Dani had a cup of Starbucks.

Angry Staff Officer is scathingly critical:

Take the Dothraki cavalry. Putting that squadron forward of the main line of infantry was doctrinally correct, but the allied commanders did not put it to proper use: screening the allied lines and gaining active intelligence on the enemy. Instead, the Dothraki are ordered forward into an attack before the enemy situation is even known. This move, sometimes known as a “Custer,” predictably ends in ruin for the Dothraki cavalry, who get chewed up and spat out in an unsupported frontal attack.

————————–

Robert Farley blames Team Alive’s lack of Dead-Fighting experience, and notes that Team Dead also made mistakes, particularly overlooking their opponent’s possession of Faceless-Trained Special Forces.

Team Dead entered this battle with massive advantages in every category other than cavalry and dragons. It destroyed Team Alive’s cavalry and the bulk of its infantry in short order, and also reduced the formidable fortification of Winterfell. Team Dead nevertheless made mistakes, failing to develop a coherent plan for defeating Team Alive’s dragons and failing to anticipate the lethality of Team Alive’s special operators. The inexperience of Team Alive in waging battle against the dead was palpable, but Team Dead also lacked experience fighting a battle of this scale against a multifaceted force of the living. Unfortunately, the “lessons learned” department of Team Dead likely crumbled to dust shortly after the Night King.

HT: Karen L. Myers.

Robby Soave, in Reason, nails it,

What’s the difference between Game of Thrones character Cersei Lannister and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton? One is an entitled narcissist who quietly supported her lecherous husband (whom she clearly loathed) when it was politically convenient, then insisted it was her turn to rule (even though it wasn’t), chose boot-lickers, ass-kissers, and elitist bankers as her advisors while alienating more competent and better-liked people who might have helped her, exacted petty vengeance on imagined enemies, escaped justice and the judgment of the people by destroying her main rival—the charismatic, income-inequality obsessed populist—with an explosive cheat, and was left confused why so many people in her country would rather be ruled by a complete political unknown who tells it like it is.

The other fucks her twin brother.

RTWT

Thrill List consulted with the old gods and the new and came up with pretty good choices. Examples:

Colorado
Jorah Mormont
Athletic, secretly wealthy, with a sun-tanned, weathered face. Incessantly trying to sleep with a younger woman.

Connecticut
Joffrey Baratheon
Rich, bratty, emotionally unnerving. Definitely PG’d at Taft.

Delaware
That guy Ned Stark executes in the pilot
No one remembers that Delaware is the first state either.

RTWT

Game of Throne characters exploit environmentalist superstition to sell a home sparkling water device in this Australian ad.

Bottled water makers sued!

HT: Karen L. Myers.

I recommend turning on the close captioning.

Brandon Stark (Eddard’s older brother)

Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.

Ben Domenech, at the Federalist, explains that Cruz’s unexpected move was indeed a calculated and prudential sell-out.

[Cruz’s change of position] came due to those who had been some of Cruz’s most prominent backers. The Mercer family and Peter Thiel played critical roles in elevating Cruz from a virtual unknown in the state of Texas to knocking off a popular Lieutenant Governor in an extremely competitive primary. Now they are prominent backers of Donald Trump, and the threat of a well-backed primary campaign for Cruz in 2018 was increasingly real, with Rep. Michael McCaul and former Gov. and DWTS star Rick Perry showing themselves to be very competitive against him. Cruz’s former media backers had turned on the populist, and the potential for a well-backed challenger against Cruz in Texas was real. Had Trump lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton, as seems the likeliest outcome today, the timing of Cruz’s race would’ve made him public enemy number one among the Trump crew.

A move by Ted Cruz to endorse Trump in Cleveland wouldn’t have satisfied anyone already opposed to Cruz, but it would’ve seemed like par for the course among all the Republicans who’ve lined up to back the nominee, which now includes all the candidates this cycle except for Jeb Bush and John Kasich. The move to endorse now seems ideologically baseless, because it is. It seems like an act of political self-defense, because it is. And it seems opportunistic, because it is.