Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Books are my comfort food!

When we show up, we win.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Sportsball Circus

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Sportsball Circus

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Don’t pretend to understand football, but I usually find Ray Ratto a good read. From Defector – “The Chiefs Are The NFL’s Traveling Circus”:

… Yes, the Chiefs in all their weird three-ring magnificence have advanced to the penultimate step in their campaign, “How To Make The Most Histrionical Super Bowl Ever.” All they have to do is beat the Baltimore Ravens this coming Sunday to wed the people who obsess over Taylor Swift and her allegedly witchy tendencies, for good and ill, with the people who agree that Jason Kelce is the NFL’s newest and nudest spokesman for everything the Super Bowl in Las Vegas could, should, and would be…

Nobody [else] has bundled-up Taylor Swift evidently invoking timely wind gusts, and nobody has Jason Kelce shotgunning cans of beer like the quality-control elf at the brewery, barging about the suite while dressed in Western New York formalwear: no shirt, pants looped below his waist like Saturn’s saddest ring, and scaring his kids. Not even Jim Harbaugh dressed as a gorilla on the sidelines giving Connor Stalions piggyback rides during the national anthem would beat what the Chiefs will be bringing. CBS even had trouble keeping its Taylor highlights straight, not showing her after Travis Kelce’s second touchdown but showing her after Isiah Pacheco’s, as though she was there to suss out Kansas City’s running game. The network is clearly losing its keen eye on America’s taste for pandering.

But what about the Lions and the lovely story of their long wait to take center stage, you ask. Why can’t they be America’s Team? Please. You haven’t spent enough time in the new post-COVID America if you think a good football story is enough. And that goes for the Ravens and 49ers as well. The three of them just play football, and that’s not the kind of thing America needs in an election year, especially this one.

No, a Chiefs Super Bowl would be contested for the part of America’s soul that hasn’t already been hedge-funded to Satan because it pits all the louts in the He-Man Woman Haters Club who resent Swift—because even if she isn’t a necromancer with captivating vocal range she still brings girls and all their cooties to the games and ruin the boys’ furniture-breaking adolescent fun—against everything that yesterday’s performance by Kelce The Elder provides. He is the unintended antidote to the Swifties without even trying, just standing on the front railing of the suite three seats away powerbombing Genesees after every first down. The cultural bloodbaths in living rooms across the nation will serve as a fitting warmup act for the meteor or asteroid we will all pray for come November.

And frankly, however Taylor and the Fun Kelce want to crush the week is all good with us. The Super Bowl, long a trade show with a football game tied to the end of it for tax purposes, has become a staid, predictable, events-by-the-numbers, money-on-the-hoof showcase. The halftime show is the same trumped-up extravaganza of last year’s pop stars waiting for their turn on Celebrity Jeopardy. The pre- and postgame shows are still where helium goes to die. Every overproduced ad is either for gambling, cars that drive themselves into trees, or medicines for diseases only yaks get, all with the soundtrack of a 1970s pop song you have to ask your parents about. (“Yeah, that’s Harry Nilsson, he did a song called ‘You’re Breakin’ My Heart’; your mother and I danced to it at prom.”)

And that’s just the stuff you like.

In other words, this is a fight not for the game or even the day, but the entire week. Las Vegas is the only place this can possibly work and even at that it may be more than the town can handle, so it is not just happy coincidence that this is the year when it all can come together. The Swiftmaster General, the Kelce Family Circus, Vegas just being Vegas—it can all make the football industry itself pale in significance at a time when it really needs a humble pie with roofing-nail crust catapulted into its face. Hey, it’s that or three more weeks of back-up quarterback legacy talk, and that’s the reason why you stopped listening to sports talk shows when you got a job, isn’t it?

Reader Interactions

287Comments

  2. 2.

    J.

    Thank you. I needed that. FYI Taylor Swift will be on tour on the other side of the world when the Super Bowl occurs. So even if the Chiefs do make it, she will not be there, much, I am sure, to the NFL’s, CBS’s, and TayTre shippers’ chagrin. But at least Big Bro Jason will be there in the clothing optional suite with a six-pack of brewskis.

  3. 3.

    Old School

    Seems to me if Biden were pulling the strings, the Eagles wouldn’t have lost.  (Or the Commanders would have gone farther.)

  4. 4.

    Ryan

    I will always trust Claire McCaskill and her views.  Mainly because she’s fierce in her fanaticism for the Chiefs.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    Glad to see this putz convicted, but JFC what a load of horseshit:

    A man from upstate New York was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder for shooting at a car that had mistakenly driven up his driveway last spring and killing a young woman. He had argued that he fired the fatal shot by accident.

    On the night of April 15, the defendant, Kevin Monahan, fired two shots with a .20-gauge shotgun, one of which struck a car carrying Kaylin Gillis, 20, who was hit in the neck and died soon after. Ms. Gillis and a group of six friends had been trying to find a friend’s house for a Saturday night party when they drove up Mr. Monahan’s half-mile-long driveway in the rural town of Hebron, N.Y., about 55 miles north of Albany.

    During the two-week trial, Mr. Monahan, 66, had argued that he had not meant to shoot at the car carrying Ms. Gillis, but had tripped on his porch. He said he had initially fired a warning shot after seeing a caravan of two cars and a motorcycle arrive at his house at night.

    He was described by his lawyers as “an old man” who had been awakened in bed and had been terrified that “a group of marauders” had come to attack him and his wife, Jinx, who was hiding inside the house, also armed with a gun.

    It gets worse from there. But like…first off, 66 is not “an old man”, FFS. And he tripped and the gun went off and just happened to have been perfectly aimed at this young woman in a car about 80 feet away? SURE, JAN.

    Go rot, you trigger-happy cowpat.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    LAWL.

    The tears of all these fragile dudes would be more delicious if I wasn’t afraid that one of them will try to kill Taylor Swift.

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    @Alison Rose: So when the guy who broke into our house appeared in court, his lawyer (a public defender with a highly questionable hairstyle) attempted to put forward the defense that the dude was having a psychiatric crisis and simply ran to us for help. He kept asking my husband if he had ever said hi to the guy while out and about, ever had even a short conversation. It was not a successful defense. It filled me with rage, too…. almost like it would not have been a crime because we are neighborly and polite.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    I’m happy the MAGA are upset, but the Swift-Kelce story is very boring to me.

    But I’ve never been into celebrity relationships.

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    have to admit that the Chiefs/Bills and 49ers/Packers games were good football.  Enjoyed watching good to great players showing off their skills on both sides of the ball.

    While other games were less dramatic, the quality of the athletes is still awesome to watch.

    It’s just shows how far dudes have yet to go if they’re upset that the talented, attractive blonde girl, that they all pined for as teens, decides to not go out with the quarterback and instead ends up with the tight-end who has a goofy family and only does so after she’s made a gazillion dollars on her own.

    I have no idea on why her fandom is any less legit than that of the Cryptkeeper (Jerry Jones), owner of the Dallas franchise.

  14. 14.

    Ken

    Every overproduced ad is either for gambling, cars that drive themselves into trees, or medicines for diseases only yaks get

    I wonder how many crypto and/or NFT ads we’ll see this year. I think we’re at close to a 100% failure and/or SEC indictment rate for companies that advertised last year.

    They would fall under “gambling”, if you’re wondering — although Mercedes just announced a “feature” to display your NFT collection on your dashboard, so there may be some synergy with the “cars that drive themselves into trees” category.

  16. 16.

    Raoul Paste

    That’s a great Defector description of the Super Bowl ads

    And while I’m sure that Kelce and Taylor Swift are good people, I would still like to see the Ravens win.   It’s just so much fun to watch them play.  And their raven-costumed mascots  in the end zone are a hoot

  17. 17.

    MazeDancer

    Fired up doesn’t even begin to describe the women in Virginia attending the Biden-Harris Roe Rally.

    Screaming scorched Earth comes closer.

    Trump might as well give up now.

    Women are not going to let him and his abortion stopping MAGAs back in Washington.

    They just won’t.

    (Still, knock wood)

  19. 19.

    JPL

    @Baud: Part of me wants Kansas to win the Super Bowl so they are invited to the White House along with Taylor, but I know that’s childish.

    The Raven’s are going to win anyway.

  20. 20.

    gwangung

    @Baud: I hope they can make it work. I always want relationships to work.

    But it’s the rabid reactions of the incels and MAGAts that are making it REALLY enjoyable for me

    @JPL:  Yeah, think so, too. But it’d be nice if the Chiefs did win it for the reactions…

  22. 22.

    catclub

    @Baud: But I’ve never been into celebrity relationships.

     

    Wait, I thought you are a celebrity! Or maybe those are the relationships you are most not into.

  27. 27.

    Hoodie

    My son just called me to say he’s going to the AFC Championship game this Sunday in Baltimore.   He’s a long time Ravens fan.  He agonized as to whether to go, but I told him it may be a pretty unique experience, several future Hall of Famers (Mahomes, Kelce, Jackson) and Taylor Swift.   Whoever wins, Taylor isn’t going to be at the Super Bowl, so it may be the last chance to catch the circus.

  28. 28.

    catclub

    I think this Super Bowl will break all the ‘Super Bowl Champ predicts how the stock market will do this year’, stuff.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    But what about the Lions and the lovely story of their long wait to take center stage, you ask. Why can’t they be America’s Team? Please.

    The principal owner of The Detroit Lions, BTW, is a woman, Sheila Ford Hamp.

    Oddly enough, I met her in college and knew some of her friends. She is a member of the Ford and Firestone families, but didn’t appear to exclusively run in upper class social circles.

  30. 30.

    Mallard Filmore

    @MazeDancer: 

    Women are not going to let him and his abortion stopping MAGAs back in Washington.

    A test for how commuted someone is to the anti-abortion movement:

    Walk up to a woman with an ectopic pregnancy and say “I’m pro-life. Just not YOUR life.”

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    It’s striking how often they assert sinister conspiracies which, if they were true, would not even be bad things. The government is using Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to get out innocuous public-health PSAs? Oh no!

  35. 35.

    Alison Rose

    This is just LOLs all around:

    Two members of the powerful Durst real estate family in New York have sued the centrist group No Labels, accusing it of pulling a “bait and switch” by seeking donations for a bipartisan governing group and then moving to fund a third-party presidential candidacy.

    The breach of contract and “unjust enrichment” suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday by the chairman and president of the Durst Organization, Douglas and Jonathan Durst, who are cousins. It seeks damages and reimbursements after the Dursts donated $145,000 years ago, when No Labels was founded on the promise of finding governing solutions.

    The suit is an escalation of complaints that have trailed the group for much of the last few years, and it suggests that No Labels has morphed into something other than its original mission ahead of the 2024 election.

    “This case seeks to hold No Labels accountable for the consequences of its misguided actions that have left its original benefactors like the Dursts feeling bewildered, betrayed and outraged,” the suit says.

    “No Labels has shifted seismically from its original mission, and its donors, like the Dursts, who believed in the mission and financially supported it, should not have to stand idly by,” the suit contends, adding that had “No Labels ever given any indication that it might pursue such a gambit, the Dursts never would have funded the organization.”

    “That is because, in a presidential election, anyone who votes for a third-party candidate votes on neither side,” the suit says. “Indeed, no third-party candidate has ever won a presidential election or even come close to doing so.”

    Lay down with dogs etc etc. They’re not wrong about third parties, but if they’re claiming to be shocked, shocked to find that trickery was going on in there, then maybe the murder-family isn’t all that bright.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Jason Kelce, (a Philadelphia Eagles legend) had himself a good ol’ time at the Bills game. He started with the Bills Mafia, and by the end of the game he was hoisting up little girls for a better view of Taylor Swfit. 

    That’s so nice.

    His little girls were watching from home, and mom posted a comment made by one of his daughters: “Mom, dad’s boobs are showing.”

    LMAO!

  39. 39.

    Alison Rose

    @Baud: Oh no, they insist they are pure as the driven snow and everyone loves them except for the big meanies who won’t let them sit at the big kids’ table:

    “No Labels’ fundamental mission has never changed,” read the statement from the leader, Dan Webb, a lawyer for the group. “Our current ballot access effort is a natural extension of our mission to give a voice to America’s common-sense majority, and it enjoys overwhelming support from the majority of the country. The one thing that has changed, unfortunately, is that a group of partisan operatives has launched a conspiracy to subvert No Labels’ ballot access work, and the Dursts’ frivolous lawsuit now appears to be part of it.”

    I’m gonna need receipts for “enjoys overwhelming support from the majority of the country”.

  40. 40.

    frosty

    @Raoul Paste: It’s just so much fun to watch [the Ravens] play.

    It really is! I thought the same ever since I saw Lamar Jackson’s scrambles as a rookie, along with the “Not Bad For A Running Back” T-shirts. This year it’s been even better because along with the running, when he scrambles he can fire a pass at whoever gets free. I’m looking forward to the game on Sunday. Go Ravens!!!

    ETA Plus, Justin Tucker. His record 66yd field goal hit the crossbar … then bounced in the right direction.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Alison Rose:

    I gave to agree with No Labels here. Their fundamental mission hasn’t never changed. It has always been to kneecap Democrats.

    Whether they lied to gullible people about their mission is a question for the courts.

  43. 43.

    Gretchen

    The incels were saying that Taylor was bad luck because they lost a couple of times when she was at a game. That complaint won’t work now. Travis made a little heart with his hands towards her box when he got a touchdown.
    im from Detroit but have lived in Kansas City for 35 years so if that’s the matchup I won’t know who to root for. But I’m rooting for the Taylor-Travis matchup.

  44. 44.

    Yarrow

    Speaking of the Super Bowl halftime performances, has Dolly Parton ever done one? I don’t remember it if she has. She’d be great.

  46. 46.

    Yarrow

    @Alison Rose:  This does nothing to change my impression that super rich people are basically dumb. Like, who couldn’t figure out that No Labels was a bunch of grifting liars out to kneecap Democrats, thus destroying the only party that still supports democracy.

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Yarrow:

    This does nothing to change my impression that super rich people are basically dumb. Like, who couldn’t figure out that No Labels was a bunch of grifting liars out to kneecap Democrats, thus destroying the only party that still supports democracy. 

    Also, the only party that thinks rich people should pay their fair share of taxes.

  48. 48.

    Alison Rose

    @Yarrow: She’s been asked many times, but has turned it down. I saw an interview with her recently where she was asked about that, and she said she’d turned it down sometimes because of other commitments, but also because she doesn’t think she’s big enough for it, or something along those lines. Which is WILD. Like…everyone knows your name! Everyone knows at least a few of your songs! Everyone loves you!

  49. 49.

    Burnspbesq

    @Alison Rose:

    66 is not “an old man

    If you’re some morbidly obese MAGAt who ate and drank himself into diabetes and hypertension, 66 is sure-as-shit old.

  50. 50.

    cain

    @Brachiator: Just looked her up – she’s totally onboard letting players protest by kneeling and is open to signing up Colin Kaepernick. I approve of this woman.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    Waves to New York. This sounds promising (from Brennan Center).

    By Joanna Zdanys

    Fourteen years ago this week, a 5–4 majority of the Supreme Court unleashed a tidal wave of money into our elections. By forbidding limits on “independent” political spending — that is, spending that isn’t clearly coordinated with a candidate — the justices in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission handed the ultrawealthy a blank check to influence American politics.

    Since then, megadonors have spent heavily to dominate our democracy. In the 2022 midterms, just 21 families gave more than 3.7 million small donors combined. It’s a stunning imbalance that dictates who runs for office, who wins, and whose interests elected officials heed and serve.
    But change is finally here: New York State’s pathbreaking new public campaign finance program is now in effect for the 2024 election cycle. It’s the strongest response enacted anywhere in the country to counter the damage Citizens United has caused to our democracy, and it’s a robust model for other states and the federal government to follow. And just last week, after vetoing potentially destructive changes to the program, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul committed to fully funding it in her FY 2025 executive budget.

    Hochul’s support for the program is a big step forward for New York’s democracy. Her bold leadership in safeguarding and bolstering the program in this critical year deserves praise. Her executive budget not only promises to provide this vital program the money it needs, but also is a powerful act of support for voters. When enacting the program, lawmakers promised New Yorkers “to ensure a government that is accountable to all of the voters of the state regardless of wealth or position.” The responsibility now lies with the state legislature to cement this commitment when it votes to approve the budget, due April 1.

    The public campaign finance program is based on a simple but powerful concept: it matches constituents’ small donations with public funds. Candidates who opt in to and qualify for the program can receive up to $12 for every $1 received in eligible small donations of $250 or less. These contributions must come from within the candidate’s district, strengthening ties between candidates and constituents. To date, nearly 190 candidates across the state and political spectrum have signed up, with a month to go before the deadline to enroll.

    The program stands to improve New York’s democracy in significant ways. In 2022, just 200 wealthy donors gave more to state candidates than all 206,000 small donors combined. That year, small donors accounted for only 11 percent of donations. If the program had been in place, their share could have been as high as 67 percent — an increase that would be attributable entirely to donations from within the candidates’ districts.

    Experience elsewhere underscores a range of civic benefits we can expect to see. In 2021, New York City’s small donor match program helped elect the most diverse and representative city council in history. Research shows that publicly financed candidates in New York City raised more of their funds from inside their districts and from small donors than candidates who did not choose public financing. New York State’s program similarly promises to make everyday New Yorkers a more important source of support for state candidates.

  52. 52.

    oldgold

    I do not like that the Carroll/Trump trial has once again been continued. When you are rolling in a trial like Carroll’s legal team was, a delay is the last thing you want.  And, when dealing with a scoundrel, like Trump,  delay is always full of peril.

    The sick juror is not needed. They in paneled  9 jurors. In New York you can proceed with only 6 jurors in a civil trial.  They need to get on with it and stop pissing away time.

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    @catclub:

    Wait, I thought you are a celebrity! Or maybe those are the relationships you are most not into.

    His relationship with himself is on the rocks.  But like the song says, “breaking up is hard to do.” Only more so than usual in this instance. ;-)

  54. 54.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Ryan:

    I will always trust Claire McCaskill and her views. Mainly because she’s fierce in her fanaticism for the Chiefs.

    Heh heh, that first sentence was never said about Feckless Claire back when I held my nose and voted for her many, many times in MO.

  55. 55.

    Alison Rose

    @Burnspbesq: Well, I presume the dude is MAGA, but he doesn’t appear to be obese and I don’t know his health status.

    The point is that trying to use his age of 66 as some kind of “you can’t possibly punish this poor elderly man for his criming” thing is ridiculous, no matter how healthy or not the person is.

  57. 57.

    Burnspbesq

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The government is using Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to get out innocuous public-health PSAs? Oh no!

    Health is a woke plot.

    And just for shits and giggles, imagine what the reaction might have been if Ms. Swift had taken up with, say, Nakeie Montgomery (a Duke-educated, African-American lacrosse player).

  63. 63.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Quinerly:

    Wow!

    I will give her props on her last Senate campaign, she knew what it took to have a chance.

    In her first statewide run (governor) she was classic MO Dem thinking she’d win enough votes in STL/KC to counter act the red tide of rurl Misery (I lived in either the reddest county or second reddest county in the state).  As such, she never bothered to say “boo” to rurl, Dem voters like me.  She lost massively.

    During her last Senate run, she deliberately went to all these red counties and said “I’m a Dem, I’m here.  My redder-than-red opponent will never come here.” and she’d field questions, etc.  I saw her a half a dozen such events and realized that she’d become, finally, a seasoned campaigner and I felt better about voting for her the last time around than I did the first time around.

  64. 64.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Taylor Swift is beautiful.  Fuck the ravens and fuck the chiefs.  As a Steelers fan, I have to unfortunately root for the chiefs. Then the Lions.

  65. 65.

    Burnspbesq

    @oldgold:

    will you just fucking calm down? Team Carroll has been kicking ass from day one, and Habba’s schtick is clearly not playing with judge or jury.

    I said before the trial started that $50 million in punitive damages was not outside the realm of possibility. Now I’m thinking $100 mil. “Hit him hard enough to make him stop” is an argument that gets more powerful every time he goes off.

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    @MazeDancer: Just read this: Tennessee and Oklahoma proposed travel bans.

    We knew it was never going to stop with Idaho.

    Tennessee Republican Rep. Jason Zachary introduced a travel ban yesterday—legislation that would make it a Class C felony to take a minor out-of-state for abortion care. That means a friend, aunt or grandmother who helps a teenager get an abortion could be sent to prison for 15 years. In Oklahoma, state Sen. Nathan Dahm introduced a similar bill that would punish anyone who helps a teen obtain care with up to 5 years in prison.

    I want to be clear: When I say these laws target anyone who “helps” a teen get an abortion, I don’t just mean someone who physically takes them out of the state. You could be arrested for lending a teenager gas money, or texting them the url of an out-of-state clinic. That’s because both Tennessee’s HB1895 and Oklahoma’s SB1778 deliberately define ‘abortion trafficking’ as broadly as possible. Anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a minor for the purpose of getting an abortion is guilty of ‘trafficking’.

    https://jessica.substack.com/p/breaking-travel-bans-proposed-in

    Just in time for the elections.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @Quinerly:

    It’s really sad to read about the LA Times staff cuts. The executive editor was forced to resign not too long ago, and big changes seemed to be imminent.

    The Los Angeles Times said it planned to lay off at least 115 employees — more than 20% of the newsroom — starting Tuesday, one of the largest staff cuts in the newspaper’s 143-year history.

    Senior editors, photographers and members of the video unit were also part of the purge, the Times said.

    The cuts were necessary because the Times could no longer lose up to $40 million a year without boosting advertising and subscription revenue, the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said Tuesday.

     

    Sadly, this is part of the larger death spiral of the newspaper and magazine industry.

    Layoffs and buyouts have hit a wide swath of the news industry over the past year. The Washington Post, NPR, CNN and Vox Media are among the many companies hit.

    An estimated 2,681 news industry jobs were lost through the end of November, according to the employment firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. That was more than the full years of 2022 and 2021.

    People don’t want news. They want to be entertained. Except for Fox News Viewers. They love to be lied to. They live for right wing propaganda.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @gwangung: If SF beats the Lions grrrr I’ll hopefully be rooting for KC. If it’s SF vs Baltimore I’ll be rooting for the commercials.

  78. 78.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: Honestly, I only care about Swift-Kelce because it upsets the MAGAts. Usually, sometime in mid-January, I pick some arbitrary reason to favor one SB team over the other just so I can have someone to root for at SB parties. “It will enrage MAGAts if the Chiefs win” is at least as good a reason as “Peyton Manning was funny on SNL that one time.”

  79. 79.

    JPL

    hmmm
    Swift is scheduled to perform in Tokyo the week leading up to Super Bowl 58, which Kelce is one win away from playing in. Her final show of the Japan leg is Saturday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. Tokyo time (JST). The Super Bowl is Sunday, Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
    This does give her some time to make the big game, but not much. Time zones do help, however.

    from cbs sports

  80. 80.

    BruceFromOhio

    Defector is awesome, and this whole ‘circus’ meme is priceless. These people don’t care what anyone thinks, and are having fun. Such a fucking crime.

  81. 81.

    lamh36

    Hey BJ Californians (specifically SF area) best recommendation for ISP? I currently use a local provider in NOLA so I have NO idea about ISPs in Cali!

  82. 82.

    Old School

    Award-winning journalist Charles Osgood, who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for 22 years and was host of the long-running radio program “The Osgood File,” died Tuesday at home in New Jersey.  He was 91.

    The cause of death was dementia, his family said.

  85. 85.

    Quinerly

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I would have to look back, but I think she was an early Obama supporter.

    Very approachable.  Actually, a cool chick. The Woman’s March in St. Louis Jan, 2017 just came up in my FB Memories. I smiled when I saw the pic of a friend of mine, Claire, and me. She was fired up that day. Full of hugs. I was crying about Trump being elected and that horrendous inaugural speech he had given the day before. She just grabbed me like a mother would comfort a child. I just hated when she got defeated by Hawley.

    And, I’m not normally a crier.

  88. 88.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Quinerly: ​
    I was there too while my wife had flown back for the DC march! Didn’t see her speak tho.

    And yeah, losing to that clown was a tough one. But also made it clear the red-move of Misery was complete and it was time for us, after 22 years, to get the fuck out.

    She was a very early Obama supporter.

  90. 90.

    brendancalling

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
      You beat me to it. That is one of the greatest speeches in the history of football, if not Philadelphia. SO glad to live in this wonderful, insane city.

  91. 91.

    Quinerly

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I loved my almost 40 years in St. Louis City (SLU Law 1985). Was the passionate about my neighborhood of Soulard. Long story but felt time for a change. I wanted to spend the next chapter in a Blue State. My birth state and where I grew up (NC) didn’t seem appealing since my parents are no longer around and had always hoped I would move back after law school. Plus, as Charlie Pierce says, it’s “recently insane.”

    So….New Mexico seemed like a logical choice since I had been traveling around out here for 15 years. No regrets. I do miss the St. Louis/Soulard music scene. The lack of live music has been my biggest adjustment.

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    MAGA dudes are hating on Taylor because they want relationships where the woman is subservient and dependent on the man. They don’t like that Travis Kelce is demonstrating that men can be (hell, should be) with women who earn their own money, power, and respect.

    Once again, I quote Ali Wong:

    “When you’re a woman with money, power and respect, your romantic options don’t expand. They decline. I’m told it’s because men are threatened by women with money, power and respect. What do you think is going to happen to you? You think your dick is gonna get acquired in a hostile takeover? I bet most men in this theater have never, ever had their dick sucked by a woman that makes a lot more money than them. And let me tell you something — it’s spectacular. Why wouldn’t it be? If she got the skills to earn money, power and respect, you don’t think she got good pattern recognition? Those skills transfer.”

  103. 103.

    Gretchen

    @Jackie: The Missouri legislature has also talked about this. The clinic that provides abortions for St. Louis metro is on the Illinois side of the state line, and the Kansas City one is in a Kansas side suburb. Thousands of women cross the state line into the suburbs every day for work, school, and shopping. Is a daily pregnancy test at the state line going to be part of the commute?

  104. 104.

    Quinerly

    @WaterGirl:

    It seems like a couple of lifetimes ago….I seem to recall Claire speaking about her daughter swaying her to Obama over HRC. I guess she had served with both in the Senate since Claire first won in 2006 (that’s when I hosted the “Cocktails with Claire” social in my home). Obama campaigned heavily in Missouri in 2008. They put a lot of money in the state. Or at least it seemed like it.  At least one huge rally down near the Arch where I actually had the opportunity to shake his hand. Come to think of it, I don’t even recall any rallies in 2012….I guess the writing was on the wall for Missouri. The votes in St. Louis, KC, and Columbia are just not enough when you factor in out state.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @Quinerly: I had never heard that about her daughter.  Excellent.

    I got to meet Obama, too, when I worked for the campaign in Iowa before the caucus on Jan 3, 2008.  Treasured memories, right?

  108. 108.

    Gretchen

    @Jackie: right. I hadn’t thought of that.
    @Quinerly:  I saw Obama at a rally in Kansas City in 2008. I don’t remember one in 2012 either.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @Alison Rose: Apparently! Go wild! Steal stuff, vandalize buildings, shoot people in the face — the world is your oyster!

    Remember to declare your Presidential campaign first, so Florida will pay you five MILLION dollars for your legal defense!

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @WaterGirl: pretty cool.

    I have to admit that the best was Bill Clinton at the Soulard Farmers Market in 1992. That’s a story for another day.

  112. 112.

    TS

    @Citizen Alan:

    @Baud:

    And here we are with the only republican left opposing trump being a woman who is going to get a nationwide ban on abortion. She is really working hard for the women of America.

  119. 119.

    frosty

    @geg6: In my borough it’s about 50/50 Ravens and Steelers flags. And a lonesome Eagles or two. I guess they didn’t realize they’re on the wrong side of the Suskie.

  122. 122.

    Anotherlurker

    @lamh36: I can’t recommend a ISP. I have Xfinity and at times they are fairly good, although they have been behaving themselves for the last several months.

  125. 125.

    Yarrow

    LOL. Biden won and he wasn’t even on the ballot.

    I've seen enough: Pres. Joe Biden (D) wins the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) January 24, 2024

    Also, Wasserman has called it for TFG.

  127. 127.

    Gin & Tonic

    I doubt I could name a Taylor Swift song, but I do know she’s got a very nice house on the beach here in RI. Probably spends about one week a year in it, but still…

    Security there has no sense of humor.

  129. 129.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JPL:

    Part of me wants Kansas to win the Super Bowl so they are invited to the White House along with Taylor, but I know that’s childish.

    What part of ANY of this (football, SB, Vegas, celebrity relationships, etc.) isn’t childish?

    Not that I’m not there for it…’cause I AM!

  134. 134.

    Redshift

    @Yarrow: I’m so glad the Biden write-in won easily, not because it matters, but because the meaningless drivel about it will be positive rather than “concerned.” Guess I should hurry out to vote early before Dean Phillips drops out!

  138. 138.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Quinerly: ​
      they came close. Lost by 1/10 of 1 percent.

    I was really jazzed that they won Indiana, which previously Dems had only won 4 times in history (1912, 1932, 1936, 1964).

  140. 140.

    Quinerly

    Haley speaking

    Sounds to me she may be dropping out.

    Edit…she’s still in. “Dozens of states left to go.”

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    Interesting–the New Hampshirites I’d talked to about the primary seemed to think Biden had a real chance of losing, to whom I don’t know. The AP is reporting it as 73% “unprocessed write-in” but I think we can guess what that means.

  144. 144.

    Scout211

    WTF?!

    Libs of TikTok creator accused of inspiring school bomb threats named to state library board

    A far-right influencer who was accused of instigating bomb threatslast year against a school library in Tulsa has been named an adviser to a state library committee, the head of the Oklahoma State Department of Education announced Tuesday.

    Chaya Raichik, who runs the incendiary Libs of TikTok social media accounts and is not an Oklahoma resident, was appointed to the state education department’s Library Media Advisory Committee.

    “Chaya is on the front lines showing the world exactly what the radical left is all about — lowering standards, porn in schools, and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” State Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a statement. “Because of her work, families across the country know just what is going on in schools around the country.”

    . . .

    Walters, the state superintendent, has similarly been criticized for sharing the video of the Tulsa librarian, prompting Democrats to call for his impeachment.

    On Tuesday, he wrote on X that he was “proud” to have Raichik “on our team.”

    “Her unique perspective is invaluable as part of my plan to make Oklahoma schools safer for kids and friendly to parents,” Walters said. “Chaya has a much-needed and powerful voice as well as a tremendous platform that will benefit Oklahoma students and their families.”

    It is unclear if Raichik, who is a former real estate agent, has any prior experience in the field of education.

  145. 145.

    catclub

    @HumboldtBlue: The AFC Central would like a word.

     

    I had an economics course, and its a business. The amazing thing is that there is more interest in Seattle in the Seahawks business than Boeing.  Or Miami with the Dolphins versus American Airlines. The only one close to having valid community interest is the Packers.

     

    yes I know Boeing headquarters is now Chicago.

  152. 152.

    scav

    @Jackie: Girl-Teens.  Just another state-owned womb for domestic production and pawn for political manipulation.  Granted, the upkeep and care of such is outsourced to parents, but heaven forfend such enabled parents make or enable decisions concerning her mandatory output of babies. Loan cash to or enable all the murderers, rapists and sedition-tourists you want you want, such as they can drive on all the Texan county roads as they please, but the states breeding stock is sacrosanct!

  154. 154.

    FelonyGovt

    @WaterGirl: Could it be because DeSantis, Christie et al were still on the ballot?

    ETA that doesn’t make any sense. Math was never my strong suit.

  160. 160.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    according to AP, the vote in NH is 52% for Dump and 47% for Haley.

    I mean, Damn. A sitting incumbent with 100% name I.D. and tons of free media squeaks out a narrow margin in an all white state. If this was a Dem, especially a Clinton, the political press would declare the sky has fallen.

  161. 161.

    Splitting Image

    @Baud:

    I don’t think the GOP is proportional.

    The first few are proportional. The later primaries are winner-take-all.

  162. 162.

    Poe Larity

    Just another example of Dark Brandon being the greatest strategic thinker in the last half century. Is there nothing he doesn’t control?

  164. 164.

    catclub

    @FelonyGovt: ETA that doesn’t make any sense. Math was never my strong suit.

     

    it makes plenty of sense. If one candidate wins each precinct (or whatever unit sends one delegate), but by only one vote in each precinct,  then they win all the delegates but with 50%+1 votes.

  165. 165.

    Yutsano

    @Scout211: ​She has the one qualification she needs. She pwns the libz of Oklahoma. Which incidentally *checks notes* ranks 50th in education in the country. But boy howdy they’re gonna get rid of the last bit of “woke” thanks to Ms. Raichik!

  169. 169.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven: Last week I was in a hotel that had HBO, and I put on an episode of that, Never watched it before, and probably never will again. The current trend in audio mixing seems to be “make everything impossible to hear.”

    Get off my lawn, too.

  174. 174.

    Jackie

    Has anyone checked on Faux, OAN or Newsmax?Are they celebrating or rendering their garbs because TIFG didn’t beat Haley by a huge enough margin?

  177. 177.

    Splitting Image

    There are several narratives that could develop from the results in New Hampshire.

    1) Trump’s showing is disastrous for a former President and indicates that Haley could pull out a win now that she is the only available alternative. This is bad news for Joe Biden because Trump is losing his marbles and Haley will be a more dangerous candidate by the time November comes around.

    2) This was Haley’s best chance to win and Trump will likely coast to victory through the rest of the primaries. This is bad news for Joe Biden because his best chance of getting re-elected was Haley winning the R nomination and Trump splitting the vote by running third-party.

    3) Analyzing the vote will show that Trump won big among registered Republicans and that Haley’s support came from independents and cross-over Democrats who voted in the R primary because there was no real Democratic primary to vote in. This is bad news for Joe Biden because those independents are exactly the voters Biden can’t afford to lose in November.

    I think that about covers it. The bobbleheads probably won’t be able to settle on #1 or #2 until South Carolina, but I expect them to start in on #3 straightaway.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: somehow this is reminding me of that old Kathy cartoon where she says “My weight is always perfect for my height, which varies.”

    I suppose in that world, the delegates could be proportional.

  182. 182.

    Bill Arnold

    Was curious about the most recent verbal stumble by DJT, in NH. The whole thing is riddled with falsehoods, and his delivery is pathetic, and formulaic.
    Here’s a bit of the auto-generated transcript (from CSPAN[1]) with the context. (I ran it through some LLM automation I made to add punctuation and make it one sentence per line. Emphasis on the part where he misspeaks.

    WE ARE A NATION WERE CRIMINALS AND THIEVES ARE ALLOWED TO GO INTO STORES AND OPENLY ROB THEM, BEAT UP AND KILL THEIR WORKERS AND CUSTOMERS AND LEAVE WITH ARMLOADS OF GOODS, BUT WITH NO RETRIBUTION, WHERE THE AUTHORITY OF OUR GREAT POLICE HAS BEEN TAKEN, WHERE THEIR FAMILIES AND PENSIONS HAVE BEEN THREATENED AND THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED FOR THE MERE MENTION OF THE WORDS LAW ENFORCEMENT.
    WE ARE A NATION WHERE FENTANYL AND OTHER FORMS OF ILLEGAL DRUGS ARE EASIER TO GET THEM GROCERIES TO FEED OUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILIES.
    WE HAVE BECOME A DRUG INFESTED, CRIME RIDDEN NATION WHICH IS INCAPABLE OF SOLVING EVEN THE SMALLEST PROBLEMS, THE SIMPLEST OF PROBLEMS WE CAN NO LONGER SOLVE.
    WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING.
    WE ARE AN INSTITUTE AND A POWERFUL DEATH PENALTY.
    WE WILL PUT THIS ON.
    WE HAVE TO BRING IN THE DEATH PENALTY IF WE WANT TO STOP THE INFESTATION OF DRUGS COMING INTO OUR COUNTRY.
    THE ONLY COUNTRIES THAT DON’T HAVE A DRUG PROBLEM ARE THOSE WITH THE DEATH PENALTY.
    A TERRIBLE THING TO SAY, EACH DEALER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH DURING THEIR LIVES OF 500 PEOPLE OR MORE.
    WE MUST INSTITUTE THE DEATH PENALTY.
    IT’S ACTUALLY AN ACT OF KINDNESS.

    [1] Search on “POWERFUL DEATH PENALTY” with the quote marks

  189. 189.

    Splitting Image

    @Baud:

    That is insightful analysis.

    What can I say? I’ve been getting my news at Balloon Juice since before DougJ started posting on Twitter.

  190. 190.

    Baud

    More people appear to have voted in the GOP primary, which makes perfect sense, but I’m sure the media will do something with that.

  191. 191.

    Jeffro

    @MazeDancer:

    Fired up doesn’t even begin to describe the women in Virginia attending the Biden-Harris Roe Rally.  Screaming scorched Earth comes closer.  Trump might as well give up now.  Women are not going to let him and his abortion stopping MAGAs back in Washington.

     

    I heard it was awesome – GOOD!

  192. 192.

    WaterGirl

    @Bill Arnold: And if she became a lot less frumpy. Or dumpy.

    Trump gains status from being around beautiful women. (In his mind.  “She’s mine.”

    No way will he pick Stefanik.

    The only way he picks MTG is if he thinks she’s pretty.  Which she most definitely is not, unless he somehow only sees the blond hair and thinks that’s hot.  But I don’t see it.

  194. 194.

    Quinerly

    @Bill Arnold: and wasn’t a Harvard grad. I just don’t see Trump picking an Ivy League educated woman. He’s too hung up on his Wharton degree which, if I recall correctly, really isn’t a full fledged Wharton degree.

  195. 195.

    MazeDancer

    @Bill Arnold:

    Definitely blonde would help her.

    Sarah Huckabee has glammed up. Clearly been hitting the Ozempic. New hair. She looks good.

    She is so evil and filled with hate, she could fit right in with Trump.

  198. 198.

    wjca

    @gwangung:  But it’d be nice if the Chiefs did win it for the reactions.

    Consider the potential dilemma.  If the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl, the incels, et al., can root against them because … Swift.  But if they’re playing the 49ers, that would mean supporting ultra woke left (at least in their imaginations) San Francisco.  Oh, the agony!

  202. 202.

    Jeffro

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Taylor Swift is beautiful.  Fuck the ravens and fuck the chiefs.  As a Steelers fan, I have to unfortunately root for the chiefs. Then the Lions.

    Hey hey now…

    I do know several Steelers fans who are rooting for the Chiefs because the Ravens are, well, the Ravens.  We’ll take it!  ;)

    It’s a little weird but I have favorite NFL teams from #1 (Chiefs) on down to about #8 (Packers) for reasons, and then after that we just go to “whatever will help my favorite team out this week”.  After the Chiefs, I root for the Eagles and then the Steelers.

    (and both of my kids know by heart that we ALWAYS root for 1) whoever is playing the Patriots, and 2) whoever is playing the Cowboys.  =)

  205. 205.

    Baud

    Not that I think Haley will do this, but Biden was dead in the water during the first three primaries in 2020 until South Carolina.

  208. 208.

    RaflW

    @Redshift: Phillips getting somewhere around 20% as the named candidate against write-in Biden is really embarrassing. Not holding my breath that the bar-brand vodka guy is gonna bow out, but it is nice to see that, at ~7,600 votes, Dean really doesn’t have a constituency.

  211. 211.

    Jeffro

    @Bill Arnold:

    @WaterGirl:

    @Quinerly:

    Stefanik is a very likely choice for multiple reasons.  Blonde hair and Ivy League degrees (or lack thereof) have nothing to do with it.

    Remember who’s running his campaign.

    Remember what ‘face’ they’re trying to put on things.

    Remember what a message it sends that Stefanik, once a normal, middle-of-the-road Republican, is now (maniacally) all-in on MAGA.

    He was babbling about trying to “make a play” for NY’s electoral votes earlier today.

    Stefanik more than fits the bill when the #1 issue for him re: a vice-president is LOYALTY.

  212. 212.

    Quinerly

    @Bill Arnold:

    honestly, I just started again paying attention to Trump’s speeches (if you can call them that) in the last 5 days. He has really deteriorated and is going down hill by the day. It’s only going to get worse. That’s what Haley is banking on. I posted a HuffPost piece that should be getting more coverage. He doesn’t even understand what a cognitive test is. Seems to think it is an IQ test. And he seems at one point to think that freak, Dr. Ronny, is still the WH doctor.

  215. 215.

    sdhays

    @Bill Arnold: I don’t think any of the women have a chance because by the time it’s VP picking time, he won’t be able to reliably differentiate any of them from Nancy Pelosi, so he won’t be able to trust them.

    He’s already mixing up Haley and Pelosi, so it’s already started.

  219. 219.

    Quinerly

    @Jeffro: we’ll see…..if it gets that far. I am truly beginning to think Trump is deteriorating so fast he might not make it to the convention.

  222. 222.

    Brachiator

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    I mean, Damn. A sitting incumbent with 100% name I.D. and tons of free media squeaks out a narrow margin in an all white state.

    It’s still impressive compared to previous NH primary results. And in an early exit poll by CNN, about 39 percent were Democratic leaning or independent, based on interviews, not how people were actually registered.

    Trump will be trying hard to wrap everything up. More in the GOP will endorse him. Meanwhile his legal problems will continue. This doesn’t help him in the general election.

  224. 224.

    Redshift

    @MazeDancer: I wish I could have been there! I just couldn’t make it out to Manassas on a work day.

    Virginians didn’t buy Youngkin’s transparent scam of pretending a 15-week ban was a “compromise,” and we’re not going to buy other GOP bullshit either!

  225. 225.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Jeffro: My one HS friend moved east from KC.  He’s a die hard Chiefs fan.  All our other friends are Bills fans.  They’re my secondary team being from western NY.  The text chain for weeks has been hysterical.  I was bummed for the Bills fans but I’m not losing any sleep over it.

  227. 227.

    WaterGirl

    @ReadWrite:  Holy fuck-ski!

    For years, the White House Medical Unit, run by the White House Military Office, provided the full scope of pharmaceutical services to senior officials and staff—it stored, inventoried, prescribed, dispensed, and disposed of prescription medications, including opioids and sleep medications.

    However, it was not staffed by a licensed pharmacist or pharmacy support staff, nor was it credentialed by any outside agency.

    The operations of this pseudo-pharmacy went as well as one might expect, according to the DoD OIG’s alarming investigation report. The investigation was prompted by complaints in May 2018 alleging that an unnamed “senior military medical officer” was engaged in “improper medical practices.”

    edit:  wow, wait til you get to the section titled:

    White House baggies

    OMG.

  228. 228.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: TIFG is the only one allowed to have leathery (and pock marked) skin. The close ups of his face show a very unhealthy complexion under that orange crap that undoubtedly clog up his pores.

  230. 230.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: Totally agree.  Sometimes his face just looks red to me now, like maybe he doesn’t always wear the orange makeup?

    Other times it looks pasty white and lumpy.

    Either way, not healthy.

  233. 233.

    Jeffro

    @Quinerly: I can see multiple scenarios…

    1)GOP convention chaos(pre/during/post-convention): what do we do with an obviously incompetent and/or multiple-felony-conviction delegate leader?

    2)(at any point from now until November)…GOP: “how do we solve this problem of such an obviously medically/medically incapable candidate?

    3)(from the media): “why won’t the Democrats agree to also not run Joe Biden if Donald trumpov is incapable of fulfilling our wildest ratings dreams running for president?”

  235. 235.

    Jeffro

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: it’s always a hoot when my #1 team goes up against my #2 (like last year’s Super Bowl)

    it’s a little less of a hoot when hard rules come into conflict, like when the Patriots and Cowboys play each other (and no rooting for injuries, or worse!)

    I surprised myself this season multiple times by rooting for odd teams, division rivals, rooting for a team one week but against them the next, and so on.  NO PRINCIPLES BUT WINNING, just like the Republicans. ;)

  236. 236.

    raven

    @zhena gogolia:
    Manage notifications from News on Mac
    Many channels in Apple News send notifications about breaking news or important stories. You can choose to receive notifications for only certain channels. You can also change how the notifications appear or turn them off altogether.

    Note: Apple News isn’t available in all countries or regions. See the Apple Support article Availability of Apple Media Services.

     

    Receive or stop notifications per channel

    1. In the News app on your Mac, choose File > Manage Notifications & Email.
    2. Turn notifications on or off for a channel, then click Done.

    Change or turn off all notifications from News

    1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Notifications in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

       

    2. Below Application Notifications on the right, click News, then do one of the following:
      • Change notifications: Turn on or off the notification options you want. For more information about the options, click the Help button in the bottom-right corner.
      • Turn off all notifications from News: Turn off “Allow notifications.”

    Note: To display notifications from News when a Focus is on, you must allow the notifications to appear. See Set up a Focus.

  238. 238.

    Scout211

    @zhena gogolia:I wish I knew how to turn off Apple News.

    Just turn it off in notifications and it will stop squawking at you.

    ETA: Or what Raven said, in more detail and much better.

  239. 239.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @geg6: I cannot tell you how much I want KC to kill the Ravens.

    OTOH I could in fact tell you how much I want Poe’s Crows to demolish the Chefs. But I won’t. :^p

  241. 241.

    Another Scott

    @Jeffro: I heard part of it on C-Span radio on the drive home. Women were fired up and angry about all the attempts to interrupt him.

    They erupted at 42:40 when he talked about the SCOTUS and MAGA GQPers not having any idea about the power of women in America.

    (Unfortunately, there’s no transcript yet.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  242. 242.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @geg6: It is the law here in Western PA that you must hate the Ravens more than anything. I’m a good Yinzer.

    It is the tradition here in Charm City to despise the Stealers* more than any other team. But since they got STOMPED in the playoffs, the Tar&Urine are now as irrelevant as the Cleveland Browns to the Ravens.

    * Go ask a Seahawks fan about that Jerome Bettis coronation masquerading as a Super Bowl. Those folks in the PNW are still pissed.

  243. 243.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: Oh, God, the galaxy-brain proposals for Biden to make some kind of weird unilateral concession because something or other happened: I can already imagine them. I know pundits have already been clamoring for him to drop Harris for a Republican in some kind of bipartisan unity ticket for ages. (Yeah, that‘ll stop people from worrying about Biden’s age.)

  244. 244.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin:I know pundits have already been clamoring for him to drop Harris for a Republican in some kind of bipartisan unity ticket for ages.

    It’s ridiculous, the contortions they go to in order to avoid saying it out loud: HEY BIDEN WE’RE TERRIFIED THAT 1) YOU’LL WIN AND KEEP BEATING ON OUR CAPITALIST OVERLORDS, EVEN A SMIDGEN, and/or 2) YOU’LL DIE AND LEAVE A BLACK WOMAN IN CHARGE.

    As if either of these reasons is even close to a justification for putting Mr. Rapist Corrupt Clown back in charge, even for a minute.

    I’m glad folks like Liz Cheney and other never-trumpers are noting that the country can survive ‘bad policy’ (in their words) but will NOT survive a president who’s more than willing to overturn the Constitution.

  245. 245.

    Jackie

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    *😡 😤 😡

    *Rabid, diehard Seahawks fan, who ONLY roots for the Steelers when they play rival NLC West rivals, then hates them even more if they lose.😡😤

  248. 248.

    Tehanu

    Nobody [else] has bundled-up Taylor Swift evidently invoking timely wind gusts

    OK, I am now officially disgusted and horrified that there are people* in this country in the 21st fkg century who (1) believe in witchcraft and that celebrities they don’t like can affect reality through it and (2) can vote.

    * “People,” of course, is a term of art denoting MAGA idiots.

  249. 249.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I know pundits have already been clamoring for him to drop Harris for a Republican in some kind of bipartisan unity ticket for ages.

    Which pundits? Why would anyone suggest something so stupid and impossible?

    What drugs are these pundits taking?

    Are there any pundits arguing that the Republican Party should be burnt to the ground, root and branch?

  250. 250.

    Hob

    @oldgold: ​I don’t know why you’re talking as if the sick juror was the only issue. Habba has a parent or parents who now have COVID. Habba was with them over the weekend and reported having a fever. A negative COVID test for Habba and Madaio on Monday is by no means conclusive, so if you want to avoid infecting the whole court, this action seems prudent.

  251. 251.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jackie: Rabid, diehard Seahawks fan, who ONLY roots for the Steelers when they play rival NLC West rivals, then hates them even more if they lose.😡😤​

    FTR I pull for the Gooneybirds when they’re up against the Stealers, Brownstains or Orange Tabbies. Pretty agnostic about them the rest of the time. The Crows mauled them this season at the Bank, but they weren’t the only victims, here or on the road (including the two quarter-finalists from the NFC).

    (BTW what is an “NLC”? Do you perhaps mean NFC? Keys are a little far apart for a Fingerfehler…Are you one of those “rabid, diehard” fans who cheer for the home team because they’re the home team but don’t know much about football? Every town has ’em, so don’t feel shy.)​​

    ETA: I’m pulling for a Crows-Simbas Superb Owl. I have relatives near Detroit, and those good folks have suffered long enough in the gridiron wilderness. (The fact that our guys beat them 38-6 this year is not a factor, they whipped the Whiners in Santa Clara too.)​

  253. 253.

    wjca

    As @Jeffro noted above, the one and only criteria will be loyalty.  So the obvious choice would seem to be the guy who, in the White House, was in charge of keeping the sodas coming.  (Can’t remember the name, but it’s irrelevant anyway.)  What matters is that he followed TIFG to Florida in order to keep working for him.  Now that’s loyalty!

  257. 257.

    Jackie

    @Hob: Habba was in NH tonight celebrating TIFG’s win. Without mask, of course.

    Postponing the trial until Thur earliest is prudent, and I hope Covid tests are mandatory and shown negative before Court resumes.

  262. 262.

    columbusqueen

    @geg6: As an Ohioan, I’ve hated the Ravens ever since that SOB Art Modell sneaked the old Browns to Baltimore & changed their name.

  264. 264.

    TEL

    @lamh36: In a lot of the East bay, North bay and SF, there isn’t much choice – xfinity is it if you want enough bandwidth to stream movies/tv. That’s been the case for me in the East bay and North bay, and most of my friends in SF. If you’re lucky, you may have sonic or some others available. I’m not familiar with the south bay or peninsula, or a lot of the exurban areas.

  265. 265.

    Timill

    @TEL: If you can get xfinity, it may be worth considering Comcast Business, which is what we have here.

    It produces an attitude improvement when you inform them that things may be faulty, but it’s a business connection – the fix went from ‘a few days, maybe’ to ‘in a couple of hours’.

  266. 266.

    Jackie

    @Jackie: My rabid sports fan SIL didn’t know that history, and we had a heated discussion about the St Louis Rams/Arizona Rams switcharoo. He thought I was wrong about the Rams originating from L.A. and the Arizona Cards originated from St Louis. His dad had to step in and state I was correct 😂

  267. 267.

    columbusqueen

    @Chief Oshkosh: I’m usually not big on celebrity romances either, but I’d like the Chiefs to win the SB, then have Taylor & Travis announce their engagement on Valentines Day. The number of wingnut heads exploding would be marvelous!

  268. 268.

    TEL

    @Timill: I just had to upgrade my comcast/ xfinity contract. I’ll check out their business plans and see if the price is close. The technical support for xfinity has been awful – I had to get a home visit to get any actual help.

  270. 270.

    frosty

    @columbusqueen: @Jackie: ​Yep, I agree. I hate teams moving. The Browns are still the Browns but Johnny Unitas’s awards are in fucking Indianapolis.​​

    Where are the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers? It’s hard to be a fan when the owners do whatever they want. Baltimore is lucky the Orioles didn’t go to Washington.​ Green Bay has the only model for ownership that’s worth a damn.

    ETA The New York Yankees were originally the Baltimore Orioles.​​​​

  271. 271.

    wjca

    @frosty:  I hate teams moving.

    I recall the story of a time traveler, who was asking plaintively: “What are the Philadelphia Athletics doing in Kansas City???”  (Which gives you an idea how long ago the story was set.)  The reality is, teams have been moving approximately from day 1.

    The only way to avoid it is the Green Bay approach: if team ownership is widely dispersed among a large number of local fans, the team won’t be moved.  With a single owner, whether an individual or some kind of company, anything from personal whim to perceived financial advantage can cause a move — the sentiments of the fans being utterly irrelevant.  Well, except in so far as the owner can extort bribes financial incentives** to stay or move.

    ** Which are always sold as generating business, and thus tax income, to balance out said bribes.  But which never, ever, do.

  272. 272.

    sab

    Our 24 yo granddaughter really likes Taylor Swift. Has liked her for many years.

    I listened 10 years ago and thought cute but not much there.

    Listened lately and that girl grew up a lot.

    I think I will buy some albums.

  274. 274.

    Paul in KY

    @Ken: The truck commercial where it’s driving itself while towing some stuff and the dudes just smile in the seats.  Why the fuck would you want to do that!!!

    That one scares me.

  275. 275.

    Paul in KY

    @JPL: Not so sure of that. Ravens will have to play much better than they did against Texans. Very impressed with KC game up there in Buffalo.

  277. 277.

    Paul in KY

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Know what you mean. I’m a Browns fan, so have to hate Ravens (Rot in Hell, Art Modell, etc. etc.), but I love Lamar Jackson! Followed his great career at UL. He’s a class act. Not his fault he was drafted by Ravens. 29 other teams should have drafted him.

    Do not like KC coach (also a Eagles fan, and did not like way he ran that team, or his punk criminal kids). Like the KC players, though. So, I hope Lamar does awesome and cements that MVP, but that Ravens lose & it’s not his fault. On other side, for Lions & hope they win the Super Bowl.

  279. 279.

    Geminid

    @Paul in KY: When Lamar Jackson finally signed his new contract t

    Last Spring, the Washington Post had a good article about it. A lot of industry professionals had expressed doubt that Jackson could achieve his contract goals without an agent or advisors. But it turned out Jackson did rely on an advisor whom he trusts very much: his mother.

  284. 284.

    Paul in KY

    @Uncle Cosmo: I am too! Run the fucking ball!!!! God, I hate the Cheatriots!

    Edit: Another Super Bowl you were talking about. Anyway, pissed about not running Marshawn down there. Grrr!!!!

  285. 285.

    Paul in KY

    @Hob: I would assume Habba was lying about her parents. However, you can’t order tests on them, so I understand the recess.

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