The Frankish Reich

I like him. Takes all kinds

First Half Takeaways: 1. Belichick’s scheme slowed down the Phins! 2. The Phins are on pace to put up 34 points.

I was in the “they did Brian Flores dirty” camp. Now I see why the did it. He was a fine coach but he wasn’t the guy for this team.

I’m instinctively rooting against the Patriots. I am trying to stick my fingers a wall socket each time I catch myself doing that.

If you’re not a little scared of these Dolphins you’re either lying or a fool.

It looks like we just might have ourselves a QB!

Didn't I tell you Latavius has something left? TOUCHDOWN!

Cook was used properly in the second half of 2022. He's a change of pace guy, not a lead RB.

Professional running back. Knows how to hit whatever hole is there and to keep churning forward. He will be our lead RB starting ... Now.

Cook between the tackles? NO!

Groomer say what? https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russell-brand-rape-sexual-assault-abuse-allegations-investigation-v5hxdlmb6

2.5 game summary of Coach Prime: great recruiter. Not an Xs and Os guy. Go Rams!

I think you're right. For quite some time now we've heard things like "what sets him apart is his ability to extend the play and wait until someone come open." Not just Allen. Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, etc. It seems like the pendulum is swinging back to the "what sets him apart is his ability to deliver the ball quickly and on target/in stride to let his most explosive players make a play." And there's a lot more guys who can do the latter than the former at QB, which is why Brock Purdy is now more valuable than Trey Lance.

https://theathletic.com/4858396/2023/09/14/colorado-state-college-footballs-most-interesting-team/ Or why I'm pulling for Colorado State tonight: On Saturday, Colorado State faces Deion Sanders’ Colorado, the sport’s incandescent disco ball, an in-state rival no one can look away from. The Rams, meanwhile, exist in a different space but push the bounds of creativity in their own fascinating way. A sizable rebuild has inspired an open-minded coaching staff to cast a net for talent that spans the globe, and the result is a kaleidoscope of a roster, built on the benefits of diverse life experience. An Arnold Amateur Strongman champion, a sumo wrestler, two tribesmen, an openly gay defensive lineman, a 30-something father of three and so much more: Meet college football’s other most interesting team from the Centennial State. Ahh ... The old, weird college football! It doesn't stand a chance, but we can dream. Really fun article if you have an Athletic or NY Times subscription!

Some were convicted.

"Entrapment." "Political prisoners." How cute. If the convicted conspirators were entrapped, they can argue that on appeal.

True. Crosby is right up there with the best as a disruptive force. He was all over the place against the Broncos last week. Brown will have plenty of help, and he'll need it.

She didn't deny it. Just issued some lukewarm statement like yours - ooh, funny that this comes out just as she (continues to) support Trump's candidacy ... It's real all right.

And whatever Bill Clinton did, I think the interesting thing here is this: in today's Trumpist Republican Party, is this even a disqualification for serving as VP? Back in the highly entertaining Tucker Carlson thread, someone posted his Twitter show about the decline of traditional morality. What old Sen Moynihan called "defining deviancy down." Presumably Tucker thinks traditional values are important. We know that doing an "adult film actress" sex worker is no longer a disqualifier, even when that happens right after your latest wife gave birth to your youngest son. How about a woman married for 30 years carrying on a years-long affair with a married man? I suspect the new Republican Party doesn't care. But if she had expressed support for a family member who is trans, that's it. They'd be done with her. Interesting times in the Grand Old Party.

Obviously Corey has, umm, something that is not immediately evident to the casual observer. He was previously doing Hope Hicks, Trump's old communications staffer, famously described by Trump as "the best piece of tail" Corey would ever have. Noem was considered VP material. This will be interesting. In a conservative (values wise) state like South Dakota, does a married woman having an affair mean anything to the base anymore? How about nationally? "One man, one woman, one life" is what the religious right used to say ... Meanwhile, a few hundred miles southwest, another family values Trumpist who abandoned her husband is whooping it up big time in the big city with a new companion. Remaining on-brand, she was, of course, vaping in the theater.

Thanks. I mentioned before that sometimes I get some insight from reading different perspectives here. This is what I mean.

I'm pretty sure that the thin line between Josh finishing a Hall of Fame career in a Bills uniform vs. taking over at QB for the Rams when Matt Stafford retires may be found right here, in what I post on an obscure Bills fan forum.

Honestly, there's a lot of posters here who were old enough to have lived through Watergate. Me too, although I was a little kid. But I consumed the lore over my formative years. Tucker is rehashing - pretty poorly, actually - the revisionist Watergate history that started emerging back in the 90s. The truth: why were the guys who broke into the Democratic National Committee HQ at the Watergate "former CIA?" Answer: because that's who Nixon hired! The stupid (but weirdly amusing) HBO series "White House Plumbers" gets it right. Nixon was paranoid and consumed by the idea that White House staffers were leaking White House discussions, etc. To stop those leaks, the plumbers (get it?) were created. Nixon did it! He didn't directly hire all the former idiot spooks like E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, but Nixon's own people did. It's not like these people infiltrated their way into the corridors of power. They were hired because they were covert operatives (and it turns out not very good ones) so that they could stop the leaks. And so they went after Nixon's enemies like Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, breaking into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. And then breaking into The Watergate DNC HQ itself. Tucker is 54, so he was only a week babe when this happened. But there's like, books and stuff that he could read ... ... that anyone falls for this as somehow "deep" "investigative" "journalism" is laughable.

There is an immigrant-industrial complex of charities that benefits through grants, etc, and that has - for both honest/humanitarian reasons and less honorable self-preservation reasons - a strong lobbying interest against any change in the current broken system. I will admit that. I will, however, have to correct the idea that "asylum packages pay more ... ." There really is no such thing, and a lot of this new flow of immigrants seem surprised (again, I know people who work in this field) that there isn't, and that they have zero money to pay rent much less hire a lawyer. This is why I'm so frustrated with the current illegal immigration debate: walls, executing fentanyl smugglers on the spot, not putting people in cages, etc. All talking points from a bygone era of smuggling. The solution has to do with cutting off the industrialized/cartelized smuggling operations like the one described in such great detail here. Say what you will about the NY Times - their reporting here is detailed and excellent, and reveals an even greater problem that we've let get completely out of control over the last 5-10 years or so.

The commercialization of illegal migration. I thought I couldn't be shocked by anything else in the smuggling world. I was wrong. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/world/americas/migrant-business-darien-gap.html Every step through the jungle, there is money to be made. The boat ride to reach the rainforest: $40. A guide on the treacherous route once you start walking: $170. A porter to carry your backpack over the muddy mountains: $100. A plate of chicken and rice after arduous climbing: $10. Special, all-inclusive packages to make the perilous slog faster and more bearable, with tents, boots and other necessities: $500, or more. Hundreds of thousands of migrants are now pouring through a sliver of jungle known as the Darién Gap, the only land route to the United States from South America, in a record tide that the Biden administration and the Colombian government have vowed to stop. But the windfall here at the edge of the continent is simply too big to pass up, and the entrepreneurs behind the migrant gold rush are not underground smugglers hiding from the authorities. They are politicians, prominent businessmen and elected leaders, now sending thousands of migrants toward the United States in plain sight each day — and charging millions of dollars a month for the privilege.