The Frankish Reich

Right. My cautionary tale about overrating early QB performances hits a little closer to home. Kyle Allen. First start of 2019: 19-26, 4 TDs, 0 INT, QB rating 144.4. Carolina wins 38-20. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/panthers-at-cardinals-final-score-kyle-allen-throws-four-touchdowns-as-carolina-earns-first-win-of-2019/ Allen was phenomenal in just his second career start (his first in a "meaningful" game). Allen finished 19-for-26 for 261 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions for an 144.4 passer rating, an incredible performance with Newton out (high ankle sprain). The Panthers had an excellent game plan for Allen, starting him out with short throws before offensive coordinator Norv Turner dialed up the playbook with some downfield throws, allowing his playmakers to take over. Olsen looked like his Pro Bowl self and McCaffrey finished with 188 total yards. I remember joking here: "Wrong Josh? Who cares? We got the Wrong Allen!" And then he settled in to being a perfectly adequate backup quality NFL QB. Howell's path may be different (better). But it probably won't.

True. I would gladly swap my career earnings with his, agents, taxes, and all ...

Looking just at what he was guaranteed in his various contracts, it looks like he made about $40 million as an NFL player from 2014-22. So I wouldn't be too worried about his post-NFL career opportunities. That's a nice career, good luck to him.

Nothing really surprising, other than a lot of folks somehow saw him as the answer at MLB. Like a veteran baseball player signing a minor league contract in spring training with the idea that he'll be added to the roster by April 30 or be given his release. Bernard has been better than expected, and probably Kirksey was told he just wasn't in McD's plans for 2023.

Wow. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything now, but somehow Trump's boundless selfishness and casual cruelty still has the capacity to shock.

That's Trump. Most other politicians feel the need to at least somewhat rationalize/explain their changes in core positions. Trump moved from being "very pro choice" c. 2000 to America's leading pro-life/anti-abortion champion c. 2016. Fools like Ron DeSantis thought they'd outflank him on the pro-life side. Now that Trump (through his Supreme Court appointments, abetted by Mitch McConnell's chicanery) got Roe overturned, he'd be out there with the almost total abortion ban in Florida. What could go wrong? He forgot that he's dealing with an opponent with absolutely no qualms, no need to even pretend that his positions are consistent. Trump gets the everlasting support of a lot of anti-abortion types for finally getting Roe off the books, but he's not about to let himself get stuck with an unpopular general election position.

In related news: Rupert Murdoch officially standing down as Chair of Fox and News Corp. His son Lachlan (I think he'd like to be known as "the smart one" but it's relative) is taking over. And old Rupert, not known for sugar coating it, has been quoted as calling Sean Hannity "######ed." (EDIT: the "R" word that refers to someone developmentally disabled - apparently his word, not mine)

Hey, TuckerSuckers: Am I mistaken, or has he featured two know Groomers - Andrew Tate and Russell Brand - as his very special guests? Groomer!

Ron is young, and obviously has political talent. His mistake (for someone as ambitious as he is) was to go for it this year rather than waiting (hoping) for Trump to lose again and finally be out of his way. That also forced him to concentrate on silliness like the anti-woke stuff instead of actual concrete policy accomplishments. Young man in a hurry = damaged.

Another one of those idiotic "why is this being ignored in the mainstream media" stories that ignores the fact that it is plastered all over the mainstream media. Here's a really good one from last week from (gasp!) the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/world/americas/migrant-business-darien-gap.html I get that posters here wouldn't ever read the "mainstream media." They like their news filtered through astute observers like Julie Kelly and Pizzagate Jack. But Elon Musk is posting similar stupidity. Is he now a Pizzagate Jack follower?

It'll be an interesting campaign post-mortem. DeSantis decided that Trump was done. What losing candidate since Adlai Stevenson (Nixon? But there was a gap there) gets a second chance? Plus it ended about as badly as any living presidency in history. So why not run as Trump 2.0, a younger and less damaged version? That should rocket you to the top of the Republican Primary field, then you can tack to the center for the general. All well and good until Donald threw his hat back into the ring and we found out that yeah, there is a Cult of Trump and it is personal, not policy based. So what to do? Well, there's that whole Rest of the Field polling somewhere between 2 and 10 percent. You could try to emerge as the leading anti-Trump candidate, then hope that Trump implodes (still could happen, but very unlikely). But he's been unwilling to do that. So you have a Trump sycophant running against the master himself. Who needs that? Turn out a solid 10 percent need or want that. Toast.

These things are, of course, kind of general and sometimes not that reliable. But having lived and worked with people from various regions of the US, I think there's definitely something here.

The headline says it all. Stick a fork in him; he's done. https://scholars.unh.edu/survey_center_polls/762/ "Trump Leads, DeSantis Crashes in NH GOP Primary 9/20/2023" (2023).

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.