The Frankish Reich

"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.

Yeah, if I were a betting man I’d take the points. The Raiders are seriously flawed but they can do damage. I am not basing this on anything analytical, but I also think Jimmy G is more of a winner than Derek Carr.

1. Freak injury, probably wouldn't have happened on a different field at a different time with a different player pursuing him. 2. Freak injuries become less freak and more commonplace the older, less flexible a player gets.

I saw nothing to suggest that the artificial turf in any way contributed to Rodgers' injury. Wet field, left leg slips awkwardly under him as he's being (cleanly) tackled, stretches, tendon snaps. Like that could've never happened on slick natural grass/mud?

Kushner created the company "the day after" Trump's administration ended? What, you mean on January 21? Did he not believe his father-in-law, that he would be gloriously restored as the rightful President of the United States just as soon as all that fraud became too obvious to deny? Fair weather son-in-law ....

You would be quite popular in Miami ... ... there are a lot, lot of hardworking immigrants, skilled and relatively unskilled, assimilating into society.

I think his replacement/upgrade is Kincaid - more of a big WR than an undersized TE at this stage of his career. I expect to see the Knox/Kincaid "two TE" alignment a lot more again next week, with a lot more balls going Kincaid's way than Davis's way. It's a matter of trust now.

There is a lot to that. On that, I'm not sure. The costs are obvious, the benefits more difficult to calculate. A lot of those failed governments - Cuba, Venezuela, the Soviet Union, and of course going back in time Nazi Germany - have provided us with immense human capital, energy, and productivity. That's what I mean about having a serious discussion. Costs and benefits. How do we try to keep the benefits while lowering the costs?

I think you're right. Sometimes all you have to do is make Zach Wilson earn it.

I agree in general. But he wasn't about to go back to Brazil. He was going to serve his sentence - life with no parole - in PA. A long time ago, we used to deport convicted aliens before they served their sentences, only to see the receiving country set them free. So for good reasons we don't do that anymore. Hard to imagine this guy didn't have some contact with law enforcement before he killed his girlfriend - traffic stop, etc. Until recently these traffic stops would've started deportation proceedings, and when booking him in warrants (including the Brazil murder warrant) would be discovered. So that's what we'll need to find out here. Non enforcement of laws is not a cost-free, feel-good solution. At least not in many cases.

No. We are at the point where we can say the following: - Hunter Biden sought to trade on his name and to involve his father - His father wasn't just a passive participant. He did things that went beyond just saying, "Oh well, that's Hunter, I can't stop him for saying he's my son." He was on phone calls, etc., with the apparent purpose of allowing Hunter to benefit from the perception of assistance of his father - We call this "the appearance of impropriety." For any ordinary federal government employee, this would be an ethics violation. Presidents and Vice Presidents get away with it all the time because they can't be disciplined by some kind of government ethics panel. They can be impeached, and they can lose their law licenses (if they still have them - see Bill Clinton) - There is ample basis to continue to address the next question: did Joe Biden benefit, directly or indirectly, from Hunter's dealings?" And the other question: "did Hunter Biden's activities cause Joe Biden to intervene in policy/diplomatic discussions that impacted U.S. policy?" But there's not proof of any such thing yet. As a practical matter, I guess it is an "impeachment Inquiry" whatever you call it. I mean, otherwise it is just a "embarrass Joe Biden to turn voters against him" operation, which is, of course, also a purpose, or even the main purpose. I see no reason why slapping the official "impeachment Inquiry" label on it now helps move the ball forward. In fact, I think it probably makes it harder to actually obtain real information. So I think it's foolish. My not-so-secret hope: the be careful what you wish for. Biden withdraws. Someone better (not Kamala) gets nominated and wins.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/us/deportation-pennsylvania-fugitive-danelo-cavalcante.html So now we have a real, honest-to-goodness, illegal aliens/"undocumented noncitizen" murderer back in custody. Probably a double murderer, since it appears that he fled Brazil because he was wanted for a murder there. And his sister was picked up because she is here illegally too, and apparently wasn't very helpful in providing information on her brother. From what I've seen so far, he looks more like the old fashioned illegal entrant, not one of the new style who come across the border and effectively surrender to Border Patrol to claim asylum. In other words, someone who came in illegally and wanted to remain here under the radar, which was a good plan except that murdering your girlfriend isn't the best way to stay under the radar. Political talking point: almost certainly came in during the Trump administration. Stayed under Biden. Apparently didn't come in contact with law enforcement until he murdered his girlfriend, so perhaps no clear chance to deport (extradite to Brazil to face charges there?) him before the damage was done. A prison wall didn't stop him, so I doubt a border wall would have. Fire away! Seriously, illegal immigration is a problem and we need to have a serious discussion about how to deter it. A discussion that goes beyond "invasion" and "walls" and "just here to work." One that recognizes that illegal immigrants include good people and awful/dangerous people alike.

And no strip bars/VIP lounge bottle service, etc, etc.

The issue, at least to me, isn't the investigation. That was ongoing, and it should continue. Rebranding it as an "impeachment Inquiry" at this time does nothing to advance the truth-finding function of Congressional oversight.

I don't deny that. But I really don't want to see him knocked out. I'd rather beat the Dolphins in a thrilling shootout with Tua on the field. They're the Dolphins so yeah, beat 'em down, but as a football fan it's fun to watch. Kind of The Greatest Thrill on Turf all over again.

I usually don't like Aikman, but this was spot-on. It's something I wouldn't have (and didn't) notice. But coaches and QBs certainly notice it. There's more to being a top receiver than meets the regular fan's eyes. Davis still has a long way to go.