WideNine

I am not sure it is that simple. The Chiefs are on top till someone actually knocks them off the hill, but after that I think there is plenty of parity in the AFC. A bit early to tag any of the others nipping at their heels as dynastic teams. Herbert looks good for the Chargers so they seem blessed in regards to their franchise QB transition efforts unlike the Bills who were on the spin cycle for decades trying to find their next "Kelly". In our own division I think NE and Miami will give us some fight, but I do think that they are playing catch-up. The Browns and the Ravens are both contenders in their division, but I do not see a Steeler's revival anytime soon. Colts and Titans are both solid well-coached teams. So plenty of wiggle-room in most of the divisions for upsets.

I am thinking that it is likely that I am not the only poster you have tried to virtually ragdoll here on the Wall over the years right.....? I did not take it personally as I like a good argument and you gave me those. I did take some offense at the time for getting locked out of the board for a while for disagreeing about players... there was a bit of a cabal, but if you were not personally moderating that probably is my faulty memory. Feels like a very long time ago and a lot of life (and good folks passing away) in between. I followed my Bills and Sabres, but took a healthy break from the boards in general for several years. TBD moderators and moderation guidance has evolved quite a bit from the personal frustration and rampant fan cannibalism of the dark post-Wade era. Was not a unique thing, every board had the same depressing antics. You see the same thing starting to creep into the Sabres discussion sites. A team can only suck for so long before fans just turn on each other. Folks have done a good job here of providing moderation and segregated areas for folks to B word about off-topic things which is a convenient outlet too. I may have been posting as ColdBlueNorth back then as that was a handle I used for a while. I switch up my account name purely from boredom after a decade or so of use unlike Promo and some others. Been lurking here in one form or another since the janky D&C bulletin board days. And, unlike some people, I could be wrong about some team or personnel takes - "ahem" ....talking about you bado. I do clearly remember arguing with you - a lot, but you were always game for an argument. And yes, you do suck because as much as much as I hate to admit it and feed the beast, I was wrong about EJ. I will leave it at that🤮

I remember the other... and I do agree with much of the X's and O's with Bado, and he is not that far off base with the cap management stance. He and I locked horns often when I was posting way back when as Left Overture. He may have banned me at one point I got so under his skin (its a gift) 🤣 Water under the bridge and all that - when you roll back all the layers and how folks can rub you the wrong way on the board you realize they just desperately want the Bills to make the right moves that they think will help them win it all. Where you have passionate fans you have volatile interactions because they care. OK - that was my attempt at a commercial break - now back to our regularly-scheduled squabbling.

They run a tight ship in regards to any personnel positioning or strategy leaks. Hard to watch the promo videos on the Bills official site. A bit of music track, some closeups of catches at the end of routes that don't give away anything...another shot of feet running the ladder drill, and guys hitting the sleds. Hard to argue with the approach as every team is looking for every competitive edge they can get. With all that focus on keeping a lid on info, reporters reporting on what they should not are going to get the quick hook offstage and struggle getting back in again.

I am for INDEPENDENT state boards, but what election rules would they enforce? What good are independent state boards enforcing undesirable and undemocratic voter suppression policies passed by that state's legislators? So in regards to the policies I am for strengthening existing federal voting rights & laws and having consistent federal election laws and guidance that should be applied equally across all states. Then you can leave the enforcement to the states and/or courts.

I am not a fool, nor do I believe that only Republicans gerrymander. Yet the courts will not step in and you have no answer to my question about who does when the system is broke in a state. Only saying you do not want to see more power in Federal hands you forget that creating national policies to avoid states deciding to do unconstitutional things is kind of where they are supposed to apply federal policy. ...and I actually learn from history. Which party was censored from 1989 - 2018 from practicing voter suppression tactics? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-gop-just-received-another-tool-for-suppressing-votes/550052/

I don't believe they hacked our elections in 2016, just what the intelligence reports claimed. That they (Russia) sponsored a broad propaganda and misinformation campaign that had a decidedly Trump for "prez" preference. The rest was just gullible US idiots gobbling up every tweet or FB post like it was God's own truth. You can fact check the troll farm push and the account "shutdown" facts yourself, if you are not immune to facts. ...and that has gone like this. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-gerrymandering.html

OK... so your state legislature wins an election cycle and becomes predominately one party or the other. Since the GOP seems most keen on restricting voting we will go with the GOP. Once in control of the legislature they push through gerrymandered redistricting that effectively tilts the district field so democratic districts are limited in future elections even if they have greater voting population. Now controlling their state elections and maintaining unchecked grip on partisan policy they further restrict voting access for those more heavily DEM districts. Where is the oversight or the checks and balances to such coopted state institutions that preserve electorate voting access and integrity for that state?

I agree with this, but with caveats for rational federal baseline guidance around mail-in ballots, drop-box distribution, and acceptable proof of ID. Right now it is a circus in Texas, Georgia, and Arizona. An independent non-partisan review agency for redistricting would not be a bad idea either looking at how Wisconsin and Michigan (and other states) have been gerrymangled to tilt elections away from popular vote results.

There is a book about how percentages "lie"... What % of Republicans believe sketchy Twitter feeds and YouTube channels, not to mention QA-nonsense? Is there inherently more honest reporting in sites that are not "Mainstream" with little to no editorial oversight? I honestly ask.... as the question boils down to where do you get your news and why they can or cannot be trusted? My son claims that Reddit is the only place he goes for real news... My rule of thumb is Mainstream is supposed to have more oversight, but you always should trust, but verify the source with other sources that have some credibility and oversight. A regular poster here who regularly barfs out Q-Anon conspiracies earlier in the year claimed that India was not being affected by Covid. His proof? He posted a Tweet with a chart from a sketchy feed run by an org started by an ex-con that went on to say how India had combatted the Covid virus using multivitamins. Of course India became a pandemic *****-show with burning bodies and corpses getting dumped into the Ganges river a few months later for their lax policies and response to the virus. The point is that sketchy sites with little editorial oversight are not the high watermark for truth and objectivity in reporting. Folks just have to have a bit more going on upstairs and be more critical of content even if it sounds like something that could support their shaky positions on topics.

"Pure Insanity" - DOJ Response I know that baseless conspiracies are in vogue, but folks have just got to be smarter than they have been about critical thinking and reason when it comes to Twitter and YouTube "news"... hell, even when listening or clicking on mainstream outlets. Look at the source, who wrote the article, what have they written on in the past, do they have a normal slant to their reporting, has the same story been reported by other more credible sources? That Trump and his staff were pushing these insane YouTube conspiracies just boggles the minds of those who have minds with the capacity to see how far down the insanity path folks have gone. Look at vaccinations - folks have gotten the flu or influenza vaccines for decades with little or no fanfare, but for Covid's vaccine the snippets of RNA proteins carry a spooky micro-RFID chip- even if such a claim were true for what purpose? "To spy on us" some idiot in my own family says to me as she plays on her smart phone with her facebook, linkedin, and GPS mapping out her entire public life and location because she likes the convenience. She lives for any conspiracy she can gobble up. Download the "free" dress and play My Little Pony app for your little girl and you casually give away pretty much the lion's share of your privacy without a second thought (access to contacts, phone, photos, camera, mic, and local storage? Yeah.... yeah, click download and done). Get vaccinated to protect yourself and others? "They" are trying to spy on me. For Christ's sake why on earth would anyone spend a ton of money to develop something to snoop on folks when that information is out there and easily purchased by marketing companies every day? Dumb... and And now you have even more idiots out there who claim to have become marvel comic's Magneto because a vaccine with tiny pieces of RNA protein was given to train your T-Cells on how to recognize and combat Covid strains have given them super powers.... look out Peter Parker. I have the vaccine and no, I cannot make spoons I do not lick stick to my body or any other such nonsense. Dumber

The question is not whether "the Media" can or cannot be trusted to tell the truth or the facts objectively (not sure if the OP is including sketch Twitter feeds as part of this too).... It is whether enough US citizens have the mental capacity to tell the difference regardless of the source.

That is if you believe the uber wealthy actually pay on a graduated percentage scale. They don't. If you read the original article from buzzfeed most currently pay 1% or lower against their wealth. I do believe that we would have to fix the tax loopholes that allow the uber wealthy to access their billions (sans having it tagged as a source of income) first before figuring out what should be an equitable tax percentage against said income level.

You could say that, and more. Just one more example of government waste via publicly-funded subsidies to wealthy corporations. I get it. I know that as soon as I mention that serial conman Trump, y'all get out your facts-be-gone spray. Does not matter to me if it was Trump or any other politician, but a con is a con. Making grandiose promises to shake down the public and secure political currency with no deliverable is a con. And too many of our politicians are cut from the same cloth.

https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump

Actually makes good sense to simplify the tax code, although that seemed to sail over a few heads in this thread. Not sure if the flat tax is the answer, would have to research a bit more, but most folks know the axiom, "The more you overthink the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain". The same holds true with tax policy, the more complex you make it the easier it is to find and exploit loopholes.

Truth. You won't see me arguing that our government is fiscally sound with our money. My other point was that these guys get to scam the government to the tune of billions of dollars while I have the IRS climbing up my ass making me prove that in 2016 my family used our HSA card just for prescription medicine. The inequitable treatment chaps my ass too.

I can get behind more fiscally responsible gov spending and more of a shift to state funding with the uber wealthy paying more and my tax rate getting some relief. Who wouldn't? In case you were unaware the US Chamber of Commerce is not an arm of the US government. It is a lobbying group that pushes agendas that result in corporations having broad influence in elections (recent blocking of campaign dark money transparency bill) and by proxy tax policies that favor corporations (and their CEOs) over equitable taxation. That is why I mention them. It is related to why many politicians (all the rank and file GOP and probably good chunk of Dems) are not motivated to correct & enact equitable tax policy.

No I don't think this is a GOP-only issue, but it is a fact that they do have the closest ties to the biggest corporate lobbying group in America. The US Chamber of Commerce. The US Chamber of Commerce does the bulk of the lobbying for corporations to continue to erode taxation policies aimed at them and their CEO's. Nor do I believe in Socialism - that simply tossing money from here to there will solve societies many issues. Never believed that taking money from the competent and handing it to the incompetent is a cure-all. I do however believe that if the uber wealthy were forced to pay an equivalent percentage out of their billions like the rest of us pay, then maybe more roads and bridges get fixed, maybe there can be 2 classes with 12 kids each at your public school instead of one class with over 30....

Now don't get me wrong as I am pro-business and I like to feel that any American has a fair shake to succeed in this country, but many of our institutions have become almost too polluted by sub-systems setup to allow only a very few to gain unfair advantages over the vast majority of us. Sure, I like to keep as much of my money as I can and when donating I decide where I think it will do the most good, but I pay more than my fair share of taxes. How the richest Americans dodge paying taxes on their assets A brief snip from this article that gets at the crux of the tax evasion practice. First understand that although I could hold billions of dollars worth of assets, until I cash out those assets they are not considered income even if those assets are growing exponentially. So if a multi-billionaire is restricted from cashing out how does he get access to all that money so he can purchase his (Bezos) 150 million dollar jet and 5.5 million dollar private hanger to house it, or his 417 foot superyacht? "So how do megabillionaires pay their megabills while opting for $1 salaries and hanging onto their stock? According to public documents and experts, the answer for some is borrowing money — lots of it. For regular people, borrowing money is often something done out of necessity, say for a car or a home. But for the ultrawealthy, it can be a way to access billions without producing income, and thus, income tax." ...so you can secure billions in loan money using your assets as collateral, the bank is happy with their interest rate return, the billionaires are happy that they are only paying single digit interest on the money they are using for their lavish life styles, and the kicker is that the interest paid is also tax deductible. Why wouldn't it be😂 It seems bassackwards to me that folks that follow their conscience are subjected to the full brunt of our legal system, yet those whose empires grew driving on our roads, flying on our subsidized airlines, protected by our military and police, leveraging the intellectual commodities of the US workforce can scam and short-change the US tax system and are free to keep scamming. But the Grand Ol' Party will put a stop to that scamming nonsense, or will they? They are angry and are loading up on their pitch forks and torches, but not for the rich scamming the system.... get those whistle-blowers OF COURSE..... we need to punish those whistle-blowers that dare shed light on how f'd up the system is, this is after-all the country where white-collar criminals get pardoned yet the honest plebs who try to shed light on corruption are ignored when trying to follow formal whistle-blower protocols and are then sent to jail when they go to the press. Our nation's justice system is so often exposed as the theatre of the absurd. I took an oath to protect American people and I could not stand by aimlessly when I saw corruption

A President of the US should not be held responsible for what he says or what he posts online or any of the fallout that results from those actions? So that is your position? Interesting.

...we have absolved Trump for his lies and outrageous conspiracy theories about a stolen election which fueled the insurrection? When did that happen in this thread? If it had been a democrat incumbent that had pulled half the election interference stunts Trump pulled I doubt you would have had such a short, faulty memory, or such an abundance of forgiveness.

Yes the NIH funds general health and virus research at various labs around the globe. In 2014 3.7 million worth went to the EcoHealth Org as a grant. They then subsequently provided 600k of that to Wuhan. Do you even know what the NIH budget was in 2014? 31.331 billion dollars with over 10,269 competing RPGs (Research Project Grants). This overall funding was approved in 2014 when the GOP held the Senate majority and both sides of the aisle felt more research into potential pandemic viruses like SARS was a good idea. As Fauci put it, “a very minor collaboration as part of a subcontract of a grant,” and he (Rand) Paul conflated that with the claim that “therefore we were involved in creating the virus, which is the most ridiculous, majestic leap I’ve ever heard of.” Fauci also said he wasn’t convinced that the coronavirus developed naturally. “I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened.” In 2014 the NIH responded to alarms over GOF viral research and placed a moratorium on such efforts. Even then I am not sure the moratorium had any teeth for enforcement or stopped GOF research against viruses harvested from the "wild". https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/10/us-halts-funding-new-risky-virus-studies-calls-voluntary-moratorium Now if you want to question funding any viral pathogen research in China where the US always has limited oversight for any endeavor, that kind of a policy re-think I could get behind. https://www.factcheck.org/2021/05/the-wuhan-lab-and-the-gain-of-function-disagreement/ I personally think that the Wuhan lab was performing GOF on the original Covid virus strain which is monumentally dumb unless you have very strict protocols in place like you see at the CDC labs in NC and even then I am not sure the risks of helping nature find a better way to kill us is worth the alleged gains for virology research. The Wuhan Institute was already on shakey ground in regards to safety protocols, they had no business doing any GOF research there. I doubt we will ever be able to prove anything now. Records in China have likely all been purged along with any suspect memories or embarrassing witnesses.

You are right. For Trump's level of idiocy, probably does not matter who was advising him.

You honestly believe that Trump takes the advice of any "experts" that dare contradict his alternate "reality" including Fauci? If you followed the political rhetoric as a timeline it started with Trump listens to me early in 2020, to Trump trying to throw Fauci under the bus, to November where Trump had not attended a task force briefing in 5 months, to Fauci saying Pence listens to him but he is like the skunk at the picnic. So yes, once upon a time Fauci said those words. That is like saying, "you said your wife listens to you". Sure, for two years right after we were married and before our messy public divorce... He scrapped regular Covid briefings because Fauci dared to contradict his kindergarten-level understanding of medical science (that really isn't fair to some kindergartners). He regularly targeted Fauci on social media trying to gauge support for his transparent desire to fire him outright. He snubbed pandemic precautions and then caught Covid-19 and instead of letting his dumb ass expire on the table with some sunlight, a bottle of bleach, and a healthy dose of malaria medicine which would have been a merciful thing for this country, he received a cocktail of anti-viral drugs, off-label antibody treatment, and supplements: Dexamethasone, Remdesivir, and Regeneron's experimental monoclonal antibody which was still in clinical trials. Did he learn anything from his narrow escape via access to drugs and treatment most Americans would never have? No. The dumbass left treatment and ripped off his mask to double-down on the dumb and he appointed a freaking radiologist (the guys that know how to read X-Rays, MRI, and PET scans) to lead his Covid response task force - that is like going to a podiatrist for a brain tumor.