leh-nerd skin-erd

Hold on a moment here, L. Ronald. Anheuser-Busch made DM the story, and likely did so after weighing the pros and cons of doing so. In fact, I think the story goes that the marketing director wanted to move away from the traditional bread/butter Bud Light consumer and this was part of the strategy. Early returns suggest it’s been successful in that regard. That’s newsworthy. I understand that you don’t care about the story, but surely you would concede AB had an angle they were working here. Sometimes a company think it’s time to go new coke, but find out later that maybe just staying true to old coke. I’m with you on the rest, though. Respect for others should be the default…but the whole sports thing….yeesh.

#metoo

"The Russia info"...? Is that what the kids are calling it? It was a wholesale assault on the notion of free and fair elections, and election denialism (and in some cases, allegations of treason and a coup were raised) of the highest order by virtually every prominent democrat in the country. It just aligned with your political views. As for being 'powerless', quite the contrary. Prior to Trump taking up the flag on stolen elections---you and yours were all for outrageous claims that the 2016 election was illegitimate, even though the Mueller report ended up in the trash bin. I think you're getting exactly what you told the dem leadership you wanted---from government persecution to the intelligence community spreading false stories about potentially damaging information to FISA abuse etc. Your only standard is it has to be in your party's favor--and you got that when you voted in a 5 decade establishment politician. I'm not sure what more you are looking for.

Except that’s not the way it works, and it never has. Power has its privileges, and drawing this particular line in the sand means next to nothing in context. Bill Clinton commits perjury, Eliot Spitzer traffics in call girls, Andre Cuomo cooks the books on nursing home deaths and is directly responsible for many, and W Bush lies about intelligence and war for oil. What they all have in common is they get off, scottso freezo (as an old friend used to say, RIP). To belabor a point we discussed the other day, Dems going around spreading election misinformation and withholding information critical to the published Russia narrative is approached completely differently than Trump’s “stop the steal” program. The establishment allows for politicians to deliberately and at times catastrophically lie/misrepresent and contribute to public unrest. It happens because it works, and the reality is that in spite of clear laws governing the handling of classified information, Donald Trump will be handled by a completely different standard than Joe Biden and his decades of disregard for the laws that govern the rest of us. So, yeah, in a perfect world, everyone gets the same carrot and stick. In reality, it’s imperative to understand the rules of the game and conduct oneself accordingly. Stop the steal is Ilegitimate Election/Russian collusion.

I don't know. Here's the way it played out before the child was born: Some days, Grandpa thinks Iraq is in Bethesda, Maryland; Crack-addicted son caused such a fuss prior to the election that members of the intelligence community intervened with completely made up propoganda piece worthy of Vlad Putin; The widow of his son who died..somewhere....making googly-eyes at the crack-addicted brother-in-law, and likely slipping out to knock boots in the old man's classic Corvette and perhaps leaving bodily fluids all over the box holding classified documents; The crack-addicted son, generally; The daughter the old man maybe showered with up through senior prom hoping Dr. Jill puts her at the other end of the table; Seem to me the child would be the least of his concerns.

I know, but there is a part of me that just can't wrap my head around him trampling on the memory of his son this way. I would think he was heart-broken when he died, it was a family tragedy and something anyone with a child would be devastated over. @The Frankish Reich feels it broke him on some level, but that doesn't make sense to me. Of course, even with all that considered, he spoke of the death of his middle aged son to impart some weird "I'm the same as you" when speaking to families who lost family members/children directly through the horrors of war. Even that is distasteful in my opinion. Let them have their day.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/29/biden-admits-beau-died-from-cancer-and-didnt-perish-in-iraq-just-11-days-after-saying-son-died-at-war/ It gets harder to figure out whether or not he's just losing it, or intent on co-opting valor for professional gain. On the one hand, he was full-throated on the speech about diversity in the armed forces. He sounded coherent and clear, which is a nice change. Given his history of spinning tall tales and outright lies about things he claims to have done--it's certainly not inconceivable that he wants to leverage the tragedy and knows he could tell his supporters his son died taking Iwo Jima and they would rationalize it away. On the other hand, his recent fall, coupled with the every changing story of his son's death makes me think cognitive/physical decline are accelerating. Either way, @Irv, the guy is a mess.

Forgive. That’s what J would D. Jeesh, don’t you have any books in the Frenkle house?

It's bedlam up in Toronto. You have a guy apparently violating team rules/protocol, the intervention of the team, and a public apology from the guy. Then the GM apparently decides to discuss internal personnel matters and trash the player. I suppose it's fitting that the GM shoots his mouth off, typically when an organization plays fast and loose, it starts at the top. Then again, maybe the GM harbors anti-religious bias and sees a chance to spread his own agenda.

You're perilously close to getting it right and not looking silly here. https://clip.cafe/kicking-andamp-screaming-2005/were-at-every-game/

You’re wrong, Tibs. This is a corporate issue, not a religious issue. He chose to express his feelings, and as an American he has the right to do so whether or not those feelings stem from his religious upbringing, the attitudes of his parents, small mindedness, open mindedness or even some childhood trauma that lead him to believe certain things to be true. The problem here is he crossed a line his employer didn’t want him crossing, they intervened and apparently cautioned him to get right-minded. Now, maybe in the hours that passed from the time he posted to the time he apologized maybe he really did have an epiphany. That’s possible and maybe he was just goofing around without thinking much about people he might hurt. That he’s doing an interview in a Blue Jays uniform still paints this as a corporate issue. I’m not sure why that’s even debatable here.

I think it’s about a man who shared his apparently deeply held beliefs one day, had a corporate intervention team visit with him the next, and apologized for sharing what he thought he thought the previous day. I certainly understand the corporation intervening to protect the brand, but if he truly violated their process, why not just dismiss him?

The question wasn’t directed to me, but you change “rigged election” to “illegitimate election”, “30+ court cases” to “one massive, expensive, open-ended and hostile Special Counsel report that ruled out collusion” and you could be talking about dem voters 2015-present. There are no new games at the fair, just different styles of carnival barkers.

That would require reflection and dedication to self-improvement. These folks tend to excel at being manipulated into screaming about what everyone else is doing. Different skill set.

I should have been more clear. Her father was accused, she was not. Liz Cheney as the political paragon of virtue is pretty funny though.

Seems to me in a city where an endless variety of tax schemes are considered, this is a fixable problem if the desire is there.

But you’re comfortable with pandering….lies…deceit when it suits you. That’s politics, really. Same with Cheney, really, offspring of the former VP who fabricated intelligence (so they say) and presented it to the American people and sent American men and women to fight and die in a war for oil. Liz Cheney leveraged her name, wealth and privilege to get elected. Her actions convinced voters it was time for her to go. It happens.

Sure Frank, Trump. Trump, Trump, and more Trump. None of that explains Biden. There are many, many instances of Biden gaffes and miscues, from calling on dead people, to making up fanciful stories about his education, babbling like an incoherent monkey and making up words, getting confused by a teleprompter —these are reasons the grandparents and great grandparents of todays Biden supporters laughed him out of multiple races in spite of standing for many, many things blue collar supporters of old believed in. He was viewed as imbecilic back when Dems loved Trump. This issue involves where his eldest son died. He didn’t say Michigan when he meant Delaware, he didn’t call him Hunter by mistake. He’s thousands of miles, multiple years wrong and made up an entirely different set of circumstances to describe how his son died. He’s a liar, but all politicians lie and fabricate. Trump has nothing to do with Biden’s issues here.

Frank, I'm attempting to be as compassionate as I can here, but it sounds to me like you're giving him a pass to a certain extent. His comments on his son reflect dementia and a rapidly aging brain. It's not that he convinced himself of anything per se, it's that somewhere along the line his brain jumped the track from "My son died in a hospital in Delaware several years after exposure to burn pits in Iraq" to "My son was killed in Iraq.". That's normal only in the sense that it happens when people suffer from cognitive decline. It's sad when it happens to a neighbor or family member, but Joe Biden is neither of those in this case. If intentional, or his inability to accept the difference--It's a lie, it's disgraceful to the memory of soldiers who actually died in Iraq (and to the families they left behind), and while I think Biden himself is just another establishment politician enriching himself and his inner circle by trading in corruption and power, I can't imagine him deliberately dishonoring the memory of his son with this absurd posturing. The bigger problem is those who run cover for him. "It's long past time for Joe Biden to retire." -Father Time, 2019

I'm anti-Nazi, anti-Nazi flag, anti-smashing a Uhaul into a barrier, and anti-threatening anyone at any time. Still, coincidental to what? Did some other crazy drive a Penske box truck into a barrier? Is it a box truck thing?

There are many reasons to dislike Biden, and to recognize the corruption that exists within his circle. Seems to me he was deceitful on the fact pattern associated with the accident that killed his wife and young child decades ago, so like many politicians he leverages to his benefit. Still, I’m hard-pressed to see this perpetual miscue as anything beyond an old man who started a story and somewhere along the line got his facts turned around. I can see him stitching the connection between burn pits, service and the ensuing cancer, but that’s pretty clearly not the narrative in his head these days. It’s really sad, you’d think his son would be embarrassed beyond belief to be compared to soldiers killed in action in that nightmare.

Yes, of course. And Sens Warren and Klobuchar, among others, raised serious concern about the security of our election a year or so before the 2020 race. Thereafter, they transitioned from concern about the security of our national elections to outraged anyone would be concerned about the security of our national elections. 2016 was McCarthyism part deux. Hit the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of those who duped by the original Red Scare with a modern version, add in a Special Counsel with virtually unlimited power and break the presidency. It’s what’s done. It’s a shame, but it works, so expect more of it.

I don't doubt it. My kids and I have bonded through music all throughout their lives (going to see Bruce and Steve with my son and his wife later this year), and I listen to DMB regularly. Seems like a decent enough guy. I don't disagree on some of the gun violence issues he talks about--I'm not a gun owner and really don't claim to have the answers. I do think he's a bit naive when he says "...no one is after your guns...". There's always someone after the guns, and it cheapens the argument for lawful gun owners to suggest otherwise. DMB can be a very good dude generally and still have blind spots. I have my own, but when someone is held up as some voice of reason (SVZ for example, DMB on the other issue), it is part of the dialogue. Funny the way it is, I guess.

Tibs, and many others here and out and about in the world, lacks intellectual honesty. One of the more notable lightweights who reappeared when the wall be started closing is a prime example of lying to himself about what’s really happening in the political realm. There are those that manipulate, and those willing to be manipulated.

You should move past “sides”, Miami Tibs, it binds you to your limitations. The facts are clear, history shows us what took place up to and beyond 2016. There was no acceptance of election results, widespread support to question the results of a free and fair elections, and more than a few instances of using the weight and power of the govt to spread propaganda to achieve a goal. You and SVZ just liked that version of election interference. It’s exactly what Bruce meant back when he hadn’t realized that he was on his way to becoming Springsteen Inc and the substantial impact of having the right friends and right people in place meant for a mega-fortune. Btw, can we at least agree a 75 year old rocker wearing a perpetual babushka is sorta weird? I really wonder if he’s cooked his brain over the past few decades. @Chris farley Ironically just listened to Dave Matthews on Sirius speaking of gun violence and greed often seems to drive the results of our discourse. I don’t disagree with him here, but had to chuckle at how abjectly tone deaf people can be. DMB polluting Mother Earth for profit apparently is only greed-ish, or greed*.