unclevlad

When's the last time a Trump lawyer's legal theory was anything but fantasy?

In some ways, to me the most important part of this story is the last paragraph. Can't blame them, and this is, I think, a harbinger of things to come if we can't turn things around.

Yeah, today was the day. The notice gave him 7 days to try to answer. From what I've seen, he basically reiterated that it was consensual...but that still makes it grossly unprofessional and conduct unbecoming. So today was the foregone conclusion of this stage of the process. Next up is the lawsuit, but I don't see that gaining any real traction either.

Unreal. Cubs do it again. In Atlanta. Cubs break out to a 6-0 lead going to the bottom of the 6th. Well, this is Atlanta, so lots could still happen. Braves get 3 in the bottom of the 6th, 2 more in the 7th. 8th inning...2 on, 2 outs, no runs in. Sean Murphy lofts an *easy* fly ball to left. Suzuki calls for it, looks like he's got it all lined up...... And whiffs completely. He never really got under it, he was moving, and it just slid right by him. Both runners score. 7-6 Braves. This is the second egregious loss in 3 days...when the D'backs, Cubs, and Marlins are fighting for the last 2 spots, separated by 1 game. Brewers clinched the division with the Cub loss, and the Phillies clinched the #1 WC spot. The D'backs could tie them, but the Phillies have the breaker.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/politics/trump-organization-business-fraud/index.html

And in sports, Brooks Robinson, frequently considered the greatest 3rd baseman of all time, passed away today at 86. 16...count them, 16!! Gold Gloves. Most by any position player ever.

Good point. If it was so trivial to find this out...then why didn't Rota? I was presuming at least some degree of due diligence, but what you're saying is, clearly, this was not the case.

If it was an honest mistake, I don't see that it calls for a resignation, but hey, that's politics these days. Extradition? I don't think I wanna touch that.

Also seems like too much work. OK, sure, individual letters have been a PITA from time to time, but this sounds like most/all...

When your QB is still below par, every win is a good win. IIRC, they've got 2 bad teams coming up, then the bye. If they can do what they should, and if Burrow doesn't get worse...the early bye is never something I like in advance, but hey, under the circumstances, the timing would be great for them. And we see the next stage of the testing...twofold. Another *#@$&#$ London game...on ESPN+. AND a Toy Story???????? version???????????? Ever since Disney took over ESPN, the obscene degree they've used it as a marketing vehicle has ALWAYS turned my stomach.

But the Bronco defense is totally, utterly ABYSMAL. WASHINGTON scored 35 against this defense. A bad Raiders offense...don't look at the yardage, look at the *drives*. Not counting a possession that ended the first half, the Raiders had 6 possessions. 4 of them, they ran 10+ plays. An 8-play drive turned into a touchdown. All of them were 40+ yards. The Broncos force only 1 punt. So we have an cap gun trying to shoot through toilet paper. Even if I was inclined to bet, this isn't a game I'd bet. The Bears have been horrific more often. The Broncos could actually man up and show some pride...or finish off the total implosion. Vance Joseph has to be the least stable assistant coach in the league...but I'll say this. Sean Payton's seat isn't that much cooler. He ripped Hackett...perhaps for cause...but in his first 3 games, he opens a game with an onside kick that FAILS against what was considered an inferior team, then a serious embarrassment, and then, of course, The Debacle. I'll also put George Paton on a seat as hot as Joseph's...Wilson isn't a major problem, but he's not the solution either. Given the assets and the contract? Disaster. Payton hire cost a 1st and a 2nd. Probable disaster; this year's already a lost cause.

https://www.si.com/nfl/broncos/news/broncos-takeaways-realities-dolphins-70-points https://www.milehighreport.com/2023/9/24/23888755/denver-broncos-need-to-fire-vance-joseph https://www.westword.com/news/denver-broncos-historic-dolphins-disaster-17884447 https://predominantlyorange.com/posts/enough-enough-denver-broncos-need-fire-vance-joseph even nationally... https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10090678-3-takeaways-from-broncos-week-3-loss-vs-dolphins Cumulative TL;DR? Vane Joseph MUST go, NOW!!! However, pretty fresh off a Zoom call with the media, Sean Payton isn't throwing Joseph under the bus...yet. That said, his job can't be considered secure...unless Payton doesn't want to fire him because he pulled the trigger on hiring him. (That's a point brought up in the Mile High Report article. Payton has to share some of the blame for hiring a coach with such a disastrously BAD track record.) The Bears have one of the worst offenses in the league...47 points through 3 games. If they go for, say, 24+...if the defense can't pressure Fields (Washington's given up 19...yeah, 15 in 2 games NOT versus Denver; Bears are tied for second-highest at 13)...it'd mark the 4th consecutive BAD defensive performance. And if the Bears go for something like 31? 3rd straight ATROCIOUS performance.

Calloo, callay, o frabjous day!!! The Yankees have been eliminated. MLB doesn't say so, but they don't project. The series that matters now is Astros-Mariners, who play 3. Astros win one, OR Mariners win 2...Yankees are out. One of those must happen. Lovely day indeed.

Got the RSV shot 3 weeks ago, figured that should be plenty to het any adjustment I might need to happen. And the new Covid vaccine's out. So last night I went to the Walgreens web site; CVS isn't an option, as they don't take my insurance carrier. Figured I'd look at Thursday or Friday...nope. No slots available for the vaccinations I want...flu and Covid. Monday? Nope. Well, that's not overly surprising. But well, maybe it was late night, and you know how it goes sometimes, maybe it's a little out of whack. So I go back today. Still no Thursday. *1* slot left on Monday, 10 am. That's doable...fine. I'd assume it's tight-ish Covid vaccine supplies. I'm actually glad, tho, that it's still being taken seriously by many, at least judging from this. That Walgreens generally has a LOT!!! of slots to do this.

That's why I put slander/defamation in the second part. But, since neither of us is? https://dictionary.law.com/default.aspx?selected=1969#:~:text=slander,the basis for a lawsuit.

My, my, my. Cards drop a stunner, as Cowboys lay a massive egg. What a delightful day. EDIT: 1. Dolphins got a double-double. 10 yards per play. 10 touchdowns. 2. Bears and Broncos have a -112 combined score differential. Bears have the worst, -59. Broncos are NOT second worst; the Giants are -55. Broncos are -53.

The in-state games, UW vs WSU, Oregon vs OSU, could well make the CU-CSU game look like a love-fest.

Better. Loser joins the Pac-2 next season... Oh my. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/09/24/broncos-four-downs-sean-payton-worst-coaching-job/ You can't exactly call it hyperbole, given the game stats. No more than mild exaggeration at most. New definition of horrific, inhuman punishment. The defense is gonna have to look at that game tape tomorrow.....

I'd have to look again, but...IIRC, 70 exactly has only been done once. So the scorigami isn't surprising. Now we'll see if the Chiefs blow past 70.... If there's one call for someone's head, louder than that for firing Vance Joseph...Justin Fields is 5-11 for 39 yards, 0 TDs, 1 pick, and 3 sacks. Rating...17. EDIT: Tweet from Bill Simmons. Quite possibly the ULTIMATE Toilet Bowl game of all time. I wonder what the record is for worst combined total-point margin in the games the week before? Assuming nothing changes much in KC, this might set a new mark.

POTENTIALLY slanderous? He called Milley a deviant and a traitor. There's nothing "potential" about that. The other aspect is, well, gee, when actual government officials call for hangings, can anyone be surprised when this causes a rise in violent acts from those he's addressing? The "in a better society" isn't an excuse; quite the opposite, it's more incitement. This is hate speech, pure and simple. It's prima facie grounds for impeachment, slander/defamation, and even criminal charges, IMO. Yeah, I know, only the lawsuit is possible, and even that's not likely, but that reflects the horrific state of the political system. I agree this continues the alienation of any but the hardest of hard-core MAGAts, but we won't know whether this means anything until the election cycles start moving into full swing.

Oh, the cold burns... Mile High Report can be on the critical side anyway, as fans tend to be...they've already declared the season over. Losses to 2 likely non-contenders, then this? That doesn't seem out of bounds. At the bottom of the article, they always have a "grade the team performance" fan vote. 7 of 8 give them Fs, of course. F----- wasn't an option given. But about 1 in 8 gave them A's...massively sarcastic A's..... Or they were Miami fans, of course. Mr. P: who are you gonna offer up in the fire sale? Certainly no one from the defense. They're all just little piles of ashes...

Holy mother of mohair.... I just looked at the score of the Donkey game.... Denver is gonna PLUMMET down the power rankings after this. This is honestly the worst defensive effort in my lifetime. Saints...I hear ya, Cancer. I didn't see it, but...how much of this was the classic defense plays too soft? AND they even miss a makeable FG late... Huh, well, the Fins weren't obnoxious. Ran the ball on 4th and 14 when they could've tried a FG to tie the points record. My gosh, the Denver writers are going to DESTROY the Broncos after this.

The reason AP is only 1/4 is because 6E wants you to think in DCs for damage...NOT dice. For a 12 DC game, a 12d6 attack averages 42. Total defenses might be 28 or so. You'd take 14. If it's AP, then you get 9d6 against half the defenses. That's 31 against 14 DEF, or about 17 getting through. Generally, somewhere around 1/2 to 2/3 of the dice are used to saturate the defenses; whatever's left is what deals the damage to the target. AP is lowering those defenses...but that's also being offset by losing dice from the actual damage dealers. The tone of general comments is that the mindset for the earlier editions is limiting things mostly by the dice...not necessarily thinking 12d6 AP is too much for a 12d6 game. Plus, hardened is cheap. AP is probably +1/2 in 5E due to KAs. We're noting that Penetrating is a Baby NND; against KAs, so is AP, ESPECIALLY since the the implicit model for supers is NOT killing. AP Killing attacks are *lethal.* NNDs...always remember that they are, as they say, all or nothing. In 5E, they're very, very badly defined; there's no reason NOT to go to something exotic, since it's the same cost regardless of the frequency of defenses. (I actually changed my 5E HD to use 6E AVAD rules.)

Because I don't have to invent anything . No Relative Velocity is well defined. I suspect it's pretty cheap for a few reasons...it's not common, and as a 10 point adder, its cost relative to a baseline teleport is frequently high. As an adder, it's more expensive than an advantage, because it becomes part of the adjusted base cost, when applying advantages. The point you consistently miss is what the limits of "safe environment" should be. You go "well no one's ever gonna be expected to fly through a star" and then use that totally circular argument to say that it should be cheap to do so. No one even considers passing through a star in any sane, even gaming, context, because we realize the defenses you need are literally astronomical. You cite characters...but how many of them are have insane defenses or something seriously special to let them? Those characters DON'T HAVE POINTS...so if we want them to have 200/200 rDEF and 75% DR, FINE. You even concede that lava is OUT...but the sun's heat is MUCH, MUCH higher, and you allow that. Lava's only out because it's explicit? How about examining WHY it's out, and using that to define what "safe environment" means *in game terms*? I'm not demanding real-world science, I'm using it in conjunction with the rules language to understand how to properly apply the rules. You also refuse to go the other way: If the character takes no damage from the photosphere of the sun, then what does it take to actually do damage? The statement that someone can tap dance on the photosphere logically has implications *within the context of the game.* Because that much heat has a massive damage rating. A blast furnace is given 6d6 K; they're listed as maxing out at around 4000 F. Not even half. "Safe in extreme heat" just does not cover it by itself.

Tis the season for pie pumpkins. Not the honkin' big ones for jack o' lanterns, they're grown to be big. Pie pumpkins are fairly small, with more flavor. I've got one that I still need to break down, clean, and roast...been lazy. Stores don't see these for very long; they're gone probably before even Halloween.