unclevlad

...so you're saying TRUMP GO HOME!!! there?

It really does depend. In the wake of last week's failures, Trump has lost quite a bit of support from several Rep politicians (who did back him) and from parts of the conservative media. He's already been bashing DeSantis, trying to crush him...but that might be his McCarthy vs. the Army moment, since DeSantis' star is rising so strongly. (That's scary enough.) Worst case for the Republicans is an extended primary battle where Trump eventually loses...because in the process, he'll alienate a LOT of people, and he'll likely divide both Republican caucuses in Congress. CAN he elucidate real policy? The election steal's a badly failed message; it plays to the hard-core base, but only the base. (Altho apparently he didn't bring it up. He offered the usual empty statements.) Others can quite probably just push election 'reform' moving forward, rather than continuing to dwell in the past. The point about division in Congress will hold if he emerges out of a nasty primary battle, and I think the Democrats will have a massive amount of fresh ammo, from the primaries, to use. Worst case for us is, if criticisms of Trump quiet down over the next year or so, and he polls decently well in the advance polling. One thing we can assume...if Trump rallies to be the consensus candidate, the Republican turnout will be ginormous. Best case for the Republican Party is probably Trump getting major pushback early and often, and pulling out, the earlier, the better. They can focus on themes, rather than the Trumpist cult of personality.

I wonder if the caller was related to Les Nessman...

Well, The Donald, as usual, ignored advice and declared his candidacy for 2024. It is quite possible that this is the best news the Democrats could get. I'm still worried that his personal charisma will be a problem, but he could well be highly disruptive to the entire Republican Party.

Somewhat lower-key...a busy-ish municipal/local airport. No large jets, but regional and private can use em. The timing isn't great for this, but...an airshow. (Dallas air show had a mid-air last weekend, so as I say, maybe not great timing, but it is a nice venue, and the stakes are not TOO high.) USED car delearship. Or perhaps even better...a car scrapyard, with the big car shredders and metal compactors. ALL KINDS of fun missile weapons, from engine-sized to several cubic feet of pressed, crushed metal. Fun for all! If the powers mix is right, a graveyard. At night. Perhaps not many bystanders, but the recruit's Special Friend might be there. (Evil mind...the recruit's 'friend' is, in fact, working with/for the villains.) With some of the locations suggested: granted that the villains aren't spoiling for a fight, and might well pick a venue like a college campus...but some of those are just places where the risk is TOO high. If the recruit's a college kid, and it's his campus? An open battle on campus is a Very Bad Thing...and honestly, neither side should want it to happen. A gun show might be even worse. That comes down to how you're running your campaign, tho.

Shopping yesterday, I was going...hmmm, I really should get a Turkey Day dessert. Pumpkin as a basis is fine, actually. Graham cracker crust...eh, not bad on the carbs. What's this? WALNUT pie crust? Fascinating! Very low carbs. I'll have to double check whether it wants advance baking; it looks like it'd be a good idea, and it'd be an opportunity to lightly season it with, probably, cinnamon. So I've got the unusual suspects...the stuff I don't routinely carry. Canned pumpkin, evap milk, the crust...and the fake sugar for baking. I don't do much baking at all; I use stevia for my smoothies, but it's not necessarily the best for baking. 9 days left. Still have yet to identify the main course.

You haven't lived until you see a missile do a HARD!!! slice and plow down into the ground maybe half a mile away from the launcher. Cut my day short, tho. Wasn't much I had to do in the aftermath; the data I had to process, wasn't significant under the circumstances. And of course, there wasn't very much *of* it anyway. Yeah, these things do happen...and I rather suspect our missiles are in rather better technical shape.

Rafa Nadal lost in the ATP Finals to Auger-Aliassime and Fritz, both in straight sets, and with some other results, has been eliminated. He's also lost 4 straight ATP matches in a row...US Open Round of 16 to Tiafoe, Paris Masters 1000 Round of 32 to Tommy Paul (he had a bye for the first round.) Been saying this for a while, but one really has to wonder if his career is all but over now. His body is simply not letting him play regularly, or train the same, and the results show it.

Broncos-Raiders may qualify for Dog of the Decade by power rankings. 28 vs. 31, 29 vs. 30, 30 vs. 31 twice...ESPN, NFL.com, SI, USA Today rankings. (Not in order.) Eagles...we'll have to see. On the one hand, Washington ran FAR too well. 40-21 time of possession is not good. On the other, at both 23-21 and 26-21, it looked like the Eagles were primed to take control, but had the ball stripped twice. For the time being? I'll put it down to the Eagles' egg game. Every team in the NFL has at least 1, where they just lay an egg. (Some teams have multiple. And a few go the other way; laying eggs is their normal state.)

Just noted on ESPN bottom line. Colorado +31.5 vs. Washington. Washington's given a 97% chance to win by FPI. Can't say I've seen any power 5 team that great a favorite by FPI, but then again, I didn't see what it was last week against USC. In far less pleasant news, Virginia's football team has not decided if they'll play against Coastal Carolina this weekend. If they choose to play? More power to them. All the best. If not? Totally understandable. I rather hope they decide not to play; I can't see how they could possibly be ready to play, and it seems the risk of injury, under the circumstances, seems massively higher.

A Trump endorsement, an election denier. Same as Blake Masters. Think it was LL that wanted some numbers? https://www.politico.com/2022-election/results/trump-candidates-endorsements-11-8-22/ Not very good.

Well, how about Russia? I expect they're desperate for foreign players right now...

He's pure fluorine. Not on my ship, thank you.

Yeah, the contents of my stomach, if I watch that one. Ah, no chance I'll need to; CBS will have Dallas at Minnesota in the late slot. This year has been a kennel's worth of dogs each week. Line's Denver -2.5; O/U is likely way too high at 42.5. The Broncos flounder, but the Raiders are imploding completely. I'd have to pick Denver. Welcome to the modern NFL, and the days of slavish adherence to a questionable formula...so-called analytics. But they're so over-distilled and over-simplified that they're meaningless.

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.