The Frankish Reich

Trump is usually careful to stay just this side of the racist line, but now he's eagerly crossing it. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/us/politics/trump-immigration-rhetoric.html Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. This is indefensible. The white, northern European blood of our country? It's that great replacement theory. Disgusting.

Didn't you say you're black? I'm not gonna presume to speak for your experiences, but while 1960 may have had stronger family structures, it also had official segregation (really American apartheid) in a huge swath of the country, and lots of other things that don't exactly look like they were "great" in retrospect. That's what happens with nostalgia. When you really examine what life was like, must people have no interest in going back to some bygone age.

I'm not there for the game 😭 but there's some really good airfares for early next year, so we are hoping to take a quick trip. I will definitely check this out (hadn't heard of it before) ... thanks for the tip!

Interesting comparison. I saw something similar too with the Denver Nuggets last year. We had just hit the point after 2021-22 where there was a lot of talk about the current roster not being good enough to get over the hump. A couple roster tweaks, a run of good health, and they're NBA champions. So yeah, when you've got a proven regular season winner sometimes it may be best to stay the course and your playoff luck will start to change.

It was really about Billy Beane’s (hmm, Billy Beane, Brandon Beane, coincidence?) understanding that winning a short baseball playoff series rewards different roster construction compared to finishing with the best record in a 162 game season. Specifically, we saw that although the A’s had the deepest and objectively “the best” starting rotation, they didn’t have an absolute shutdown/one game is all the matters dominant ace. They also didn’t have the dominant closet. They did everything right when you are constructing a team with the idea of winning 100 games and winning the division every year. But a 4-7 game series (including off days, requiring less pitching depth) is a different animal. I’m not saying the Bills are in the same situation, but there are commonalities.

Ol' Tarheel spreading his joie de vivre in Merry Old England. Maybe he and Russell Brand can hit on some 15 year olds.

Geez, I can't think of anything obvious to differentiate the two ....

It's the old, old rule. An officer guarding a secured governmental facility may use violent force when an intruder who has bypassed security measures tries to break down a door/window to approach a government official. Really. You guys need a reality check. Byrd, the officer, said he didn't know if she was armed or not. Tell me: how was he supposed to know? It's not like she went to the front security desk and passed through a metal detector. And to boot, a lot of you guys are the gun nuts who defend a homeowner shooting a guy for knocking on a door or prowling around a home. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.

That's the way to earn the respect of the Secret Service! Ashlii (sic) Babbit: intellectually subnormal weirdo who got what she asked for.

Only a big deal (well, medium large deal) because of kickoff time.

I don't think you're a baseball fan ....

The difference: say what you will about her (and I am not a fan myself), Nancy Pelosi kept control of her own loony left flank. The Republicans have no one who is willing or able to control their loony right flank.

The Moneyball era Oakland A's? "My [crap] doesn't work in the playoffs" -GM Billy Beane

Dude, hot dog and a coke still $1.50. You're doing it wrong. First eat every sample. Then circle back for seconds on the ones that were good. Don't shop hungry. Then buy the stuff that's cheaper at Costco, which isn't everything. Then get the damn hot dog and pat yourself on the back for offsetting that 2 pound pack of beef jerky you know you should've just put back.

I don’t even know where to begin. Is that Hogwarts?

He'll be 29 next year, so even perfectly healthy he'd be nearing the end as a top CB. After this injury, if he wants to keep playing he'll probably have to adjust to some role other than "shutdown CB." He clearly has the determination to come back, and he's just a plain damn good football player. So I wouldn't bet against him, but sadly I think his days as an elite CB are now over.

Agreed. His Bill O'Reilly shtick was good at the start, but now there's nothing there to parody, and his act is stale.

My problem with him: he's not funny! A lot of the humor is of the knowing, nodding your head in agreement, we are all part of your like-minded group. So there's no edge even when he thinks he's being edgy.

And yes, I agree with you on that.

Candidate Trump in 2016: "I'm going to surround myself with the best people. I know the best people." Trump in 2020: relying on the counsel of an old alcoholic. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-drinking.html Before some of Mr. Giuliani’s television appearances, allies of the president were known to share messages about the former mayor’s nightly condition as he imbibed at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where Mr. Giuliani was such a regular that a custom plaque was placed at his table: “Rudolph W. Giuliani Private Office.” (“You could tell,” one Trump adviser said of the nights when Mr. Giuliani went on the air after drinking.) Mr. Giuliani has said he does not think he ever gave an interview while drunk. “I like Scotch,” he told NBC New York in 2021, adding: “I’m not an alcoholic. I’m a functioning — I probably function more effectively than 90 percent of the population.”

True. It's a weird 1970s era calculation, but if you look back at the consensus opinion - which QBs are the best/worst in a given era? - it's pretty damn good. I'm a baseball stats geek. For me it's like OPS+ in baseball. Kind of a weird made-up thing without a ton of "theory" behind it, but one that pretty well reflects relative performance. As a much more team game, football doesn't have any really good measures like Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

I did. And I explained: even if she set him up, he did it. And even if she set him up, he demonstrated a proclivity for enjoying choking women to the point of injury for his own sexual gratification. MLB contracts have a morals clause. Trevor Bauer, you are a grown up man, responsible for your own behavior and how it reflects on your employer in a public/performance business. Grow up.

There were corroborating reports. And you simply don't seem to understand what I'm saying. I really don't care if she was a gold digger. I really don't care if she consented. His defense is basically that everything was consensual. In effect: I am a sadistic sex perv, and I found a willing (apparent) masochist participant. I don't want him as an employee in my business. Neither did MLB or the Dodgers after investigating what happened. Again: even if not a criminal act, it simply conduct unbecoming. Same thing with Deshaun Watson, who also was not prosecuted. This board is full of moralizing people. "Groomer!" "Sexualizing and mutilating kids!" Traditional morality would say that when behavior such as Bauer's is revealed, that person ought not be allowed back in polite society. Yeah, I'm old fashioned like that.

Not everything that is not criminal is honorable or even defensible. See Watson, Deshaun; Bauer, Trevor; Brand, Russell.

Hey tough guy who is LEAVING HERE FOREVER BECAUSE HE HAS NO TIME FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME. Embittered septuagenarian no doubt. More like Single Wing than Big Blitz. Leather helmet days.