Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republicans don’t trust women.

I really should read my own blog.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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182Comments

  2. 2.

    CaseyL

    Well, now that NE is out there’s no team I really hate and want to see lose.

    The game is very young, but already Arizona is getting a taste of what Seattle went through last week.

  4. 4.

    jacy

    I don’t really care about football — it’s no hockey! — but thank dog the Broncos won so I don’t have to deal with crabby kidlets and my ultimate Bronco-fan mom being disappointed
    . I guess the game was exciting enough, but compared to the speed at which a hockey game takes place, it just seems so freaking slow to me.

  8. 8.

    different-church-lady

    Well, I just hope the investigation into the Patriots’ tablets going dead takes four months, cost 5 million dollars and winds up in Federal Court. Integrity of the game, donchano.

  13. 13.

    raven

    @redshirt: It is, especially on the radio. I love it for long drives and such. Of course it didn’t hurt when the Braves won division titles for more than a decade.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    Bleah. My slight hangover from last night’s work party triggered a small migraine, which is annoying as hell. (Since I only had two drinks, it was less the drinking than the drinking+dancing that dehydrated me and caused the headaches. I’m too old for this now.)

  18. 18.

    redshirt

    @raven: The Braves were the best non dynasty ever. It’s like the Buffalo Bills of MLB, but even more so. Though Buffalo’s 4 straight trips to the SB without a win is rather incredible.

  21. 21.

    redshirt

    @raven: Should have won 2-3 more. I suppose the 90’s Yankees were a factor. But that Braves pitching staff was one of the best of all time and they only got 1 title out of it.

  23. 23.

    Heliopause

    And yes, I saw that block in real time, so if I saw it on my TV the refs should have too. Missed call.

  27. 27.

    BruceFromOhio

    Ginn made so many great plays for OSU back when, and it is a blast to see him still at it.

    And another lucky kid in the Panther stands.

    @redshirt: Kelly’s was a fun, exciting, painful era. Always a bridesmaid, never the bride.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @redshirt: Yeah, that 90s Braves pitching staff was unbelievable — Maddox, Smoltz, Glavine. And you’re right — it’s an awesome background game.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @redshirt:

    I love the Braves. Went to a lot of games when I lived in Atlanta. They’re still my team. I try to see them when they’re in town to play the Nats.

    My all-weather ball cap is a fitted cloth Braves cap, not one of those cheapo adjustable ones.

  33. 33.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @jacy: Ditto on hockey vs. football.

    I’m waiting for the first copy of Becoming Phoebe to ship. It should do so tomorrow, given that I asked for rush service, and arrive on Tuesday, since I paid an exorbitant amount for 1-day shipping. Then I’ll spend time digging through it to see if I find any problems before it starts selling for real.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: I don’t really give a shit if he drinks the blood virgin goats while sniffing glue. I just want the treatment to even approach lip service to being equitable.

  39. 39.

    redshirt

    @Betty Cracker: Besides cricket, I suppose – which no American will ever watch – baseball is the ultimate background sport. Long season, long games with a lot of rather mundane action. It’s less an event and more a rhythm of the summer.

    I watched this cool golf channel tourney last monday that had other sports stars and some entertainers golfing and 1. Brett Saberhagen is really good at golf but 2. So is Tom Glavine. He smoked Smoltz. It was fun to see the two compete against each other.

    It was really neat to see all these other sports guys play golf. Like Marcus Allen sank a 40 foot putt and it was awesome. Larry the Cable Guy was there though, which brought everything down a notch.

  41. 41.

    Heliopause

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t know how Palmer reacts to being in a hole. The Seahawks were just reenacting a frequent theme of theirs; look like crap offensively in the first half, tell Wilson to start winging it, they come back.

  42. 42.

    redshirt

    @Steeplejack (phone): Given that the Braves were originally a Boston team, and in the 90’s they were one of the few teams you could reliably watch on TV thanks to TBS, I tried to make them my NL team.

    But I just can’t dig the NL. Pitchers in windbreakers is just boring.

  44. 44.

    different-church-lady

    @JPL: Just as well: the NFL would investigate, claim it was more probable than not Peyton didn’t do anything shady, and then suspend Brady for 4 games.

  47. 47.

    redshirt

    @raven: I believe it. He’s probably a great golfer too, but he choked his short game which was awesome to see an elite athlete like him choke like I choke on the golf course.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @raven:

    Yeah, at the Ted and also the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

    I went to one World Series game against the Yankees when it was so cold I could barely concentrate on the game. It was football playoff weather!

  51. 51.

    JimV

    Of interest probably only to me: statistically Brady and Manning played similar games, in this sense: both had about 50% pass-completions (Brady slightly below, Manning slightly above); Brady got 310 yards on 56 attempts (5.54 y/a) and Manning got 176 yards on 32 attempts (5.50 y/a).

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @redshirt:

    I like golf as a background TV sport too. Low-key, announcers are knowledgeable and remarkably unobnoxious, and the scenery is great.

  55. 55.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Gostkowski has to be kicking himself. (Get it? Get it?)

    Actually Belichick should be kicking himself – he’s the one who came up with and pressured the league to adopt the new PAT rule.

    At the time a former pro said Belichick isn’t pushing the new rule for the good of the game, he’s too cynical and devious, rather he’s pushing it cuz he thinks he has the best kicker, who never misses, while his opponents will screw up.

    Law of unintended consequences.

  56. 56.

    Schlemazel

    @Steeplejack (phone):
    It used to be but now it is infested with the same sort of jackholes who cannot shut up for 1- seconds and love to talk about everything but the game. We used to a have a great guy here, HoF radio guy. His pace was as easy as a fine summer night and covered the game perfectly. His replacements will be jabbering about some game he saw 23 years ago as a kid or how some clown in AA went 12 for 14 last week. If you listen carefully you can hear the ball hit the catchers mitt or tick off a bat and the crowd react but damned if he will mention it.

  57. 57.

    Prescott Cactus

    Cards are doomed. Cursed (pronounced Cur – said) by the Pottsville Maroons and it will haunt them until they return the 1925 claim of Championship.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottsville_Maroons

    The Cardinals did not attempt to publicly take credit for the title until 1933, when it was acquired by Charles Bidwill whose descendants still own the modern-day franchise (since relocated to St. Louis and now Arizona). The Cardinals have won only one further NFL title, in 1947, leading to discussion that the franchise is “cursed” as a result of the debacle. The Chicago Cards didn’t claim the title until the Bidwells bought the team in 1933. Their only Championship win & it’s tainted like Flint water

  63. 63.

    redshirt

    @Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, golf is great background TV, especially in the winter. So soothing.

    But now that I’m getting into golf I find it all far more interesting, because I’m taking those same shots, so there’s some learning that might be done. As opposed to any other sport, which I ain’t learning a damn thing other than better watching skills.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    Jeez Louise, the first 16 Superbowls were over and done with by the close of Jan. 25.

    Guess by the time they get to #100 it will be played at the end of March (although as February is a sweeps period, the networks will fight to keep it in that month.)

  65. 65.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @ThresherK: Yeah. as the say in Bawston – dats ah wicket burn

    All but two NFL owners voted to push the extra point back from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line at the owners’ meetings in March, which has been discussed for several years. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick led the charge for this rule change, saying last year that extra points weren’t designed to be automatic when they were first put into the game.

    an article from the beginning of the season was titled: “The new extra point rule will affect the outcomes of games, and that’s not a good thing”

  67. 67.

    BruceFromOhio

    OK, creepy KFC guy is channeling Jeb! and it’s kind of sad.

    The Bronco’s are gonna get the same treatment as the ‘Hawks and Card’s, and its gonna be sad too.

    OK, maybe not.

  71. 71.

    raven

    @David *Rafael* Koch: Vince Dooley pushed through the “player calling attention to himself” rule and it cost us the game against LSU when AJ Green caught a touchdown pass and did NOTHING. They called it and pushed the kickoff back 15 yards and the short field was instrumental in LSU winning that game.

  72. 72.

    redshirt

    @raven: Nice! Should be awesome. I’m going to some tournament in Florida at the end of February. Looking forward to watching these guys with my own eyes. I need to improve my game, drastically.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @Schlemazel:

    One of the things I have come to appreciate about SiriusXM is that they run a lot of MLB games (if not all of them). And for the non-weekend, non-network games, usually you get your choice of either team’s local broadcast. I used to love listening to Seattle Mariners games because Patrick Warburton did some hilarious ads for a regional bank where he and some other guy played Lewis and Clark.

  77. 77.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @raven: the “player calling attention to himself” was that in response to the university of miami’s famed on-field antics or did it relate to some other event/team?

  78. 78.

    raven

    @redshirt: It’s a maddening fucking game. I was a caddy at Medinah CC back in the early 60’s and spent many moons on the links. It was a good way for a kid to make a buck and you got to meet all levels of the social strata from pro-jocks who followed the sun to the rich bigwig members.

  79. 79.

    different-church-lady

    @David *Rafael* Koch:

    extra points weren’t designed to be automatic when they were first put into the game.

    They were designed to be the ONLY way you could score when they were first put into the game. All a touchdown got you was a favorable place on the field for a “try”. Eventually they realized the touchdown part was harder than the kick part, so they started handing out points for the touchdown.

  80. 80.

    raven

    @David *Rafael* Koch:

    College football, governed by the NCAA also penalizes excessive celebrations with a 15-yard penalty. NCAA Football Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(1)(d) prohibits “Any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves)”; in addition, Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(2) asserts that “After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot.”[3]

  82. 82.

    raven

    @David *Rafael* Koch:

    Vince Dooley viewed the flag thrown on Georgia receiver A.J. Green Saturday for excessive celebration not just from the vantage point of a former Bulldogs football coach.

    Dooley also looked at it from the perspective of a former NCAA football rules committee chairman who worked to crack down on what he described as “this business of look at me, of strutting and trying to choreograph celebration.”

    Dooley, in attendance at the game, didn’t see Green’s actions after his 16-yard touchdown catch as flag-worthy.

    “When I first saw it, it was a team celebration, which I thought was perfect,” Dooley said Monday. “What we were trying to encourage was team celebration and spontaneity. I thought it was great, but the next thing I knew a flag came.”

    Southeastern Conference coordinator of officials Rogers Redding told the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday the flag with 1:09 to go and Georgia ahead by one point should not have been thrown. Redding said a video review did not support the call.

    Georgia kicked off from its own 15 and after a long return, LSU scored two plays later to win 20-13.

  83. 83.

    different-church-lady

    @David *Rafael* Koch: It affected this game in a negative way for this fan, yet I’m still in favor of the 15 yard P-A-T. A scoring play ought to affect the outcome of a game.

  84. 84.

    redshirt

    @raven: Yeah it is. I have a theory there’s a “Line of Madness” in golf. It’s a skill based line. If you’re below it, you don’t care, and golf’s just an activity and so what. If you’re above it in terms of skill, then it becomes the most diabolical game ever invented. A definition of Hell would be a golf course you can never do better than double bogey no matter how good you are, for example.

    I’m below the line for now, but I’m getting closer to it.

  90. 90.

    p.a.

    I saw earlier this week both NFC teams would be favored over either AFC teams. Not seeing it with Arizona over Denver. If Carolina holds on they should be favored BUT Denver has SB experience ( not good experience) but they’ve been through the week’s BS before.

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    Not that Bud Light is actually desirable in any way…but Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen as spokesmodels? What are you selling, here?

  95. 95.

    Magatha

    @Joel: Yeah, I’m sure you’re right about NFL wingnuts, but one reason I still love my one and only most favoritest quarterback ever Steve Young is that he and his wife were publicly opposed to that horrible California anti-gay Prop 8, the passage of which cast a pall over the the satisfaction I felt over the election of our first non-white prez.

  105. 105.

    different-church-lady

    Honest to Got, I’ve got the screen grab to prove it — NFL.com gameday thingy now says the following:

    Last Play – 01:56 Q2
    C.Catanzaro
    (Shotgun) C.Catanzaro 98 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-M.Leach, Holder-D.Butler.

    The dotted line representing the arc of the football goes off the top of the screen and doesn’t come back down again.

  111. 111.

    Tripod

    Carolina is the class of the league. The Denver defense is good, but it’s going to be like Golden State vs. Cleveland in the NBA finals. Youth will be served.

    Good for Ron Rivera – he was a large part of the Bears getting to XLI – and promptly got fired by that idiot organization for his efforts.

  113. 113.

    Magatha

    @raven: Is golf the sport in which getting the yips is most prevalent? I know in football, kickers can have yip-like stretches of messed up kicks. I remember a long time ago, 49ers kicker Mike Cofer had such a bad run that there was a joke going around – “Did you hear Cofer tried to commit suicide last night? Yeah, he tried to kick the bucket…and missed.” And of course pitchers and QBs can get the yips. But on further review, of course it would be more devastating in golf because it’s not a team sport. I don’t even enjoy golf, but golf yips scare me. But football kickers – oof, they’re part of the team but they have an almost solo job. If I’d remembered to have kids, I wouldn’t have wanted my sons to be kickers.

  115. 115.

    different-church-lady

    @p.a.: I’ve always assumed the latter. But then again, there’s a Boston area slurred thing that happens on occasion — Mayor Menino was not known to be a drunk, but he frequently sounded like one.

  117. 117.

    Nerull

    Mason Crosby had the yips for an entire season – officially the worst kicker in the league in 2012, but recovered.

  118. 118.

    ThresherK

    Not to jinx anything at the half, but has there been a starting QB wearing #1 in the Super Bowl?

  121. 121.

    ThresherK

    @p.a.: Chuck Knoblach, a 2B from the Twins.

    John Tamargo, a catcher who played for NYM and Montreal, among others, wasn’t any great shakes (sic) getting the ball back to the pitcher either.

  122. 122.

    redshirt

    @Magatha: It’s a debatable topic.

    You could say it’s the middling MLB infielder who can no longer hit for the month of July. Why? The yips, most likely. Or an injury and then injury induced yips.

    MLBer’s play almost every day. There’s something to that, compared to all the other sports. Basketball players have it the toughest, it seems, due to how much they must run per game. As compared to baseball players. lol.

    Golfers get the yips, no doubt. But tournaments are such intense and brief time frames. You could choose to only play once a month for ideally 4 days. You could have the yips for one tourney and not for another. Who knows – the yips are often unpredictable.

  127. 127.

    Mike J

    @redshirt: .

    I have a theory there’s a “Line of Madness” in golf. It’s a skill based line. If you’re below it, you don’t care, and golf’s just an activity and so what. If you’re above it in terms of skill, then it becomes the most diabolical game ever invented.

    I think a lot of sports are like that. I’ve competed in chess and sailing, and in both of them I know that everything that goes wrong is because I made a bad decision.

    Basically any sport in which your opponent doesn’t really interfere with your play (ok, they can cover in sailing, but you let them get there.)

  129. 129.

    raven

    @redshirt: I knew a number of basketball players who just had to stop playing when they could not play up to their expectations. They had been really good and it killed them to lose that edge. I, on the other hand, played until I was 50 and then hung it up.

  137. 137.

    raven

    @redshirt: Another reason I stopped. When I moved here I had a student membership at the UGA course. After I finished my program it was too expensive to keep up so I didn’t. I like to save my dough for blue water fishing now.

  143. 143.

    Magatha

    Jeepers, I think I shall turn off my radio now. I am willing to risk missing an astounding Cardinal come-back.

  145. 145.

    Suzanne

    I think the entire city is going to be ready to commit seppuku tomorrow. Man, what a bummer.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    I switched to Downton Abbey. I assume that if the Cardinals make a comeback, you all will let me know

  154. 154.

    p.a.

    I have to admit watching the team from the immigrant hating, MLK holiday negating state go down to defeat is enjoyable. Is that wrong?

    Feel a bit for Palmer; his first knee injury, early in a playoff game, was a cheap shot and set him back for years (traded to Raiders etc.)

  155. 155.

    danielx

    Peyton Manning thought bubble at the end of the Broncos-Patriots goround: Going to the Super Bowl is great, but if we don’t win at least I’ve beaten that sonofabitch Brady one last time.

  157. 157.

    BruceFromOhio

    @danielx: Based on Manning’s public statements, it seemed that the two had mutual respect. Always good to best your equal, though I don’t get a sense of malice from either QB.

    Oh look, five turnovers. One more and it’s a nice box for Monday morning break room.

    ETA: Yeah, Panthers really snoozing in this second half.

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    I used to help out the elderly farmers next door with heavy work. I was a youngster then, and could do for them what they couldn’t do any more. Both passed on now, taught me most of what I know about farm work.

    Frequently we would have some leftovers for lunch, and then sit in the living room with Cincinnati Red baseball on the TV. Hot summer afternoons, no A/C, their family just never did that. We would chat a little, and drowse off, coming back to the room when we heard the bat strike the ball, or the crowd cheer.

    More recently Mrs J and I have gone to some of the minor league games just to watch the youngsters play ball. Cheap summer evening fun.

    I will say though that an acquaintance’s wife was hit by a foul ball some years ago, never recovered from the blow, and died in a nursing home… so even baseball can be tragic. I keep my eyes on the ball as well as I can.

  161. 161.

    Corner Stone

    CAR is going to fucking destroy the zBroncos. And, yeah, the z there stands for zombie. Because I may not even watch Cam pull a Mortal Kombat fatality on Denver.

  169. 169.

    David Koch

    Panthers have to be at least a 12 pt favorite over the Broncos.

    Broncos have a great defense. But their offense is limited to a running game, which can be clogged up.

  170. 170.

    Corner Stone

    CAR is going to completely fucking destroy DEN. This is going to be the most boring SB since the last time DEN was involved.

  171. 171.

    p.a.

    @Corner Stone: I don’t know what, if anything, the Denver O will be able to accomplish against Carolina, but the Bronco D is for real. Couple of picks, stripsack; shit happens. Broncos have the experience. As I already noted it wasn’t a GOOD experience, but sometimes knowing how to prep for the Super Bowl ™ makes a difference.

  173. 173.

    Corner Stone

    @p.a.:

    As I already noted it wasn’t a GOOD experience, but sometimes knowing how to prep for the Super Bowl ™ makes a difference.

    They should prepare by practicing how to duck and cover under their school desks.
    CAR is going to rip DEN into itty bitty pieces.

  176. 176.

    John

    I don’t think the difference maker will be Carolina O v Denver D. I think Peyton Manning is going to get demolished by Carolina’s secondary. Denver won’t be able to stifle Newton, and Manning will throw at least three picks. Carolina’s offensive line isn’t going to get owned by three-man rushes like the Patriots did, so Denver won’t be able to flood the secondary. And Carolina’s TE was second in offensive production to Gronkowski, who made Denver’s d-backs look pretty bad. Finally, Newton is a hell of a lot more mobile than Tom Brady.

  177. 177.

    John

    @Betty Cracker: He’s a really good looking guy. I wonder if all the companies that have thrown themselves at one-step above mediocre QB Tom Brady will come looking to hire Cam after he wins the Superbowl.

  180. 180.

    Joel

    Only watched the first quarter of this one. It was over before it started.

    Shades of the 2013 Seahawks.

  182. 182.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Steeplejack (phone): I had lots of garbage added to a URL when I tried to edit it after posting. Something like: balloon-juice/editor/jkd;lja;sdf/ak;sdkfj/my.url.org Maybe something similar happened to him.

    Whatever it was, was very annoying in my case.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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