Trump‘s Executive Order to end federal funding of dangerous gain of function research around the world, and increase transparency and accountability, ODNI will continue working with partners across the Administration to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what “research” is being conducted.
odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/…
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Humanity, Planning its own destruction. That a phone call won’t stop.
“Just say Yea.”
@LincolnRestler @ShahanaFromBK
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