leh-nerd skin-erd

Why would he release his taxes? What would that tell you?

You suggested racism was a post-2010 policy of the government, and cited a republican (presumably) majority leader was hoping the democrat president was gone after his first term. I don't ever recall leadership from any party publically cheering on a president from the opposite party to win reelection. I thought that was the point of being from a different party. Its like the cereal wars: Captain Crunch isn't out telling kids to buy up all the Count Chokula, but I don't think that makes him a racist. Worst....civics lesson....ever.

I thought what the president did was wrong, but I feel that way whenever self serving politicos stick their nose in business they have no cause to mess with. I mentioned it previously, but again, if the protests end when the anthem is no longer played, what was accomplished?

You've got a lot going on here, but I'll give it a shot. I have no idea what you mean by suggesting that anyone believes that a flag or a song is more important than human beings. If you mean to say that honoring the flag and recognizing injustice occurs is incompatible, well again I can only disagree. The players are not partners. If they were, Kaepernick would be playing for the team if his choice, Ray Rice would be in Baltimore and Richie Incognito never spends 2 years off the field. Owners own team, players play, and so it goes. The players are replaceable, not because they are of less human value than owners, but simply as a function of the game. It has to be that way, think of guys like Jim Brown, and in the NBA guys like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul Jabar. It's not bad or good, it just is. The NFL is not the NBA anymore than it is Starbucks or a Dairy Queen. The NFL isn't a petrie dish of great social causes and life lessons, it's about selling tickets, merchandise, PSL, ad revenue etc. The league inserts itself into the great social debate at its own peril. The league lives by emotion (and the irony of discussing the symbolism of the flag when considering tens of thousands of fans stream into a stadium every Sunday wearing their team's colors is kinda funny to me), and dies by it as well. Youre probably right about complaints about about players who stay in the locker room. So? From the league perspective, far better for the police union & family to be angry or disappointed in PlayerX than the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens or whatever. Besides, while your disdain for the league is obvious, how come the $90m doesn't count for goodwill and knock back some of the complaints? How much is the players union offering as a match? 10%, 25%, even 100%? How awesome is that??? in the end, whether you think enough people will stop watching or not is largely irrelevant. The league saw the potential for loss as a big enough threat to change the rules to accommodate players who want to protest, honor the fans who respect the flag and anthem, ponied up a hundred mill for the cause...so it's obvious to the ownership group that the issue needed to be addressed.

To the part in bold font, you should add "to me". i don't question your heart, your politics or your sincerity, but I do disagree. And if two reasonable people can disagree, many, many more can. Some will see this as a big enough issue to withhold dollars spent for NFL products, and if enough people with that sentiment begin to move on from the sport, well, that's bad for the business of the NFL. The only question I have is "Why would the ownership group want to do anything that's bad for the business they are in?". On on top of that, the ownership group, in an attempt to reach out to the segment of the league protesting, gave them a reasonable alternative (protest by skipping the anthem all together) and nearly $100m to the cause. To be blunt, I'm not even sure why the NFL has to carry this burden to begin with, other than it's got some real deep pockets. Finally, some have suggested removing the anthem altogether. My question is this, if no anthem equals no protest, how important is the cause? Refuse to play, delay the game, skip the 4th quarter, whatever. Hell anyone that wants to could sit out in support of kaepernick as we speak.

To get a dirty job done, you call the Albanians. Everyone knows this.

If California was doing "great" they would not need to beg for federal funds and/or come up with new economic parlor tricks to come up with the 2-3b (there's a range that makes sense) and the sell-it-to-the-simpletons sleight of hand that something that will cost 2-3b is free. That's before we talk about middle class exodus, number of people living in poverty, number of people on welfare relative to the rest of the US, and places like San Francisco returning to the middle ages where folks just crap on the streets. in fact, when the plague comes back around, the 100% free health care will be self-sustaining, because with all that demand health care will likely become even free-er. I agree with you that California should secede from the union, become the fifth largest economy in the world and become a sanctuary country.

From the article, this sentence jumped out at me "Funding is the key obstacle....". to summarize, finding the way to pay for something is the only obstacle to the free stuff that cost billions. If stupid weighs more than smart, one day soon California will indeed tumble into the sea.

You're a study in contrast. Rational, reasonable in response here, yet comfortable with people crossing what seems to be one of the most basic rules of civilized society just because they disagree with what someone says or thinks. I realize it's going to happen, I just don't see where it's acceptable to do so, or that a person should accept that it's a byproduct of some collection of the spoken word. In the end, basic rules should apply. A guy harasses __________, kick his ass out of the restaurant. If he gives you sh-t, call the police, though by all means let him use the bathroom before he goes. Dont sweat the need to elaborate, we're all a study in contrast. I think Leo DiCaprio is a world class hypocrite but damn it I really like most of his movies. A+ effort there.

Of course I can expect it, and there are many different ways to disagree with people, rudely if that's the plan, that don't involve harassing people in a restaraunt. Off the top of my head, write a letter, organize a boycott, protest at the studio, interrupt a speech. I added "idiotic" to see what your response would be. It was my version of a "restaurant boo", but not in public, not with any of your friends or family around wondering who the psycho is (or may be)at the table booing their son/daughter/best friend because of what they do for a living. I didn't call you an idiot, but I disagreed strongly enough with what I perceived to be an extremist/outlier opinion about how people should treat other people to wonder how you might reply. Why would that bother you? I appreciate the the tone of your response, by the way, quite civil and reasonable to wonder why I wrote what I wrote. I think if that standard is applied in public, everyone wins. i guess I wonder....if you think it's acceptable to harass famous people, toss water, be aggressive with them....what would your thought be if TLs bodyguard sensed a threat and dispatched the attacker? Let's agree boos don't reach the level of violence here, but let's assume boos lead to words lead to a person stepping toward TL with an object in their hand and the bodyguard neutralizes the threat. Let's the assume the aggressive party has a dislocated elbow, and soft tissue strain. Fair result? I'm thinking you would see that as coming with the territory for the harasser, so no harm no foul.

Got it, have "polarizing opinions", make money, subject yourself to all sorts of stupidity. On on the other hand, have polarizing opinions, verbally and physically harass people for some perverse "hey everyone look how tough I am" moment and no money at all...very cool and understandable because you can't get arrested for it. Idiotic.

Why would you consider it "ok" to disrupt, harass and bully a customer at a restaurant?

I'm not looking for trouble, but I reported it to the internet police. They are going to beat around some e-bushes and kick some e-tires to see what they can come up with. They seemed particularly e-interested in the fact that he was taking the time to record the height of some of the guys who's a$$es he has kicked. They said that's unusual, even for the internet. #seesomethingsaysomething

Correct, it's a free country where people can share their beliefs about things like standing for the National Anthem and watching tv stations they wish to watch. Why would you look to indoctrinate them in your brand of flagpoleing, and only watching television that meets your standard of appproval?

My kids grew up hearing "Always consider the agenda behind the thought, word, deed." We can debate the pros and cons of protesting at work, who/what is being protested and how every group, sub-group and cousin' brother's friend feels about it. However, the agenda behind the NFL's approach now seems to be: "We would prefer you not piss off the segment of the paying public that takes offense to the time, nature and location of the actions being discussed.". Part 2 of the agenda is the NFL recognizing complex social issues with its workforce and offers nearly a $100 mill to help move the issue forward, without pissing off the paying public that takes offense. The external extremist agenda seems to be none of that #### is good enough, though the NFL has offered scores and scores of kids from all types of backgrounds wealth beyond what likely was beyond their dreams. Full disclosure, my agenda is I just like to enjoy a football game without considering any narrative beyond that on a Sunday.

all of which makes sense except: 1. They negotiated a deal that was agreed to, as happens countless times in the NFL every year; 2. The player agreed to the deal, then apparently went on a weeklong bender of shrooms and Mezcal worms, which doesn't happen all that much in the NFL every year; 3. And the guys responsible for the entire team had to decide from the perspective of the team: ---Try and get Crazy RI back by enforcing the deal Agreeable RI just agreed to; --Try and get Crazy RI back by renegotiating the deal Agreeable RI agreed to; --Try and keep Crazy RI to get something for him from another team who might be interested in Crazy RI hoping he is really Agreeable RI; --Let Crazy RI go and let him seek something that works for crazy RI and no longer impacts the team; ----All the while, they have no way of knowing if Crazy RI is really just Agreeable RI acting like Crazy RI or is truly Crazy RI. in this case, I'm sorry, but the common denominator is crazy. But I do agree, if none of the crazy happened I'd love it if the guy was back.

I think it's pretty clear that any of existing legal problems, now resolved as if by magic or divine intervention, had nothing to do with wanting to help his adopted country. I trust him now.

Well, there are different ways to win, and different ways to lose. If RI's plan to win was to renegotiate his contract, subsequently appear unbalanced, imply continued time in the NFL would be significantly detrimental to his health, then flip it around like he was thrilled to be back all while retiring then unretiring, honestly the only sensible plan for Beane is to release him. His tweet storm was disruptive, odd, bipolar and most certainly disruptive to the enterprise. If it was all a game to bankroll an extra mill, well, you know the value he places on that element of his reputation. How can you trust him in that case? I think the play to release the guy shows strength as a leader, because yeah, RI could have a great season. He could also have significant mental health issues and clearly does not want to play for the team or contract he agreed to 20 minutes before he lost his marbles. Beane was not outsmarted in any respect, no matter how you slice it. btw...I hate what happened, but have no other beef with RI. He was great while he was here, I enjoyed watching him, but he's gone now and the ugliness is on him.

I've been a fan of the RI redemption story and certainly appreciate the game day experience he brought to the team. But, he's a 35 year old guy who was all over the place enotionally just a month ago. I wish him no ill will but something odd is afoot. i can't see anything other than trusting the Bills that this is best for the team.

They would have burned you at the stake in Salem for even thinking such things, Warlock Bills Fan. Your idea could never work. "Electronic tablets"? Good luck with that plan.

Hmm. A light bulb just went off. I think Bezos should buy into the Buffalo News and deliver the paper by drone. You could actually deliver it just as the reader was getting up, drop it on their front porch to ensure the news being reported was timely. I think I'm going to send him a letter on Monday when the post office is open again. This idea is in the incubator stage but I think it's got some legs to it. Thanks OTALFG.

Oh, don't you worry, I caught up with the whippersnappers and gave them the business but good. They didn't know whether to sh=t or go blind when I got done with 'em. Reminds me of a story when I was in Europe in '44...

You have to love the Washington angle. 17 month investigation purported to be critical of the FBI up to and including the director, submitted for review to the FBI for potential "classified" content, and that bumbling jackass out on a book tour like he's Mr. Clean. I alaways figure if you're going to try and create a world molded to your worldview, you should have the decency not to get caught. You really have to wonder if power corrupts, or if he was always a power hungry a-hole. Regardless, his carefully crafted image of strength and integrity is shot and it's about to get worse.

Well if you take it to extreme, if there was a wrestling or football team in high school, why would you want to limit the team by gender? The close contact issue in wrestling is problematic. And we can whitewash it and say it isn't, or that there are not societal issues that many kids would struggle with, but there are. Besides, if it's all good and we're all the same, no need for different locker rooms.

If all a person ever did was track the players in these investigations, relative to other quasi-political investigations, it would be easy to surmise the population of Washington DC is 10 people or less.