The Frankish Reich

Right, but you need to look beyond the oil pump. Saudi is trying to diversify, but in an almost comically show-offy way, not in any way that will actually position it to be competitive in anything other than extractive (oil) industries. I am not too thrilled about hitching our (US) wagon even more strongly to the Saudis, which is exactly what this administration (just like the last one) is about to do.

You missed a few. Do you instinctively call colleagues who disagree with you "commies" or "groomers?" Do you frenetically cut-and-paste from sketchy Twitter and internet sites without reading the source material first? Do you immediately assume that there is some conspiracy afoot whenever the things or people you support fail? If so, you might just be a Know Nothing Trumpist.

For me, too soon to tell with Howell. I'm more at the point where I say, "oh, now I see why they gave him the starting job." He does have talent, and more importantly, poise and a little swagger. I think they're hoping for some of Wentz's physical attributes but with Heinecke's intelligence/leadership. At a minimum I think they may have found an Andy Dalton, but he definitely could be better than that. Right now he's effectively a rookie, and the teams that have played him so far haven't really done anything to throw him off his game. Kind of like the minor league slugger who sees a steady diet of fastball when he's called up; when he shows he can handle that, he starts getting tons of off-speed stuff. Not sure what curves McD will throw at him, but there will definitely be some.

Right. The Broncos got good edge pressure on him in the first half. But their defense was either not talented enough or too poorly coached to respond effectively and keep contain when Bieniemy went to the age-old playbook: neutralize that big rush through screens. Really a terrible Broncos defensive performance that Sean Payton is trying to deflect onto Russell Wilson. I trust McD will have a better plan.

It's not so much the wages. Auto makers can plan around wage increases. It's the benefits and work rules that can cement things in place and make it impossible to respond to changing market conditions. I do believe the scale got too tilted in favor of management over the last decades, so unions are critical to rebalancing that a bit. But no one (except maybe the union leadership and Bernie) wants to go back to the dark days of the 70s/80s.

That has always been my instinct. But I'll admit it - my core beliefs were formed in the 1990s collapse of European communism and opening up of China's economy. We always thought that open markets would naturally lead to a more open political system. I still hope that's right (again, long term megatrends), but China (not Russia so much) is starting to make me doubt that.

Thanks. I appreciate the perspective. I don't know when (if?) Iran will flip. I just feel that it will. I have no similar confidence about Saudi since they seem to have an almost complete lack of understanding of civic culture and what that means.

I've lived in the West for almost all of my adult life. And yes, returning to Buffalo takes a little getting used to. People are superficially more relaxed (dare I say polite?) in the West. But there's kind of a social aversion to asking prying questions about someone else's life. I still see that in Buffalo. It's not rude, it's just different. And it probably makes it easier to form real friendships rather than friendly acquaintances. I think I've been gone too long to be able to adapt myself, but I do appreciate the the Buffalo way of social interaction in general.

I've only watched one of Howell's games (last week), and yes, he did show the ability to zip the ball in there. There's also kind of a windup to his delivery when he needs to put some mustard on the ball. Not sure how well he can deliver passes on the run either. That's something else that separates the Josh Allens from the Sam Howells.

I think that's right. I don't see Putinism as a viable political philosophy; it is a manner of dictatorial control only. So my best guess (wishful thinking?) is that Putinism will be viewed as a historical blip in Russia's overall reorientation toward the West and a free market economy - a mega trend that is now almost forty years long.

But longer term: Putin won’t live forever, regardless of who we elect. There’s no apparent successor to his imperial throne. Does Russia tilt westward again, or is this the reformation of the USSR?

Fortunately dill is like the only herb/spice I really despise. Kind of like some people are with cilantro, that's dill for me. Dill weed, and a weed that I must eradicate it shall remain. I got kale (yuck) that I didn't want in a deal, and so I finally planted it in the summer when everything else was going good outdoors. And ... it is probably the least offensive kale I've ever tasted! Something about growing indoors without extremes of temperature keeps the bitter out. Romaine lettuce does well too, although it is more spinach-like in texture than outdoor romaine. Good but in a different way.

Trump is leaking ("I never told anyone to destroy tapes"), the prosecution is leaking, everyone's leaking. That's life. But this is a leak attributed to a source. A source with first-hand knowledge. Just wait.

I was looking at this Iran prisoner swap thing. Yeah, it is kind of a ransom payment. Whatever. But I got to thinking: in a geopolitical sense, the Persian Gulf/Middle East is irrational. We are cozying up to Saudi Arabia (at least we really did under Trump) and continue to treat Iran as a pariah. Iran makes it easy by calling for the destruction of Israel and death to America. We know that. But ... Iran has a young and entrepreneurial population. There is an established educational system (obviously not available to all), and all the ayatollahs have been unable to extinguish a western orientation in successive generations of Iranians. It looks like the Islamist leaders have a stranglehold on the country, but we've seen organized dissent, and it's not going anywhere. Iran is, of course, Saudi Arabia's #1 geopolitical foe. We have by design (Trump) or by default (what? we're gonna forgive Iran?) tended to side with the Saudis when it matters. Iran is technologically far superior (including unfortunately nuclear technology) and their young people have a far superior work ethic (I've had involvement with both - my opinion is that the Saudis are by far the laziest international students I've ever dealt with, spoiled by years of getting a government stipend for simply breathing). That's a reason to make friends with them to neutralize any threat. PREDICTION: fast forward 10-15 years and Iran will be our #1 geopolitical ally in the region, and Saudi Arabia will be increasingly irrelevant. Iran has potential. Saudi Arabia has oil. Period. Any other out of the box predictions?

Patience, grasshopper. Patience.

But those 6 snaps? Wow, what a 6 snaps. Like the second coming of Deion and Butch Byrd combined.

Exactly what I do! We had a weird wet cool start of the summer here, which means a terrible tomato crop. But I couldn't eat the other stuff fast enough. Hey, want any cucumbers? Eggplants? And after messing around with all kinds of things to get fresh herbs (I said "herbs" not "herb" all you stoners) in the winter, I settled on Click and Grow. Awesome, almost zero maintenance. Not so good for true outdoor vegetables like tomatoes, but fantastic basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, etc. All winter long.

Yeah, it's tough to get a read on any QB on a team that messed up. I thought Fields was turning the corner last year. I guess it was the corner right out of town.

I'm worried that the squiggly white/red bitter weed like lettuce found in all upscale salads will soon be completely out of my reach.

And that's what they are.

Got it. I think they really have to keep him in 2024 and thru 2025 unless they want to do a full-on tank with Watson/Garrett contracts and a team of minimum salary scrubs around them. And I'm not sure how Watson's contract is structured, but one of those we-refuse-to-play-him-so-we-don't-trigger-an-injury-guarantee things may be in his near future ...

It's Terrel Bernard vs. his backup Tyrel Dodson that has me all mixed up. I'm not certain that I didn't think they were the same guy until a week and a half ago. (And yes, I had to look up their first names and the spellings)

True. But notice that thing about "negotiating position?" Poor Ron DeSantis can't win for losing. Trump already feels confident enough with the Republican base that he's ready to criticize Ronnie for a 6 week abortion ban and to move on to what he thinks is a more palatable position in the general. And Ron is left twisting in the Florida wind, outflanked by Pence and his religious right fellow travelers on the anti-abortion stance, and by Trump to his left.

By the way, what's the deal with all the references to the rising price of bacon? Like bacon is a staple food or something? If the price of bacon were really up that much, people would probably eat something that's better for them. How much is the price of kale up? Belgian endive?

In ordinary mega contracts - I think Russell Wilson counts - that could be doable. But it's still $100 million per year with Watson! I think retirement triggers the dead cap hit too. Honestly, there's no out. Some DA somewhere (not Houston, they declined) indicting/convicting him of something that happened in another jurisdiction? Exactly. At least I think so. I don't know what they were saying on their fan forums when Haslam made the decision to sign him. If you supported that, you did get what you deserved.