Saturday, September 29, 2018

"We are seeing the death and decline of democracy."

Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose replacement the Russian-Republicans are trying to make Putin-Trump loyalist Brett "Bite" "Kill" Kavenaugh in a speech to high school students. Have a nice life kids.
There is a sense in which history is lit by the deeds of men and women for whom ideas were things other than instruments of adjustment. Pragmatism explains everything about ideas except why a person would be willing to die for one.
     -The Metaphysical Club, Menand (375)

Scholarly Tackle Football

3:00 pm

Ooh. #3 Clemson drove 94 yards for the winning TD against Syracuse. Tough loss for the "Orangemen" who led 23-13 earlier in the 4Q. 27-23 final.


2:15 pm

FT Army 42 Buffalo 13. Umm. Good time to hop off the "Bills" bandwagon.

Man. What's that say about Rutgers who Buff beat last week by the identical 42-13? Umm. Rutgers sucks.


1:33 pm

"Panthers" hangin' tough at UCF! Still 0-0.

12:08 pm Austin, Texas time

Holy Molio Syracuse is beating #3 Clemson 16-7, 10' left 3Q in "Death Valley."
Yessiree Bob! City in first with a huge six goal goal difference. 

FT Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

'Pool drop points for the first time this season. Chelsea drop for the second time. City in first place on goal diff, no?

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

Ex-City player Daniel Sturridge levels for Liverpool in the 89', now in injury time!

Tick, Tick, Tick...

85' at Stamford Bridge. Time slippin' away from 'Pool.

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0, 74'

JJ. Omojuwa
@Omojuwa


E be like say Chelsea don see Liverpool finish.
12:49 PM · Sep 29, 2018

Wish I had said that.

The Premier League Season Starts Today

Eden Hazard in the 25' and Chelsea lead 1-0, now in the 32'. Is this the first time Liverpool have been behind all season? Don't know but pert near if not. City go to Fenway next Sunday. Testing two games for Liverpool.

The Main Event

Chelsea-Liverpool have kicked off.
Pitt and #13 Central Florida are scoreless but it's early.
City fans are singing "Don't sack Mourinho".

City 2 Brighton 0

Kun scored in the 65', they are now in the 88'.

West Ham 3 Manchester United 1 FT

There are "End is Near" headlines for Mou now. His record after ten matches, three losses and the same number of points, is the same as David Moyes.

Half-time at Etihad Stadium. 1-0 City.
Bola
@Bolanet


29' GOOOOOLLLLLLLLLL!!!!! Umpan Sane dituntaskan Sterling ke gawang Ryan Man City 1-0 Brighton
9:31 AM · Sep 29, 2018

I just said that.

Marty Balin Has Died

The co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and, to Publocc readers, the singer who attempted to revive "We Rise with Our Dreams" was 76 years old. The wisdom is reaching.

Friday, September 28, 2018

"Even when he was dying, he would ask Juliette to give him paper and something to write with: he said it was the only way he knew to relieve the pain [of cancer]."
          -Charles S. Peirce in a letter to Victoria Welby, May 25, 1911. The Metaphysical Club, Louis Menand (436).

"By writing, so much suffering disappears."
          -Yang Huanyi, the last user of Nushu, the ancient, secret Chinese language of women, as quoted by The New York Times in her obituary, October 7, 2004.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Portlandia

Seal Slaps Man with Octopus
(BBC)

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Try Laughter

Call 'em ignorant, trailer trash, they revel in our hate for them. "To hate us is to take us seriously enough to hate. If you have to hate us to respect us, we'll take it!"

By definition to laugh at them is to not take them seriously, they are merely entertainment.

My first ex-father-in-law was a violent, racist ex-Philly cop. He watched "All in the Family" until he heard a critical mass that seemed through the concrete of his skull that it wasn't just a comedy, all the laugh lines were to humiliate Archie Bunker, his soul's twin. He didn't like that. The laughs were at his expense.

Trump supporters know just below their surface hatred of us that they are Lowlifes, that they always have been. They know Trump is a Lowlife. This is a Lowlifes club. Trump never genuinely laughs. Laughter raises his greatest subliminal dread, being laughed at. And now he and his Lowlifes have been laughed at at the United Nations. The world is laughing at you, Larry Nelson of Minnesota, Klan Man Dan of North Carolina. That cuts them to the soul.

At the next Trump rally, pipe canned laughter into the hall, a sound track like on "All in the family. It  will sear their souls and humiliate them.

Their Greatest Humiliation: The World Laughing at Trump Supporters

UNITED NATIONS — They laughed.

Not even a minute into the speech. They laughed.

On the planet’s biggest stage, with more than 100 world leaders gathered with their ministers, ambassadors and dignitaries of every stripe, while news cameras from as many countries broadcast the speech in as many languages, they laughed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/world/trump-nations-laughter.html
...
"Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy unless they immediately change course. Here in the Western hemisphere we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers."

The German delegation's reaction at that moment:


‘People actually laughed at a president’: At U.N. speech, Trump suffers the fate he always feared

“He has always been obsessed that people are laughing at the president. From the mid-’80s, he’s said: ‘The world is laughing at us. They think we’re fools,’ ” said Thomas Wright, a Europe analyst at the Brookings Institution. “It’s never been true, but he’s said it about every president. It’s the first time I’m aware of that people actually laughed at a president. I think it is going to drive him absolutely crazy. It will play to every insecurity he has.”


And they do not have a clue:

"They weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me. We had fun," Trump said.

I Have Always Liked China

"China does not want me or Republicans to win."
                       -Trump in speech to U.N. Security Council.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

The Star of Texas

Not right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant last night because of protesters. The Cruz family should be treated with respect.
Beto O'Rourke is in a toss-up race with Ted Cruz in Texas. Who'd a thunk it. That is an example of why. "Not right." Opponent Cruz "unlikeable"; "Lucifer Incarnate;"



But it was just "not right" that Cruz and wife be abused in a restaurant.

That was not political calculation; that's just who Beto O'Rourke is: a genuinely decent, empathetic person, even to the unlikeable and the least worthy of empathy.

Beto O'Rourke is a star, a natural. He has a golden touch. That is why Beto O'Rourke is playing well in Texas.

BoMu's Gonna RICO Trump

Have you noticed how quiet Rudy-the-Tranny has been lately? Haven't heard a peep out of that bitch in quite a while. Know why? It's Mueller Time. Betcha BoMu gonna RICO's Trump's ass. You cannot negotiate on your knees, von Clausewitz said. Rudy-the-Tranny's not negotiating. He's begging with his mouth stuffed.
Oh my God, Pitt now plays at #13 Central Florida? JEEzus Christ. How about the "Patriots"? Are the "Patriots" on this year's schedule, too?

Rosey: Wilting or Blooming?

Sixteen months ago deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was repeatedly "emotional," his emotions swung from pole to pole, he behaved "erratically," irrationally, his thought processes were disturbed.

That is alarming behavior. It would have been viewed as alarming behavior in any large organization. And something would have been done about it. The head of human resources would have been made aware; all of the employee's supervisors would have been apprised; there would have been an "intervention: meetings with and about the employee, outside help obtained, leave with or without pay, suspension, demotion, up to firing.

On these facts, in the position Rosenstein held, if I had had the power, I would have fired him. I am looking at this strictly from an employer-employee perspective. I am not considering the Russia investigation of Trump. Yet, that we know of, nothing was done to or about employee Rosenstein sixteen months ago. Or since!

It is now sixteen months later. We, the public, are learning of Rosenstein's nervous breakdown just now. Surely, Jeff Sessions didn't just find out about it. Sessions has the power to fire Rosenstein. When did Trump first hear? Surely not when The New York Times published the account. Right? Trump does not have the power to fire Rosenstein. Trump has the power to fire Sessions.

I presume that Sessions knew about this pretty much in real time as it was happening. He would have witnessed some of it himself; or McCabe, the acting director of the FBI for godssake, would have told him; SOMEbody would have told him. Beyond a reasonable doubt Sessions knew about Rosenstein's nervous breakdown previous to the Times article. Yet, Sessions did nothing that we know of; manifestly he did not fire or demote Rosenstein.

After ~sixteen months can Sessions still fire Rosenstein? That is the rub. If we presume that Rosenstein has not had another nervous breakdown I don't think Sessions can. If Rosenstein has been fine since, it's too long now.

Trump can fire Sessions, is going to fire Sessions, is breaking out in hives he's so itchy to fire Sessions, and Trump's replacement can fire Rosenstein. What if Trump found out about Rosenstein's nervous breakdown remotely, I don't know, just say, "a long time ago"?  He has been itchy to fire Sessions for a long time. Why didn't he "a long time ago" if he knew about Rosenstein's nervous breakdown "a long time ago"? Fear of Mueller. Unfounded fear: I am telling you that if Trump, remotely or currently, based his decision to fire Jeff Sessions solely on Sessions' inaction on Rosenstein's nervous breakdown Mueller could have no issue. Could not have an issue. Rosenstein's breakdown is Trump's break.

Why could Trump fire Sessions now if Sessions could not fire Rosenstein now? Because Sessions' firing offense is ongoing. Sessions' inaction on Rosenstein has occurred on May 9, 2017, May 10, 2017, May 11, 2017, June 13, 2017, August 31, 2017,September 25, 2017, December 31, 2017, May 9, 2018, September 25, 2018--on every day since the Comey firing.

Yet, he hasn't. Why? Yep, fear of Mueller time. Trump's got Red Foxes yelling in his ear "It's a Mueller trap!" "It's a Mueller trap! Rudy-the-Tranny should call up Mueller and ask him. "Hey Bob you piece of shit if Trump cans Sessions now would you have an issue?" I bet Mueller would be straight with him and tell him no. I bet Mueller would say, "Rudy-the-Tranny, you is sooo STOOpid. Of course I wouldn't have an issue with it! How could I?!"

If I were Trump...Egads! I cannot do that...If I had the power to fire Jeff Sessions I would absolutely fire Jeff Sessions now for not firing or demoting Rod Rosenstein from on or about May 9, 2017 to present. I don't listen to Red Foxes. I'm rational.

Trump Touts, UN Laughs

"In less than two years my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. America's..." (tittering). So true. (laughter; Trump smiling) Didn't expect that reaction but that's okay." (general laughter, clapping).

Monday, September 24, 2018

"Stillers" lead the "Buccaneers" 16-7 'bout half-way through the 2Q at Old Trafford.

Rosey Still Bloomin'!

He and the bloomin' fool will meet Thursday. 

Another One Bites the Dust: Rosey is Gone

Rod J. Rosenstein, deputy attorney general in charge of nervous breakdowns and the RussianTrump investigation is on his way to the White House either to resign or to be fired. According to the Washington Examiner that is a distinction with a difference. If Rosey resigns Trump gets to name his replacement. If Trump fires him...maybe not. Wear a wire, Rosey.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Donald Trump keeps saying that the November election is a referendum on him, so a key part of the Democratic strategy is feeding the narrative of chaos in the White House: Trump-baiting so he’ll overreact.

I am having reading comprehension difficulties. I first read that as Trump-baiting of the Democrats was the White House strategy. I got it completely back-asswards.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately warned Mr. Trump not to fire Mr. Rosenstein, which in today’s Washington means that he wants Mr. Trump to fire him. Then he’ll have another media conflagration his candidates can ride to retake Congress.

Uh...Okay, I see now: "Don't fire him! I'm warning you!" "Think that'll push the ghoul's buttons?" I think he should fire him.

Mr. Rosenstein had written an excellent memo explaining why Mr. Comey deserved to be fired as FBI director. But Mr. Trump, taking the anti-Trump media bait, told NBC that the real reason he fired Mr. Comey was because he refused to say publicly that he wasn’t investigating Mr. Trump. Then the President tweeted falsely that there may be tapes of Mr. Comey’s White House meetings. Mr. Comey leaked his own memos, and a political uproar left Mr. Rosenstein feeling used.

Um...What was the "anti-Trump media bait" Trump took? Something that made Trump tell NBC he fired Comey over investigating him...What about telling Lavrov that he fired Comey to take pressure Russia pressure off him? That's pretty potent bait to get a person to make a person run to the mainstream media and then separately to social media. I'm going to give the Wall Street Journal the benefit of the doubt here because I am feeling addled but in my addled state I am not following that.

The immediate battle now is over the midterm election and whether Mr. Trump can stay in office...

In my mis-reading of the lead paragraph my brain immediately went to the Dems midterm strategy. That is in fact where Wally went too and they think, per that last quote, that that is what the Dems strategy is and ought to be.  I tell you now (addled admittedly) that I do not think that is what the Democratic strategy is nor what it ought to be. The midterms obviously are not about Trump, he's not on the ballot; they're not about impeachment, the midterms are about what midterms have always been about: local conditions--affected by  national conditions and perceptions, sure--party affiliation, and local candidates, THEY are on the ballot, not Trump, not Hillary Clinton. The GOP would have lost the Alabama Senate race with Roy Moore on the ballot if Abraham Lincoln George Wallace was the Republican president. Connor Lamb won the Pennsylvania congressional race mainly because of who he was, he was from political central casting for Pa., is who he was. 

The Gosar-Brill race in Arizona is so powerfully symbolized by that ad by the Gosar siblings, that ad is so powerful because it's all about Gosar! Trump's name was not mentioned ONCE by any of the Gosar-7. That same ad, with Trump inserted for Gosar, would have been counter-productive in Arizona. It was Gosar the congressman who brought Trump into it in a, guess what, a tweet. Nazi Paul tried to deflect that seven-cannon barrage by saying his siblings made the ad only because "They hate President Trump." 

So, I think I am thinking more clearly now and I say, Wally can prove me wrong, but I say the Democrats have NOT made Trump the issue, and they ought NOT make Trump the issue. They have better candidates, they don't have candidates who are serial sexual predators, convicted felons (West Virginia) and they don't have candidates who SEVEN brothers and sisters endorse their Democratic opponent. 

What's he doing there?! "Distributing Alms," Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1668).

I see.

Chelsea Stumbles

Swine Chelsea drew at 17th West Ham today, the first time they have dropped points this season. That is a bad result for Chelsea. The top of the EPL table after six matches reads:

Liverpool +12, 18
City          +16, 16
Chelsea    +10, 16
Watford    +11, 13

Until Liverpool drops points, and they will, but City and Chelsea will drop more also, City's goal difference advantage matters naught but when Liverpool drop points and if City keep up, a four goal advantage after six matches is a lot of advantage.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Scholarly Tackle Footie, Finis

11:26 pm NPT

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
'Tis fall and Wildcat fans are gay,
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy, and bright.
By 'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,


KEN-TUCK-EE. Unimaginably unranked Kentucky throttled #14 Mississippi State 28-7 to move to 4-0. The "Wildcats" will be ranked Monday.

Unranked (soon to be) Texas Tech destroyed #15 (soon to be un-) Oklahoma State in Stillwater forty-one to 17.

Iowa...Iowa, Iowa, winter, spring, summer and fall-all. Come, come, come dance with me at the beautiful Iowa ball...is holding on 17-14 over #18 Wisconsin. But watch out: The "Cheeseheads" are on the Iowa, first down, with 1:02 left.

Then my old Kentucky home, good night.


8:27 pm

2018 blows for the ACC.

Old Dominions, winless, in a bite conference, who re-started their football team in 2009, beat undefeated, Power 5, 13th-ranked Virginia Tech by two touchdowns, 49-35, in the old dominions. The "Monarchs" scored 28 points in the 4Q.

The "Longhorns" beat the "Horny Toads!" Beat 'em pretty good, too, 31-16. TCU was ranked 17th.

#21 Miam-uh beat FIU-uh 31-17. Miami led 31-0. FIU scored all of their pernts in the 4Q.

#5 Oklahoma is having a difficult time with Army. 21-14 at HT.

7:01 pm

Ohh boy.

"It just seemed like they really didn't want to be out there at some points," Michigan defensive end Chase Winovich said.

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost said something, I cannot recall exactly how he put it, consistent with that earlier this week..."Buying in," it was something about "buying in" to Frost's program, some of the players aren't.

“You’ve got two choices. You fight back and you work even harder, or you give up. I also told them that if anyone doesn’t want to stay on board this ride with us, let me know now and we can get off."

And that's bad. It certainly did seem to me today, just from "reading" the game, the penalties, the futility, that the "'Huskers" players were not putting everything into it. It is completely bewildering. Frost loved his players at Central Florida, and they him; he is Nebraska born, Nebraska bred, played there, he's all Nebraska ("and when I die, I'll be Nebraska dead"). Frost's "coming home" was greeted by the fan base as the second coming. How can Scott Frost and Nebraska not work?

The Cornhuskers (0-3, 0-1) are off to their worst start since 1945. They have lost seven in a row dating to last season for the first time since 1957.


4:31 pm

Pitt is now 0-6 against North Carolina in ACC play. 38-35 was the tale of today's heartache.

The University of Buffalo is now 4-0. The "Bills" routed Rutgers 42-13 in B1G country. Ruptures has actually won a game this year. Who the heck lost to Rutgers?...Texas State. Man, Texas State must blow. Since beating Texas State Rutgers has lost 52-3, 55-14 and 42-13. Man, Texas State must REALLY blow.

Nebraska is resembling Rutgers. The "Huskers" got husked by Wolves 56-10. Nebraska has lost to Troy and to Colorado at home and now this. Do those two great scholarly institutions play this year? That would be one to see!...No, they do not. Nebraska does play Perdue next Saturday!

Previously winless Perdue made boiled soup out of the previously unbeaten and 23rd-ranked (How? That is an outrage.) "Pigeons" of B.C. Good riddance to that ranking. AWFUL loss for the ACC.

The Catholic deacons of Notre Dame ministered at a forest wake today and conducted themselves as demons, 56-27.

In the Convict Convocation Miami leads the FIU "Collapsed Bridges" 14-0 early in the 2Q.

The "Orangemen" are making lap dogs of the "Poodles" 14-0 halfway through the 1Q.

Old Mississippi is gold over Kent 31-17 in the 4th in a game on delay.

Mary, a week after getting soiled by Temple's "Bowels," which was two weeks after said Mary had burnt orange Texas, I say, the Canada-ians tarnished the "Gophers" 42-13. (B1G's got some BAD teams.)

And...I think that's all I give a hoot about.


1:52 pm

Half time scores:

Michigan 39-0 Nebraska
Pitt 28-21 UNC
Buffalo 35-6 Rutgers
Purdue 23-7 BC
Old Mississippi 7 Kent 7

1:26 pm

I must say something here about PSU: They are an amazing second half team.

Against Pitt: 14-6 HT. 51-6 FT. 37 2nd half points.
Kent State: 28-10 HT. 63-10 FT. 35 2nd half points.
At Illinoise: 21-17 HT. 28-24 end 3Q. 63-24 FT. 35 points in the 4Q!
107-7 in the second half in 3 games.

1:16 pm

Plays last Nebraska possession

-Delay of game penalty
-Incomplete pass
-QB sack
-QB sack
-Punt

Michigan now with the ball at the Neb...TD Michigan. 37-0, 5:25 2Q

So sad. So, so sad.

PERDUE! now up 20-7 on the "allegedly" "23rd-ranked" "Pigeons" of "Boston" "College."

UB 28 Ruptures 6

PITT 14 UNC 14!

1:08 pm

Possessions Nebraska-Michigan.

Neb: 4 plays, INT
Mich: 6 plays, TD
Neb: 3 plays (for -13 yards), PUNT
Mich: 1 play, TD
Neb: 3 plays (-3 yds), PUNT
Mich: 8 plays, TD
Neb: 6 plays, PUNT
Mich: 3 plays, FUMBLE
Mich: 4 plays (guess they recovered their own fumble), FG
Neb: 3 plays (+2 yards), PUNT
Mich: 10 plays, TD
30-0 Michigan

Buffalo is up 21-6 on Ruptures 9:34 2Q. The "Bills" are 3-0, looks like gonna be 4-0 and should be ranked after this. Ruptures is Ruptures.

12:53

23-0 Michigan over Nebraska and the second quarter just started.

PERDUE! with the 13-7 lead over the "Pigeons," 13' 2Q

Pitt 7 UNC 7 end 1Q but when they resume UNC has the ball...Score. UNC 14 Pitt 7.

12:13 pm

Ah jeez. And just like that Wolves are at the Neb 1.

12:08 pm

Games that the undersigned will be following include (but are not limited to):

Nebraska at #19 Meeshagin. Could be a Big Red bloodbath.
The somehow #23 ranked "Pigeons" at the Perdue "Cindy Crawfords". Go Cindy.
FIU at #21 Miami. The last time these two fine institutions played they needed to be institutionalized.
#17 "Horney Toads" at UT. Watch out for Texas.
#14 Mississippi State at somehow unranked Kentucky. "Wildcats" gonna win that game. And be ranked.
"The Beloveds" at Apple Chill. Pitt is 0-5 since joining the ACC against this fucking school and they've been the better team on some of those occasions of ofer.
And Full Time all around:

Manchester City 5 Cardiff 0
Liverpool 3 Southampton 0
Manchester United 1 Wolverhampton 1

Manchester City 5 Cardiff 0

The Prophet strikes again! Riyad in the 89' and City are blasting the "Bluebirds" out of the sky.
Wolverhampton leveled with ManU in the 53' and it is still 1-1 in the 86th at Old Trafford.

City 4 Cardiff 0

Riyad Mahrez with (his first?) goal for Allah's Righteous Prophets in Sky Blue.
Liverpool 3-0 over Southampton at the half.

Manhunt ends for Pennsylvania man who allegedly threatened Trump

(Red Fox)

Swine.

City 3 Cardiff 0

Ilkay GUN-dogan in the 44th and City takes a 3-0 lead into halftime.
Swine Chelsea lead the Premier League on one goal's difference over the fetid red 'Pool.
'Arry the Elk Hornet, after getting their timbers shivered for the first time by the "Bucs" last week drew 1-1 in London against Fulham.
Just now, in the 35', Bernardo Silva, and City lead Cardiff 2-0.
Liverpool lead Southie 2-0 after 34; the "Buccaneers" are 1-0 over Wolves in the 35th.

Manchester City 1 Cardiff 0

Aguerroooo in the 32' and the Righteous lead the "Bluebirds" 1-0

The East is Red

Manchester City host Cardiff in about ten in the city.

Manchester City hosted Lyon earlier this week in the UCL and the Lyonaisse done left with a 2-0 victory.

Liverpool came back and beat Paris at Fenway the day before. Liverpool remains unbeaten in all competitions on the season.

A red star rises out of Liverpool and over all England and Europe. A Blue Moon dips.

Friday, September 21, 2018

Rosenstein Should Be Fired

The NYT article is about the mental and emotional fitness of the number two man in the Justice Department for that job. Some people are focusing on the consequences of Rosenstein's firing for
the Mueller investigation. In my view the two should be separated and the focus be on Rosenstein's fitness for office and the Times article is clear that Rosenstein is not fit. His thought processes and behavior show manifest disturbance, his behavior is erratic, paranoid and irrational. Rod Rosenstein is not fit for the number two position at Main Justice. Never has been. We take one issue at a time and we must decide the issue de jour and that is that Rosenstein does not belong in this job.

Mr. Rosenstein and...Mr. Sessions...joined Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. The president informed them of his plan to oust Mr. Comey. To the surprise of White House aides who were trying to talk the president out of it, Mr. Rosenstein embraced the idea, even offering to write the memo about the Clinton email inquiry. He turned it in shortly after.

A day later, Mr. Trump announced the firing, and White House aides released Mr. Rosenstein’s memo, labeling it the basis for Mr. Comey’s dismissal.

The president’s reliance on his [Rosenstein's] memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became angry at Mr. Trump...He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm.

Why in the name of rational thinking would that catch Rosey by surprise? It would not. It is not rational thinking. Why would he get angry at Trump? He would not. This is disturbed thought by Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein...suggest[ed] that other F.B.I. officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director...secretly record Mr. Trump.

That is paranoia, it is panic. That he spoke these disturbed thoughts to others is disturbed behavior.

A determined Mr. Rosenstein began telling associates that he would ultimately be “vindicated”...

"Vindicated" is alone a word that the paranoid use.

White House officials never checked his phone when he arrived for meetings there, Mr. Rosenstein added, implying it would be easy to secretly record Mr. Trump.

example[s] of how erratically [Rosenstein] was behaving while he was taking part in the interviews for a replacement F.B.I. director, considering the appointment of a special counsel and otherwise running the day-to-day operations of the more than 100,000 people at the Justice Department.

The barely concealed implication is that Rosenstein felt overburdened with work and responsibility. He was not up to the job. He should not have been then and should not be now managing 100,000 people. He should resign or be fired. Why did Sessions not step in here?

Some of the details in Mr. McCabe’s memos suggested that Mr. Rosenstein had regrets about the firing of Mr. Comey. During a May 12 meeting with Mr. McCabe, Mr. Rosenstein was upset and emotional, Mr. McCabe wrote, and said that he wished Mr. Comey were still at the F.B.I. so he could bounce ideas off him.

No normal mind three days later would have regrets and wish Comey was still at the F.B.I. when that same mind had offered to and did compose the memo that justified the firing. No emotionally stable person would be upset and emotional.

Mr. Rosenstein also asked F.B.I. officials on May 14, five days after Mr. Comey’s firing, about calling him for advice about a special counsel. The officials responded that such a call was a bad idea because Mr. Comey was no longer in the government... 

He is not processing information rationally. That is not a rational thought and again, it is an irrational thought activated into behavior when he gives voice to it to others.

...And they were surprised, believing that the idea contradicted Mr. Rosenstein’s stated reason for backing Mr. Comey’s dismissal — that he had shown bad judgment in the Clinton email inquiry.

I guarantee you that "surprised" was not the sources' term. "Off his rocker," "losing it," yeah. That whole passage is, to me, the worst of the worst.
The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office for being unfit.

Mr. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Mr. Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide.
...

...he did tell Mr. [Andrew]McCabe that he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Now here, the Times article begins to describe two crackpots, Trump and Rosenstein.

The extreme suggestions show Mr. Rosenstein’s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Sitting in on Mr. Trump’s interviews with prospective F.B.I. directors and facing attacks for his own role in Mr. Comey’s firing, Mr. Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.
...
A Justice Department spokeswoman also provided a statement from a person who was present when Mr. Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire. The person, who would not be named, acknowledged the remark but said Mr. Rosenstein made it sarcastically.

But according to the others who described his comments, Mr. Rosenstein not only confirmed that he was serious about the idea but also followed up by suggesting that other F.B.I. officials who were interviewing to be the bureau’s director could also secretly record Mr. Trump.
...
Mr. Rosenstein...raised the idea of wearing a recording device, or “wire,” as he put it, to secretly tape the president when he visited the White House. One participant asked whether Mr. Rosenstein was serious, and he replied animatedly that he was.
...
The president’s reliance on his [Rosenstein's] memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became angry at Mr. Trump...He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm.

A determined Mr. Rosenstein began telling associates that he would ultimately be “vindicated” ...

...Rosenstein expressed frustration at how Mr. Trump had conducted the search for a new F.B.I. director, saying the president was failing to take the candidate interviews seriously.
...
To Mr. Rosenstein, the hiring process was emblematic of broader dysfunction stemming from the White House. 

...White House officials never checked his phone when he arrived for meetings there, Mr. Rosenstein added, implying it would be easy to secretly record Mr. Trump.
...

Rosey "erratic"!:

[sources]  called Mr. Rosenstein’s comments an example of how erratically he was behaving while he was taking part in the interviews for a replacement F.B.I. director, considering the appointment of a special counsel and otherwise running the day-to-day operations of the more than 100,000 people at the Justice Department.

During a May 12 meeting with Mr. McCabe, Mr. Rosenstein was upset and emotional, Mr. McCabe wrote, and said that he wished Mr. Comey were still at the F.B.I. so he could bounce ideas off him.

Mr. Rosenstein also asked F.B.I. officials on May 14, five days after Mr. Comey’s firing, about calling him for advice about a special counsel. The officials responded that such a call was a bad idea because Mr. Comey was no longer in the government. And they were surprised, believing that the idea contradicted Mr. Rosenstein’s stated reason for backing Mr. Comey’s dismissal — that he had shown bad judgment in the Clinton email inquiry.

That is an ill-written paragraph in the same way that "how erratically he was behaving" is ill-written. It is not clear at first reading who "he" is who is erratically behaving (Rosenstein) and it is not clear at first read who "him" is who Rosenstein wanted to call about a special counsel. "Him" was Comey! Rosenstein wanted to call COMEY five days after Comey had been fired to ask COMEY about a special prosecutor!

No shit that was a "bad idea"! Man, Rosey WAS cracking up.

Rod Rosenstein Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment

(NYT)


Best thing to come out of Cleveland, Ohio since LeBron. Their NFL team got its first win in 19 months last night. Congrats The Land and a we are not worthy to CPD.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

HAPPY FRIDAY EVE!
                                                             ZZTop? New ManU signee?
Are you a witch?

Angry mutant green crabs are destroying everything in their path

(Red Fox)

An army of spiders is slowly taking over a Greek town, but it’s totally fine

(BGR)

strong day for science

Like humans, octopuses want more hugs when high on ecstasy

(Science)

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

The Apprentice


In phone conversations with Trump, Putin would whisper conspiratorially, telling the U.S. president that it wasn’t their fault that they could not consummate the relationship that each had sought. Instead, Putin sought to reinforce Trump’s belief that he was being undermined by a secret government cabal, a bureaucratic “deep state.”

“It’s not us. We get it,” Putin would tell Trump, according to White House aides. “It’s the subordinates fighting against our friendship.”

The Apprentice


Trump’s admiration for the leader of Russia was inexplicable and never wavered after taking office. He praised the Russian leader, congratulated him, defended him, pursued meetings with him, and fought virtually any policy or punitive measure that might displease him.

A trained intelligence operative, Putin understood the power of playing to someone’s insecurities and ego. On cue, he reciprocated with frequent praise for the president he had sought to install in the White House.

The Apprentice

The supposedly accomplished mogul was the opposite of how he’d been presented on prime-time television. Now he was the one who was inexperienced, utterly unprepared, in dire need of a steadying hand. Now he was the apprentice.

The word, of course, has another connotation: an aspect of servility.

The Apprentice


But [Brennan's] call to the White House was driven by something else — extraordinary intelligence that had surfaced in late July and reached deep inside the Kremlin, showing that Putin was himself directing an “active measures” operation aimed not only at disrupting the U.S. presidential race but electing Trump.

"The Apprentice"-Greg Miller


In the months leading up to the 2016 election, senior [CIA] officials held a series of meetings...seeking to make sense of disconcerting reports that Moscow had mounted a covert operation to upend the U.S. presidential race.

By early August, the sense of alarm had become so acute that CIA Director John Brennan called White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. “I need to get in to see the president,” Brennan said, with unusual urgency in his voice.

At the time of Brennan’s request for a meeting with President Barack Obama, election anxiety about Russia was already surging.
The Apprentice

That got me to subscribe to Chief WaPo, it did.

North Korea’s New Promises on Weapons Stop Short of Denuclearization

(NYT)

It doesn't matter. The Korean peninsula is better than denuclearized, it is "detensionized".

At the annual DPRK military review ICBM's were, for the first time, absent. South Korean president Moon Jae-in was in Pyongyang yesterday and was greeted by Kim Jong-un with a man hug. The two rode together in an open car smiling and waving to crowds in a motorcade.

Kim need not denuclearize; his nukes pose no threat. There has been a 180 degree gestalt shift on the Korean peninsula and the person most responsible for it is Donald Trump.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018



There it is! My Chinese restaurant. Where I take my meals three times a week. I love the ambience. Dead serious. LOVE it. Homey. Reminds me of my condo. Or my office. I have taken my meals there since, jeez, since the Chinese restaurant across the street changed ownership, let's see, that's been about...12-13 years.

Proprietor Chen. From Chongqing like Bo Xilai. Employees: one full-time (Chen, the cook, he is a fantastic "chef," the food is muaw, and phone order-taker), one part-time driver.

Chen had four part-time drivers at one time but Carlos went on a three day drunk. Chen didn't know where he was only that his car was gone and Carlos wasn't answering the phone. Chen told me about it after Carlos had been AWOL from work for a few days and Chen was sincerely concerned that something had happened to him. I called Carlos myself and left a message telling him that we, Chen and I, were worried about him. Left him my private lawyer cell phone number and everything but he didn't call back. I floated the idea with Chen of contacting the police to make a missing person's report (Chen later told me that spooked him. You don't call the police in China.), then Carlos resurfaced, Chen took him back, then Carlos went on another three day drunk and that was it, Chen said he had to let him go because of the liability of three day drunks. Good man Carlos when he wasn't on a three day drunk. Chen was even teaching him how to cook.)

Chen had "Johnny" (Self-denominated. When I asked him what his name was after he had been to my place several times making deliveries he paused ever so slightly and said "Johnny." (I don't think his name was really Johnny.)) for a short period of time. Johnny was great. Told me one time "You are so handsome"), brought his fiancee by with him another time. But Johnny lived an hour away! How Johnny could do a two hour commute for a part-time job I don't know but Johnny eventually decided he couldn't do it either,

Chen had a nice young single mom. She was awesome, so friendly. I met her little, no, I saw her little boy one time at the restaurant, she had brought him with her asleep and had put him down on...Well, it's not in that photo, the only one I could find that captured the aura of Mike's (the name of the restaurant. Mike is long gone to Canada, Chen told me.) but where that natty red chair is on the left and the black chair behind it Chen has put in a natty sofa and the young mom laid her young boy down on the sofa, I was sitting in one of those red chairs around that circular fake wooden table you can see a sliver of at extreme right. I was watching CCTV on the big flat screen TV that Chen always has on, watching Chinese TV is the motivation for this post which I will get to, probably next time, whew! look at the time, as soon as I introduce one more part-time driver.

I don't know his name. Nice guy. He's the only driver there now, Tuesdays and Thursdays, other days I have to go to pick up which I don't "have" to go, I like going, it reminds me so much of home and office. Sometimes I go even when this guy is making deliveries because I like going. I don't like going when this guy, the Last Driver, is there though because he sits at that table reading a Chinese newspaper and watching the financial reports in English on TV. I like CCTV (next time).

When I first went to Mike's in person it was because of this Ordeal of the Drivers and I couldn't find the place. It's in a natty little shopping center but around the corner on the residential side. There is no signage. That wooden door looks like a residential door when it's closed which it almost always is. There's a small Pakistani owned poorly stocked grocery store fronting the street, next to an Orthodox Jewish Temple and around the other corner is a dry-cleaner. You cannot see the Chinese restaurant from the street, it's around the corner facing the apartment buildings across a small parking lane, it has a residential door, no signage save one of those lighted, red oval "Open" signs in the window in front of the dining area you see up there. I had to ask one of the residential neighbors, "Excuse me, where is the Chinese restaurant?" But when I found it and went in I was Home.

Okay, so that "sets the scene." Next time (this scene setting was sooo beside the point, I apologize.) CCTV and why I like it and my false epiphany on happiness.
In the most twee move of any sports club since Manchester City announced "a holistic approach" to soccer the Los Angeles "Clippers" of the NBA announced today the hiring of Lee Jenkins; Lee Jenkins is a writer for Sports Illustrated; the Clip Ship hired sportswriter Lee Jenkins for the new position which they done just created, as..."Executive Director of Research and Identity."

The creation of the position of Executive Director of Research and Identity is a decision that LAC will regret but once, and that is continuously.

Peut-etre comme ci comme ca the Picksburgh "Stillers" are in need of an Executive Director of Research and Identity on accounta there's some bad water flowin' in the three rivers. Some headlines:

Where Was Antonio Brown?
Where Antonio Brown was not was at practice today.

What is going on in Pittsburgh?

Is Steel City Crumbling?

"It's a Circus There"

A circus? Who are these guys? Note: Pittsburghers do not go to watch their NFL team play and expect a circus to break out. Yet, in recent results and goin's on one can see, squint, coming into focus, yes, there it is!...

a clown face blooming as alt-logo on the blank side of the "Steelers" helmets.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino burned Major League Soccer today in explaining why he opposed a La Liga match being played in the U.S.:

“I think I would prefer to see a great MLS game in the US rather than La Liga being in the US."
Trump has a toadstool penis.

#MeTooLate

Christine Blasey Ford's accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should cause no senator to vote against the nomination. Assuming every word of Blasey Ford to be true, 36 years between attempted rape and accusation is too long.

Monday, September 17, 2018

I have changed my mind about the Mueller investigation (again).

Why is obstruction of justice (such a little peepy case) taking so long? It is not. I think Mueller is long done with obstruction. If I remember correctly it has been reported previously that the obstruction inquiry is over.

So what’s Mueller doing now? I am convinced that Mueller does not think that he can charge a sitting president with a crime, that is what impeachment is for, and cannot sue a sitting president in civil court. So he’s writing his report to Congress? No, I don’t think Robert Mueller would be working this hard and this long, he and 15 or 17 other lawyers full-time, to write a frigging report to Congress? Like he's trying to write-on for law review? No.

The length of time this has taken and the sharply focused examination of finances has me thinking RICO. Giving immunity to the top guys at the Trump Organization: Why would Mueller do that?  Nothing to do with peepy obstruction. How did the Southern Poverty Law Center shut down the Ku Klux Klan? Civil RICO. What did the Feds finally get Al Capone, the head of Murder, Inc., on? Tax evasion.

Mueller would still not be able to file charges against Trump as president but there may be a legal route around Pennsylvania Avenue. Mueller could charge the Trump Organization with racketeering, either civil or criminal, there is absolutely no constitutional impediment to that, and who is the head of the Trump Organization?

Trump would be charged, identified as such in the indictment, as “Donald J. Trump, president of Trump Organization” not “Donald J. Trump president of the United States of America.” It’s a legal fiction, I know, I’m a legal! We do fiction all the time, we legals! Really, there are legal fictions. Who’s the fucking “reasonable man”? You ever meet someone named Reasonable Man? Yet the reasonable man is the fulcrum of much of Anglo-American criminal and civil law.

Guys are charged with rape by their DNA sequence to get around the statute of limitations. Perfectly legal.Don’t know what his name his but by God there’s only one of him and we gonna git ‘im sooner or later!

This is a theory, okay, it is a theory. Maybe Mueller is working on that report to Congress and laughing so hard at my legal fiction that it’s delaying him. But even if Mueller sees no detour around Pennsylvania Ave. he can still bankrupt the Trump Organization by charging it as a "racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization." I like the sound of that!

Or, maybe Mueller is thinking along the lines of James Comey in A Higher Loyalty. I remember Comey writing that dealing with Trump and his henchmen reminded him of nothing so much as meeting with Mob bosses when he was a federal prosecutor. The Mob: organized crime. That's what I think Mueller is working overtime on.

(Pursuit of) Happiness


The United Nations World Happiness Report for 2018 came out in March. This is the fifth such report. The U.N. uses six metrics to measure happiness based upon data collected by the Gallup organization in population surveys. The six metrics:

"GDP per capita."
"Social support."
"Healthy life expectancy."
"Freedom to make life choices".
"Generosity".
"Perception of corruption".

The country-by-country rankings seem to me to have changed little over the years, which is good for the report's validity. If you had one country near the bottom one year and then near the top the next that would not be good for validity. More importantly, the relative rankings are very similar: The Scandinavian countries rank at the very top; the U.S. is right around the top ten percent; Russia around the top third; China around the middle (156 countries in 2018; 155 in 2017).

I remember being surprised at China's middling rank when I first saw this report, I believe the initial in 2012. What would you think the killer metric would be for China's ranking? Perception of corruption, right? That's all we hear! Zhongnanhai is extremely sensitive to the perception of corruption. They constantly purge leadership of the actually corrupt (e.g. Bo Xilai). Yet...In 2018 Chinese perceived their country to be significantly less corrupt than Americans perceived the U.S.!

I then thought, "Freedom to make life choices." One-party state, right? Right. Wrong. China ranks in the top 20% in freedom to make life choices!

"Ah, GDP per capita." That's a sneaky one because China is very prosperous but has so damn many capitas. It's GDP is HUGE but divided by 1.4 BILLION people! No. China's GDP per capita puts them in the 40-50 percentile.

So I was beat. I then went through every goddamned metric to see which one killed China.

"Generosity." (?) Generosity. Out of 156 countries China was 153rd in generosity! Generosity (it seems to me) should be highly correlated with "perception of corruption," no?  I mean, those two seem to me to be two sides to the same coin, no? No. Fine. Chinese, be more generous in your corruption.

What got me onto the World Happiness Report was a trip to my Chinese restaurant yesterday. That was the point of looking up the World Happiness Report. I will come to that point in the next post.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

The Ketchup Bottle is pouring blood.

A week after Pitt gave up 51 to PSU Kansas City laid 42 on the winless "Stillers." The last time the "Stillers" played at Heinz Jax laid 45 on 'em. 

"Winless": The "Stillers"?! Winless. They tied Cleveland in the season opener. It don't get no more brutal than not beating the "Browns."

Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball sixty times. Pittsburgh ran it thirteen times. That is ridiculous. Brutal.

Somebody named "Patrick Mahomes" completed 23 of 28 passes for six touchdowns for KC today against the "Steel Curtain" defense. Curtain it was, steel it wasn't. 

 It's getting brutal in Pittsburgh. 

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Scholarly Tackle Football

11:02 pm in the night time Normal Cop Time

Last call yinz, this be it for me.

Updating Alabama at Old Mississippi, Public Occurrences scholars will recall that Old Mississippi scored the first pernts of the game on the first play of the game to take a 7-0 lead after which Alabama scored the next 49 to take a to-7 lead into the locker rooms for refreshments before the start of the second half whereupon Alabama ran off the final 13 pernts to win the ball game 62-7.

They're burning barns in West Lafayette, Indiana home to the Perdue "Boilermakers" and home for four years to Cindy Crawford who can always make me boil and burn. But tonight, I say tonight the Missouri "Tagerz" of the SEC are in town battling another of the B?G's also-rans and at this typing it be Mizzou 37-Perdue 34

Akron, the "Zippers," are beating the B?G's Northwestern "Mildcats" 32-28 with 8 1/2 left in the zzz'er.

#4 Ohio State also of said B?G is on top of them #15 "Horny Toads" of TCU in Fawt Werf 26-21 wiff 3:15 lef in the turd in a ball gim that has gon back and ferth. That would be a good win for OSU.

TEXAS, who lost to Maryland who got killed today by TEMPLE, THAT Texas, is beating the snot out of the USC "Orenthal James Simpsons" in Aweston.

What is this other shit...I don't see any other shit I give a shit about. Till next week, yinz y'allers, have a goo one.


10:40 pm

Man, North Texas scholars are simply more scholarly than Arkansas'. Take this:

https://youtu.be/nAJFLzfRLWM

Yep, Arkansas, you is DUM! North Texas is smarter, humiliated Arkansas at home, and prolly ran off with da Hogs' friend gurlz.

Has this been a good Saturday for the SEC? Is Arkansas still a member of the SEC? Then, no.


10:17 pm

This part of 5newsonline's write-up on Arkansas' North Texas debacle,

A week after rushing for 299 yards, Arkansas was shut down by a North Texas defense that stacked the box and dared the Razorbacks to throw.

is identical to this part of ESPN's write-up on Maryland's Temple debacle,

Jamming the line of scrimmage and daring unbeaten Maryland to throw, the Owls shut down the Terrapins' potent offense and pulled off a 35-14 upset Saturday.



8:56 pm

North Texas destroyed Arkansas in Fayetteville 44-17. That is the worst lost in Arkansas football history. Gonna go out on a limb there.

DUKE won at Baylor 40-27. Both teams were unbeaten coming in, Duke coming out. The Blue Devils are 3-0 having won over Army, at Northwestern and now at Baylor. Will the Dukes get any votes for Top 25? No. They will win next week against North Carolina Central. Will they get any votes then? No. They play #13 Virginia Tech on September 29. Will they...Yes.

Old Mississippi is playing Alabama in Oxford. The "Rebels" scored on the FIRST play of the game. They completed a 75 yard touchdown pass. Oh! Orgasmic Delirium. alabamahasscoredthenext49.



7:35 pm

Has this been a good Saturday for the B1G?

BYU went into Madison and beat the supposebly #6 "Boogers" 24-21.

Rutgers...pulled a Rutgers.

Maryland pulled a Rutgers.

Nebraska lost to Troy.

Illinois lost to South Florida. (No shame there.)

That's five. Five out of fourteen. There are four more games tonight.

HELD: This has not been a good Saturday for the B?G.



6:26 pm

Boy oh boy: Notre Dame "allegedly" "eighth-ranked" beat Vanderbilt 22-17 by du Lac. ND led 16-0 in the first quarter. Got outscored--by Vandy--17-6 the rest of the way.

34-10 North Texas over Arkansas at half time.



6:23 pm

Temple rolls to 35-14 upset of previously unbeaten Maryland
Desperate to get its first win of the season, Temple incorporated a defensive strategy that could be summed up in three simple words: Stop the run.

Jamming the line of scrimmage and daring unbeaten Maryland to throw, the Owls shut down the Terrapins' potent offense and pulled off a 35-14 upset Saturday.

After watching the Terrapins run over Texas and Bowling Green, Temple coach Geoff Collins knew what the Owls had to do as a 16-point underdog.
...
...Temple (1-2) bounce[d] back from losses at home to Villanova and Buffalo. The Owls took a 28-7 lead early in the third quarter and cruised to the finish.
...
Maryland (2-1) had been thriving under Canada, who also serves as offensive coordinator. The Terrapins were averaging 39.5 points...

"We didn't do anything on offense today, so I take full responsibility for this loss," Canada said.
...
Maybe it was overconfidence, perhaps Temple figured out Canada's scheme or maybe the Terps aren't that good. 
(ESPN)



6:01 pm

North Texas 31
Arkansas 10 :26 left 2Q




4:13 pm

Miami finished the Toledo game like they began it--routing the "Rockettes." The final was 49-24. That game was played in Toledo of all places. Why Miami would want to go to Toledo I haven't the foggiest.

#5 Oklahoma downed Iowa State 37-27.

Jeezus, UConn and Rhode Island. 56-49 the final, UConn.

Oh dear God. Troy beat Nebraska in Lincoln 24-19. Scott Frost is 0-2. Nebraska never led in that game. Troy jumped all over them 17-0 in the first Q. It was 17-7 at the half. The closest Nebraska got was 17-13 in the third. Ouch, ouch, ouch. What in the world happened to Nebraska? Where is "Go Big Red"?

Oh dear God. Syracuse ROUTED Florida State. 30-7! 30-7! Willie Taggart's gonna last one damn year in Tallahassee if that shit keeps up.

Jee-suz. Kansas, KANSAS! laid a double nickle on Ruptures. Ruptures countered with fourteen pennies. Rutgers is humiliating.

Oh my God. Temple CRUSHED Maryland 35-14. Is Halloween early this year or something?

Oh doggie, my Beloved Pitt "Panthers" hung on for dear life in Picksburgh. Beat the "Rambling Yellow Jackets" 24-19 but led that one 21 nil at the half! "Mountain Cats" NOT a second half ball club evidently.



2:40 pm

Holy Toledo. Miami led Toledo 21-0 at one time. Now it's 28-21, still Miami, near the end of the 3rd...Now 35-21 Miami.

Oklahoma (#5) is in a tight one in Ames against the "Cyclops" 31-24.
1:37 pm NPT

UConn 49 Little Rhodie 42 near the end of 3.

Troy 17-13 Nebraska, just starting the 4th.

Syracuse 13-0 over FSU 5;30 left in 3Q...Syracuse is now up 20-0!

Kansas 38-14 over Ruptures, half-way thru 3.

TEMPLE has INCREASED its lead over Maryland 28-7 with 12' left in game. Jeezie Peezie.

Pitt 21-6 over Ga. Tech ~7' left in 3rd. Pitt was only like a 3 point favorite.



Some astonishing early scores:

Troy is beating Nebraska 17-7 right before the half.

Kansas is blowing out Rutgers 24-7 with about 6' left in the half. Kansas doesn't blow out anybody, not even Ruptures.

TEMPLE, who lost to 1-AA Villanova is up 21-7 over MARYLAND (Matt Canada) at half time.

Syracuse has a slim 3-0 lead over Florida State with 3' before the half.

Not astonishing but I'm surprised: Pitt has a 14-0 lead over Georgia Tech with 3' to half time.

UConn and 1-AA Rhode Island have combined for 70 points at the half! UConn has 42 of them.

Florence Fluffery

"PISS poor job of covering this, Fourth Estate, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You tried to fan hysteria, you fanned only cynicism, with your walls of water."

Just this morning, right?

See this?

https://twitter.com/gourdnibler/status/1040678572262916096
Hmmm, 'Arry the Elk Hornet is getting stung by the "Bucs." 2-0 at the half.

Fullsies

City beat Fulham 3-0.
Arsenal won at Rooks 2-1.
Chelsea mauled the "Bluebirds" 4-1.
Bournemouth hammered Lester 4-2.
Palace won at John Smith's Stadium 1-0.

Still to come at 12:30 NPT Harry and his swarming Elk Hornets host Manchester "Buccaneers." Sting 'em 'Arry!

City 3 Fulham 0

British Sterling in the 47th!
Half time at Etihad Stadium, City lead Fulham 2-0.

Liverpool remained perfect with a 2-1 win at Tottenham. Chelsea lead Cardiff 2-1 at the half in London and BOURNEMOUTH is wasting Lester 3-0 at the half.
Vera's fella David Silva with the goal in the 21', now in the 37th.


Ladbrokes
@Ladbrokes


102-year-old Vera Cohen and her 97-year-old sister Olga Halon led the teams out today for Man City vs Fulham Vera has been a City season ticket holder for more than 85 years Absolute legends

OH MY GAWD!

Manchester City 1 Fulham 0

And he's Bad, Bad, Leroy Sane,
Baddest man in the whole damn game

Sane with the goal in the 2nd'! Now in the 6th.

Hurricane Florence Finis

PISS poor job of covering this, Fourth Estate, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You tried to fan hysteria, you fanned only cynicism, with your walls of water. Bored, politicians? Are your puny lives so uneventful that you have to manufacture drama? "Biblical," "Monster," the thesaurus got a workout, huh? Put it back on the shelf for another year?

Hurricane Florence became a Cat1 as soon as it hit land, then quickly a Tropical Storm, now, what Southern Zephyr Florence? It will putter up the Ohio Valley and drench Western Pennsylvania--Look out Johnstown!--and then peter out entirely early next week.

The storm killed five people, two when a tree fell on their house, one who was electrocuted when he tried to connect electrical cords outside in the rain, one when he went looking for his dog (NOI), and the last of heart attack, NOI. 

Friday, September 14, 2018

"He doesn't smile," the man thought to himself. He had just met his new doctor who had presented with a winning manner, unaffected, avuncular but that did not have an analog in his face. At one point the doctor looked down at a chart and the lines around his eyes were dark valleys.

On Wednesday the man got the message that every parent dreads: his youngest, his baby, his daughter, a thousand miles from home, had gotten t-boned at an intersection. All airbags in the car deployed and she could not get out of the driver's side. Her car was totaled. The message came in a text from the man's ex-wife who was quick to add that "She is unhurt." The man called his daughter to hear her voice for himself. She was shaken, as she would be, as anyone would be. Her back hurt, which it would, but the man is too much a lawyer to not know of grave internal damage that takes a day or so to manifest. "And I have ringing in my ears," she said, and this was long after the accident. Ringing in the ears is somehow ominous, or can be, and the man alerted to it. He connected his ex-wife on a three-way and both parents were in agreement that if she woke up the next day with muscular pain or especially with ringing in the ears she was immediately to go to the urgent care by her apartment to get checked out. 

The man had two days, Thursday and Friday, left in his adderall prescription and texted the doctor Wednesday afternoon if he could see him sometime before the weekend. The doctor was leaving for the weekend starting Thursday but, good guy that he was, he said "You can come by my condo tonight anytime before 9 pm. to pick them up" (his and his son's). What a guy: He had given the man his personal cell and invited him to his home to pick up the script. 

Yesterday, Thursday, the man texted his daughter first thing in the morning, "How's the back?" and got "It's fine!" back. Such a relief. He called at the end of her work day and she had a full and fulfilling day and was excited as could be. "No pain?" "No!" "Ear ringing?" "No, it went away entirely." The man texted her mother who was greatly relieved as well and thanked him for getting this important update. 

Thursday night the man went to the doctor's condo. He had been there before, he vaguely remembered. A famous status symbol building, he had a couple of years before dropped his daughter off on a play day with a friend, one of the few she kept in touch with from the junior high school that she left because the other students were so mean and cliquish and materialistic.

The man waited by the elevator so he would not miss the doctor. After five or ten minutes the doctor walked out of the elevator, looked at the man unsure who he was and the man at him also unsure. "Ben?" "Doc? Yes." His eyes were big and deep set and deeply lined. "Crying eyes," the man thought to himself. Second time meeting him, same impression, he had some grief in his life.

The doctor said he sold his medical office, "after 22 years there." He and the new "medical administrator" regime were supposed to close Friday. "I'm going to Colorado to be near my daughter," he said. The doctor and the man were exactly the same age, 63. The man clapped him on the shoulder in happiness for him but the doctor did not smile back. They talked for maybe a half hour, face to face, close face to face. The doctor never smiled. He had those sunken eyes that had cried too much. As they walked toward the lobby and the front door the man put his arm on the doctor's shoulder and squeezed it at his good fortune. The doctor didn't reciprocate or thank him. "Good talking to you Ben," he said as the man left and he seemed to mean it.

This morning the man's daughter sent him a photograph of her totaled car. It looked like a death car that he had seen so many times before. The impact was on the rear driver's door which was completely caved in. No one sitting in the rear driver's side passenger seat would have survived without at least grave injury and reasonably would have been killed. If the other car had hit a foot and a half further front his daughter would have been killed or had massive injuries. The man looked at the car picture once and then deleted it, he couldn't look at it again, it was too near to being a death car.

The man went to the pharmacist who had referred him to the doctor. Told him how much he liked the doctor but damn if he wasn't retiring just as had his previous doctor. Now he might have to get a new one again from the pharmacist as the pharmacist had gotten him Doctor Weinstein. The man signed the credit card receipt for the script and was about to leave.

"He's had a lot of tragedy," the pharmacist said. "His daughter o.d.'d about six months ago and died."

"Opioid?" the man made a reasonable guess.

A silent head nod from the pharmacist. "21 years old. He went looking for her and found her under a bridge."

The man stared at the pharmacist.

"Yeah," he said,  "And of all people, an addictionologist."

The man was so not there that he walked out without the prescription. "Hey!" the pharmacist called after him and he went back to pick it up.

"Enjoy the rest of your day if you can," the pharmacist's wife said.

That's why he looked haunted. He was selling and moving to get away from everything.

This was ALL cutting WAY too close to home so the man called his daughter again. "My back hurt today and my ears feel like when you're on a plane. I went to an urgent care though and they took a CT of my head and felt around my back and said that there was no damage in either place. They gave me a prescription tylenol." Relief...and

"Honey, I went to my pharmacist to get a refill of adderall for your brother and me and the pharmacist told me that our new doctor, Dr. Weinstein, had a daughter die six months ago of an opioid overdose. Exactly your age. You put in your text yesterday that you had been prescribed some pain relief that had an opioid in it. Did it really?"

"No, just codeine-fortified Tylenol and I might not take it."

"This whole thing spooks me: your near-death accident, Dr. Weinstein's daughter's death from opioids, you texting that you had been prescribed an opioid. I went to pick up the prescriptions from the doctor's condo, The Imperial, that I dropped you off at once for a play date."

"Wait," when he finished as if she had been processing. "Maggie Weinstein?"

"I don't know her first name."

"That's who it is, it must be. Yeah, you dropped me off and picked me up afterwards."

"Oh my God. It was...her?...Her name was Maggie?...She's...gone," he said gently. "This is really weirding me out now."

His daughter was silent, she keeps a lot in.

"Honey, you are all I have in the world, you and your brother. I know you won't get addicted to opioids but be careful driving, be careful with life, darling."

"I will daddy."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you too daddy."

But there was distance in her voice. The man thought, "I think this shook her." He texted her shortly after, "That is totally freaky." She didn't respond.