unclevlad

I am compelled to add Alex Jones to the list. Sometimes size doesn't matter.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,Who is already sick and pale with grief,That thou her maid art far more fair than she:Be not her maid, since she is envious;Her vestal livery is but sick and greenAnd none but fools do wear it; cast it off.It is my lady, O, it is my love!O, that she knew she were!She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?Her eye discourses; I will answer it.I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:

A splash of bourbon? Nonononononooo....go big or go home!

Jeff Saturday is now 1-0 as a head coach. I don't think any further comment is necessary....

Republican ads that I saw hit defund the police and stop the steal. Early release was another. Inflation of course, but Ronchetti's ads made the mistake, IMO, of tying back to the Covid shutdowns. That doesn't play with a fair number of Republicans who DID get vaccinated. Democratic ads hit abortion a LOT; it was probably the most used theme. The other study is the success rate of Trump-endorsed candidates, especially those who a) pushed the steal, and b) were political novices. Stories I've seen...that was a particularly bad combination. In many cases, even when the candidates won, they did so by lesser margins than, say, the governor's race in the state, by significant margins. The focus is on the Republicans because historically, this should have been a slam-dunk for them. Off-year elections go to the party not in the White House. Biden's ratings are fairly low. Inflation's been HIGH, which should be a massive Republican selling point. Violence and crime have been on the upswing, big time...another Republican drum. Yes, they played on them somewhat, but not nearly as much as they could have, at least that I saw.

I agree the Dems need to be prepping now for 2024. Herschel Walker is 60. Fresh blood? New leadership? I don't think so. He's brought in to be a token black in the Republican caucus. Right now the only one is Tim Scott, who's got a 94% record with Heritage Action, 77% from Conservative Action (but that's still pretty high for them). He's also, I suspect, an attempt to split the Black vote in Georgia, and of course to capitalize on football's popularity.

Vikes drive down to the 2 with the first OT possession. Back to back sacks force the FG. Buffalo smartly marches it down to a 1st and 10 at the Vikes 20...easy FG range. Allen throws a pick. A VERY, VERY bad one...just saw the replay. Had no chance. Vikes win.

Same story as so many others, for the Denver offense. Some decent play in a first half, absolutely nothing in the second. The drama for me is whether this'll end up as another game where there are < 30 points combined. Bears blow a 14 point 4th quarter lead to the Lions. They score a TD to retake the lead...then miss the XP. Detroit moves it again to get a 3rd TD in the 4th quarter...and makes theirs. 31-30 Lions. Buffalo's collapse is worse. Late 3rd, kick a FG to go up 27-10. Then, first scrimmage play for Vikes goes 81 for a TD. Bills drive the ball deep into the red zone...until Josh Allen throws a red zone pick. Vikes smash out a 13 play TD drive...4 point game, as *they* miss the XP. Buffalo goes 3 and out, losing 5 yards. Vikes get the ball on their 24 with 3+ minutes left...and smash it back downfield again, to get a 1st and goal with a minute left. LOTS of reviews since then. Right now the last one is whether Vikes score on 4th down, or whether it's Buffalo's ball. BILLS get the ball. BUT WAIT!!!! This is the description of the next play from the gamecast. SAY WHAT? Is this gonna be a new addition to the pantheon of Pisarcik, the Sanchez butt fumble, and the like? I wasn't watching it, but I'm sure it'll be on every halftime and postgame show. Bills are down to 30 seconds with the ball on their 40, trying to get into FG position. ANDDD....so what else is new? Vikes in a prevent, likely...so the Bills now have it on the Vikes' 25 with 17 seconds left...and MAKE the tying FG. Unreal. SOOO much unsound play, is my read. And they have to cut away for their national game........... And in Tennessee, several plays for Wilson are a comedy of errors, including completely impossible 4th down throw that gets picked. Granted, he did somehow manage to get them into position to score, but as usual, couldn't seal the deal. 17-10 final...yep, another under 30. 5th such game. Denver's scoring defense is 2nd or 3rd in the league; Buffalo's was better but they've given up 30. Theirs is now only 1 point better, both with 9 games. Dallas was also right there. But with today, Denver's back to the lowest scoring offense...both total points AND PPG.

Sounds like almost every Bronco game this year. Beginning to wonder if Pete Carroll's pulling a Mike Shanahan impersonation...scheme helping team to get off to a good start, but then the league catches up. Flip side, of course...teams take forever to actually round into form. That might be part of the Bucs' case.

"That's all you have to do?" Yep. Sure, there's plenty of fancy stuff, but 90% of cooking is Really That Simple. Along with some basic knife skills (and good knives), then temperature control. Too cool a pan can be as bad as too hot. Simple trick there...pan-grilled sandwiches. I get the pan hot, apply oil to one side of the bread, and put that side down first. Flip, and cheese can melt on that side. Add-ons? Deli meats...ham and/or turkey. My local market has shaved beef. Burger...that takes longer to cook but it just goes on first. I may also just fry up 1-2 eggs; I've got some egg rings to keep them contained. Grilled cheese and egg sandwich? Sure. Or ham, egg, and cheese...I cut back on the ham.

Tennessee would still have to be preferred to USC and Clemson...both would be one-loss conference champs assuming they win out. And the Mich/OSU loser who would be in the same boat. The Alabama win is losing some of its glossiness; 2 losses, and multiple cases of struggling. They could get in, to be sure. And there's still a lot that can happen; there's still 2 big regular-season weeks, and the title games.

And even if they do gain a nominal majority, the Republicans look to need tight uniformity, and it isn't clear they'll have that. Not gaining a majority, or barely gaining one, will be an even sharper rebuke of Trump, and make managing the House tougher. But I must disagree. They'll blame Pelosi for EVERYTHING, even if she isn't Speaker...even their own hangovers. It's what they do...demonize, demonize, demonize.

True, but an interesting side effect of a 12 team playoff is the regular season drama is mostly gone. Not entirely; it shifts downstream, but it clearly becomes much less intense. Mich/Ohio State should lock a CFP slot; it would only set a top-4 spot in the 12-team format. I'm also against expanding any more than that. A 24 team field devalues the regular season too much. It would, as noted, likely force dropping a regular season game...and that would almost certainly be a non-conference game, given that the super-conferences won't want to shorten their seasons. This has numerous bad effects...the bad teams lose a revenue game, which they need rather badly. It's loss of crossover; it's hard to compare conference vs. conference when there's no interconference. And there isn't much of that now. They can't play. Same division. SEC title game is set...Georgia-LSU. If Georgia wins, LSU probably needs help. If LSU wins, then both Georgia and LSU are in. The core Tennessee problem in making the playoffs is that they can't play in a title game. USC beats UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oregon/Utah? One-loss conference champ. 3 straight ranked wins. Tennessee's best shot is probably TCU losing in the Big 12 title game. K-State is 2nd right now, but they're a 3-loss team. Can TCU be included over K-State after losing the title game? Wouldn't think so. Can TCU get in over Tennessee in this scenario, or the OSU/Mich loser? There is a similar mismatch, actually, in the Big 10 title game. The West is a 4-way tie at 4-3.

Pac-12 shooting itself in the foot? Unranked, non-bowling 3-6 Arizona...19 point dogs. 34-28. In the Rose Bowl. I was misremembering the Pac-12 standings...today was Oregon's first conference loss. Oregon and Utah are 6-1; they play next week. Winner makes the title game if they can beat a rival...Oregon St for Oregon, that might be a game. Utah has the cakewalk. USC is 7-1; if they beat UCLA, they're in, as their conference season would be over, with one loss. UCLA and Washington are 5-2. Lesseeeee.... Oregon beats Utah Oregon State beats Oregon UCLA beats USC and Cal Washington beats Wash State (Wash and Utah BOTH get the gimmies...Washington next week, Utah the week later) 5 teams are 7-2. YIPPEE!!!!! Of course, if it plays out this way? It's quite possible no Pac 12 team makes the playoffs. The clear paths are Georgia, TCU, and either Ohio State or Michigan. The #4 team? CHAOS!!!

The Nets have now gone 4-1 without Kyrie. Also interesting that Simmons came off the bench tonight against the Clips.

But, we have to realize we dodged a bullet this time. That's all. And again, we had 2 major assets. #1, the abortion ruling. That'll drop down the list; we can't assume that's repeatable, or at least not with the same energy. #2 is Trump himself. Ranting about election fraud may have played to his sycophants, but don't look to have played well outside that group. His latest rants, attacking DeSantis and others, are likely to have little traction when he's a) out of office, and b) readily targetable as an election liability. Mind, DeSantis and a whole bunch of others won't be an improvement, in policy terms...and will be worse, because they won't make a dozen major mistakes a week. And apparently, some of his better media buds are laying a lot of blame on him: https://www.newsweek.com/conservative-media-outlets-call-gop-dump-donald-trump-after-midterms-1758460 EDIT: on Walker...on some of his speeches? I've wondered a bit about brain injury. Maybe not CTE, but as a catch-all, non-medical shorthand, yeah, we can use it. I'd prefer Warnock just to continue hoping some semblance of sanity might be emerging. Pipe dream, I know. And, it's insurance...should a Democrat have to leave office in a Republican state, most of the time the interim appointment's at the governor's discretion. 50-50 is tenuous; 51-49 would be reasonably secure. (Especially if Harris chooses to run for President, if Biden doesn't.)

Do you think we might need to stage an intervention? I mean, losing to West Virginia? OK State is gonna be a sizable favorite, I'd think, going into Bedlam next week...if form holds there, Oklahoma will have to beat Texas Tech, on the road, to be bowl-eligible. That's grounds for thinking we might need to do the intervention.... And let us have more chaos! Washington scores 10 points in the last 4 minutes, may have dodged a last-ditch effort by Oregon (there was a penalty against Oregon on a completion that would've set up a tying FG, and the announcers were less than certain about the call, but I wasn't watching at that point). So Oregon gets its second loss. We still have 3 one-loss teams, and next week is still the clincher. If UCLA beats Arizona (they should easily), then the winner of USC-UCLA is in...no change there. If Utah beats Oregon, they're in. If not? 3 way tie between the loser of the SoCal Showdown, Oregon, and Utah...and I have no clue what the Pac 12 tiebreakers are like. It's the top 2 teams, they ditched divisions.

JUST IN!!! Broke into the football game for this. ABC News is projecting the Democrat in Nevada as the winner of the Senate race...so the Democrats keep the Senate. I won't celebrate TOO much until after recounts and the lawsuits are cleared. EDIT: AP has also called it for Masto.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/12/business/playbill-twitter/index.html And an interesting story in the LA Times. I got no paywall notice on this one. https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2022-11-11/stay-with-elon-musk-twitter-or-leave-for-mastodon-otheralternatives Well, Tommy Tuberville's prior career was as a football coach; his main claim to fame was leading Auburn to an undefeated season...and going 7-3 against Alabama, which is huge for Auburn. And Tom Osborne was in the House for 6 years...he was Nebraska's coach for ages. Jesse Ventura was a mayor...of a town of about 90,000...before he won the governorship of Minnesota. After of course, a distinguished career as...a professional wrestler. I'll grant: head coaches do have leadership experience, even if in a different venue, and do have critical thinking and analysis skills, again even if in a different venue. Walker...has nothing going for him. A refrain in the local House race is that Gabe Vasquez, the Democratic candidate, had no economic plan, and would just be a Pelosi pawn...the standard line. Yeah, well, I think that completely describes Walker...he's a warm body for the caucus, and a complete catspaw to do what the Republican bosses want.

Interesting comments from retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/politics/pat-toomey-trump-midterms-comments/index.html

Oh my. Got Georgia vs. Miss State on. And lo and behold, what just popped up but an anti-Warnock ad...including a mention of a website, SaveTheSenate.com...and paid for by the NRSC...National Republican Senatorial Committee. Yeah, I feel for Georgia. Gonna be so ugly...

I'm not sure Alabama had a path to the SEC title game before, but they don't now. LSU beats Arkansas...not pretty but a win. Alabama can only tie LSU, and LSU won the head-to-head. VANDY WINS AN SEC GAME!!! Over a ranked Kentucky. Their losing streak was 26. I think that calls for Kentucky to be relegated. And this leaves a spot open for one of the NFC South teams.

I suppose if there was one race where BS fraud claims could almost be assumed, given their guy lost, it was the close Senate race in Arizona. RNC and Arizona Rep Party are foaming at the mouth...despite the fact that the head of Maricopa County's election board is Republican, as are several members. So they're accusing HIM of either bias or incompetence. Honestly, I think the continued absurd insistence...and even the clear implication their own party members are either turncoats or incompetent...was a major factor in their poor performance. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/12/politics/vote-counting-maricopa-county-elections-allegation-misconduct/index.html

With just over 10 minutes to go in the Colisseum... USC 2, Colorado 3. No mistype. Then the roof caved in. 3 USC TDs capped by a half-ending FG. Unfortunately for USC, their top running back was taken off the field with an air cast in place. No word at this point, but it was clear no one thought he'd be back on the field this season. (And of course an air cast is never a sign of something quick and easy to recover from.) EDIT: Travis Dye, the back, is on the USC bench now, in civvies. That suggests it's not too messy, but that's about all. The Colisseum almost certainly has full X-ray gear onsite, so transfer to a hospital wouldn't be needed just for that. MRI might want to wait until tomorrow, too. Last edit. Colorado's tackling has been matadorean. Big play after big play after big play where the backs and receivers are bouncing off, or avoiding hits, and continuing. USC is averaging 19 per catch. Oh, and USC just covered the spread...-34.5. It's wildly unlikely Colorado will score again, too.

The people in Georgia might hope that the Nevada Senate election falls to the Democrat...because if it goes to the Republican? It'd be 50-49 Republicans, with the VERY close runoff in Georgia left. Thus, Senate control comes down to that one race. And there will be no distractions, no other major races going on (that I know of) and certainly nothing as consequential. If the Republicans can't take the Senate, it will be a MAJOR failure. Almost complete, especially if their House majority is slim. OTOH, if the Dems take Nevada, interest in Georgia might remain relatively local only, and the national interests might not drop multiple tens of millions on ads.