LeviF

Pete Rose has a lifetime ban. Based on that precedent alone the NFL will at least consider not letting him play again. When you open an account you submit to all of their terms and conditions. They can share your information with the government, contracted monitoring companies, etc. One of said companies is contracted by the NFL to investigate possible violations of league rules w/r/t NFL players/staff betting. Odds are your employer doesn't give a damn whether you gamble so long as 1) it doesn't affect your work product and 2) you aren't using company information to do so. The problem with Calvin Ridley is while he might not have been playing, how sure can we be about 2? How can the books and the shield assure their customers that this is all on the up and up?

Is the war in Ukraine about philosophy of government? Is it about reclaiming ethnic Russians for their motherland? Is it naked aggression and land/material greed? No you chud, it’s about black women in America.

Is this really a take now? He’s a muppet throwing all the ***** he can find at the wall to see what will stick and start WWIII. Yeah he’s better than your typical American gerontocrat but let’s not pretend that’s a real high bar to clear.

From the shoutbox: "the a pitta me of dumb"

Crypto apologists really don’t get it. The government can very easily seize or freeze your digital assets. And then there’s the whole matter of getting your black market currency accepted in exchange for goods or services. Or better yet, getting the tax man to accept it. And I do trade for some of my meat and produce. I’ll be fine. I just wonder if all these bitheads have really thought this thing through.

Currency managed to get us along for 2500 years or so. Narrator: "it didn't." So we, what, throw our hands up in the air because civilization ceded this power to government millennia ago? Are you saying that a cashless society is, in effect, the same as the one where coin currency is the norm?

I mean if we want to follow that thought all the way down the government has the means and the process by which to seize your hard assets too. But that's not really the point.

Couple of tweets to start things off: This brought a couple of things to mind for me. First, how much sanctions actually affect the poor and working classes. Second, and more the point, how much we’ve already become reliant on digital methods of payment (Bank cards I suppose count toward this as well, since they become plain old plastic rectangles without the digital support). This raises many questions. Why is a method of payment this fragile constantly pushed by the media and governments? Who has the power to turn it off and on? Who *should* have the power to turn it off and on? Americans are relatively fortunate in the sense that it’s our government that has a tight hold on these things. Which is why China created their own, internal system. But a system run by an communist autocracy has its own issues. Whole sections of society shut down without electronic payment already. I think we should be thinking through all of the possibilities if we want to continue to marginalize cash payment.

I don't think the plan is to annex all of Ukraine. I also don't think the plan is to install stooges in Ukraine. Putin has flexed what he needed to. Now it's a matter of annexing a section of land that isn't "Russian" in the ethnic sense as a buffer between Russia and NATO. As far as the economic thing goes...again I don't think anyone can reasonably tell us what it all means long term. There are long-term consequences to holding that line indefinitely.

Strictly speaking that's probably more accurate, yes.

I think the Packers have pretty well telegraphed what they think of Jordan Love at this point. I have severe doubts that we will be able to call his tenure there an "era" without seriously stretching the common understanding of the word.

I think both of these two things can be put to bed: Putin is genius! Putin is insane! Putin certainly can run circles around many Western leaders at this point but that's not a super high bar to clear. Certainly don't need to be a genius. And anyone claiming Putin is insane is at least one order of magnitude more insane than Putin. The goals are pretty clear, keep NATO away from the Russian border and protect their warm water ports. So far this all seems to be furthering those goals. They've made good progress getting an open path to Odessa, Kiev is surrounded, and with a path open to Odessa they'll have a path straight through the heart of Ukraine to support their Kiev strike. They're also working on cutting off the Ukrainian troops positioned in the east. At this point surrender is beyond doubt. The only questions left are what do the terms of surrender look like and what does an isolated Russia on the world stage look like? Can the West reasonably keep up the sanctions? If you're worried about your home energy bill this winter I got bad news about next winter if this all keeps up. Meanwhile I'm guessing Russia will want some land in the east of Ukraine and I'm not sure anyone has the ability to reasonably challenge that demand.

As you stated yourself, Russia carries with it the nuclear option. Is regime change really something that can reasonably be weighed?

Whether it’s a mistake or not, we will see. But Putin explained all this a long time ago. He sees the courting of Ukraine by NATO as a threat to Russia. You may or may not believe him but that is what he’s indicated over the last decade or so.

The US establishment did manage to get themselves, then Europe, in line in pretty short order. The rumors of America's death appear to be greatly exaggerated. I guess the question left is, does China have the ability to step in and meet a significant portion of the demand for Russian resources currently allocated to Europe? I have no knowledge in this area.

These dudes stay getting ripped off by "brand specialists" or ***** whatever.

He appears to be making that decision as we speak.

By having Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

That's the last *****in thing we need.

I understand the frustration in this conversation. JA is saying "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts" while in politics it's satisfying and natural to complain about past action. Past action is the best predictor of future behavior, after all. But the reality of the CURRENT situation is unfortunate. Kiev (kyiv, whatever) is surrounded. Western media is floating regime change in Russia. The only thing left for NATO and the US to do is try to do ANYTHING to give Russia something to gain from restraint. That's the only way this ends (relatively, at this point) well. Intense economic sanctions are basically all that's left, assuming WWIII is not a viable solution.

Just a reminder that everyone who was wrong about: masks, vax, BLM, COVID "conspiracies," and (going back further) Iraq are banging the drum for Ukraine in lockstep. This is not a value proposition, just a statement. From what I'm understanding currently the Russian offensive is progressing faster than the 2003 US invasion of Iraq did.

a. Known quality deli b. Publix Pick one.

Except we played the Texans in the Wildcard in 2020 (2019 season playoffs).

Cutting them off from SWIFT would almost certainly speed this along and would likely signal the inevitable end of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency. Though now it appears as though Russia will still have SWIFT access. I doubt Germany ever gets on board.