The Frankish Reich

Yeah, I'm not sure Florida has any bragging rights on the "We're Not Trashy" index.

True, but in the Republican primaries it was kind of the opposite. Trump never built the campaign infrastructure in the key primary states, whereas the Ted Cruz types had been doing that for at least 4 years. It didn't matter.

For decades we've heard that the old Rose Garden strategy will never work. You gotta get out there and campaign. But then Biden 2020 changed that old wisdom. For decades we've also heard that you need the ground game, the "retail" level politics, that it's not good enough to dominate national media if you want to win. But then the Trump 2016 campaign changed that old wisdom.

On that we agree. The game of politics is weird and fascinating. We'll see how this all plays out.

Correct. The general standard is whether the use of a trade name would cause confusion in consumers. There is really no good case that football viewing consumers would be confused about whether they are watching a professional football contest between the Washington Commanders and the New York Giants as opposed to a service academy annual game between the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy. And certainly no confusion between that and whatever some trademark squatter tried (successfully?) registered in the last couple years. Getting official trademark recognition is valuable for the team (they can sue others for infringing on it), but it certainly isn't required. If the Commanders want to keep that name (not exactly the greatest name ever), I'm quite sure their new $5 billion owners will prevail.

OK, you made me look this one up. I mean, it had to be a parody site, right? Oh. I guess not. The Round Earth Conspiracy. I guess the Catholic Church was right to persecute Galileo after all.

Some Meatball Heads are getting just a wee bit defensive here 😜

None. Don't you get it? PEOPLE ARE LAUGHING. They aren't angry.

I seem to be in agreement with The Great Orange One on this. Just saying.

I have no "problem" with any of it. A fail is a fail. You can't admit that's what it was? What, Musk was expecting under the free Zoom limit of 100 participants and wasn't willing to pay for the Zoom Plus? That's a rookie mistake I made way back in March 2020 ... You kinda expect a campaign that's been preparing a launch for months and the World's Leading Tech Figure to do better, no?

Congrats for hanging in there. The rest of the world will never hear that wonderful discussion. And I'm not sure we're taking your word on it.

It's pretty damn funny. Try speed "watching" (err, listening ... he hasn't figured out streaming video yet) the first 20 minutes ... ... you can imagine Ronnie's campaign staff freaking out. I flipped on Fox News and they threw him on there right away for damage control, with some weird cone-headed Tucker replacement. Understanding that Elon's worst year is still way better than my best year, you still gotta admit: Elon is having a rough year. The rocket blowing up ("it's a success! we learned something important!!"), the call-your-bluff forced purchase of Twitter, the Meatball RonFail ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/get-ready-for-deflation-fed-powell-tightening-money-supply-contraction-36ce5530?mod=trending_now_opn_1 Inflation Has Peaked—Get Ready for Deflation Price increases would have eased without the Fed’s tightening, which we will soon see was overkill. - short-term interest rates are high. I shifted heavily to treasuries and laddered CDs. What's not to like about 5% risk-free (that is, if the US Govt doesn't default!) returns? - it is prudent to move some money into long bonds now. If we do go through a deflationary spell, those 3.5% long treasuries will go up in value Income investing is back.

For me, I might have stuck with them for a few years, until the players I cared about retired/moved on. I lived in LA for a time, and there was nothing stupider than the transplanted New Yorkers who claimed to be Dodgers fans because of the historical connection to Brooklyn - a place they had abandoned in the 1950s. It's to the NFL's credit that they recognized this when they decided that we'd just pretend that the New Cleveland Browns were the Old Cleveland Browns for purposes of franchise records, etc. It seemed ridiculous at the time. Now nobody even notices.

Right. Because let's face it - kick returns are no longer a thrilling play (if they ever were). https://ktar.com/story/5410817/nfl-nextgen-stats-turns-focus-to-special-teams-returns/ One kick return TD every 30 games. Of course, the Bills (having Hines now) are probably among the teams negatively impacted.

I think the NFL's idea - and it's a sound one - is that the potential for serious neurological injury (think Kevin Everett) is greatest per play on kickoff returns. Big men sprinting full-speed into each other. F=MV. So they want to reduce the number of classic-type kickoff returns. You make touchbacks come out to the 25, which is a disincentive to trying to return a kick that lands in the endzone. It works. But kicking teams adapt, and learn that the short kickoff may actually force a return. So the impact of the 25 yard line touchback is partly consumed. So now you allow teams to fair catch a flyball kickoff that would land at the 5. It makes sense. Kickoffs will probably go away eventually, but the NFL hasn't really figured out how to do that while preserving the things worth preserving, which right now is probably just the onside kick. Squib kicks don't present the same risk, so I think the NFL would be fine with seeing more of those.

True. Team allegiances are formed when you're young. I lived in Buffalo as a kid, I became a Bills fan, the Bills never left Buffalo (even though I did) ... I'm still a Bills fan. The Sabres were brand new when I was little. They're still my NHL team. But ... when it's like the Bills drought years, you soon develop a 1A and 1B allegiance. So I follow the Avs more than the Sabres now. Until 2023-24 (there's hope!) I was a Buffalo Braves fan. They left. My NBA favorite teams have changed over the years as I've moved. We never had MLB in Buffalo (came a little close once), so my baseball teams were first those with a national following (the Reds when I was a kid), and later the teams where I lived.

I like that idea. It would make things more interesting. Not gonna happen, but it should.

To inject a bit of seriousness into the proceedings ... ... I've mentioned before that I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh in the late 80s/early 90s. He was keen on quoting the great NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan about "defining deviancy down." Things that were once frowned upon were normalized. Divorce or adultery of any kind used to be a disqualification for a candidate. Reagan was the first divorced President, but he got a pass since everyone agreed that his first wife essentially dumped him and because he had such a long and faithful marriage to Nancy. Then there were new things: single moms by choice (remember the whole Murphy Brown/Dan Quayle broohaha?). Or how about Bill Clinton (the ostensible subject of the multiple divorcee Limbaugh) and his bimbo eruptions? Again, traditionally the end of a politician, but Clinton moved the goalposts. He "defined deviancy down" in Moynihan's words, changing what was viewed as acceptable by the voting public. And then ... Trump. Sex with Pr0n "actresses" and payoffs. Grabbing 'em by the you-know-what. And the acceptance of trailer trash culture - indeed, the embrace of trailer trash culture - by the old stuffed shirt country club types we used to call Republicans. Sara Palin, the almost-VP with the teen pregnancy daughter. MGT doing her personal trainer while married. Boebert, the 36 year old grandma to be dumping her husband, apparently for Pastor Nickelback. And yes, equal timers - the President of the United States not apologizing for his crackhead d!ck-pic sending son's antics, but actually saying he's "proud" of him. (What's wrong with saying "we love him as parents and are deeply hurt by the things his addiction has led him to do" or something like that.) So that's it. Trailer trash culture is now the most "American" thing of all. Not something to try to work your way out of, but something to be relished. Something to be ... proud of. Just like Joe is proud of Hunter.

Winner! And "Sean F**ked-Boebert" speaks for itself.

Brandon Weeden was almost 29 when he made his NFL debut. (What, that's not what you were looking for?)

I've worked with law enforcement officers at all levels - federal, state, big city PDs, local sheriff's deputies. My admittedly anecdotal impressions: - federal are the best trained, best compensated, most professional, although typically the most bureaucratic/risk-averse. - state law enforcement agencies (think highway patrol, state investigative agencies) are also excellent, and the second-best compensated. - local PDs are the most variable. The good ones are really good and more proactive in stopping crime rather than trying to set up big prosecutions for crimes that have already been committed. They also have a huge problem with recruitment and retention. Yes, the incessant second-guessing of anything that goes wrong doesn't help. These forces are also seriously underpaid. Who would stick around for a poorly compensated, dangerous job that will leave you exposed to being charged yourself for a mistake in judgement? (I'm not talking about the sadistic Derek Chauvin types; I'm talking about the ones in arguable cases where reasonable minds can disagree about whether force/arrest was necessary.) A disturbing trend: cops seeing themselves as just another (state-authorized) gang battling to get an upper hand against other criminal gangs. The ones who join law enforcement biker "associations," etc. (again, I'm not talking about recreational bike clubs; I'm talking about the ones who adopt that look - including tats, etc - and culture of outlaw gangs and inject themselves into that culture). When you make taking/keeping a job as a cop undesirable for a lot of ordinary public servants, what your left with isn't very appealing. People who aren't in it to serve and protect as much as to antagonize and show off. - local sheriff's deputies, particularly in non-urban areas? Well, that recruitment/retention thing means you often have a pretty embarrassing or even dangerous level of incompetence.

I agree. Chrysler Pacifica is simply the best car to move kids in and out of dorm rooms. I just don't want to own one.

Streaming will not end. The war is the panic among the many streaming services to gain market share and long-term dominance, or at least survival. That results in bidding wars for products like an NFL wild card game - Peacock is going to make NFL fans sign up, but will they stay?