The Frankish Reich

I miss Yolo - always better than a Twitter feed to find out what just happened in the NFL. Please come back! I also miss Hapless. We’re missing some good analytical posts now. I sometimes try to do my own but it takes too much time …

He was in Kiev. Word is that Russia was provided notice that he was going, and they apparently held off on firing missiles at Kiev while he was there so as not to precipitate World War III. But Kiev is being bombed all the time. Was London a war zone in World War II? Hmm, I think they refer to it as the Battle of Britain …

How would you know this? An 80 year old man just traveled for about 16 hours into a war zone, then back to give a speech in Poland that was (the parts I heard) delivered just fine. No, I don’t think he’s as mentally or physically sharp as he was in his prime. But he’s not some Rudy Giuliani, contradicting himself in the course of ten seconds during an interview, or some Dianne Feinstein needing to be reminded of what she just said 10 minutes ago. He is what he is: a relatively fit, high-functioning elderly man. Would I prefer someone else? Of course. But that doesn’t mean he’s senile. Oh, I’m all for the videotaped competency test that Nikki Haley proposed. I’d probably set the bar at 70, not 75.

Biden is “fine” for an 80 year old man. I personally don’t believe an 80 year old man should be running for President, particularly when he’d be 86 by the end of the term. I have parents in their mid-80s so I’m pretty familiar with how they (and others their age) function. There’s nothing clinically wrong with them or anything that would be called dementia. Just normal old age slippage. That’s what I see in Biden. In other words, it’s obvious that he’s an old man, and if people want to vote for him despite the obvious, I can’t see any law (or indeed reason) why they shouldn’t be allowed to do so.

Well that’s persuasive! The same former Trump buttkisser who pronounced a 73 year old fat man to be the picture of good health and fitness.

True. No need to rehash all of it but we all know about Bush 43 (“I looked into Putin’s eyes and saw a man I can trust”) and Obama to Medvedev (“I’ll have more flexibility with Russia after the election”). Many politicians on both sides completely miscalculated. Trump was just the latest. My comment is more about how Romney got it right.

It is a fact that the GOP was anti-Russia (to be more accurate, anti-Putin) in 2012. Mitt Romney: Russia is our number 1 geopolitical rival. Obama: snarky response that is pure cringe today. It is also a fact that Trump and the post-takeover GOP did a 180 on Russia. And despite all the evidence to the contrary (the “they aren’t expansionist or any threat to the West” thing isn’t playing so well now, right?), there’s an awful lot of Putin apologists and half apologists in the GOP now.

Did you even try to look up Mollie’s past statements? The relatively brief history of the Federalist? You will find that in 2016 Mollie disparaged Trump as a “demagogue.” She only changed her tune once it was clear he’d get the nomination. And The Federalist was started by Ben Domenech, who is so much part of the former John McCain wing of the Republican Party that he actually married Meghan McCain. Wikipedia, when backed up by the footnote sourcing noted here, is as good as any other source. The old days of “I’ll just change my own entry” are over when it comes to public persons. It is unreliable only in relation to obscure persons who essentially bypass the rules by creating their own entries.

The wiki entry on Big Mollie is absolutely correct. If you don’t trust Wikipedia, just trust the google machine. She (and her conservative rich guy funded Federalist website) was a never Trumper who now specializes in what’s called whataboutism.

You tell me, who is more effective? ChatGPT or Ken Dorsey? In the NFL, what are the most effective plays to counter a strong pass rush? In the NFL, there are several plays and strategies that can be effective in countering a strong pass rush. Here are some of them: Quick passes: The quickest way to neutralize a strong pass rush is by getting the ball out of the quarterback's hands as soon as possible. Quick passes, such as slants, hitches, and screens, can be effective in this regard. By getting the ball to a receiver quickly, the quarterback can avoid the pass rush and gain yardage before the defense has a chance to react. Play-action passes: Play-action passes can be effective in slowing down a pass rush, as they force the defense to hesitate for a split second while they determine whether the play is a run or a pass. This can give the quarterback a bit of extra time to find an open receiver and make a play. Max protection: Sometimes, the best way to counter a strong pass rush is simply to keep more players in to block. By using max protection, the offense can keep more players in to protect the quarterback and give him more time to find an open receiver. Rollouts: Rolling the quarterback out of the pocket can be an effective way to counter a strong pass rush, as it can give the quarterback more time and space to make a play. By rolling out, the quarterback can also force the defense to move laterally, which can create gaps and seams in the coverage that the offense can exploit. Draw plays: Draw plays are designed to take advantage of an aggressive pass rush by catching the defense off-guard with a delayed handoff. By allowing the pass rush to get upfield and then handing the ball off to a running back, the offense can create running lanes and gain yardage on the ground. Overall, the key to countering a strong pass rush is to be creative and keep the defense off-balance. By mixing up the play calls and using a variety of strategies, the offense can keep the defense guessing and gain an advantage on the field.

There it is. There is no need for this forum anymore. We should just automate conversations between ChatGPT and itself.

Toward the end of Thurmond's Senate career, critics suggested his mental abilities had declined. His supporters argued that, while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive, and maintained a very active work schedule, showing up for every floor vote. He stepped down as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the beginning of 1999, as he had pledged to do in late 1997.[284] Retrospectively, a Senate aide stated that "for his last ten years, Thurmond didn’t know if he was on foot or on horseback", while a 2020 New Yorker article stated that he was "widely known" by the end of his career to be "non-compos mentis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond Strom Thurmond was 100 years old when he finally left the Senate in 2003.

Yes. And it's both parties. The desire to get power and to hold onto it overcomes everything else. To the national parties a guy like Fetterman is not some kind of Mr Smith Goes to Washington story, the regular guy who arrives on the scene to bring regular guy common sense to Washington. He's a vote in the "yes" column for Biden-appointed judges, for Biden budget bills, whatever. And don't kid yourself. It's the same way on the other side of the aisle.

They bluffed us on the Sean Payton thing. He was the guy all along but they floated other candidates — one source said Jim Caldwell was a done deal — while they figured out compensation with the Saints. I suspect some of the DC names we’re hearing now aren’t the real guys in consideration. Is Gregg Williams still alive?

You don’t survive being “the most talented team in the NFL” (commonly heard until about a month ago) and “the favorite to win the Super Bowl” (heard everywhere preseason) and then not even winning the AFC Championship for more than 2 years. Next year is it for Beane and McD. Fair? Maybe not. But that’s life in the NFL.

What, that’s asking too much?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/15/nyregion/george-santos-marriage-immigration.html Just as I called it about a month ago. Gay man marrying a foreign woman typically indicates immigration fraud. If investigations show that that is likely what happened, will THAT finally be enough for the Republican power brokers to call for this fool’s resignation? Will ANYTHING be enough?

Leslie Frazier haters, remember that Rex Ryan is the antiuniverse Frazier: - fat white guy; skinny black guy - loudmouth know it all; calm, quiet tactician - all blitzes and stunts, forcing the action and gunning for the big play; all bend but don’t break, let ‘em kill their own drive.

I don’t disagree with you. I’m just accepting that it’s a generational thing that I will never understand. The Gen Zs are just simply not bothered by a lot of the artistic integrity stuff that seemed to be important to me.

You mean keep Shaq Lawson?

One comment about a gas tax: historically it has been a very good example of a use fee/tax. The more you use our highways and byways, the more you pay for their upkeep. EVs now cause that to be decoupled. So either use more from general tax revenues for Highway purposes, or find a more fair way to tax road usage. It may be mileage, it may be more. toll/transponder roads, etc. no such thing as a free lunch.

Not gonna lie. A part of me is dying to know what cockamamie theory he’s promulgating about the Chinese balloon and the lesser balloons. Aliens? The beginnings of our own military coup that will restore Trump to the presidency? Some George Soros Jewish mind control thing? But really, one Bills forum ought to be enough for anyone. EDIT: I’m out of practice. No doubt a test spaceship fueled by that stuff Hillary extracts from babies. Or is it Patton Oswalt that does that. I can’t remember.

All I know is he would get unreasonably testy when I used a line like that on him ….

A struggling would-be screenwriter in a basement apartment in Pacoima?

Oh, they have a clue all right. My teenage daughter loves Rihanna. Loves her for being a celebrity, for being a queen (not of the drag type) for making tons of money and living her best life. She doesn’t really love her music; I mean, she knows it if it’s on the radio or a Spotify playlist, but doesn’t actively seek it out. She loves the brand. And she couldn’t care less is Rihanna is lip-synching an entire show or if all the music tracks are prerecorded. She probably wouldn’t bother to go see some kind of 1990s “Rihanna unplugged” show with Rihanna sitting on a stool crooning her hits dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. That wouldn’t be a spectacle. That’s what the kids love. A spectacle. By the way, she (and her friends) also like other music that she streams - actual songs written by actual songwriters - but unlike my generation it’s not an either/or thing. I wouldn’t be caught dead at her age listening to some pop garbage. My tastes were too “elevated.” Or so I thought. This generation? Not interested in being music snobs. Maybe that’s a good thing.