The Frankish Reich

True. Everyone was ready to dump Frazier for his mulish obsession with playing only cover 2 and not being aggressive. Now? “We should have just played cover 2 and made Mac Jones earn it”

Michelle Goldberg is a liberal NY Times columnist. I generally don't agree with her columns. But this one is very solid and fair. It is not Twitter/X. You need to actually read a few paragraphs (a lost art around here) instead of an inflammatory 200 character characterization. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/opinion/israel-war-gaza-hospital-danger.html Of course, I’d read Israel’s insistence that an errant Islamic Jihad rocket had caused the explosion at the hospital, but I didn’t put much stock in it, because in the past when Israel accidentally killed civilians, it has blamed Palestinians for the deaths. In May of last year, the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli officials said she was shot either by a Palestinian or by an Israeli soldier aiming at a Palestinian gunman. A New York Times investigation, however, contradicted the official Israeli line. It found that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was fired from the direction of an Israeli military convoy and that “there were no armed Palestinians near her when she was shot.” A few months later, during another round of Israeli bombing of Gaza, five Palestinian boys were killed in a cemetery. Initially, Israeli officials blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket for the deaths. But as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, an army inquiry found they were actually killed by an Israeli airstrike. With the hospital explosion, it seemed history was repeating itself on a larger and more tragic scale. Perhaps it was, just not in the way I thought. As I write this, it looks increasingly likely that Israel was correct about an Islamic Jihad rocket hitting Al-Ahli hospital. That, at least, is what both early American intelligence and a number of independent experts have found. If their analysis holds up, it means the best analogy for this world-convulsing event is not the killings of five boys in Gaza last year. It is the myth of a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in 2002. The article continues, analyzing a "Jenin (West Bank) massacre" by the Israeli IDF that probably never happened.

Luddite.

He's from the MAGA right wing, but at least he has a tiny streak of common sense. And apparently Matt Gaetz hates him, so at least there's that. But still ... a hard "no."

Look, Biden flew overnight to Israel, had a bunch of meetings in 8 hours there, flew back, then gave an Oval Office address. I'll say pretty impressive for an 80 year old. Should we be electing 80 year olds? I'd still say no. But still ... pretty impressive.

Huh? The Biden administration has supported the ... "Biden regime"? #eyeroll

Oil: the problem is our friends, the Saudis. They control OPEC, and manipulate production (and hence prices) in a cartel that would be illegal in the United States under antitrust laws. Right now, they're restraining production to raise prices. Ordinarily this would give U.S. producers and incentive to drill, drill, drill in oil fields where the cost of production is higher; with high oil prices, higher cost oil from those fields would still be profitable. But what will the Saudis do if U.S. (Canadian and other too) oil production starts to spike? They'll open the Saudi spigot (and get Russia and others to go along) and lower oil prices, making all those investments in U.S. higher cost oil a waste of money. The solution would lie in expanding something like antitrust laws to OPEC. It wouldn't be antitrust, but a sizable tariff on OPEC oil could provide the certainty U.S. drillers need by incentivizing U.S. production. But neither party will do that because in the short run it would mean higher price oil. Yes, our friends the Saudis have us over a barrel ...

I guess the surge in wealth bypassed the Bonnie grads.

How could I have forgotten ...

I watched it. Biden did perfectly fine. Remember: Democrats are now the party interested in projecting American strength. Republicans are the new isolationists.

A new level of incoherence. "They've (the globalists) ..." Setting aside for the moment that "the globalists" is a popular white nationalist euphemism for "the Jews," who owns GEICO? Well, that would be Berkshire Hathaway, a/k/a Warren Buffet, the Wizard of Omaha. Not of Budapest. And what on earth is the reference to COVID? Nowhere in the GEICO statement is COVID mentioned as having anything to do with GEICO eliminating jobs. But go ahead, just string together the right wing bogeymen in a refrigerator magnet string: "COVID" "Globalists" "Soros" "BLM" "Antifa" ... am I missing any?

They are just talking about a Speaker who would assume the position for a limited period of time. In reality, that would be no different than any Republican speaker, since one member - ONE! - may bring a motion to vacate the chair under the MTG rules. So you're just formalizing what already exists. I'd love to see this happen with significant Democratic support. We may actually get a functional House of Representatives again instead of the silly posturing of the last year.

I mean, if it was a rocket from Gaza like we say it was, he's not wrong.

YESSSS! The normies win; the freaks retreat.

How about "Israeli missile misses target, hits parking lot outside hospital." Which was certainly possible, now looking unlikely.

That will never happen.

But will they let her wear her "recently signed by Trump" cap in federal prison? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-rioter-smashed-window-received-signed-trump-hat-sentenced-4-year-rcna120678 In the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, she said it "WAS !@#$ WAR TO GET IN," that rioters “weren’t welcomed in” and that police “had to retreat into the building and fight back because patriots were relentless.”

He specializes in own goals.

RFK Jr. says hi.

I'd forgotten all about Jared's big deal with MBS. It was all about finding investment opportunities IN ISRAEL for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. I imagine that has literally gone up in smoke now ...

Why do teams even do these late round draft swaps? Seriously, is there some salary cap benefit to it that I'm not aware of? Example: Broncos dumped bust free agent "pass rusher" Randy Gregory. Initial reports said he was waived. Later reports corrected that: it was a draft pick swap! 49ers get Gregory and the Broncos 7th round pick. Broncos get the Niners 6th round pick in return. Niners 6th rounder and Broncos 7th rounder may actually be consecutive picks. So ... why? Face saving or something that I'm missing?

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/causes-and-risk-factors/genetics#:~:text=Family history is not necessary,first-degree relative with Alzheimer's. TV tells me Focus Factor may help.

Wasn't he one the "many good people" chanting "Jews will not replace us" in Charlottesville?

Somehow Israel doesn't seem to view him as "giving antisemites the green light to go after Jews." In other words, this topic hasn't aged well ...

Yeah, look at them, breaking windows and storming in through them! Oops, that was January 6. These folks cleared security.