Iuz the Evil

I’m actually shocked by the financial decision. Sure he’s a dead man walking, but goddamn!

Can I ask why anyone would schedule App State? They’re professional giant killers. Win and nobody cares, lose and you are forever embarrassed. There’s literally no upside. No thank you. Might as well schedule an actual FCS cupcake if you are going to draw from that well.

Oklahoma’s game against Kent State showed me that the offense needs work. Struggled mightily for the first half, trying (and failing) to impose their will with a dedication to the run game. When they made adjustments at the half, which in itself was a major charge from recent years where we’d just keep throwing the ball irrespective of outcome, the scoring came much more easily and often. They are not going to look like Riley offenses out there… the loss of depth and five star talent is apparent. There are individuals who shine, like Major, Mims, and (weird to say) Stoops. Gabriel is okay, but not the amazing talent we had with Mayfield, Murray, and even Williams. That said they’ll be serviceable enough based on my second observation… Oh my goodness. Oklahoma learned how to play defense. One game and get a safety, interception and fumble. Teams played have scored a total of 16 points in two games. They’re 10th in scoring defense, 25th in red zone defense, and 8th in turnover margin. They’re swarming to the football and not missing tackles. The last decade I’ve expected to yell at my television at least once a game over sequential missed tackles. That’s a salty crew right there. They aren’t world beaters, but this is looking to be a pretty solid team. My biggest concerns are the lack of depth (Riley’s flight in the middle of the night and subsequent pillaging of the players did no favors there), youth, and the offensive transition to Lebby’s system. Looking pretty good though against less talented opponents. I’ll be interested to see how the texas game goes, next week they get their first road game against Nebraska. Hostile road environment against a desperate coach, who would be playing for his job if it weren’t a foregone conclusion he’ll be fired in October when the buyout drops to $7M. Loving Venables willingness to make adjustments and focus on fundamentals. Know your assignment, wrap up and swarm to the football. Great hire, and looking forward to seeing his next couple years.

I’m not that into Amazon fan fiction.

Yeah this is major news, not getting enough coverage. Russian response will be interesting, they’re down to buying ammo and artillery shells from North Korea. And then there’s the fact that…

That game was delicious. Ewers out reportedly with a clavicle sprain (6 weeks plus), texas blows the lead in the 4th quarter (you can watch their fans hearts break in slow motion on the last drive), and Bama looks like a shell of their former greatness.

The look on Saban’s face though… “wait, what?” LOL

I am thinking Vtech will make an appearance this week…

Regarding tonight’s LSU - FSU game…

Cute. Well at least we will get a true test next week for my Sooners against… hmm. Kent State? Okay, then the week after against… Nebraska? Huh. Well the high octane Big XII will surely… hmm. When do we go to the $EC again? I think we already have the OOC schedule down.

I am not fickle in my affections.

Pretty interesting weekend of college football so far. Virginia Tech, “oh no baby. What are you doing?” Oklahoma had a very unsurprising opening against the mighty UTEP Miners… final score 42-13. Couple interesting things worth noting in the first game of the Brent Venables era. 1. The first pass completion was to Drake Stoops. That was cool. 2. Defense looked pretty salty. Defensive line and run D will be light years ahead of last year’s… pass D is better but some significant gaps and not a lot of depth. I liked they were wrapping up and tackling, fundamentals have been TERRIBLE in recent years. 3. Players were swarming to the ball. Haven’t seen that in almost a decade. 4. Oklahoma pass game was serviceable, not great. Dillon Gabriel could develop into an amazing QB, today he was fine. Not great. But fine. 5. Running game was solid enough. Three backs all looked good, no true 1-2 punch but Eric Gray is really, really improved. 6. Was a bowl eligible opponent, and not sisters of the poor… but it’s UTEP. I fully expected this, and I imagine their fan did as well. 7. Once Venables gets his guys in and a year or two of development these guys are going to be very scary. OU is sitting on a top 5 class already this year. Future looking pretty good. 8. All of the above should be taken in the context of my having been drinking and watching CFB all day on a deck in the woods. I may just possibly be slightly biased. Boomer Sooner

https://www.google.com/amp/s/apptrigger.com/2022/06/25/ea-sports-college-football-summer-2023/amp/ I’m so happy. 😂🥲

I thought this was an excellent summation of the opposing position: “Conservatives see critical race theory less as academic inquiry into truth and history and more as the imposition of a divisive ideology stemming from Marxism that assigns people into the categories of oppressor and oppressed based on their race.” I will be interested to see how this plays out on appeal, as noted in the article. It’s a complex area and this law is a particularly ham fisted effort to redress negative effects of these trainings when done badly. There can be problems associated with this material in the workplace, I don’t know that this is the way to deal with them (and rather suspect that is not actually Desantis’ motive).

I thought this was interesting: “Overall, 61% of Americans hold an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, and 57% have a negative view of the Democratic Party. For the most part, that doesn't translate into a pox-on-both your-houses mentality: roughly 72% of Americans view at least one of the parties favorably. But the share who dislike both, 27%, is the highest it's been in Pew's data reaching back to 1994 -- when just 6% felt that way.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/09/politics/partisan-hostility-poll/index.html Interesting and unsurprising.

It’s not a dead dream, but it’s very unlikely the Democrats retain the House of Representatives at this moment. We will see, the future is mutable… I do think they have a shot at the Senate, as I’ve said earlier in the thread. And that’s in no small part due to Trump backing absolutely terrible candidates.

That is what prompted my earlier comment, he’d better have nuclear launch codes or something. It’s not remotely good enough on the face of it, and immediately leads to comparisons to previous administrations (who did things like select what documents went in the National Archives). No Federal prosecutor is going to pursue charges on that. I hate that guy, absolutely despise him for what he’s done to my country. And even so, that isn’t worth it. The Pubs are going to get the House at least this Fall, and the Senate is a toss up. The FBI and DOJ will get absolutely destroyed unless this is iron clad and the public will line up behind them… stupid and lazy behavior isn’t going to get it done, needs to be something really horrific (getting Al Capone on tax evasion isn’t a reasonable comparison imho, Al Capone was a petty gangster, not the former POTUS and potential political rival of the sitting administration in the next election). I live in California, our vote might as well already be cast. How will this play in Florida, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and so on?

Good. I am very hopeful this will be something devastating and worthy of the FBI searching the residence of a former POTUS for the first time in American history. It needs to be, for a lot of reasons.

This has got to be more than the Presidential Records Act/National Archives. As a rationale that will go over like a lead balloon. I’m hoping for something crushing, evidence of selling State secrets or something like that. Something prosecutable. Please tell me the FBI/DOJ is smarter than that. The preliminary news information is making me very nervous.

So they’re not releasing a movie I was not planning on seeing? Tragic. Marvel is about 50/50 these days. She Hulk maybe, and about 75% of the Disney+ stuff I get for free on my Star Wars/Mandalorian investment. I don’t see anything coming in the theater I’m doing to watch from them. Maybe Ant Man? Sandman is pretty awesome, I hate one character change but otherwise it’s really good. Probably see Black Adam in the theater. Batman was really good. Marvel has a really good track record so far (obviously), but they’re not as interesting these days aside from a couple projects (Loki for sure).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/democrats-favored-win-senate-first-time-538-1728325%3Famp%3D1 If this happens, it will be in no small part because former President Trump has thrown his considerable support into advancing terrible candidates in Georgia (Walker), Pennsylvania (Oz), and Arizona (Masters). I may need to write him a thank you note. That would be an astonishing political failure by the GOP, and give the Democrats a significant opportunity which they hopefully don’t bungle. But hey, there’s still time…

I find that increasingly, political extremism results in polarized positions which do not reflect the beliefs of the majority of Americans. While the conservative platform is more extreme (and frankly frightening), the progressive platform has become focused on issues that don’t resonate so routinely lose the argument in the public square. With $6 gas, and 9.1% CPI the party in power (however shackled by internal strife in the legislative branch) is poised to get crushed and lose that legislative majority in the midterm elections. That’ll render their control of the Executive Branch less consequential for the next two years, and the lack of strong candidates doesn’t bode well for 2024. Within 4 years they could easily go from control of 2/3 of the government, to nothing. I am very concerned about this, because for all their floundering about and focus on Instagram-style posturing rather than sound governance, the Democrats frankly represent more thoughtful policy and a rational approach to problem solving (usually). I miss Carville-style bare knuckle politics, red meat for the working class, and winning elections. A more pragmatic approach would make me happy, but if not we will see if the majority of the electorate backs the platform. The niche issues of the day do not seem to be getting it done.

If the SEC expanded, maybe Clemson? Probably not Florida State because of the long standing “gentlemen’s agreement” with Florida, but given the TAMU experience with the recent OU/Tx expansion I wouldn’t bet the company car on it. More likely not FSU because they’re not very good for quite some time and don’t have as much television/revenue to offer as they did 15 years ago. But maybe… Gotta be big name or television markets. That conference isn’t even pretending that’s not the primary motivation. Hmm. Interesting thought exercise. I don’t see the $EC adding anyone regardless of the moves made by the B1G unless and until it increases individual revenue shares.