unclevlad

So I watched the first post-Trebek show. Ken Jennings gave a nice tribute to him, as one might expect. After that, I thought he managed a very smooth game. My one big negative: if you'll pardon the pun, the tenor of his voice. But overall I think he deserves good marks.

On the 25th Amendment, everything I've seen has been "Pence is unwilling to invoke." And my feeling is, if he hasn't done it by now, he won't.

The FiveThirtyEight consensus of various polls shows --Good news: Trump's approval rating has shifted about 2%, both on the Disapproval side (up) and on the Approval side (down) --Bad news: His approval rating is still 40%.

So do armed drones and sniper rifles. There's no way I'd hold it outside. I like the Supreme Court building because Roberts administers the oath anyway. A symbolic choice might be the Department of Justice building.

We now have to wonder who's going to retire...altho obviously it's way too early. More than any season, this one will take time before it'll be let go completely. Brees is believed to be leaning that way; I think Rivers may well do so for family reasons; the man's got 9 kids!!!! Enduring another season, or even half-season, of semi-isolation would seem especially burdensome. September's a long ways off, but it still feels like "mostly open" is more likely than "back to normal." And Ben seemed burned out...if the 2021 season is at all like this one in terms of continued heavy testing (baseball season may tell us a LOT about that)...and with the age and wear and tear...who knows. Brady probably will, but IMO the Bucs need to pay serious attention and figure on moving on *soon*. Remember how fast Peyton slipped.

True. No big mistakes on offense at all, and moved the ball very nicely when necessary. Taking the ball back at 11 minutes in the 4th, and going 13 plays, 60 yards and 6:40 off the clock was *solid*, thank you. Defense maybe could be criticized after the 1st quarter but to a degree they were probably playing soft. ALMOST too soft, but they also forced a few mistakes in the 2nd half and with that kind of lead, that's all they needed. Even more to me, the Steelers have rusted through. They got manhandled overall. And Ben's mistakes were killers. Even more, what we saw tonight, we've been seeing to a degree for the last 6 or 7 games. The Steelers and the Seahawks both just did an about-face worthy of Mike Shanahan-led Bronco teams. And it's WAY too early to speculate, but Big Ben looked terrible. I don't follow them, so I can't say how much was Covid, or players choosing to sit out, or what, but they were overpowered too much of the time. That suggests a) is Ben's time about up? and b) do the Steelers need to completely retool...and is Ben the right QB for that? And the need to find Ben's replacement is now GLARING. 17 years in the league, 231 games started, he'll be 39 in 2 months, and he's been *beaten up* over his career.

I don't think they will. Steelers are too sloppy; they're the ones who seem to have had little or no prep for this one. Even on their TD, the snap *almost* doomed the 4th and 1 before that. The defense isn't a lot better. Browns turn around after that, and go 9 plays and 65 yards to get it back to 28, in, what, 90 seconds or so. Even tho they just gave up the long FG. Granted, the Steelers looked terrible in the first half of last week too, but the margin's even bigger this time.

Exactly. The right fielder was never named in the skit.

Nah, that's the right fielder. And speaking of WTF...2 possessions, 2 turnovers, and 14-0 BROWNS???????? This is turning into a Back to the Future game...you could cash in *huge* on props so far. But it's just over 5 minutes in.... EDIT......................... Can someone call a maid service to clean the brain matter scattered across my wall??? Not even the end of the 1st and this game is all but over.

Second Iraq War, perhaps, but the Afghan War was forced on him by 9/11...as was much of the Patriot Act. Even the 2nd Iraq War had *some* justification. I didn't like Jr, don't get me wrong, but.... Trump incited a movement that has a strong chance to turn into a full-on domestic terrorism movement. He targeted the core principles of democracy throughout. His irresponsible dismissal of the coronavirus from the start has probably cost a good 100,000 lives. The aftermath of his actions will extend DECADES...admittedly, in part because the roots have been there, but he's responsible for feeding, watering, and transplanting all the noxious weeds to make sure they flourish. Trump is not merely the worst President; he will go down as one of the worst freely chosen leaders ever. He's not #1; that's Hitler, hopefully forever; that is, of course, Hitler. For US Presidents, IMO he adjusted the scale, the gap between him and anyone else is that big.

Worth a read if you can get to it...at least it made me feel somewhat better... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/us/politics/capitol-arrests.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage Notes the charges in several cases. Mostly I think it's arrests we knew but there's some new stuff: --The WVa representative who was arrested has resigned his seat. --You might've seen the Capitol officer backing up the stairs; the individual threatening him has been arrested. --a QAnon guy who sent a text threatening to execute the Speaker on live TV. And yes, he had several guns. Side note: Trump refused to order the flags to be flown at half-staff for the officer killed Wednesday until today. Such a classy guy to come through in the clutch....

I Don't Know. Weren't you listening? (Cancer gets -10 likes for epic comic fail.) And speaking of epic fail...perfect flea flicker, Trubisky throws a perfect pass, and Javon Wims in the end zone has it slip through his arms like a greased pig.

According to CNBC, Amazon has decided to suspend providing cloud services to Parler because their unchecked calls for violence constitute a violation of Amazon's terms of service. Finding an alternative will NOT!!! be easy. There are very few companies that offer large-scale cloud services, and spinning up to offer that level of capability on private systems is neither easy nor cheap. This was my take even on Wednesday. The problem wasn't in how the officers on the ground generally behaved or their choice of response, it was a planning failure.

You're right, my bad.

I could lie and say I know how you feel but I prefer to make my lies at least barely plausible... Just try to avoid sinking down here....the Jules version, NOT the Darko version, I might add... All around me are familiar faces Worn out places, worn out faces Bright and early for their daily races Going nowhere, going nowhere Their tears are filling up their glasses No expression, no expression Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow No tomorrow, no tomorrow And I find it kinda funny I find it kinda sad The dreams in which I'm dying Are the best I've ever had I find it hard to tell you I find it hard to take When people run in circles It's a very, very mad world, mad world

Boom, boom, come on, out go the lights...Rams convert a fumble recovery into an *easy* TD to go up 17. What the heck happened to the Seattle offense? Good start but, not counting the game against the Jets where they dropped 40...23, 12, 20, 20, and 26 points. Now put that up against the #1 defense in the league and, gee, yeah, they have been pretty much futile. Another game where the refs made an absolutely horrible call, after a couple in the first game. The play that knocked out Wolford *wasn't* a personal foul? You have got to be kidding me. Worse, this was the kind of hit the NFL is desperate to remove; the kid went to the hospital for further examination. By definition that is cause for concern.

Yeah, that's a few days old, but the big concern it brings up is that the next battleground for all the "stolen election" claims are the state houses...many of which may be more than happy to listen. Mitch McConnell sent out a memo related to any possible Senate impeachment proceedings. There is a big problem...and it's NOT McConnell. From TheHill.com: Pro forma is, I'm reasonably sure, perfectly normal for this period. And there is obviously NO!!! chance at all for unanimous consent. OHH...thanks, archer. I meant to mention that OTHER phone call Trump made down to Georgia, that darn sure sounds like obstruction of justice to me....

Long article excoriating Hawley here. https://www.chicagotribune.com/election-2020/ct-josh-hawley-capitol-backlash-20210108-775mnvr2mbfmpofydrparxpuii-story.html Thing is, this may do nothing but ingratiate him further with the hard-core Trumpists at the same time. So his fate might be linked to the degree the Republican Party steps away...and the problem is, the *#$@#$ still got 75 million votes.

Also, too many 'conservatives' were perfectly happy to support Trump despite so many severe warning signs, and they got what I think they wanted the most: the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Throwing Trump to the lions now is purely political calculus; he can't give them *anything close* to similar value any more, and his cost has become too high.

They also got the *moron* waving to the camera carrying away the House lectern.

Analysts need to go back to class about some things... Indy's down 14; score with about 10 minutes left in the 4th, so it's at 8. THEN, on top of that, they're handed a penalty to let the ball be spotted at the 1...they take that option and go for 2. Charles Johnson's going "I don't get it, take the point." He's never done anything like a decision tree, obviously, and particularly a weighted decision tree...bringing the ball to the 1 increases the chance of the 2-point conversion working.

I think Chris is calling out the elected government types. His comment specifically targets the federal ones; I'm not sure state officers are required to uphold the US Constitution, but I think he fully intends to include, say, the WVa state rep who's been busted.

Parler should be somewhat blunted. Google's removed it; Apple is very likely to follow. It seems likely that they'll do the same with future iterations. It won't eliminate Parler, tho. The other side will be the cable channels. I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done about them. We can hope that they're strangled financially through limited sponsorship. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" is true in physics...but not socially. Action begets escalating counteraction. There's a limit to how far this can go but we're nowhere NEAR that limit. And with the deadline to act so near...yeah, the conditions seem far too ripe for severe violence. It may not play out; it seems likely that, for the most part, these calls won't generate the numbers the agitators seek. But in places it seems all to likely they will. Also as pointed out, police will be mobilized and on alert. You have to think their expectation is, any approaching group IS intending to do violence, so their response will be faster and harsher. If it only gets to tear gassing the crowd and isolated shots fired, well, that might be a big win.... Otherwise the death toll could be substantial.

And I'd buy that argument too. Warnock is the senior pastor of a Baptist church, and that is meaningful in Georgia. I can readily see that 17,000 Georgians found that attack against such an individual to be inappropriate. It's very hard to demonize a Baptist pastor in the Old South.

The final margin wasn't that different between the two races...but Warnock was declared the winner over Loeffler FAR earlier...some time Tuesday night. Ossoff wasn't declared the winner until, IIRC, very late Wednesday morning. I believe it was before the joint session opened, but not that much. The number alone doesn't tell you that much. You have to put it in context. Warnock won 51-49, and had that 1+% lead much of Tuesday night, so the pattern was clear. Ossoff's margin was much smaller; Perdue might even have had a very small lead well into Tuesday night. It was definitely in recount range until mid-morning Wednesday. But oscillation is to be expected because different areas will have different voting patterns and will report/get counted at different points in the process. BUT the difference between Warnock's and Ossoff's final total was only about 17,000. That's really small; had that been the margin between Ossoff and Perdue, that's automatic recount range. So Loeffler managed to turn off 17K more voters. Heck, for all we know, that might be nothing but a sexist reaction. The difference between the 2 races is really too small to try to draw much of a conclusion.