[Trump's Legal Machine Grinds to a Halt]

2 hours ago, shoshin said:

 

Greenland. 

Out of the many, many Plans of the Donald, I actually kind of liked the Greenland Purchase (trade?) the best. Harmless at worst, with the possibility of being considered ingenious a century on just like Seward's Folly (buying Alaska from the Russians). I really don't know why Denmark wasn't on board. 

At least Trump will have the Buy Greenland! theme for his 2024 run ....

[Saints to start Taysom Hill over Jameis Winston]

My guess: more about Payton giving Hill a chance to show he is the QB of the future than it is about winning this week. And really: he does give you as good a chance to win as Winston anyway, since Jamie’s could very easily throw 3 picks. 
As to the Tebow comparison: Tebow wasn’t pretty, but that experiment (also borne of desperation) worked. He won more than he lost, and he didn’t give away any games the Broncs should have won, unlike Jameis. And Hill may or may not have and NFL arm, but he sure as heck has a better arm than Tebow. 

[Trump's Legal Machine Grinds to a Halt]

Andre McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, a Republican, and a supporter of Trump’s reelection campaign, tells it like it is:

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/checkmate-in-pennsylvania-for-the-trump-campaign/

 

It’s over in PA, and therefore over everywhere. Even if the Trump campaign wins on the issues the courts have kept afloat, those wins could only impact a small fraction of Biden’s lead, now on the order of 70-80,000 votes. 
 

Meanwhile, they throw decrepit old wanker Rudy Giuliani before a judge for the first time since 1992 to make a fool of himself with silly, sputtering arguments. All the respectable attorneys have now bailed. 
 

Does anyone with the levers of power in the Republican Party (that would be Mitch) have the guts to tell Trump it is truly over? Because it is. The rest of this is campaign (2024?) and fundraising nonsense. Let’s move on. Now. 

[Week 10 SNF: Baltimore at Pats]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

I am having intense emotional conflict at present.  

 

I am enjoying watching someone put a beat-down on the Ravens and last year’s Hot Boy, Lamar Jackson.

 

On the other hand, it’s the Pats - is it ever appropriate to root for the Pats?

Not until Belichick is gone. 

Oh, and Edelman too.

And throw in Josh McDaniels.

Then it'll be o.k.

[Week 10 SNF: Baltimore at Pats]

I wasn't going to watch this and now I find myself glued to the HORROR THAT IS UNFOLDING BEFORE MY VERY EYES

[Ok This Dolphins talk is getting out of hand.]

10 minutes ago, beer said:

MIA has been helped greatly with turnovers, defensive and special teams TDs. once those dry up, and they will, and they have to win a game with their offense i don't like their chances 

I haven't taken a deep dive into the numbers, but this strikes me as true. They have had some unsustainable situational luck on their side.

Having said that: really impressive work by Flores and the front office. Remember last year when they traded Minkah Fitzpatrick and everyone said they might go 0-16?

Since that time they've gone 11-7. Not great, but certainly playoff quality in today's NFL. They changed QBs to a rookie and have still won 3 in a row. They are a bit behind the Bills in the rebuild, but they're closing. Fast. I have to admit I'm a little worried about them.

[Four Guys vs Hopkins]

My $ .02 --

 

I thought the Bills defense did everything right on that last drive. 34 seconds to go 75 yards. My biggest fear was that Kyler would peel off a 40 yard scramble to get them in range; they contained him. They completed short passes up the middle. We had them with no timeouts and a chance for a quick out and a shorter Hail Mary, or two Hail Marys.

 

He only needed one. Electric young talent at QB (we're lucky that Josh is one of the few others who could've pulled this off), probably the best receiver in the world on the other end -- the same guy who killed us in Houston last year did it again.

 

Great playmakers making great plays. It doesn't bother me at all. What does bother me is abandoning the running game, particularly to start the second half with the empty backfield on the first series. Why?

[PFF mid season all pro team]

On 11/11/2020 at 7:39 AM, ILBillsfan said:

I know I know it't PFF but a there is a Buffalo Bill on this list and it's probably a person that has been overlooked this year.  Nope not Allen, Diggs or Poyer its Daryl Williams.  Great off season signing by the Bills has really been playing outstanding this year.  I really think Diggs has been overlooked some and should of been named to at least the second team as well but there are a lot of great receivers just odd to see the rookie Jefferson(who the vikings drafted to replace Diggs) on the second team.

 

Still a good read and I do put much more weight on their line grades than some of the others. 

 

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff-2020-midseason-all-pro-team

 

Love it! As poor as the interior lineman have been (perhaps Morse excepted), that's how good Dawkins and Williams have been. 

[If by some miracle biden actually wins......]

5 minutes ago, TBBills said:

I actually feel sad for him and a little scared for what he might try and do... Hopefully he really is being watched.

 

HOly *****... those responses... They just go down a rabbit hole saying each process that doesn't go their way they say it must be the establishment and ***** like that. WTF, how come so many of them. Twitter has ruined lots of people but also showed the people that believe anything.

Classic mega conspiracy.

Look, I tried to reason with the guy. It just became so predictable, the refusal to believe ANY evidence that didn't fit their bizarro worldview.

Think of the posts here in the last few days:

- DHS Cyber Security Chief says no evidence of organized election fraud. RESPONSE: hah, you fool, he's one of them. My response: but Trump appointed him! RESPONSE: like that matters, he's obviously a deep state plant.

- Karl Rove says "it's over": RESPONSE: hah, Karl Rove, of course he'd say that, Deep State Bushie.

- Georgia Secretary of State says it was a clean election. RESPONSE: open your eyes, he's one of them, a plant of the anti-Trump, pro-child abusing cabal. My response: he is a Republican! RESPONSE: so what? He's the Deep State.

Really, it came down to what Trump himself came down to -- I trust only my own family. 

[Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting]

1 minute ago, Warcodered said:

I don't want to see the meltdown that would follow something like that, I mean people thought there were riots before.

That would be straight into banana republic territory.

"Because we believe the voting/counting in [Michigan/Georgia/Pennsylvania/Arizona] was rife with fraud, our only remedy is to appoint electors based on who we really think would have won a clean election."

[Bills and Steelers historically "lucky" according to FiveThirtyEight article]

Point differential isn't a very good measure in football. Not enough games to have an adequate sample, gross disparities in strength of schedule (what division in playing the NFC East this year?), etc, etc.

In MLB: 162 games ... it's a damn good indicator of which teams are "better" or "worse" than their records would tell us.

[If by some miracle biden actually wins......]

18 hours ago, BillStime said:

Ladies and Gentleman - a post by the infamous @Deranged Rhino - approximately one hour ago.

 

 

LMAO

 

The “smartest” guy in the world is pathetic af.

And still they go back to their dance around the Golden Calf.

It astounds me how difficult it is to pull people out of a cult. I mean, this whole Q nonsense was predicated on the predicted arrest of Hillary on November 7 ... 2017.

 

[Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting]

1 hour ago, Backintheday544 said:

actually, it’s not. Faithless electors had Trump only end up with 304. The Supreme Court case after that makes it almost impossible now for that to happen.

Ahh, I had forgotten about the faithless electors.

Of course, if you listen to certain nutcases, Trump's alternative electors appointed by Republican legislators will shift about 50 electoral votes his way in the final count ....

[Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting]

3 minutes ago, Backintheday544 said:

GA called and NC called. Biden 306. Will have more electoral votes than Trump in 2016!

Actually I think that's exactly the same as the Trump margin vs. Clinton.

But overall, Biden outperformed -- +5 million votes nationally, about a 3.5 percentage point margin now.

The pollsters took a beating, and nationally they did call about a 7 point margin for Biden. So it was half of that. Some state polls were way, way off, but that's true both ways. It just so happens that some of the big misses were in battleground states (Wisconsin). My state -- Colorado -- was polling as Biden +10. It wound up being Biden + 14. Likewise for Minnesota - Trump thought it was competitive, it ended as Biden +7.

But it is well and truly over. Trump had a notion that he could get the courts to intervene to save him. The only one I think he may win doesn't matter: the PA 3-day extension to receive mail-in ballots. Otherwise we have to remember that courts, particularly the Supreme Court, tend to be conservative with a small "c." In other words, they are extremely hesitant to intervene in elections. Even in Bush v. Gore the rule is best summarized as this: if state courts intervene in a manner that makes it unlikely that they can meet election certification/electoral college deadlines, the Supreme Court will stop the intervention. That decision was greatly criticized. I thought it got it right at the time, and the principle today is still important. So far none of the lawsuits (except the PA late mail ballot one) have any real chance of success.

 

It's over. Let's get on with the next 4 years. Right now, I'm kind of liking that:

- Trump is done

- Pelosi may be too, given the poor performance by Dems in House races

- The Senate hangs in the balance, with middle of the road types like Collins and Romney now holding the swing vote

 

But that's me. I'm a radical centrist.

 

 

 

[Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting]

5 hours ago, Tiberius said:

So many new voters this time. Wonder if they keep voting? Was it Trump that brought out all the new voters or is it deeper than that? 

 

Just thinking out loud 

I do think it was Trump that juiced the turnout. Ordinarily that would have been good news for him (see Obama 2008), but the difference this year is that Trump juiced not only his turnout but also Biden’s turnout. 

[Final Vote—All States, Progress in counting]

I've kept away here while the dust settles. 

 

The dust has settled.

 

https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/notes-on-the-state-of-the-2020-election/

 

The presidential race: both not close and extremely close

Votes continue to be counted in the presidential race, and all indications are that Joe Biden’s lead in the national popular vote will continue to grow. Among those states that still appear to have a significant number of votes to count are California, Illinois, and New York. These big blue states will pad Biden’s national edge, which currently sits at 50.7%-47.4% in the national popular vote as of Wednesday morning. Biden’s national popular vote edge appears likely to exceed Barack Obama’s from 2012 (about four points), though it will fall short of Obama’s seven-point edge in 2008. Assuming Biden clears Obama’s 3.9-point 2012 margin, his will be the second-biggest popular vote win in the six elections this century (yes, we know, 2000 technically isn’t in this century, but we’re including it anyway).

Of course, the popular vote does not determine who wins the presidency.

We (and others) frequently noted the past four years that Donald Trump’s 2016 victory was built on the strength of a roughly 78,000-vote edge in three key states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Flipping those states, which were Trump’s three-closest victories, to Hillary Clinton would have given her an Electoral College majority.

This time, Biden’s fate was in the hands of four states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia, that were collectively decided by about 97,000 votes (that number will change, and Biden’s edge at least in Pennsylvania should continue to expand while Arizona has gotten closer in later-counted returns). Give these four states to Trump, and Trump wins.

[Stephen Belichicks career prospects]

I dunno. If I'm Josh McDaniels, I'm probably gonna take that next head coaching job that's offered to me. 

But will there be one after this season of pathetic offense? I think he wishes he'd taken that Indy job.

[The End of the Lamar Jackson Era]

5 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Me either. Hes a dynamic athlete, but when I saw him live last year my take away was "great athlete, ok passer"

Hmm, great athlete; o.k. passer. Where have I heard that one before? He hurdles over defenders, throws the ball 70 yards in the air, then misses badly on an easy out ... hold on a sec, I'm thinking, I'm thinking ...

 

[Sunday Night Football: Eagles at Cowboys 8:20 ET]

1 minute ago, Putin said:

He’s probably the next J  Tuel 

Not even Thad Lewis quality. 😀

[Sunday Night Football: Eagles at Cowboys 8:20 ET]

Just now, Putin said:

Ben Dinuci 🤦‍♂️

Will he be the next Tony Romo?

(No. No he won't.)

[Is it Zo time yet?]

1 minute ago, TonyBeets said:

Can we bring back Aaron Schobel and Kyle too??

Fact: Aaron Maybin is still only 32.

1 minute ago, Hebert19 said:

How is that the same?   Zo said he would be waiting for a call.  And our LBs suck. 

And workout freak that he is, I imagine he'd be ready to go next week.

We're kidding here, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility.

[Is it Zo time yet?]

At this point I'd go grab Kyle Williams off a golf course somewhere.

[Sunday Night Football: Eagles at Cowboys 8:20 ET]

Washington Football Team, this is apparently your division to lose.

[Without Gilmore, Edleman & now Brady & Gronk this isn't a tough game]

30 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

This is a game against a hated division rival...20 years of domination by New England over the Buffalo Bills. 

 

This is a DIVISION game and anything can happen as teams play extra tough on both sides. The Patriots could field a team of newborns or octogenarians in wheelchairs and still win. Like Bum Phillips used to say, he could take yours and beat mine and take his and beat yours. This is STILL the Patriots with head coach Bill Belichick still coaching it. Never underestimate this man until the fat lady sings.

 

 

OTOH, NE could be in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes and want to lose, but I doubt it.

I can't see them tanking. I mean, it would actually make sense to tank this year, and they could do a Golden State Warriors one-year tank thing and scare the hell out of everyone else as we set up for 2021. 

I better stop now since I'm talking myself into this diabolical Belichick plan ...

[Micah Hyde's Last Season In Buffalo?]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The place on the team where we're overpaying for underperformance right now is clearly DL.

 

IMO a lot of those deals were structured on the premise that our drafted talent Phillips, Oliver, and Epenesa would develop, and we would shed those contracts over the next 2 years with minimal dead cap.  If those guys don't develop as expected, that's the trouble spot.

It's always easier and cheaper to upgrade from awful to just "below average" -- that's what I see the Bills doing right now, trying to work guys like Zimmer into the mix. Is he good? Almost no one thinks that. Is he marginally acceptable, better than what we've gotten so far this year from Phillips/Oliver, etc.? Does he come cheap? Definitely.

The work that needs to be done on the defense within the likely salary cap structure is akin to what Beane and McDermott did with the O line after 2018, upgrading from some really awful performers to guys who are cheap and at least marginally acceptable. Replacement players in baseball parlance. Sub-replacement level performance is never acceptable because it can be readily upgraded.