In Blacksburg, Va Tech leads Pitt 38-21, 6:03 left. Game over. The "Panthers" will suffer another blow-out loss that they were favorites to win. Good night, E's and F's.
Saturday, September 30, 2023
Ball Game. ND Sacks Riley Leonard, Forces Fumble, Recovers at Duke 25
2nd 16 ND Duke 47, 1:02, ND TO. WHAT A GAME!
ND has to get to Duke 30 to have a chance at a FG for the win.
HT Va. Tech 21 Pitt 7
This is the season of Pitt's discontent. Lose this game, which they're on their way to doing with alacrity, and I projected this one a dub for us, and the "Panthers" are likely, imho, to finish the season 3-8.
Olé! Olé! TOUCHDOWN! TWO-POINT AFTER. Mississippi 55 LSU 49, :39.
Man, the rest of the country ought to give up. There are no tackle football games like tackle football games in the Slave States.
#20 Old Mississippi FORTY-SEVEN #13 LSU FORTY-NINE, 1:32 4Q, Miss with ball
IF they get to the 30 and IF they have a player who can kick a football they can win the game.
NO SHUTDOWN! SENATE PASSES FUNDING BILL. DEM CONGRESSMAN PULLS FIRE ALARM!
Congress passes stopgap bill to avert shutdown ahead of midnight deadline
The Senate vote was 88-9. Paradigm shift for Kevin McCarthy? He ignored the Taliban and worked with Dems.
He missed it.
Oh my Lord. Two Mensa schools can’t get a motherfucker who can kick a football! Are you fucking kidding me?!
#17 Duke 0 # 11 Notre Dame du lac 10, 6:28 2Q
Virginia Tech 14 Pittsburgh du trois rivières 7, 13:07 2Q.
Your attention please. Your attention please. At the end of the first quarter no. 20 Old Mississippi 21 no. 13 LSU...7.
Final scores:
Salve Vagina 35 Merchant Marine 17.
Coast Guard 36 MIT 14.
Johnson C. Smith 21 Elizabeth C. State 20.
Defiance 27 Submission 21.
Lenoir Rhyne 56 UVA Wise 3.
Hardin-Simmons 40 Howard-Payne 33
Rose-Hulman-Anderson 64-3.
Hope 30 Yo Adrian 21
Liz Cheney, the former chair of the House Republican Conference, invoked history to warn congressional Republicans against denying aid to Ukraine.
“Members of the House and Senate who are voting to deny Ukraine assistance on the 85th anniversary of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 ‘peace in our time’ speech should read some history: Appeasement didn’t work then. It won’t work now,” she posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Good by Cheney. It is worse than appeasement. It's pro-Nazi, i.e. pro-Russia. No worries, though. Congress will pass Ukraine aid separately with a government shutdown averted.
1 min ago
Return to menuBy Jacob Bogage
The Senate is set to vote Saturday on a bill to avoid a government shutdown by 6:30 p.m. Starting at 4:20 p.m., the upper chamber will have, at most, two hours of debate, then vote to pass the bill with a 60-vote threshold.
Fucking Lincoln Riley. FT #8 USC 48 Colorado 41
Wtf is his problem?! Why can’t his teams play defense?! It’s close between who more deserves to be fired today, Riley or Billy Nap.
House GOP stunner: Spending patch passes with mostly Dem votes
"We're tired of f--king around with these whack jobs," one House Republican said as Kevin McCarthy risked a far-right rebellion aimed at taking his gavel.
In a shocking turn, the House on Saturday took an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote to avert a shutdown at midnight on Sunday — with the majority of Democrats bailing out the GOP.
Kentucky let the clock run out 4th and 5 at the FU 9. FT 33-14.
They may have saved Billy Nap's scalp. Appearances matter and 40-14 is oh so much uglier than 33-14. Regardless, Florida can't play.
Florida Gators Fans Call For Billy Napier’s
Head During Ugly First Half In Kentucky
It's what they do, but I can't say I blame them here. It's the way they have lost under Napier. Today (so far) they have had 8 penalties, not including 13 men on the field and still couldn't stop a Kentucky touchdown, had a penalty for a wardrobe malfunction when two players wore the same number in a prior game, they can't tackle and have given up 293 yards rushing at 9.8 yards a clip. That's being unprepared. And then they get blown out in this game that they were a one-point underdog.
The House of Reps is Voting on a Temporary Funding Bill
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) said there is a deal in the House that includes a 45-day continuing resolution with disaster relief funds, extension of a federal flood insurance program and FAA reauthorization — but no Ukraine aid.
House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) just yielded the floor after speaking for about an hour. The odds of wriggling out of a shutdown just went up.
2:22 pm
Rep. Katherine M. Clark (Mass.), the Democratic Whip, told fellow Democrats to wait to cast their votes to show that Republicans they can’t vote the bill forward on their own, according to a Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Clark is expected to give Democrats a signal and the supporting votes will be cast.
2:41 pm
Big John Fetterman
“The damage to our nation’s reputation and critical programming, and chaos for America’s families is because of a small group of [Republican] peckerheads in the House. This national upheaval is inflicted by choice over nothing except Fox News face time and tributes to the lunatic fringe from their district.”
I like John.
In "Other Eastern"
UConn led Utah State 17-0 in the 1H. USU has now tied it. 4:48 3Q.
Dino Arrange 7 Dabo Arrange 24, 7:35 3Q.
Utah State just scored again. 17-24.
HT Deliverance 23 #22 Disney 7
Big plays on the Disney TD drive right before half: 20 yard pass, 16 yard run, 34 yard pass. I’ll say this for Billy Naps: his teams always play hard.
Unless SC pushes Miami “Dolphins” territory, 70 points, I’m done with this game.
7-27, 5:22 2Q. They blocked a CU punt.
#22 FU started on their own 25 after the kickoff. Seven plays including two penalties they’re 2nd and 25 at their 22. KY Jelly has rushed for 200 yards on 15 carries, 14.7 yards per. I watched a replay of one of their TDs: FU can’t tackle. There were like seven missed tackles. Undisciplined, poor technique, poorly coached.
It would be a shock if Paterno-Sandusky loses to NWU. They were 24-point favorites. The Rapists have started slowly in their games this season but to be down 10-3 to the Hazers with over half the 2Q gone is very poor behavior. They have a five-star QB and they can only put up three with 3:31 left in the half?
Crazy Ol' England!
CITY LOSE at home to Wolverhampton "Wanderers" 🙄2-1.
Manchester Unitard lose at Child Porn 1-0.
Fucking Luton Town got their first win in the Premiership 2-1 over the Row Houses in the Town.
Arsenal with a heavy 4-0 win over Bourne-cum-in-my-mouth 4-0 in the Library.
THE VILLAINS! The Villains heaved and hoved Brighton with a touch but not the PAT in Hove.
Long Day for the Buffs
They go three-and-out on their first possession. SC with the ball again at their 27. This won't take long...
The Early Days of American English How English words evolved on a foreign continent.
The evolution of language in the Colonies has always fascinated me. How did the Southern accent develop? The slave states were settled disproportionately by Scots. You can hear the Scottish brogue in slaver English. American English developed as on an island from the island Mother Country and strange life forms develop on islands. Within the New Republic, because of the difficulty of travel over so vast a land as even extended only along the Eastern Seaboard, there were islands within the island.
English settlers faced with unfamiliar landscapes and previously unknown plants and animals in the Americas had to find terms to name and describe them. They sometimes borrowed words from Native American languages. They also repurposed existing English words and invented new terms, as well as keeping words that had become archaic in British English. As non-English-speaking immigrants began to arrive during the eighteenth century, they accepted words from those languages as well. By the time of the American Revolution, English had been evolving separately in England and America for nearly two hundred years, and the trickle of new words had become a flood.
Corn offers an example of how English words evolved in America. Before 1492, the plant that Americans call corn (Zea mays) was unknown in England. The word corn was a general term for grain, usually referring to whichever cereal crop was most abundant in the region.
For instance, corn meant wheat in England, but usually referred to oats in Ireland. When American corn came to Britain, it was named maize, the English version of mahiz...When the first colonists encountered it in North America, however, they almost always referred to it as corn or Indian corn, probably because it was the main cereal crop of the area.
...
Corn was central to survival for the English settlers, so corn terms soon proliferated. In Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the entries under corn cover two columns. These include the terms corn basket, corn blade, corn cutter, corn flour, corn field, cornmill, and cornstalk, among others. Webster defined corn the way the English do, as a cover term for any grain, but noted, “In the United States…by custom it is appropriated to maize.”
...
Much of the landscape of North America was new to the English, so many early word inventions applied to the natural world. Often these simply combined a noun with an adjective: backcountry, backwoods (and backwoodsman), back settlement, pine barrens, canebrake, salt lick, foothill, underbrush, bottomland, cold snap. Plants and animals were similarly named, for instance, fox grape, live oak, bluegrass, timothy grass, bullfrog, catfish, copperhead, lightning bug, garter snake, and katydid (a grasshopper named for the sound it makes). All were part of the vocabulary by the mid-eighteenth century. Other descriptive landscape names included clearing, rapids, and bluff.
Bluff has the distinction of being the first word with a changed meaning to be noticed and criticized by a visiting Englishman. Writing about Savannah, he reported, “It stands upon the flat of a hill; the bank of the river (which they in barbarous English call a bluff) is steep and about forty-five feet perpendicular.” A bluff in England denoted a high but rounded shoreline, while in America it was used to describe steep cliffs.
Americans repurposed other English words as well. For example, bug, which meant a bedbug in England, broadened to cover any insect, and sick, which referred specifically to a digestive upset, became a general term for any illness. What the British called timber, Americans called lumber. (In England, lumber is old, discarded furniture and other items of the sort usually found in attics.) Americans called a shop a store...and said fall for autumn. ...
The expression I guess, meaning that one supposes or agrees, is often used to stereotype Americans in British books and movies... During the nineteenth century, it was a regionalism specific to New England, although it later became common everywhere.
I didn't know that! Ho-ho-ho.
During the nineteenth century, it was a regionalism specific to New England, although it later became common everywhere. To quote the Massachusetts Spy again, for November 8, 1815, “You may hear [a Southerner] say ‘I count’—‘I reckon’—‘I calculate’; but you would as soon hear him blaspheme as guess.”
The "Massachusetts Spy"!
Several words for bodies of water changed meanings between the old country and the new. In England a pond is artificial, but in America it is natural. ...
The language that influenced early American English the most is Dutch. ...
New Netherland changed hands in 1664...the Duke of York, who renamed it New York. A substantial Dutch population remained, however, still...speaking their own language. Dutch could be heard in both New York and New Jersey until the late nineteenth century. Meanwhile, English speakers adopted several Dutch terms.
...coleslaw (Dutch for cabbage salad), cookie (Dutch for little cake), cruller, and waffle. ...Bushwhacker, from a Dutch term meaning forest keeper, made its first appearance in print in 1809, in Washington Irving’s comic novel A History of New York, written under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. ...
Dutch orange is part of the color scheme of the New York "Mets" baseball club and the New York "Knickerbockers" basketball club. Harlem is American English for the Dutch Haarlem.
...Yankee is also almost certainly a Dutch contribution. ...At first Yankee referred only to New Englanders, but by the time of the Revolution, when the song “Yankee Doodle” was first heard, the British applied it to all Americans. During the Civil War, Southerners adopted the term to apply to anyone from a Union state.
Love it.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — In an occasionally dark and profane speech, Donald Trump on Friday sought to win over Republicans in California by complaining that rich people in Beverly Hills smell bad because they’re denied water, reiterating lies about widespread election fraud and calling on police to shoot people robbing stores.
… his encouragement of violent retribution against criminals marked an escalation of his longstanding tough-on-crime message.
“We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” he said, drawing loud applause. “Shot!” he added for emphasis.
…
His remarks about crime…were especially pointed. …
“The word that they shoot you will get out within minutes and our nation, in one day, will be an entirely different place,” Trump said Friday. “There must be retribution for theft and destruction and the ruination of our country.”
…
Not surprisingly, a smattering of Democrats protested near the convention site.
“When the leading candidate of a major political party is under indictment for attempting to overthrow free and fair elections, every voter needs to stop and think about where our country is headed,” San Bernardino County Democratic Party Chair Kristin Washington said in a statement. “The last thing any American needs is to relive that madness.”
Good morning nephews and nices
Michigan offensive lineman Trevor Keegan still marvels at how nice Nebraska fans were after his team's visit in 2021.
“We beat them and they’re like, `Hey, congratulations, great game! You played so well!'" Keegan recalled. “I thought, `Are they messing with me?’ But then like 20 more of them did the same thing.”
Friday, September 29, 2023
Oh, just take all my money and shoot me
# 19 Oregon State 21 #10 Utah 0, 13:50 4Q. After OSU’s first TD at 5:46 1Q there were TEN straight punts through 12:30 3Q.
Politico: Gaetz-McCarthy: It's Personal. But No one Seems to Know Exactly Why
I confessed in an earlier post that I don't know how Right-wingers think but that this feud seemed to me personal. That seems to be the case here.
Gaetz’s takedown mission: ‘He wants Kevin’
Past shutdown fights have been organized around a demand. This one is better understood as being centered on a long, nasty grudge.
[Gaetz has] spent months relentlessly hounding House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — to the point that he’s almost certain to lead a charge to remove him in the coming weeks.
Most other House Republicans watching as Congress lurches toward a federal shutdown see something else entirely.
“This isn’t a function of him being concerned about process,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said. “This is a function of personality.”
“He wants Kevin,” added a Gaetz friend. “That’s it, and everything else revolves around that.”
With less than 48 hours until the shutdown deadline, this one deeply chaotic relationship has emerged as a key factor driving the standoff.
[Gaetz] has harnessed the anti-establishment fervor inside the House GOP like no other member, setting trap after trap for a speaker desperate to please his detractors and keep his job.
Past government shutdowns have been organized around a demand — reversing the Affordable Care Act, for instance, or building a border wall. This one, should it come to pass Sunday, is better understood as being centered on a long, nasty grudge.
But the real throughline is Gaetz and McCarthy’s mutual antipathy, according to those who have watched the two men closely in recent years.
“There is something between them, and I don’t know what it is,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said. “And that’s the impression I’ve gotten from McCarthy, too: It’s not policy-driven; it’s personal.”
...
...dating back to Trump’s presidency...they were engaged in what might be best described as a political love triangle, competing for Trump’s attention and affection.
As one former House leadership aide put it, “I wouldn’t underestimate the jealousy factor.”
Gaetz would often float ideas to Trump, only to see McCarthy intervene and kill them...
...
...McCarthy phoned Gaetz and excoriated him for launching a public campaign without a heads-up...
Another incident from that era was captured in a new memoir written by former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Late at a 2019 Camp David retreat, Hutchinson says Gaetz followed her to a cabin he thought was hers — only to find McCarthy, who had gathered a bunch of Republicans for drinks and conversation.
Gaetz said he was lost, she writes, and prodded Hutchinson to escort him back to his cabin. “Get a life, Matt,” McCarthy said, shutting the door. (Gaetz denies the episode happened.)
...when it came time for McCarthy to fulfill his own ambitions and claim the speaker’s gavel, Gaetz quickly emerged as his fiercest critic — mocking him publicly and leading a conservative revolt that was settled only after four days, 15 ballots and a series of tense episodes on the floor (including one where Rogers lunged at Gaetz).
While other conservatives flipped their votes to McCarthy in exchange for a suite of policy and process promises, Gaetz never once voted for him...
Now McCarthy’s only way out will be to pass a bipartisan CR, reneging on his January deal and empowering Gaetz to seek revenge.
“Gaetz has boxed McCarthy in,” said one senior GOP aide close to McCarthy world. “People think Gaetz is dumb, but ... he’s really smart.”
But should Gaetz take the next step and move to oust McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, it will not be without risks. Actually removing McCarthy will require Democrats to join the band of rebels, and some Republicans believe that will never happen — instantly rendering Gaetz irrelevant.
“If he wants to, he can keep the attention … and that keeps people asking about him,” said one senior House GOP aide who predicted Gaetz might flinch. “The moment he calls the motion to vacate, the charade is up. It’s put up or shut up.”
What does Matt Gaetz really want?
“I just really think that one person wants a lot of attention. It may not be all that personal. It is maybe made-up to be personal,” GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez said of his fellow Floridian, later clarifying that the attention-seeker he referenced was not McCarthy.
“I think [Gaetz] is just using that as a vehicle to run for governor, and he thinks that the one way to go lift his profile is becoming this rebel,” Giménez added, describing his motivations as “despicable” either way.
[Gaetz] is reportedly exploring a run for governor, which might be compelling him to turn his antics up a notch. And he has been persistent in his policy demands of late — never mind that he voted repeatedly for CRs under President Donald Trump.
There are a number of theories behind the Florida Republican’s hostile feud with Kevin McCarthy, including his widely expected gubernatorial run in 2026.
What is Matt Gaetz‘s endgame: spending cuts, a political boost, or revenge?
...the simmering feud between the Florida conservative and Speaker Kevin McCarthy flared up again Thursday morning in a closed-door meeting, with one lawmaker telling Gaetz to “fuck off” for leveling unproven accusations against the speaker. Gaetz has threatened to force a vote on booting McCarthy for weeks, publicly called him “pathetic” and accused him of lying multiple times.
Hill Republicans, when granted anonymity to speak candidly, say they don’t believe Gaetz when he insists it “isn’t personal” (though rank-and-file GOP lawmakers are quick to add they don’t know what has set off the Florida Republican).
Some in the GOP chalk it up to Gaetz seeking a future foothold as a conservative TV pundit, others to a desire for name recognition ahead of his widely expected gubernatorial bid in 2026. Still others say he’s sincere in his demands for more spending cuts before voting to fund the government.
The speaker hasn’t publicly weighed in. But in private, McCarthy has questioned what he could have done to trigger this level of hostility from Gaetz, according to a longtime ally of the speaker. Other McCarthy allies have theorized that Gaetz’s fury dates back to a now-closed Justice Department inquiry into sex trafficking allegations, when some in the House GOP came just short of openly celebrating his potential political demise.
Gaetz said in a brief interview that he doesn’t fault McCarthy for anything related to that probe: “No, I think that was all handled fine.” And he denied he’s running for governor...
Still, calling Gaetz a thorn in McCarthy’s side would be an understatement. The Floridian has repeatedly threatened to call for a vote to strip the speaker’s gavel...
McCarthy knows a long shutdown imperils his hold on his thin majority come 2025 — and the threat of a challenge to his speakership before the crisis is over looms large. Which Gaetz is openly, repeatedly, pushing for.
The Californian pointedly declined to criticize Gaetz during the federal sex trafficking probe that ensnared him. But in recent weeks, as their relationship curdled, McCarthy has occasionally hurled his own accusations back at Gaet...
Their tense relationship began affecting the entire House GOP more than a year ago, when the Floridian vowed to nominate former President Donald Trump for speaker. That clear message of no confidence in McCarthy shortly thereafter translated into open resistance on the floor throughout January’s speakership election.
Gaetz never cast a ballot for McCarthy, remaining one of six conservatives who — only after 14 failed rounds — agreed to vote “present” in order to let the Californian claim the top gavel.
Now, he insists that his repeated antagonizing of the speaker has everything to do with holding McCarthy to the promises he made during that standoff, including bringing all 12 individual spending bills to the House floor.
“It’s based on the terms of the January agreement. If Kevin comes into compliance with the January agreement, he doesn’t have any problems. If he continues to be out of compliance with the January agreement, he’s got problems,” Gaetz said, though he’s publicly acknowledged that some of the priorities he’s demanded from McCarthy would likely fail in floor votes.
Some members believe there’s more on Gaetz’s mind, however. The Florida conservative has already built significant name recognition as McCarthy’s foil, and Republicans see Gaetz as someone who likes to punch up for political gain — he’s rumored to be eyeing Florida’s governorship in 2026, when Gov. Ron DeSantis is termed out.
That means allying himself with other gadflies, more so than just a partnership with hardliners in the Freedom Caucus. Some Republicans noted Gaetz’s defense of former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), both progressives who have clashed with their own leadership, as a further sign he aligns himself with self-styled outsiders.
“I just really think that one person wants a lot of attention. It may not be all that personal. It is maybe made-up to be personal,” GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez said of his fellow Floridian, later clarifying that the attention-seeker he referenced was not McCarthy.
“I think [Gaetz] is just using that as a vehicle to run for governor, and he thinks that the one way to go lift his profile is becoming this rebel,” Giménez added, describing his motivations as “despicable” either way.
...the game of leak and manipulate began. ESPN published a bizarre news column from Wojnarowski that doubled as a profile of Trail Blazers executive Joe Cronin. The piece began very definitively: “Cronin doesn’t plan to operate a transfer portal to the Miami Heat and dutifully deliver history’s greatest Blazer to his targeted team.”
Wojnarowski also reported on tactics from Goodwin to depress the market outside of Miami. Those threats would later be investigated by the NBA.
Altogether, Wojnarowski was very clear in his perspective on the deal:
“That’s how Miami can still end up landing Lillard. Hang around, wait out the muddled uncertainty of the process and hope the dog days of the summer offseason eat away at rivals’ ambitions. Without a trade, Portland can always bring Lillard back for the start of September training camp.”
Lillard to Miami was a last resort. ...
Out in South Florida, veteran podcast host Dan Le Batard shared Miami brass’s view that Wojnarowski was “bought and paid for” by Portland. ...If the profile of Cronin wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that longtime Wojnarowski partner Mike Schmitz left ESPN to join Portland’s front office last year.
By the time Lillard was traded this week, [1)] NBA fans suddenly heard that Goodwin made it known earlier in September that Lillard would accept a deal to Brooklyn or Milwaukee in place of the on-the-outs Heat. [That's true.] [2) NBA fans also heard that] Miami apparently never prioritized acquiring Lillard to the degree many assumed. [3)} And the Toronto Raptors were either on the cusp of acquiring Lillard or just a stocking (SIC! "STALKING" not STOCKING. This is Awful Announcing.] horse in negotiations...
...
Why did NBA fans not know Miami had deprioritized a Lillard trade as the summer progressed? How, despite so much reporting on these negotiations, did fans never hear of Lillard’s acquiescence to Brooklyn and Milwaukee until after the fact?
The fallout from the
Damian Lillard trade
might have the Trail
Blazers in big trouble
with the NBA
The story that has everyone’s attention is the latest from Bleacher Report’s Chris Hyanes. (sic)...
In it, Haynes revealed that Lillard tried to rescind his trade request, only for Blazers GM Joe Cronin to reportedly tell him there was “no coming back.” That, somehow, ended up not being the most interesting tidbit included.
Haynes reported that the Trail Blazers legitimately asked Lillard to sit out with a fake calf injury so they could tank the final 10 games.
...
That right there? That’s a bombshell.
For it to be so specifically reported here in a story where Lillard, himself, went on the record? That’s a big deal. That’s league investigation-worthy.
Look, we’re not dumb. Fans have always known that tanking was a thing. The Blazers, in particular, have gotten really good at it at the end of the season.
But this story put it out in the open. This is far worse than what the Mavericks were fined $750,000 for at the end of last season when the team openly tanked the final two games of the year for better draft capital. Portland’s stint was reportedly 10 games here and the team faked an injury to its best player.
If the league launches an investigation into this and finds there to be some truth here, we could be staring at massive penalties for the Trail Blazers ranging from huge fines to loss of draft picks and everything in between. This is a big accusation.
Of course, there is some reason to be skeptical here. It’s not a secret how close Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes and Damian Lillard are. The two are legitimately friends and that’s fine....
Even if that’s the case, though, where there’s smoke there is often fire. If even a sliver of this actually happened, it’s a massive red flag for the NBA and something the league should jump in.
The league’s new player participation rules prevent things like this from happening moving forward into the future, so it’s clearly far less of a problem today than it was last year in the NBA. Maybe, since it’s not an issue moving forward, it’s not worth diving into and making an already messy situation worse for the NBA as it tries to figure out its next television deal.
That's awkwardly phrased. 1) As this pencil just wrote Mark Cuban was penalized significantly for openly tanking under the "old rules" last season, the same season that Cronin allegedly got Lillard to sit out. Tanking and faking injuries, load management and bullshit nominal injuries have never been kosher. 2) The "new rules" "moving forward", i.e. for this upcoming season, deeply disincentivize that shit, but they really can't prevent it. LeBron can always slow walk for 48 mins or not pass to open teammates or expose a teammate on D. They new rules put meat on the only bones they can: a) no sitting two stars at the same time b) no getting around #1 by playing a star token minutes. The rules going forward don't mean Portland can't be hammered under the rules that were in place. I do agree that the league likely will not hammer Portland, as "it’s not worth diving
into and making an already messy situation worse for the NBA..." I think that ignoring it is wrong, deeply wrong. In his own words Adam Silver was "watching" the situation in Portland after Lillard made his trade demand. To be fair-handed Adam should investigate the team just as he investigated Lillard and his agent's public comments re only wanting to go to Miami. If he doesn't investigate the feeling, already present, is that he put his hand on the scale to favor Portland and to disfavor Miami
But, from here on out, I’ll definitely be looking at the Trail Blazers a bit sideways from this. I’m sure the NBA will, too.
"...I was going to do everything in my power to control the market and help get my client to a place he wanted to be." -Aaron Goodwin, [Damian Lillard's agent] told [Chris Haynes of] B/R.
Goodwin admits it. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver put a stop to it:
"We have advised Goodwin and Lillard that any future comments, made privately to teams or publicly, suggesting Lillard will not fully perform the services called for under his player contract in the event of a trade will subject Lillard to discipline by the NBA."-Memo to all NBA teams, July 28.
Joe Cronin does not admit to doing exactly the same thing but, according to Haynes, he did, just as directly:
On September 5, Lillard...said if a deal couldn't be worked out with the Heat, he would prefer to rescind his trade request and return to the Trail Blazers. Cronin's response to the seven-time All-Star was that there was no coming back.
Nothing is in quotation marks in that passage, which concerns me in relying heavily on it, so, taking Adam Silver's language, if Cronin told Lillard anything "suggesting" that Lillard could "not fully perform the services" he owed the franchise that he was under contract to would "subject [Cronin] to discipline by the NBA.
And that is just that passage. In context, and to emphasize again, in Chris Haynes' context, Cronin,
1a) by lying to Lillard and the NBA,
1b) convinced a "reluctant" Lillard to "not fully perform the services called for under his player contract" and shut down for the last ten games of the 2022/23 regular season with a fake "calf injury" so that the "Blazers" would be assured a top three draft pick which they would use in a trade for a veteran to help Dame out in Portland.
2) It has been widely reported that Cronin attempted "to control the market" by
a) not negotiating with Miami--barely talking to the "Heat" at all.
b) asking Miami for the impossible--every tradable player, draft pick and pick swap--they had.
So, two "markets", Portland's and Miami's, were taken off the table by Joe Cronin.
3) When Lillard, acting on his words that he would stay with Portland, participated in team workouts with other "Blazers" players on Sept 11 and continuing for eight days, Cronin never said a word to Lillard: didn't stop him from participating, didn't welcome him back--he never said one word to Lillard. Now, consider this from the player's perspective. What if Lillard had not shown up? Would he have been considered to be not fully performing his contractual obligations? Take it a step further: What if Lillard had flown to Miami and begun working out with the "Heat"! Hoo doggie, Adam would have disciplined him into oblivion.
The missing dot in this concatenation is the Saturday, Sept. 23 Zoom meeting among the principals and league and union counsel. It is impossible to believe that Cronin's actions in 2 and 3 above were not vented in that meeting. It is also impossible to believe that none of Cronin's actions in 2 and 3 occurred.
I can be accused, justifiably, of repetition with this post; also of not letting it go because I'm a "Heat" fannie. But I cannot be accused justifiably of being a "Heat" apologist. Neither can I justifiably be accused of making a mountain out of a molehill. This is a mountain. It is the NBA that wants to smooth it into a molehill.
Securities Investments Thinkings Week 5, Version 1 (5.5)
5.5: I have never seen a line fluctuate so significantly in such a short span as Oregon State-Utah. Today it is down to Beavs -4. I bet invested at Beavs -4.5.
5.4: Okay, you know what, fuck it, I’m putting a nickel on the Utes. I googled the game to see if there was any injury or discipline issue that caused the line to jump like that. Utah QB Cameron Rising is still a TBD from a knee injury in their bowl game in JANUARY. That’s it. He hasn’t played so far this season. All the X-perts except one on CBS picked the Utahans getting three. Now it’s 4.5 for no good reason. Nickel on Utes. The game is Friday night.
5.3: Oregon State is up to -4.5 vs Utah! Now Lookin Hard At that one.
5.2: Kansass is gettin' a li'l love from investors, now a 16.5 road dog. Makes it a half-point less likely that I will invest.
The pronounced drop, from KY Jelly -3 to -1, makes that game a hard pass for me. I will not invest.
Big Red has improved marginally to a 17-point home dog agin' Meeshagan. Down from 18. Not enough to interest me. Pass for now.
ND is -5.5 at Dook. My Big Brother was not impressed with Duke vs Clemson. If the point spread drops to 4.5 I would take the Fighting Potato Eaters.
Lookin' Hard At:
#3 Texass -17 #24 Kansass. The House sets the line where they think the betting public will divide 50-50. That skews the line in favor of national brands with big-monied supporters and what is Texass if not that? "Longhorns" have the Red River Showdown against Oklahoma the following week. Steve Sarkisian has been good for a shocking loss or two every season. "Jayhawks" are undefeated but have played one game on the road against cupcake Nevado-Reno. Their other wins were home over cupcake Missouri State, home over B1G cupcake Illinoise, and a good home win over BYU last week. Kansas is not afraid of Texass. Texass has one of the most impressive wins of the season at Alabama. Still, the Sarkisian Effect. I am verily tempted to take the "Jayhawks" and the pernts, but, still just lookin' hard.
Pass for now:
#19 Oregon State -3 #10 Utah. I think the Utes will win, ergo that they will cover, but I do not have an abiding conviction.
Colorado #8 USC -21.5. That line has dropped half a point. My Big Brother thinks CU will lose but cover.
Kentucky -2.5 #22 FU. A drop from -3.
Albern #1 Jawja -14.5.
Nebraska #2 Meeshagan -18. Woves started slow agin' other B1G cupcake Ruptures. "Huskers" D is for real but how are they going to score points?
Thursday, September 28, 2023
God did not desert the “Lions”: FT Slime & Snot 20 Deetroit 34
Dan Campbell is a good coach and these “Lions” are roaring.
This is from NBA reporter Chris Haynes
The NBA stepped in and warned Goodwin that Lillard could be "subject to discipline" if Lillard's camp continued to disrupt quality offers Portland could field.
No Going Back
In late August, Goodwin [Dame's agent] suggested to Cronin that he meet with Lillard to mend the relationship in case his client were to return to the team. Cronin agreed, and they met at Lillard's Portland-area mansion on Sept. 5. ...
Lillard expressed his disappointment with how his situation had been handled, citing his steadfast commitment to the organization over the years. He questioned why there was no dialogue with Miami and expressed how it would be disheartening to be sent somewhere against his wishes.
1) According to sources, Portland had asked Lillard to sit out the final 10 games of the 2022-23 regular season to help the franchise improve its lottery odds. He was told the higher the draft pick, the better chance they had at using the pick to facilitate a trade for a proven veteran player. He reluctantly acquiesced to being shut down, citing a "calf injury."
Portland went 1-9 to finish the season and would go on to win the No. 3 pick and select Scoot Henderson, a promising young point guard the team planned to keep.
2a) In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset.
Lillard then said if a deal couldn't be worked out with the Heat, he would prefer to rescind his trade request and return to the Trail Blazers.
2b Cronin's response to the seven-time All-Star was that there was no coming back.
Lillard was shocked, sources said. ...
...
2c...on Sept. 11, [Lillard] started showing up at the Trail Blazers' practice facility to work out. He went in for eight days. He said Cronin did not address him once.
...
Moving in Silence
Deeper into September, things had become so contentious between Lillard's camp and the Blazers that the NBA league office intervened.
2d On Sept. 23, a Zoom meeting was organized by the NBA featuring league officials, Cronin, a team attorney, Lillard, Goodwin, and Ron Klempner, the general counsel for the National Basketball Players Association. The meeting was scheduled with the purpose of opening up the lines of communication between the Trail Blazers and Lillard's camp. The session got volatile at certain junctures, with both sides expressing their trust issues with the other.
At the end of the session, Cronin promised to do a better job communicating. In the days ahead, Cronin and Goodwin started communicating again.
###
Dame found out he had been trade to Milwaukee "shortly after" 2 pm EST Wednesday.
The article makes clear that Joe Cronin is a liar, a bastard and an asshole who had it in for the "Heat" for reasons that are entirely unclear. But the enumerated paragraphs mark questions I have about the propriety of Cronin's conduct under league rules and under the CBA with players. No. 1: you can't do that in the clear terms that Haynes writes it. Meaning: Yes, teams tank all the time, but this was premeditated falsity on both Cronin's and Dame's part and Dame was deluded, "reluctantly" agreeing to sit out by Cronin's promises that it was necessary to get Dame help! Dame shouldn't have gone along with the fake injury ploy but he did only because Cronin deceived him. For analytical purposes here I accept everything Haynes writes as totally true. Tanking is a BIG issue in the NFL and NBA but unless you have a smoking gun it's all circumstantial. Haynes' account is a smoking gun. It was known that Dame felt betrayed by Cronin when the first day of free agency came and went and Cronin did not trade the pick for a vet. That was the trigger for Dame's trade request.
2a: Commissioner Silver warned Goodwin and Dame to not restrict the market for a trade. But here it was Cronin who was restricting the market by cutting Miami out. There is corroborative reporting on this as well. Linking 2a, 2b and 2c together, Cronin cut Portland out of Lillard's options as well. 2c looks pretty lock-outish.
But there is contradiction in Haynes reporting on the Sept 5 meeting and Dame's Sept. 11-18 back-to-school actions. Since Dame was told on Sept 5 he could not come back to the "Blazers" why did he show up and work out with the team "for eight days"?
We know, from this report, next to nothing about the league-brokered, league-monitored Zoom confab on Sept. 23, just last Saturday--four days before Cronin shipped Dame to Beer. Since the NBAPA and Lillard and Goodwin were on this call, was Association counsel informed that Cronin, also on the call, had told Lillard there was "no going back" to the "Blazers"? Was league counsel told Dame went back to work Sept 11-18? What did NBAPA counsel say if those other things were said? To any union lawyer, this is very explosive stuff! If all this happened exactly as Haynes wrote it the trade, I truly believe, could be rescinded. Cronin would be guilty of capital deception, self-tampering and restraint of trade. But there are too many gaps in this report to make those conclusions. All we know is that Joe Cronin is a liar, a bastard and an asshole.
Green Bay 3 Deetroit 14, End 1Q
Jordan Love is 1/5, Jared Goff 7/9. "Lions" are on GB 9 first and goal after ten mins of commercials conclude.
MAGA Men:
Tonight, after your 10-year old daughter is asleep, sneak into the bathroom, lay on the floor, stick one of her hairbrushes up your ass and jack off all over your face.
?
That reads like a bad AI program wrote it. Or a No Intelligence son of Trump. The nut don’t fall far from the tree.
Detroit News
About 400 to 500 Trump supporters were inside a Drake Enterprises facility for the speech. Drake Enterprises employs about 150 people, and the UAW doesn't represent its workforce. It wasn't clear how many auto workers were in the crowd for the speech, which was targeted at them.
One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said "union members for Trump," acknowledged that she wasn't a union member when approached by a Detroit News reporter after the event. Another person with a sign that read "auto workers for Trump" said he wasn't an auto worker when asked for an interview. Both people didn't provide their names.
Two Days Before a Gov’t Shutdown
Greg Cote, Miami Herald
Damian Lillard trade to rival Bucks is a colossal defeat for the Miami Heat and Pat Riley
...that giant L on the Heat today is borne on the neck of team president Pat Riley like a heavy yoke.
...
...the Old Man and the Sea has lost another whale. And this one was casting for him, Lillard expressly saying he wanted only to be traded to Miami. Begging, demanding and all ways willing to end up with the Heat.
Lillard did everything but curl up inside a crate and have himself sent via Fed-Ex to the front steps of the arena on Biscayne Boulevard, delivery pre-paid. At age 78, the last hurrah of Riley’s championship-gilded Hall of Fame career was coming to him on a proverbial platter.
...
Lillard should be standing with Jimmy Butler today.
...
The Heat lost because Riley stood pat with his offer, taking the “laissez-faire” stance of a man whose team was good enough. ...
Riley’s offer was not bad, reportedly young star Tyler Herro and two first-round draft picks. But the Heat declined to sweeten the deal, and failed to engage a third team into discussions with Portland. And thus Miami watched from the sideline Wednesday as Portland engaged Phoenix close the deal and help win Lillard. (The Trail Blazers get a package led by Jrue Holiday and a first-round pick.)
...
Miami watched as the Lillard-Antetokounmpo pairing instantly made the Bucks the new NBA championship favoritre at plus-360 odds, via Fan Duel. They had been third but leapfrogged the Boston Celtics and reigning champion Denver Nuggets. Miami title odds now stand 11th in the league and tied for fifth in the East. That’s also-ran territory. That’s next-expected-to-have-home-court-advantage-in-the-first round territory.
...
Jimmy Butler is 34. He needs help now. Lillard, 33, would have provided it. Herro is 23. He’s a nice player. But if you’re thinking a run at Miami’s fourth franchise title and first since LeBron James left, give me a few years of Lillard over 10 more with Herro.
...
Now, Lillard, the whale that got away, is the narrative. And poor Herro has to answer questions about how the team was looking to trade him. (Two key players from last season, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, already have departed.)
...
The Heat, post-LeBron, have not ended up signing mini-whales linked to them, like Bradley Beal, and major whales they never really had a shot at, like Kevin Durant. But Damian Lillard is in a category all his own. A genuine superstar who would have been a great fit, and made the Heat hugely better, and shot the season with adrenaline — and was begging to be here. Failing to make this happen is a loss that hurts, a loss big enough to dim the dawning season and loom over however short it might fall.
I would only add what I have written limitlessly for years: the "Heat" have not won a title in 10 years, not since LeBron left. Their average won-loss record over those nine years is 45-37. Miami was the shock of the NBA playoffs in 2023 but they got fairly blown out in the Finals. They only got to the playoffs as a play-in team that lost its first game. They were in that dire predicament because they were so out of sorts during the regular season. They even underperformed their nine-year average by one game, finishing 44-38. This endless repetition is all to make this point: This is the team that Riley considers good enough?! After losing Gabe Vincent and Max Strus?!
Association Commissioner Adam Silver has made it harder for the "Heat" to back in to the 'loffs in 2024 as it did in 2023. Adam has made the NBA regular season count more. Two stars can't be taking personal days off in the same game. Teams can't get around that rule by nominally suiting a star up and playing him garbage minutes. Full effort, full 82-games. That hurts Miami more than most teams because "Heat" Culture demands so much of them physically, mentally and emotionally. 601 Biscayne thought it learned a lesson from the 2021/22 team that finished with the best regular season record in the East and then lost the ECF in seven games to Beans. They played hard every damn game that season. Last season they did not. The commissioner's change makes it harder on the hardest-working "Heat" player, Jimmy Butler, who, at 33, ran out of gas even in the playoff sprint in 2023. Now he has to sprint the marathon 82-game regular season just to get to the playoffs. Without Dame. Without Vincent. Without Strus.
It's a very heavy L for the "Heat".
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