Wednesday, January 31, 2018

15

The number of points separating first place Manchester City and second place Manchester United is the same as that between seventh Burnley and twentieth, dead last, West Brom.

City 3 WBA 0

Everybody is kun fu fighting. Aguerrooo in the 89th.
goal
Fullsies.
I'd pay money to be at Mourinho's press conference after this one.

Lukaku is on the see food diet...
Now in stoppage time at the Bridge and I had to double-check my eyesight again. It is true. Bournemouth lead 3-0. 
Jesus Christ it looks like Jones shot that fucking ball on United's ownie. 
King Kev in the 68' and the Angels lead 2-0.
goal



Mou Red with Embarrassment

Spurs scored in the first minute! Oh my God. And then a 28' OWN goal. Oh my God, "Bucs" fans must be furious. Alexis Sanchez' debut, too. Mourinho was doing some gloating over signing Sanchez when City pulled out. Accused Pep of sour grapes.
Oh my God, Bournemouth is shaking and stirring Swine Chelsea. 3-0! AT STAMFORD BRIDGE!

Mou Blue, Hot, Getting Spurred

I read this score wrong initially.

Tottenham 2 Manchester United 0

'Pologize to the "Bucs" for any inconvenience. 
Ah yes, Wednesday afternoons, always a big EPL day, how could I have forgotten. City 1 West Brom 0, halftime.

"The New American Moment"

That is an inspired and an inspiring rhetorical construct. We live in the moment. That is the postcard wisdom cliche and also the reality. To speak of an "American Century," or of "The End of History" is hubristic and foolhardy. This is a time of moments, of fifteen minutes of fame, and Trump
articulated with humility and with accuracy this evanescence of time in our time. The phrase will be remembered. Whatever else he said the speech can be reduced to that memorable "The New American Moment". WELL done.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

State of the Federation Speech

Oh say can't you see
Amerika greatest country exceptRussia under me
All other countries 'ceptRussia are shitholes run by girls

Amerika, once under Negro
But my KKKP make him go
Now economy great
Price of pussy drop from $130,000 to zero

Now grab all pussy you want!
It all free no consent!
Amerikan pussy great again
Except my Wife she a Cunt

Oh! Party of Putin
All hail the great practice
Of collusion
For the land of the once free!
Now the home of the Knave.

Tet Offensive+50

Fifty years ago today the Tet Offensive of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong began against South Vietnam and its American defenders. The offensive lasted eight months.

In a reversal of form in military affairs both sides considered the Tet Offensive a partial defeat, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong because they had not achieved their objectives and suffered horrendous losses; the Americans and South Vietnamese because the nationwide scope of the attacks demonstrated enemy capabilities they had not thought existed and because they were taken by surprise. A credibility gap widened for the American military and for the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, testified to by America's most trusted news anchor, Walter Cronkite. President Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not seek reelection. It was the beginning of the end for America's Vietnam War.

I remember it well. My dearest brother was a dentist and had been drafted into service as an Air Force Captain. He was stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon during Tet.
JSAF photo of South Vietnamese gunners, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, during Tet Offensive


I remember the worried tension of my parents. I don't know what would have happened to my dad if he had lost his first born and namesake in Vietnam as he had his dearest brother in World War II (and my God did they look alike.). I remember a letter from my brother that "the VC really know how to hurt a guy" because one of their bombs had landed on the basketball court. I remember him writing that he had to sleep on the floor next to a desk barricaded against the window.

Monday, January 29, 2018

I have a final question: Why are Democrats talking about special legislation to protect Mueller from Trump? Let him do it! Following the old courtroom adage "Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a fool of himself" we know that Trump is his own worst enemy; we know that he takes a step closer to the gallows with every tweet, remark and action. FUCKING MAKE MY DAY, ILLEGITRUMP FIRE AWAY!

TRUMP, STONE-STEPPING TO MUELLER, GETS FBI DEP'Y DIRECTOR; DEP'Y ATTORNEY GENERAL ROSENSTEIN NEXT

[Andrew] McCabe has been at the center of ongoing tensions between the White House and the FBI and has reportedly been under pressure to quit from Trump, whose campaign is being investigated for possible collusion with Russia.

...after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, he met with McCabe in the Oval Office and asked him whom he voted for in the 2016 election.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe-stepping-down-n842176

Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-carter-page-secret-memo.html?referer=https://news.google.com/

A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it.

The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent...
...
To obtain the warrant involving Mr. Page, the government needed to show probable cause that he was acting as an agent of Russia. Once investigators get approval from the Justice Department for a warrant, prosecutors take it to a surveillance court judge, who decides whether to approve it.
...
No information has publicly emerged that the Justice Department or the F.B.I. did anything improper while seeking the surveillance warrant involving Mr. Page.
...
Mr. Trump has long been mistrustful of Mr. Rosenstein, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, who appointed the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and now oversees his investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and possible obstruction of justice by the president. Mr. Trump considered firing Mr. Rosenstein last summer. Instead, he ordered Mr. Mueller to be fired, then backed down after the White House counsel refused to carry out the order...

Mr. Trump is now again telling associates that he is frustrated with Mr. Rosenstein, according to one official familiar with the conversations.
...
Mr. Page, a former Moscow-based investment banker who later founded an investment company in New York, had been on the F.B.I.’s radar for years. In 2013, an investigation revealed that a Russian spy had tried to recruit him. Mr. Page was never charged with any wrongdoing, and he denied that he would ever have cooperated with Russian intelligence officials.

But a trip Mr. Page took to Russia in July 2016 while working on Mr. Trump’s campaign caught the bureau’s attention again, and American law enforcement officials began conducting surveillance on him in the fall of 2016, shortly after he left the campaign.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/29/trumps-most-desperate-move-yet-heres-what-pushing-out-rod-rosenstein-would-mean/?utm_term=.4140c6fe8d10

[Trump] has privately said [Rosenstein] is a threat to his presidency...
“Rosenstein is in charge of the Mueller probe. He picked Mueller and has testified under oath that he won't fire him absent clear misconduct,” Zeidenberg said. “So if Rosenstein goes, Trump would pick a new deputy attorney general who would no doubt be much more compliant to Trump.”



I have a question: Since the "better" opinion of legal scholars is that Trump, a sitting (better: reclining) president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office and since House Republicans will never impeach him, why does Trump consider Rosenstein "a threat to his presidency"? And doesn't Trump's stone-stepping here to oust Mueller increase the pressure to impeach?

Unless the "better" opinion is wrong, I don't know the answer to the first question.

The answer to the second is "Yes" but Trump may believe that even whacking Mueller would not be enough for the House to impeach. Then why not just fire Rosenstein and keep firing until he gets to some to some toady who will whack Mueller for him? Why stone-step to Mueller through McCabe? I don't know.

Stravavarius


That image is so unnecessary, BBC.

A fitness company, Strava, for some reason has its "members" (very rude, BBC) fitted with GPS tracking tech. They then published worldwide maps showing people who were exercising. The practice facilities of the Cleveland "Cavaliers" were, of course, dark, but there were clear exercise hotspots elsewhere. Beeb, explain:

a large number of military personnel on active service had been publicly sharing their location data and realised that the highlighting of such exercises as regular jogging routes could be dangerous..."You can establish a pattern of life."...in this case highlighting the location of formerly secret bases or undisclosed patterns of military activity.

Nick Waters
@N_Waters89
Big OPSEC and PERSEC fail. Patrol routes, isolated patrol bases, lots of stuff that could be turned into actionable intelligence.

Swiveling hips sink ships. It's embarrassing.

Aymeric Laporte to Manchester City

The Athletic Bilbao defender is on his way to Manchester for his physical in an $80 million transfer.

Athletic Club
@AthleticClub
Laporte abona la cláusula de rescisión 

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Hey folks. A serious post clicked on in the last three https://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2014/08/is-barack-obama-clinically-depressed.html?m=1 by somebody from Germany, Macedonia, or the Phillipines.
I don’t especially give a rat’s ass about the Cavs, except that the best basketball player in the world plays for them...But I have had enough of them moping and sucking and hating each other. I am ready for...this shit to end...

I confess that in this instance the ellipses do gesture to material that alters the writer's intent. I only ommited it to bring the writer into a closer approximation with my own sentiments.


Visit Malaysia? Visit Vietnam?

Why not Visit Wales?

I find that odd.
The great Manchester City machine rolls on. Pep Guardiola’s side showed up in Cardiff this afternoon, chasing a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup, facing as direct, physical and difficult a side as they will face all season.

But City stood up for themselves, imposed their football on the occasion, took a 2-0 first half lead and never let go. It's_"Tremendous"_Machine

Saturday, January 27, 2018

'Pool Gonna to Be 'Pool; Queens Gonna Be Queens

The Livers were bounced out of the prestigious FA Cup today by EPL next to bottom West Brom. At Fenway. In their two matches since beating Manchester City LFC has lost to dead bottom Swans in league play in Whales and now to the next last the "Baggies" in the FA Cup.

Charlotte led Miami all game but lost their sting in the 4Q and lost again again, 95-91 in Miam-uh. The "Vice Heat" swept the four games played between the two clubs. Two straight 4Q collapses by the "Queens" against Miami. Outscored 24-13 tonight, erasing a 7 point lead they had going into the last Q. "Steve Clifford, what do you think of your team's execution?" "Their execution? I'm for it."

Unloveable

No normal person can even like this Cleveland "Cavaliers" team.

When I last checked the score last night Cleveland was pulling away from Indiana. Led after each quarter and as the 3Q was ending they had expanded the lead, right before my eyes, to 13 then 14 then 16 then 17. They were blowing Indiana out. It made me cynical. "Flipped the switch," to self.

When I woke up this morning I was surprised that the final margin was only 7 (Indiana got as close as five). Then the details:

-LBJ had 11 turnovers, half a dozen in the 4Q.

-Pawnshop customers booed Isaiah Thomas in the 4Q.

-Kevin Love sarcastically bent down to hand the ball to Insufficiently Tall after grabbing a rebound.

-IT left the building bypassing reporters who he had not addressed since the Oklahoma City Massacre.

Insufficient spoke today. Never called out Kevin Love, nah-ah.

"To be real, I didn't call him out. I asked him why wasn't he at the game during the game supporting his teammates."

OHHH! See?
 On his defensive performance thus far, nah-ah:

“We’ve been a lowest five defensive team in the NBA the whole time, so when I come back, it’s my fault now. Which, life isn’t fair, but that’s not fair, bro. At all."

Yeah, it was like that.
...
On his shooting woes, nah-ah:

"What did you trade me here for? To not shoot? To not find my rhythm? To not be Isaiah Thomas? I can’t be anybody else," he said.

Yeah, follow along.

Pithy commentary there by Joe Vardon.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/01/isaiah_thomas_says_theres_no_b.html#incart_big-photo

-Love tossed a warmup in the face of teammate Jeff Green at the end of a timeout.

-When Green tried to make light of the incident to reporters after the game, Love responded, "I don't like you Jeff."

See? They don't even like each other.

-Dwayne Wade was not with the team: left to attend to an emergency family situation. In Mode Cynicism I thought to Derrick Rose leaving the "Knicks" for an emergency family situation which turned out to be himself. I shouldn't have been so cynical. Wade's was about someone else, not himself, technically not a family member, his agent, who died.  (Notice to all my loving clients: do NOT miss work when I die.)

The Cavs don't know when Wade will rejoin the team. Head coach Tyronn Lue and general manager Koby Altman told Wade to "take his time." 

"However much time he needs to take to get over what he's going through, then he'll be back," Lue said. 

At least he won't be missing practice.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/01/dwyane_wade_away_from_cavalier.html

It was reported for the first time this morning that it was Wade, along with Insuffiently Tall, who led at the Inquisition into Kevin Love's health. Half a season with a new team and Wade is making trouble. Did the same thing in Chicago at the same time last year.

-Rose had a good game last night but...There is always a but with this unloveable, hatable bunch.

In the latest controversy to strike the Cavaliers, coach Tyronn Lue couldn't find Derrick Rose in the fourth quarter of Friday's 115-108 win over the Pacers.

Rose, as it turned out, drank too much water.

"Hydrating," Rose explained. "I think that a lot of people hydrate. It's one of the reasons Lue got mad at me yesterday. I was in the bathroom. I didn't know he wanted me to come back in the game."

Only this season, and only in Cleveland.

Ditto on Joe Vardon.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2018/01/derrick_roses_bathroom_break_c.html#incart_river_mobile_index

-Dan Gilbert still owns the team.

Unloveable. Unlikeable. Detestable. The Cleveland Cadavers.

The Genius of the Founders

Article Two Section 4 of the United States Constitution:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

In combination with current Department of Justice regulations, which have the force of law here, Article Two Section 4 places the president of the United States above the criminal law. All the criminal laws. If the current occupant of the White House were to shoot and kill a person in Fifth Avenue in New York City for instance he could be impeached, convicted and removed from office but not be subject to criminal prosecution for murder. This is the better, although not unanimous opinion of legal scholars.

IllegiTrump is never going to be impeached by the Russo-Republican House of Representatives;  therefore, he will never be convicted by the Senate, therefore he will never be removed from office. He will remain in office until 2020 and will at that time attempt to steal another four years.

I'll drink to that.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Not from an illuminated manuscript, although them boys look lit up.

Look how poor we were. The boys in the background. The cook.

That's a New York regiment in the Civil War. The United States was much wealthier than the Confederate States. 

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Man City hold Fred talks as Pep Guardiola closes in on Brazilian

(Manchester Evening News)

Fred? No. You don't get to go one-name when that one name is "Fred." 



Yeah, me too!

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has set the time on its Doomsday Clock each year since 1947, when it was seven minutes to nuclear midnight. Last year it was 2 1/2 minutes; in 1995 it was 14 minutes, the furthest away it has ever been. Two minutes to midnight is tied with 1953 for the closest it has ever been. Congratulations to all.

Canada's Emigration Problem

On the move again.

College football offensive savant Matt Canada, late of Pitt, NC State, Northern Illinois and latest of LSU, has negotiated a buyout of his contract after one measly year and is headed elsewhere. Again. He left Pitt completely of his own volition after one year. A finalist for the award given to the nation's top assistant coach at Pitt, Canada became the college game's fourth highest paid coordinator at LSU and even had a buyout in his contract, extraordinary for an assistant.

The Master of Movement, the Jet Sweep Jester, Canada transformed a pedestrian Pitt offense in 2015 into a top ten offense in 2016. Although no tackle football scholar, the undersigned has watched a fair amount of college foo'ball in his time and he done never seen a defense more befuddled than PSU's against Pitt in 2016. "Enablers" had no idea where the ball was going and pert near got blowed outta the Ketchup Bottle in the first half of that game. Watching replays this idiot blogger had to replay 2-3 times to figger it out hisself. Matt Canada was the reason Pitt won that game.

I noticed the scores in LSU's games last year and they were nowhere near the pinball numbers Canada's offense put up at Pitt. Turns out in one game head coach Ed Orgeron ordered Canada to stop all the pre-snap movement. It was confusing the players (read: it was confusing Dead Head Ed). They butted heads Canada and Dead Head did; hardly spoke, actually. Can't have that. A coordinator can't be hardly speaking with the head man. Leads to emigration.

Matt Canada came to Pitt after puzzlingly being fired by head coach Dave Doeren after 3 1/2 years at North Carolina State. And before that he had been with Doeren at Northern Illinois. Canada was at the apex of his marketability after that transformational 2016 season. I didn't understand why he didn't parlay that into a head coaching position. He did get a sweet deal at LSU and LSU is a better football school than Pitt (if you have scholars who aren't confused by your schemes) but he wasn't The Man. Canada should be The Man somewhere but his emigration from job to job is a problem, viz: After parting ways with LSU Canada has accepted the same position at Maryland, a big step down from LSU, a step down even from Pitt but at least in a major conference and still as a coordinator.

Major college football needs an offensive innovator of Matt Canada's caliber and Matt Canada needs major college football as a platform for his innovations. (I tell ya I never did see anything like what he did at Pitt.)

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

The Land (of Endless Drama)

As they lose again tonight it is against the better angels of my judgment that I have one thing to add that I have not read anyone else mention.

Did this consensus unusually ominous Winter of Discontent not start in the Summer? With Kyrie Irving's shocking demand to be traded? It did.

Did Bed Bugs not have his fill of playing with LBJ? He did.

Is this Winter Classic Collapse not qualitatively different from others. It very much appears so. This finger pointing team meeting, Lue's "agenda" comment aimed at James, other agenda comments by players, especially by Isaiah Thomas, are those not different? They are.

The ultimate question thus is, "Has LeBron James lost 'his' team?" Are players tired of his shit? I don't know to any reasonable level of confidence about the rest of the team but Irving clearly did and he is flourishing in Boston while the "Cavs" players are having finger pointing meetings, at Kevin Love, at LeBron James and that is all new.

NEVER did I think that Kyrie Irving, The-Earth-is-Flat-Kyrie, would flourish in Boston AND leave The Land of Drama a dysfunctional, blaming mess. A TOTAL disrespect of Irving and his critical role on those Cleveland teams, that was.

I find it reasonable inference from facts that other current members of the Drama King and his Court saw part of what Irving saw (whatever that was) and that this has festered and increasingly grated on them since it leaked that Irving wanted out.

It is all consistent with LeBron James having lost the team, losing a team is usually forever, and by a preponderance of evidence it all started with Kyrie Irving's bold, and in retrospect prescient, move.

"Cleveland Cavaliers have reached watershed moment in season"


" Tyronn Lue: If meeting doesn't lead to wins, it's a waste"


"Cavs team meeting drama: Kevin Love was reportedly called out by Isaiah Thomas"


Today:

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"Index" (catchy lede?) from almost nine years ago, 80 pv's? You want another Index? How about another art review? C'mon man wtf.