The Frankish Reich

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.

That's what I find fascinating. We've had a few questions from various posters here lately: why do you bother to read/post here? Damn good question. Always looking for the good in others, I said, well, sometimes I actually learn something or get some insight. Related: all of these Hell-in-a-Handbasket America (as it is today) haters are kind of my little social science focus group. Most seem to be doing quite well personally, thank you. (Some who shall not be named are, in the favorite word of a former President, losers. But not everyone can be a winner.) And yet they're miserable. Nostalgic old men mostly, although some are old before their time. And with old men nostalgia is often expressed as frustration or anger. "The world isn't the way it used to be, dammit." Not as a nice grandfatherly this-is-how-we-lived-back-in-the-day sentiment. Insight? Oh, yeah, definitely. Keep posting, I will keep studying.

His point is that no one cares. Or that no one should care. If it wasn't a criminal act, just because Trevor Bauer gets off on choking women to the point of injury is, well, just a lifestyle choice. Now if he were a good pitcher and a gentle soul who simply asked that he be called Tricia Bauer? THAT would be a basis for ending his career. There you have it. Anti-woke logic in action.

Why on earth would a forum called Politics, Polls, and Pundits exist if people couldn't comment on the apparent LEADING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE next year?

McCarthy peeved that Dems didn't rush in to save him. I get it. He thought he'd earned some good will. But really: when your opponent is busy committing suicide, you get the hell out of the way. Even Uncle Newt recognizes how idiotic this whole thing is. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/03/newt-gingrich-matt-gaetz-remove/ Gaetz obviously hates House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — and that’s fine. If Gaetz were simply a loudmouthed junior member who attacked McCarthy every day, that would be fine, too. He would just be isolated with a small group of lawmakers who can’t figure out how to get things done. They’d huddle together seeking warmth and reassurance from their fellow incompetents. But Gaetz has gone beyond regular drama. He is destroying the House GOP’s ability to govern and draw a sharp contrast with the policy disasters of the Biden administration. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), a liberal Democrat with whom I disagree on almost everything, perfectly captured Gaetz’s childish behavior in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. Gaetz “has no sway” or influence in Congress, Pelosi said, “except to get on TV and to raise money on the internet.” Pelosi told Tapper he was “wasting [his] time on that guy.”

WWII

Well there's a coherent comment for you.

Let me explain this .... slowly. In the markets, they talk about the Greed vs. Fear index. Right now in people's personal lives, Greed - we deserve this vacation! we deserve these $1600 concert tickets! - is winning. Fear? Fear means putting money under the mattress for when disaster (layoffs, etc.) strikes. The millions of individual economic decisions that make up "the economy."

Watching Kevin McCarthy's presser now. I kind of like this new version! Straight talking, calling out all the creeps and turncoats (including not just Gaetz, but also Nancy!) who left him twisting in the wind. Specifically mentions how Gaetz is sending out fundraising emails to try to cash in on the turmoil he's caused. What a mess.