The Frankish Reich

Holy crap! It didn't play to script.

Calling it now: defensive hold on the Bills. Or PI. Or roughing the passer.

Exactly what I thought. Would I decline it? Yes.

They left us enough time this time!! Thank you Travis.

So that when we inevitably settle for a FG, and then KC scores a TD, we'll have just enough clock left for one final hail Mary.

Herbert out for the Chargers. It's Easton Stick (who? what?) for the win.

Actually NYT playoff machine says ... go Bengals! Improves our chances of making the playoffs from 20% to 24%. (But I'm guessing the Colts will blow it in future weeks, so that may change my perspective)

C'mon, play for the tie!

And unfortunately he's off to a nice start today too. Or maybe I want the Bengals to win? I can't remember anymore.

It is Flacco. But imagine if Flacco had taken over for Rodgers in Game 1 for the Jets. He's not good, but he's not Zach Wilson or whoever else bad. You really can do worse than signing a QB off the street.

Casey thinks encouraging a little voter fraud is o.k. when Ron is the beneficiary. https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/12/09/casey-desantis-iowa-caucus-moms/

I finally watched a few "highlights." Dominated, of course, by Vivek and Christie, two candidates who are not winning anything. Vivek continues to campaign for VP while Christie is furthering his future as a TV pundit. DeSantis and Haley did nothing that 98% of the electorate will notice. At least Haley gets a tiny bit of screen time as the chivalrous fat man defends her honor. A total minor league affair on a minor league network. It will change absolutely nothing. We remain on the highway to hell, Biden-Trump II.

Wow. Big if true. We should definitely George Santos him.

More likely it's one of those things that was innocuous at the time, that is now blown up into a "story." Something like: McD: "hey, [lineman], you look more like a slot receiver than a tackle wearing those Jordans." [time passes] ... "I heard McD wants all linemen to wear work boots now."

Right. We don't know. Much more likely is that the official story is correct: McDermott and Beane operate in lockstep on a consensus basis. And there's a good argument that having both the GM and the HC pulling in the same direction, with the same ideas of how to build a consistent winner (I think that was the definition of "the process") is largely responsible for the continuing success of the Bills franchise since their arrival.

But these (RFK, Trump) were the guys who highly disapproved of Epstein's activities.

Not to mention that Hungary-Russia border! It's good to see that the 45th president is well-versed in the geography of a critical region.

I didn't even know he was gone. But given what we know about Adams and his critical behind the scenes role, this makes sense.

Or maybe not. Trey Lance, Zach Wilson (assuming Rodgers hadn't blow out his Achilles), Baker Mayfield (if the Browns hadn't gone all in on Deshaun), Josh Rosen, possibly Kyler Murray ... ... I'm not sure that rule applies anymore.

Perhaps the most naive comment ever. "I'm going to spend 90% of it on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other 10% I'm going to waste." - Pitcher Tug McGraw on what he planned to do with World Series money.

Republicans, until this week: they're hiding hundreds of hours of videos of January 6! Release them now so the public can see for themselves that these poor Americans were nothing more than peaceful protesters! Republicans now: but blur their faces so Americans can't identify their neighbors and co-workers engaging in a riot, and maybe send in a tip to the FBI!

No. Just ... No.

The current Israeli government won't. But the current Israeli government won't last. Jordan has the benefit of not being a failed state (it's a low bar in that region) that could, at least in theory, provide adequate security for Israel. Of course, Israel would have to start taking down settlements too. But I do think Kissinger (say what you will about him, he started the process that resulted in the Camp David accords) was probably right: the idea of having a wholly independent Palestinian state in the classic "two state solution" ship has sailed.

Correct. I think I had a stray leftover "loss" in there. So here's how it stands. With everything else remaining as projected (in other words, games involving other teams give us predicted results): - beat KC, chances improve to 24% - beat Dallas too, 41% - beat LAC too, 61% - beat Pats and Phins, 99% Lose even one game, the best we can do is 59% (losing to the Cowboys, since they're a non-conference opponent). Unfortunately they have Browns, Ravens in the next two (could definitely lose), then Bucs (maybe) and Titans/Panthers (no way). So even without Trevor I don't see them giving us a lot of help.

So @Justice let me ask you a question. We're talking about when a population group is "a people" or something that would fit the definition of what we consider for a nation-state. Some here think the Ukrainians are just Russians who insist on being difficult. I mentioned that Jordan used to be Transjordan, immediately post-WWII, after the setting of boundaries as the British and French "mandates" dissolved. "Transjordan" because it meant the territory east of the Jordan River, so not the West Bank. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan didn't like that notion, so they dropped the "Trans" part and claimed the West Bank for themselves. Then after the 1967 war they relinquished their claim to the West Bank in favor of the idea that the West Bank should be at the core of what should be a nation of Palestine (not recognizing Israel). Or something like all of that. I saw in the last interview Kissinger gave (let's reserve judgement on him as a person for the moment), he said he'd given up on a two-state solution and would like to see the West Bank revert to Jordan again. Now, there's a practical problem: the King of Jordan doesn't like that, probably mostly for practical reasons as it would dilute his power. But: (1) we are talking about generally the same "people," right? And (2) why wouldn't this be the more natural and obvious solution? I don't know what becomes of Gaza, but in general shouldn't there be Israel and Jordan, not Israel and Jordan and some other new state? Jordan could allow the West Bank some manner of autonomy in local affairs. And the world community could bribe them in some way to back down on their opposition to once again claiming the West Bank as their own.