unclevlad

That didn't arise, but something else came up at one point that was fairly similar. We were all state employees, working at a federal site, under various federal contracts. They'd put together a Thanksgiving lunch for everyone...free food, no argument there. OK. So this one year, HR people were also there...and said, ok everyone, since we have you all here, let's do a team building exercise!!! Yeah, right. I was crusty even then. Nope, not interested. I ignored it. Got some dirty looks from the HR people, but the heck with them. Did. Not. Care. Far as I was concerned, it was coercive (we came from multiple sites, in our group's case...from about 8-9 miles away, so leaving was Not an Option) and the whole lunch became false pretenses for whatever they wanted from us now. Good news is, firing a state employee is generally harder...and I'm pretty sure my boss at the time was like...well, whatever man.

His Orangeness' people said, we've turned over all the classified docs. Federal judge is skeptical, and says "look harder." Guess what??? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-lawyers-tower-bedminister-search-b2240675.html

Sure, if one is operating in an open and above-board manner...but if you sank $1M into things, don't you think you could find ways around any issues? Flight plan...depart from it in mid-air, over international waters. Landing..arrange with friendly state. Airport security...bribe. Or something. The Secret Service detail would be an issue, but the bigger one to me is that this'd take some time and planning. It's not spur of the moment. Trump won't concede the need to do it, before it's too late.

No argument they're incompetent, but that doesn't necessarily matter. IIRC, every election challenge was pretty much laughed out of court, and the Trump lawyers were rebuked rather firmly on more than one occasion. It still held things off. And look at the special master thing, with the records from Mar-a-Lago. A nice, what, month's delay there. Helps there was an idiot judge whose continued presence on the bench is dubious, considering, but the court and trial systems have so many ways to impede the orderly flow of business that competence isn't required. EDIT: look how long Alex Jones has dragged things out by doing, literally, NOTHING. And now he's got his business entity and personal money tied up in bankruptcy hearings. You know, I know, the judge will know, it's nothing but a stall tactic...but it doesn't matter.

Duuuuuuuuude.....................if he does this, it's NOT like he's gonna...you know...warn anyone! Nor would sequestering his passport make a bloody SHRED of difference. He'll hop a company plane...refuel somewhere, that might be a logistical problem if he's fleeing...and land in Russia. The only reason why I don't worry about it that much is, I don't think it's in his personality. First, it'd admit guilt and wrongdoing. He'll never admit *to himself* he's ever done anything wrong, and everything he's done was legal, Because He Was The President. Second, as I said before, this'd only happen if he really, truly thought he could get thrown in jail. His self-delusion won't allow that. Last reason: if there *are* logistical problems? Do you think he *can* work them out? Do you think his self-delusion will let him?

No chance. It won't happen. Something else will get flexed to that slot; there was some talk about more flexing taking place than in the past, potentially even Monday night games. TNF's Raiders-Rams is one of the reasons, but the Broncos' dismal season, along with the Rams...and they both have had a fair number of premium slots...just goes to show that you can't predict marquee teams now. Only the most demented masochists will watch this one. Week 13, CBS had the doubleheader. This is week 16; pretty sure they alternate weeks, so it's a CBS single on Saturday. Fine...flex this mangy cur into the afternoon CBS Saturday slot, where it'll only be inflicted on Denver and LA, slap Washington and the Niners into a national slot unless that game becomes much less relevant. (Then again, if it's Loser Is Probably Eliminated, that's noteworthy.) And that's because of the Jimmy G injury; without that, it'd make for a good national game. The other option would be Bengals-Pats, but it is in New England. The CBS national slot is the late slot; they don't often force the East Coast teams into that slot. Oh, I take that back. Someone in the front offices of Seattle and Detroit will likely watch, to hope the right team loses. Or just as good? Another tie! That'd keep both of them behind all the 4-win teams.

AP calls Georgia...Warnock. YAY!!!!! EDIT: this calls for a splash of cognac later on, to celebrate.

Elsewhere, the carousel never stops. Tennessee fires their GM today...a curious move, as they have a dominating position in their division. That said, they got *smacked* by Philly, including getting torched by the WR that got away. Titans have wins over Raiders, Colts twice, Commanders, Texans, Broncos and Packers. Commanders are middling. The rest are horrible. Losses to Giants, Bills, Chiefs, Bengals and Eagles, and boatraced by the Bills and Eagles. So playoffs by default; winning a WC round game, tho, not great. Winning a division round? Nope. This could be on top of losing in the WC round the last 2 years, despite 11-5 and 12-5 seasons.

Where would he try to flee to? There are numerous countries with which the US does not have an extradition treaty, but most are not places he'd flee to. The number isn't zero, tho. Among the Arab states: Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It's possible the wouldn't want the political hassles. And the irony of ironies would, of course, be Russia, but if his wealth is blocked...they may not want *him*. I'm assuming that the bank freeze and most of the sanctions from the Ukraine attack, have been lifted, because if they're in place, I don't see Trump going there. Too much risk that any remaining assets become locked up. Dunno. Not sure I buy he'd suicide before going to prison because I am not sure he'll believe it could possibly happen until he's actually at the prison and being processed. There also seems NO!!!! chance he'd be in among anything like a normal prison population...even a white-collar prison. I also agree that there's not much chance he'll ever see jail time.

How NOT to run a college basketball tournament. https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/basketball/coach-says-vegas-tourney-set-back-womens-basketball-2683189/ I think I remember shots of the "court". Ridiculous. The fallout this week: 3 teams contracted to play in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Shootout, have withdrawn. Those teams were signed by the organizers of the Vegas Invitational. 5 others signed through a different agency are still planning on going, and that agency has said they will not use Destination Basketball in the future, based on their horrific, utterly unacceptable management of the LVI.

As Mike said, every fan base in the country would take being in this position...worst record by a SB champ... IF!!! he can be ready, might as well. What's more interesting is...the Raiders are 5-7. The Jets are #7 at only 7-5, with games against Buffalo, Miami, and Seattle...plus 2 likely wins, Jacksonville and Detroit. But hey, Detroit isn't a gimme. Raiders win this, they're up to 6-7 with Pats, Steelers, and Niners all winnable. Week 18 is the Chiefs, tho. But 9-8 could be there...10-7 is a big stretch. NE and the Chargers are sitting at 6-6. Could come down to tiebreakers. Oh, and the Raiders are listed as -6, so...fairly solid favorite.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/politics/trump-organization-fraud-trial-verdict/index.html This doesn't include Trump per se, but still, it continues to undermine his position among the Republican movers and shakers. He'll try to blow it off, it's New York, it's Democrats out to get him...but it's just continuing the narrative that he's a loser.

How much masa were you using? The recipe there was using 4 cups. It's a very good video IMO, but she was cooking in a very nicely equipped kitchen. BIG Insta-Pot and stand mixer both, and the stock pot she used for the double boiler setup was also rather large. They all kinda have to be, cuz that recipe probably serves, what, 6-8?

Good question. My feeling is, at least for the next couple years, it won't. Bowl gift packages are getting too close, IMO, to pay-to-play, and that's the line in the sand, I think. NIL can't be run by the school. Bowl gift packages aren't run by the school either but it's directly connected with being on the team. It feels like hairsplitting...but that's nothing new. Also note that quite often, it's...pretty trashy. Bowl-branded stuff? Ugh. OK, fine, it's "something to remember the experience by!!!" Not something you want. Last week, a watch auction finished up...for charity, with a tie-in to football. 3-4 of the watches were swag...and just awful. This is a list of the swag from each game last year: https://www.masslive.com/sports/2021/12/college-football-bowl-game-player-gifts-heres-the-swag-players-staff-get-for-each-bowl-game.html Many of these include a gift suite...I presume this is "open up a presentation room, fill it with a bunch of stuff, let the players pick". Hard to gauge. You can expect that the bigger games have better gift suites, of course. Other than that, commemorative football...? Ehhh. OTOH...nice noise-cancelling headphones can be good...but lots of players will have something like that. Me, I'd just prefer the Cheez-It Bowl's $400 Amazon gift cert.

SI's power rankings gave a shoutout to this video review of the Broncos and Wilson during the Carolina game. Worth your time. Note, the occasional obscenity or f-bomb does slide through from time to time so perhaps NSFW. But very interesting.

It's actually eerie that this was the cause. I put the basic, free Pandora on as I read late at night. That has occasional ads. For the last couple weeks, one of em was from Glaxo, the pharma company. About? RSV. First I'd actually ever heard about it. Then.......... Like I say, kinda eerie....

You're up in Rainland. It's understandable. Me? I haven't either...and the Hatch Valley is like 20 miles from me. This IS the land of chiles, and tamales are central to Christmas cooking. By the same token, tamales are apparently best prepared by a group, as much a family bonding moment as anything. So that rather leaves me out.....

Well. This turned into the prototypical NFL game of the current era. Team A crushes Team B for 55 minutes, then plays soft and CHOKES. All due respect to Tom, but come on, Saints. Some questionable playcalling, egregiously bad defensive tactics, and you squander a 13 point lead in the last 5 bloody minutes.

Well, if Kap isn't the answer, perhaps Mayfield is? Naaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll grant, someone's probably gonna sign him; it might even be the Niners cuz they are totally desperate, and all he'll cost is money. But if he can't cut it in Carolina, with their shockingly poor options, it's completely unreasonable to believe he can manage a playoff push. Niners are between a rock and a hard place overall, as they still don't know anything about Trey Lance. Jimmy G is going to be a free agent; it's very difficult to gauge the level of interest, given his injury history.

If we start from the fanaticism motivation per those comments from Rainey...then, true enough. Not even a feature, it was the goal. If someone dies as a result? Well, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs perhaps? If it's really based on that motivation then it's a sociopath hiding under a mask of quasi-religious fervor. Now, absolutely, I don't want to assume it was the case, so that's purely speculative.

If they catch the guy, and try him in local or state court...there's nooooo wayyyy the trial can be held in that area. NO chance of seating an unbiased jury. And as we've noted before, jackasses like this can't think about potential consequences. They lack the capability.

I'm reminded of the promo for the Macron interview on 60 Minutes. Q: "so you think attacking civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime?" A: "yes." IF they can find the <insert 5 minute long expletive string here> whackjobs that did this...I honestly don't know what charges could be filed, but far as I'm concerned, a life sentence would be Just Fine. Hmm... https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter65&edition=prelim Go down to section 1366, which is energy facilities. Blackout of 40,000 people is significant to me. Also, there's a separate provision: if anyone died as a result of the power outage, the max sentence is life.

Take care of yourself in this time, sir. And those around you as you can.

Well, the charges aren't exactly typical...but skipping the bowl games is. And to a lesser extent, so is having players get suspended for being idiots...not to the level of felony charges...on the road, semi-bored, fancy setting. It's one of the two reasons why betting...at least outside the CFP games...on bowl games is IMO nothing more than a crapshoot. The other big reason is, who wants to be there, and who doesn't? UCLA is stuck with the Sun Bowl. El Paso...? Y'all ever been there? BLEAH! NOT on my list of 1000 Best Destination Vacations. The payout is actually better than I thought...$4.5M puts it 11th among the 'regular' bowls, which is still fairly good. But Washington got the Alamo Bowl, and Oregon got the Holiday Bowl. (USC and Utah were going to get the top 2 spots...Rose and Cotton.) And if we drop down to the mini-bowls...especially those well before Christmas (Bahamas, Cure, Frisco Idaho Potato)...one might also throw in issues with trying to get through finals, to remain eligible.

All right, the Colts are running out the clock... The Broncos score 35 points in the last 14 quarters, plus an OT period. The Cowboys score 33 in the 4th quarter.