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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Brett Favre, Confident White Man

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Brett Favre, Confident White Man

by Anne Laurie|  October 4, 20225:44 pm| 103 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Sports, Grifters Gonna Grift

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Brett Favre has a hired a new, high-powered attorney to represent him in the Mississippi welfare fraud scandal: Eric Herschmann, who helped clear former Pres Trump in his first impeachment trial. Herschmann has “concluded Favre shouldn’t be indicted.” https://t.co/wxJlOZMSRm

— Michele Steele (@MicheleSteele) October 3, 2022

(h/t Scout211)

… Why it matters: The former Green Bay Packers quarterback is at the center of Mississippi’s biggest-ever public corruption case…

Context: Herschmann, 58, based in Austin, was one of Trump’s most trusted aides, and represented Trump at his first impeachment trial. His White House title was senior adviser…

He has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

Herschmann and Favre were connected by mutual friends.

Dave Roth at Defector, back in April, on “Brett Favre And The Thin Line Between “Making Plays” And “Massive Fraud”“:

It was generally to his credit, and essential to his appeal, that Brett Favre played football like someone who might eventually wind up implicated in some kind of sprawling fraud. This had less to do with any latent thread of malice in him than it did with a sort of profound and even heroic incapacity for forethought, though that the latter opens the door for the former does tend to diminish the charm a bit. As a football player, Favre gave a lot and took away a bit less, but he was sufficiently charismatic to be graded on a curve that accounted for his inherent heedlessness; he was great enough that how and who he was came to qualify the moments in which he fell short for increasingly predictable reasons, in increasingly predictable ways.

Favre’s mythos is only helped by the fact that so few people in any line of work get this kind of dispensation. The American Dream has always, at its heart, been about not just being able to do whatever you want to do, but about being able to get away with it. It’s a lot more fun to imagine the liberation of living that way than it is to live in the wreckage that sort of behavior reliably leaves behind. When a critical mass of neighbors and bosses and leaders are operating like that, you are not and will never be safe, primarily because you will never be taken into consideration at all. All that manic playmaking and Having Fun Out There is done not just in defiance but denial of the very existence of consequences. And so everyone who is not the prime mover—the person making plays—is a potential enemy, or opponent, or just someone who might notice that they are being harmed and then get mad about that. For those who see themselves as the protagonists of reality, the thing is to take your shots downfield, because that is where the points are, but also to insist upon being absolved of any accountability once the ball leaves your hand. You were simply trying to make things happen, as winners do; it would be unfair, it would be un-American, to be held accountable when, as a consequence, those things actually happen. If this is a reckless way to play quarterback, it is a much worse way to do anything more consequential or important than that.

If there is a defense to be made for any of the many people implicated in a massive case of public fraud in Mississippi, it is that none of them really seemed to think very long or hard about what they were doing. This cast of characters—which includes Favre and former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, as well as two generations of pro wrestling’s DiBiase family, the former Mississippi State linebacker Paul Lacoste, and former Mississippi high school football prodigy and college football cautionary tale Marcus Dupree, along with the usual assortment of creepy local fixers and real estate developers and quackish all-purpose grifters—took tens of millions of dollars in federal funds that were supposed to be spent on the state’s neediest citizens and spent them in all the prosaic and useless ways that such people tend to spend stolen money: on mortgage and car payments, on luxury vacations and luxury rehab stints, and on the churches and fitness boot camps that these local heroes owned. In Favre’s case, that money became both an investment in a scammy biomedical startup and the funds behind his donation towards a new facility for the women’s volleyball team at Southern Miss, on which his daughter Breleigh played.

This was all made possible through serial and systemic corruption in the state’s Department of Human Services and facilitated by the creation of a vast and inverted infrastructure of nonprofit institutions that worked tirelessly, for years, to make sure that money did not reach the people it was intended to help, and instead disappeared into the pockets and projects of various well-heeled and well-connected parties. Those parties did all this as oafishly and overtly and lazily as possible—that is, in ways that suggested they did not believe they could possibly get caught, or that it would matter if they did. So far, they’ve been right…

In 1996, when Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law, 33,000 adults in Mississippi received federal assistance. Within a decade, that number was 8,500. In 2017, the Mississippi Department of Human Services accepted just 1.42 percent of welfare applications, the lowest figure in the nation. That year, 11,700 families applied for Temporary Assistance For Needy Families funds and 167 were approved. In 2018, fewer than four percent of Mississippi children living in poverty received any TANF benefits. Wolfe told the former Mississippi congressman Ronnie Shows that just 208 adults in the state received TANF in 2021; benefits for a family of three are currently capped at $260 per month. Given the volume of federal funding that sluiced through the state’s Department of Human Services, and given that the department and the broader state apparatus was determined not to give that money to anyone who needed it, it is difficult to imagine any kind of non-corrupt outcome…

Consequences, qualifications, justification—those were for other people, the less-deserving and leverage-less, who would simply have to try to navigate a wilderness of rules that had been built specifically to exclude them. The various narrowing hoops through which the intended recipients of those funds had to pass in order to get their monthly pittance were part of what the politicians in charge sold to their voters; this was called accountability. And if no poor family was deserving of those $260 per month, then the people in charge would simply use it in ways that would benefit the greater good, for instance by letting Brett Favre shore up his Girldad credentials…

Mississippi’s largest public corruption case in state history involves millions of misspent dollars earmarked for families.

The lawsuit involves a number of sports figures, including NFL great Brett Favre. Here are the sports figures named in the lawsuit. https://t.co/ZUrBMmbzN8

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 3, 2022

Not-so-fun fact: Mississippi, the poorest state, is one of just 13 with a grocery tax—and has the highest at 7%.

During Tate Reeves' 8 years as Mississippi Senate president, multiple bills to end Mississippi's grocery tax died even as he led the charge to slash corporate taxes. https://t.co/9XGNWqLVMq

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) October 2, 2022

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Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 4, 2022 at 5:48 pm

    Force him to repay, with interest, and then contemplate the error of his ways from a cell.

  2. 2.

    Eunicecycle

    October 4, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    Eric Herschman takes a hit in my estimation. I know everyone is entitled to a defense, but you know if an actual welfare recipient received one dollar more than they should have, they’d be prosecuted. Brett Favre knew exactly what was happening and stole millions of dollars, but doesn’t deserve to be prosecuted?

  3. 3.

    Spanky

    October 4, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    Fuck that guy those guys.

    Aaaaand I’m out until some later thread.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 4, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    I kinda liked Panda Man whenever the J6 committee showed clips of his testimony. But even as I watched and enjoyed, I knew it was very wrong of me. Thank goodness he’s shown his true colours while there was still time for me to escape. (True confessions: There was a time in my life when I liked Michael Avanatti, too. It didn’t last long, but it hurt when I realised I had fallen for the sizzle, while the only thing on the plate was a chewed-over piece of gristle.)

  5. 5.

    hells littlest angel

    October 4, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    How many days had Herschmann gone without being a shitty human being? Probably longer than he ever had before. The poor guy just cracked.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    October 4, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I thought Michael Avenatti was hot. I still do. But he’s valid and terrible and being hot doesn’t make up for it.

  7. 7.

    MattF

    October 4, 2022 at 6:10 pm

    At least the Truth, such as it is, is now public knowledge. I doubt that the Mississippi legal system will punish the various malefactors, but it’s possible that a scapegoat will be found. Unlikely to be Mr. Favre, though.

  8. 8.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Herschmann lost it for me when he said something like, “We were all drained and went home,” on Jan. 6 as the Capitol was still being cleared.

  9. 9.

    Cameron

    October 4, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    I’m not sure I’d want to hire a lawyer who concluded that I should be indicted.

  10. 10.

    MisterDancer

    October 4, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    I’m always a little taken back when people say “where’s the justice? Why aren’t these people IN JAIL?”

    The American Justice System — it’s laws, and their enforcement — aren’t built to take down a Favre, or a Trump. Look at what it took to take down Capone!

    It’s why I take the above as positive, in some ways; at least these wankers got ink printed, and that by the barrelful, about their misdeeds.

    Will they “go to jail”? Hell if I know. But my Parents recall a time when sucking money from Black folx was just how things were done, and I personally suspect a lot of the time we assumed things got even and “fair”, this kind of crap was still going on.

    Boss Hogg Is Real. And I’d bet anything our history is littered with people like him, grifting off the public…and not just in the American South.

    So you keep shining lights. Keep putting money into real journalism like the Mississippi Free Press (who I understand broke this story?), or Mississippi Today. Keep circulating these tapes of malfeasance, and don’t let the fact that our justice system oft isn’t, make you cold and callous.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    October 4, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    @Cameron: +1

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    brendancalling

    October 4, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    I’m not giving a second of my attention to either of those pustulent pimples on the earth’s ass.

    Loretta Lynn has died. She’ll be remembered a lot longer, and for better reasons, than Fuckstick and his lawyer.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have won the Nobel Prize in physics for their landmark achievements in quantum mechanics – the study of the behavior of particles and atoms – the organizing committee announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.

     

    The trio won for their experiments with what’s known as entanglement – a mind-boggling phenomenon when two particles behave as one and affect each other, even though they can be at a vast distance to one another, on opposite sides of the planet or even the solar system.

  14. 14.

    JoyceH

    October 4, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    @Suzanne: I confess to being a huge Avenatti fan girl in the early days. But – context.  That was back when we were waiting and waiting and waiting for Mueller, who was being all ethical and silent and enigmatic, and Avenatti was out there sticking it to Trump with such gusto! He was what we needed at the time.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 6:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @Suzanne:

    @JoyceH:

    One big difference between us and the GOP is that we dump our assholes when they the facts show that they are not worthy of our support.

  16. 16.

    West of the Rockies

    October 4, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    I don’t like Favre’s stupid face.

    Also, why is it never enough?  Good health, 100 million in the bank, fame… But, no.  Favre gotta scam for more.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    Not really OT
    Gisele Bündchen Has Hired a Divorce Lawyer, Tom Brady ‘Trying to Figure Out What to Do’: Sources

    Sources tell PEOPLE that Bündchen has hired a divorce lawyer after months of tension between her and husband Brady

  18. 18.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    How is that not OT?

  19. 19.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @Baud: Football

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    October 4, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Lemme guess, Tommy’s voting Bolsonaro.

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    October 4, 2022 at 6:29 pm

    @Baud: The trio won for their experiments with what’s known as entanglement – a mind-boggling phenomenon when two particles behave as one and affect each other, even though they can be at a vast distance to one another, on opposite sides of the planet or even the solar system.

    Penelope Cruz has such an effect on me and as best as I know, she’s a vast distance away. Not returning my calls so cannot comment on whether the effect is reciprocal–no, no, no Nobel.

  22. 22.

    MattF

    October 4, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    @Baud: I guess it would be impolite to inquire what the Republican never-Trumpers think about Favre. He’s sort of a non-political Trump. Corrupt but arguably not a danger to the Republic.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:35 pm

    @trollhattan: She’s mad that he un-retired.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    October 4, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    The American Dream has always, at its heart, been about not just being able to do whatever you want to do, but about being able to get away with it.

    Too cynical even for me, and I am a cynical to my core. This is true for some people, and I think that some of this really resonates with Trump supporters who deeply admire the Orange Beast’s apparent immunity to any consequence for his misdeeds. But most people still recoil at stories of people who do vile deeds and who get away with it. Juries still convict people all the time.

    However, big sports figures and certain types of celebrities often get a pass when they do bad things. I’ve watched YouTube clips of sports talk radio dopes begin talking about this case and then bend over backwards to defend, justify and excuse what was done.

    If there is a defense to be made for any of the many people implicated in a massive case of public fraud in Mississippi, it is that none of them really seemed to think very long or hard about what they were doing.

    This does not appear to be entirely true. The news stories I’ve read have reported emails and other communications where people openly acknowledge that what they are doing is illegal and then try to make sure that they cannot get caught.

    Mississippi seems to be the worst example in America of the belief by the most craven conservatives that poor people deserve nothing. Even going back to Reconstruction, racist Southerners demolished public education programs for everyone in order to make sure that black people remained oppressed.

    And unfortunately this horrible tradition continues to this day.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    October 4, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @West of the Rockies:

    Good health, 100 million in the bank, fame… But, no. Favre gotta scam for more.

    I would question whether Favre has $100 million in the bank, or whether he every had anything like that.  Yeah, he earned a ton of money playing football and serving as a celebrity pitchman, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would invest his money wisely so he could live off the proceeds.  He seems much more like the guy who spends it like the good times will never stop and doesn’t know what to do when it stops flowing.

    That’s probably why he’s caught up with the welfare business.  I doubt he was broke, but he wasn’t prepared to live without the money he used to get from playing.  He made promises he couldn’t keep, e.g. money for a new volleyball stadium, and turned to crime to make them come through.

  26. 26.

    BruceJ

    October 4, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    The American Dream has always, at its heart, been about not just being able to do whatever you want to do, but about being able to get away with it.

    What a depressingly cynical and destructive view, honestly, it declares that everyone is at heart a sociopathic asshole.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 4, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    @Suzanne:

    Exactly. But such a turnoff when someone you thought had some integrity and was on the side of the angels turns out to be … the opposite of that. He went from hot and sexxxy to meh in a split-second once the scales fell from my corneas.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    October 4, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @zhena gogolia: No one’s going to lose the trailer home in that one.

  29. 29.

    JoyceH

    October 4, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    BTW, isn’t it past time for a Me Too movement for all the women who got abortions at the insistence and with the assistance of husbands or boyfriends or mothers or fathers who are currently anti-abortion politicians?

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 4, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @JoyceH:

    Very well put! I’m sure that was 94% of it (the other 6%, though, is that he genuinely was pretty damn cute).

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: his eyes were too close together IMO

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    October 4, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Mississippi seems to be the worst example in America of the belief by the most craven conservatives that poor people deserve nothing. Even going back to Reconstruction, racist Southerners demolished public education programs for everyone in order to make sure that black people remained oppressed.

    The thing that seems really obvious from the numbers they’re giving is that restricting welfare is all about making sure there’s money left to skim.  Every poor person who’s kept off welfare is that much more money in the pot for them to steal.

  33. 33.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 4, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    @hells littlest angel: I’d bet that counter has never made it above zero.

  34. 34.

    Tony G

    October 4, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    @BruceJ: Actually The American Dream is a crummy shopping mall recently built in a polluted swamp in northern New Jersey.  I was so excited when they started to build that thing because, God knows, northern New Jersey really doesn’t have enough shopping malls.

  35. 35.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    October 4, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    Speaking of shitty white men, forgive me if this has already been shared here but I don’t recall seeing it. This ad from Katie Darling, who is running against Steve Scalise, is really something! (WaPo gift link)

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 6:56 pm

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: wow

  37. 37.

    Cameron

    October 4, 2022 at 6:57 pm

    @BruceJ: I’m not.  I’m just a garden-variety asshole.

  38. 38.

    patrick II

    October 4, 2022 at 6:57 pm

    I kind of felt bad for Favre in the NFC championship game that Sean Payton put a bounty on him.  He was getting the shit kicked out of him and it was clear they were out to hurt him and knock him out of the game.  I don’t feel so bad for him anymore.

    Although Payton should never have been allowed to coach again.

  39. 39.

    Scout211

    October 4, 2022 at 6:59 pm

    New court filings in Eastman’s attempt to claim privilege regarding his communications with Trump prior to J6. Link

     

    The judge, David O. Carter of the federal district court in central California, already released many of Eastman’s emails from around January 2021 to House investigators, but the two sides are still arguing over 562 additional documents from Eastman’s Chapman University email account.

    The latest court filing from the House highlights how the January 6 probe has already collected troves of communications and continues to push for information.

    In their filing Monday night, lawyers for the House argued that Eastman is unreliable because he said previously that some of his emails were attorney communications, such as confidential legal advice and co-counsel discussions. But when the House probe received them, they said, the documents shouldn’t have been protected.

    One was a photograph of a Trump campaign rally with a handwritten note on it commenting on rally attendance, that Trump had forwarded to Eastman through his assistant, the House said. Yet Eastman’s legal team had maintained the note, including the words “NO WAY THIS LOSES,” was about anticipated litigation.

    Another email that Eastman’s team said was attorney communications was a joking discussion between lawyers about stays at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.

    “A shame you are not in DC and could contribute to violation of the emoluments clause,” one Trump campaign lawyer wrote. “I[‘]m stay[i]ng at Trump Int [i]n DC from Jan 3 to at [l]east the 8th. Do[i]ng my part to curry favor w[i]th the Pres[i]dent by [li]n[i]ng h[i]s (empty) pockets! [smiley face emoji],” another wrote.

  40. 40.

    patrick II

    October 4, 2022 at 7:02 pm

    @Baud:

    I have read some science fiction using that idea.  The first trip to a distant planet takes years, but the ship carries entangled atoms with that.  After that, communication with home is instant and the information passed between planets can build anything you want, including a new you.

  41. 41.

    MattF

    October 4, 2022 at 7:11 pm

    @patrick II: No. Entanglement does not violate causality. As far as anyone knows, you can’t send a signal faster than the speed of light. Period.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 7:12 pm

    @MattF:

    Not with that attitude.

  43. 43.

    MattF

    October 4, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    @Baud: Shut up and calculate.

  44. 44.

    dmsilev

    October 4, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    @patrick II: Sadly, reality is a bit of an ass with regards to “no information transfer faster than the speed of light” and so far as we know quantum entanglement isn’t a loophole to that rule.

  45. 45.

    Anonymous At Work

    October 4, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    I read the Guardian’s coverage and they emphasize that Favre was always called a “gunslinger”, meaning he threw big bullets, often inaccurately, like a John Wayne “cowboy” and was given leeway for not following rules, listening to coach, etc.

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/12/brett-favre-how-a-scandal-in-mississippi-tarnished-an-nfl-hero

  46. 46.

    Eric S.

    October 4, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    I work for a utility group and I manage the group that administers LIHEAP benefits for out customers across 4 upper Midwest states. That is to say I know how a related program works. A state gets 2 fiscal years to spend their LIHEAP allocation but 90% has to be spent in the allocation year. The states have to file a plan with the feds each year how they will spend the cash, the admin costs, and expected client benefit. There’s a follow up report to show what actually was spent.

     

    The paltry amount of benefits reaching so few people sounds like a rounding error in a state’s allocation. All this is to say the scope of the fraud in MS must be huge! There are administrators, managers, accountants, and case workers that know some or all of what is happening there.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    October 4, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    The Maine Gubernatorial debate is tonight at 8:00 if anyone wants to check it out.
    https://www.bangordailynews.com/2022/10/04/politics/watch-live-maine-1st-gubernatorial-debate/ Bangor Daily News Link

  48. 48.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 7:34 pm

    Brett Favre seems like a pretty awful person…

    In addition to being the most overrated QB that ever lived.

  49. 49.

    Jackie

    October 4, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    @zhena gogolia: He reneged on his promise to retire and give his family quality and quantity time.

  50. 50.

    Cameron

    October 4, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    ….meanwhile, in another part of the American sports world:

    https://allthatsinteresting.com/lake-erie-walleye-trail-fishing-tournament

  51. 51.

    Martin

    October 4, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    @MattF: Right. There’s two notions of causality at work here. Relativistic causality and signal causality. Quantum entanglement doesn’t allow for the transmission of signals, so you can’t get faster than light communication. That’s different from two connected events happening simultaneously across a distance, which it does allow. (Though notably, it gets difficult to measure and confirm that event due to the need to communicate).

    Science fiction is VERY generously shifting one category into another, which is fine. That’s what soft sci-fi does.

    Suggest people read about the EPR paradox and Bell’s Theorem if they are curious about this. It’s a very non-intuitive thing, even for those of us who studied physics.

  52. 52.

    eversor

    October 4, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @BruceJ:

    I see you’re new to America, let me show you around.

  53. 53.

    The Lodger

    October 4, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    @Eric S.: Is your program administered as a block grant? I’d bet block grant accounting (as used in Mississippi) is a whole lot more flexible than what the Department of Energy and your program’s other sponsors set up for LIHEAP. One of the great unreported stories is just how much social spending slipped into the pockets of state officials and cronies instead of benefiting the people who the popular consensus wanted to Get Off Welfare. Mississippi can’t be the only place where the local power structure made off with most of the cash.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    October 4, 2022 at 7:46 pm

    @MisterDancer: I’m always a little taken back when people say “where’s the justice? Why aren’t these people IN JAIL?”

    Because the presumption of innocence costs money. The more money you have, the longer you can buy it.

  55. 55.

    divF

    October 4, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    @Tony G: From the Wikipedia article on the mall:

    Munchies, a gourmet food court

    Gourmet food for the cannabis-crazed ?

  56. 56.

    eversor

    October 4, 2022 at 7:55 pm

    @JoyceH:

    You don’t think they’d get death threats and actual attacks if they put their name to this?  Me Too had the advantage that a lot of fundies are gonna stan that they are against rape too.  It also gave the right the opportunity to gloat that it brought down more Democratic donors and big wigs than Republicans.  The crown jewels of that moment were Harvey Weinstein and Al Franken, along with nuking Bill Clintons reputation into the ground.  Me Too was a Democrat crusher and a Republican laugh fest.

    Abortions are another matter.  The violence will come out to anyone that goes public especially if it hits team Republican and the Christian right will protect their own.

  57. 57.

    J R in WV

    October 4, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    his eyes were too close together IMO

    My cousin geologist and oil field landsman at the time was working in deep south West Virginia, and was really good at chatting with local rural folks, which was part of why he was really good at being an O&G landsman.

    One day, his story goes, he was talking with a deep country guy, who asked him if he knew how to tell if someone was too inbred. No, Cousin said, how do you do that?

    “They eyes is too close together, like a chicken!” he said. Cousin used a great country accent, also too. Hope this isn’t too off topic!

    We’ve repeated this rule many times since hearing that story years ago. “They eyes is too close together!” is all you have to say, and we break up into laughter.

  58. 58.

    Jinchi

    October 4, 2022 at 7:59 pm

    Herschmann has “concluded Favre shouldn’t be indicted.”

    Imagine the lawyer who publicly concludes his client should be indicted.

    Ok several of Trump’s former lawyers, maybe, but that’s just because they’re facing prison themselves.

  59. 59.

    Hoodie

    October 4, 2022 at 8:03 pm

    @Eunicecycle: Herschman worked for Trump, i.e., by definition, he’s a douchebag.  He was just smart enough to know what might land him in jail for sedition.

  60. 60.

    zhena gogolia

    October 4, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @J R in WV: I wonder if I heard something similar around Kansas City

  61. 61.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    @J R in WV: You can see the eyes close together phenomenon in the current monarch of the United Kingdom, as most of the royal houses of Europe are inbred AF.

  62. 62.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    I read this evening that the R candidate for Governor of Oregon could end up winning with about 33% of the vote, because the Dem and an ex-Dem indy are splitting the remaining vote.

    That’s depressing.

  63. 63.

    Scout211

    October 4, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    Local boy man makes good! Link
    (From Linden, CA)

     

    The American League has a new single-season home run king.

    New York Yankees star Aaron Judge launched his 62nd home run of the season Tuesday on the road against the Texas Rangers, breaking the AL’s record he shared with Roger Maris.

  64. 64.

    Nelle

    October 4, 2022 at 8:19 pm

    @eversor: Part of the whole issue around abortion and health care is the right to privacy.  I disagree that women need to bare their pasts to earn the right to keep it private.  What a contradiction.

  65. 65.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:20 pm

    @Scout211: Good for him.

    And now we don’t have to hear from the kids of Roger Maris ever again.

  66. 66.

    Martin

    October 4, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    @Scout211: I like how ‘AL home run record’ has become the accepted proxy for ‘non-steroid home run record’.

  67. 67.

    cain

    October 4, 2022 at 8:26 pm

    @Cacti:

    Yeah, this is exactly how we are going to lose the governorship – because of shit like that. Also, the D candidate isn’t particularly that strong. They should have gotten a much better candidate.

    At a  time when women’s rights are on the ballot – this not the time for us to be splitting the vote.

  68. 68.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:27 pm

    @Martin: MLB hasn’t done any drug testing since December 2021.

  69. 69.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:30 pm

    @cain: And you just know that if an R accidentally wins with 1/3 of the vote, they’ll still act like they have a mandate to rule like an Emperor.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 8:30 pm

    @Cacti:

    Huh? They got Tatis on something earlier this year.

  71. 71.

    eversor

    October 4, 2022 at 8:31 pm

    @Nelle:

    I agree.  But what made the Me Too movement work was people coming out in public and saying they were raped/assaulted and putting faces to it.  Going public and talking about it.  Rape and assault victims have a right to privacy as well.  That’s why a Me Too for abortion probably would not work.   A bunch of “private” stories will be too easily shot down as “frauds” of the sort of “my girl friend in Canada” or “this one time at a coffee bar in liberal Seattle” type stuff.  Yet actually going public is dangerous to life and limb.

    I don’t have a solution for it.  It’s a very complex problem.   But the claim that “we can copy X movement, that depends on going public, and use it for Y movement, that depends on staying private for very good reasons” is not thinking things through.

  72. 72.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud: Must have been from an earlier sample.  Active steroid testing hasn’t been in effect since the last MLB/MLBPA testing agreement expired on 12/1/21.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    October 4, 2022 at 8:37 pm

    @Cacti:

    MLB, Players’ Union Resume Drug Testing After Lockout Ends
    Major League Baseball and the players’ association resumed drug testing after an absence of nearly 3 1/2 months.

  74. 74.

    Steve in the ATL

    October 4, 2022 at 8:39 pm

    Any MSP jackals around tonight?  I’m grabbing a bite at the Market at Malcolm Yards!

  75. 75.

    Cacti

    October 4, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    @Baud: I stand corrected.

    Barry Bond is still the single season record holder.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    October 4, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    The thing that seems really obvious from the numbers they’re giving is that restricting welfare is all about making sure there’s money left to skim.  Every poor person who’s kept off welfare is that much more money in the pot for them to steal.

    It’s worse than that. Some conservatives have a contempt for the poor. And Southern racists have an ongoing contempt for black people. And so, these people fundamentally believe that the poor deserve nothing. It’s not just about skimming something off the top. It’s about the cruelty of inflicting pain.

    Look at the food tax in the state. This tax is not about creating a slush fund. It’s about making sure that poor people hurt.

    Also, conservatives like to blab about small government. They also believe that the federal government in general, and Democrats in particular, engage in wasteful spending. And so they deliberately ensure that this is the case by stealing money and making certain that mandated programs are poorly managed.

    Mississippi could easily do better. They choose not to do so. They will never allow poor people and black people to get an even break.

  77. 77.

    Joy in FL

    October 4, 2022 at 8:57 pm

    @MisterDancer: Because you mentioned Mississippi Free Press, I just started a modest monthly contribution to them. I think you are probably why I am aware of them at all. I’ve been following them on Twitter for a while. So thank you : )

  78. 78.

    StringOnAStick

    October 4, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    @cain: I think Betsy Johnson is trying to get the R elected, and the rich owner of Nike is funding her campaign, probably for the same reason. He really wants the R but the only way to get that crazy woman into office is to use Johnson to split the D vote.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    October 4, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    Well, the Orange Churl had a campaign rally in Michigan Saturday night and I’m not sure if anybody noticed. I sure didn’t.

    Trump did not fill the 6500 person capacity arena at Macomb County Community College, and according to a reporter from the Detroit Free Press people were leaving early:

        There’s also been a steady stream of attendees heading for the exits since about 15 minutes into this now hour-long and ongoing speech. Former President Trump said a few words about #MIGOP candidates and then launched into familiar grievances.

    Sad!

    Earlier, ralliers got to hear Marjory Taylor Greene refer to herself as “a Southern Belle and a Georgia Peach,” which did not begin to exhaust possible descriptors.

  80. 80.

    Citizen Alan

    October 4, 2022 at 9:12 pm

    @BruceJ: I don’t believe that everyone at heart is a sociopathic asshole. But I do believe that at least 1 in 4 are. And because of various structural deficiencies in our society (and possibly our species), that sociopathic asshole 25% inevitably rises to become our “elites.”

  81. 81.

    KSinMA

    October 4, 2022 at 9:15 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Ha!

  82. 82.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 4, 2022 at 9:16 pm

    OT India related news.

    Will India chose hope over despair and love over hate?

    BJP has managed to paint their main rival on the national stage, Rahul Gandhi as a an out of touch,  not too bright scion of  a political dynasty that has seen better days.

    To counter that image and mobilize the grassroots Rahul Gandhi is walking across the length of India from Kanyakumari (southern tip of India) to Kashmir. The Congress is calling it Bharat Jodo Yatra. (Join Bharat Journey)

    Bharat = India.

    They have completed 600km and already traversed 3 states getting their largest crowds in the BJP ruled Karnataka (the state where Bengluru is )

    And even this traditionally non-Congressi was moved by what Rahul Gandhi is trying to do especially when you recall how his father was assassinated.

    *the song in background is beautiful

    Let me take you under a sky

    where there is no sorrow or tears

    Only love.

    ETA: Let me know if you guys are interested in a Twitter Space if I host it?

  83. 83.

    Citizen Alan

    October 4, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    @Brachiator: Agreed 100%. Mississippi is a shithole, It has been a shithole since approximately 1866. And it will be a shithole long after I’m dead and buried. Because the majority of the voters here would rather live in a shithole than in a decent, prosperous society but one where they had to share that prosperity with people they hate.

  84. 84.

    Geminid

    October 4, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I would be interested. I could not contribute much as I know little about India, but I would like to learn.

  85. 85.

    Citizen Alan

    October 4, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    And in happier news, I finished my thesis and sent it off to my advisor today which means I am officially done with my LLM. Now I wait to figure out (a) if it’s publishable and (b) if an LLM in bankruptcy will finally be my ticket out of the shithole. I also applied for a job in Pittsburgh (the state where my last boss is a judge), so wish me luck on that.

  86. 86.

    Sure Lurkalot

    October 4, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    @Baud:

    Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have won the Nobel Prize in physics for their landmark achievements in quantum mechanics – the study of the behavior of particles and atoms – the organizing committee announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.

    All 3 have roles in my fave physics book, The Age of Entanglement by Louisa Gilder. Reads like a novel with great glossaries explaining the science in a level of detail that normal people can grasp.

  87. 87.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    October 4, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    Not-so-fun fact: Mississippi, the poorest state, is one of just 13 with a grocery tax—and has the highest at 7%.

    This is true.

    When I visited there years ago, I was shocked when I bought groceries and was charged sales tax.

    Indiana’s an ass backwards state in a lot of respects, but even we don’t tax groceries.

  88. 88.

    Suzanne

    October 4, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    I also applied for a job in Pittsburgh (the state where my last boss is a judge), so wish me luck on that. 

    Ooooh good luck, you can be my neighbor!

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    October 4, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    I have been eating too many delicious carbs in the last 2-3 weeks. It’s all the freaking pumpkin spice deliciousness that’s everywhere. And they had those pretzel/cracker bastards on sale. Those are snack food kryptonite.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    October 4, 2022 at 9:36 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I’m rooting for you!

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    October 4, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    Glad you got everything done. Congratulations and good luck!

  92. 92.

    Steve in the ATL

    October 4, 2022 at 9:44 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I have mixed feelings about wishing a law job on someone, but it does pay the bills….

  93. 93.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 4, 2022 at 9:44 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Good luck!

  94. 94.

    Shalimar

    October 4, 2022 at 9:47 pm

    @Cacti: Most overrated QB who ever lived is Joe Namath, but Favre is in the discussion.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    October 4, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    ICYMI, nycsouthpaw (a lawyer) argues caution that Musk is actually really going to buy Twitter.

    A short thread:

    Here’s the very terse letter Skadden’s Mike Ringler sent to Twitter’s attorneys today. Same guy who sent the letters purporting to terminate the agreement in July, August, and September. pic.twitter.com/p7mgKCMTUY

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 4, 2022

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    Another Scott

    October 4, 2022 at 10:26 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Well done, and good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Paul Begala's Pink Tie

    October 4, 2022 at 11:39 pm

    Intersection of the MS corruption story and MeToo: wasn’t Favre also busted for sending unsolicited, unwelcome pics of his penis around? I think I even remember seeing one of them online… he sure wasn’t using any powers of forethought when he photographed that. golf pencil energy.

  98. 98.

    dww44

    October 5, 2022 at 8:15 am

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):  I know it’s late to this thread and this likely won’t get read, but regressive taxation has long been an ongoing objective of these Republican led states.  In the 80s my in-laws moved from Georgia to Alabama and the grocery tax went from 3% to 8%. Since 2000 when this state became totally dominated by the GOP the income and property tax rates have been reduced and replaced with  sales taxes and fees on everything,

  99. 99.

    Paul in KY

    October 5, 2022 at 9:35 am

    @patrick II: Agree that Payton & Saints got off so easy on that mess.

  100. 100.

    Paul in KY

    October 5, 2022 at 9:54 am

    @Cacti: Not in my book.  He’s a steroid cheat and all his records should be stricken from books.

  101. 101.

    Paul in KY

    October 5, 2022 at 9:58 am

    @Citizen Alan: I lived there 8 months back in 1982 and most of it is a shithole. Did meet some fine (mostly black) people there, though.

  102. 102.

    Gravenstone

    October 5, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    @Cacti: A shame, because I’d love to see them catch Pujols during his renaissance final year. He’s way overperforming his recent history and I don’t think nostalgia is a sufficient excuse.

  103. 103.

    brantl

    October 5, 2022 at 3:14 pm

    @BruceJ: No, but a lot of driven business types are.

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