The Frankish Reich

The fact that the opinions of really stupid people are always available to me at any time of day? (Oh. Wait a minute ...)

And so the truth (as we know it so far) is far more boring, stupid, and Gen Z-ish than anyone could have imagined. - 21 year old loser, still playing video games constantly, probably no female friends (much less a girlfriend), trying to impress teenage boy gamers (repressed, umm, something) - little bit of training, like your khaki pants tech guy at the office, gives him access to all sorts of stuff he shouldn't be seeing - inflated opinion of his ordinary at best intelligence, a little bit of (small) mind warping by right-wingy racist nonsense And there you have it. A National Security scandal for the 2020s. The stupidest age ever.

I assume it’ll be a court martial proceeding. Which is likely to be a whole lot worse. Time to consider this: what message does the pardon of Bradley/Chelsea Manning send about how seriously we take deliberate leaks of national security information?

And yet you follow Kim Dotcom. Nice. As for Sy Hersh: he did some great reporting in his prime. Like, 50 years ago.

Yep. These are the alt news sources they follow.

Our April 2023 leader in the clubhouse: a narcissistic damn fool named Jack Teixeira. https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/04/13/bear-versus-pig-on-the-thug-shaker-but-not-a-fascist-recruiting-site/ Let’s let a 21 year old Massachusetts Air National Guard loser view some of our country’s most sensitive strategic national defense documents! This guy sounds like a younger, better looking Deranged Rhino.

I’d set it at an even 70. That would discourage the 67 year olds from running for Senate/Pres/VP because they’d necessarily be one termers only. But even 72 or 75 would be better than what we have now. It is long forgotten, but when Reagan’s age became an issue he committed to taking periodic mental acuity tests if elected. I guess he forgot to schedule those tests.

Why is “War” in quotes?

I think everyone (well, everyone except those who work for tips) hates the Tipping Economy. Tips solicited and given for all kinds of things that were just ordinary service, like orders at counter-service restaurants. I imagine that credit card tips must be accounted for and tax withheld on distribution. But what about all those valets and bellhops who still get cash tips? Why wouldn’t we want them to disclose the value and pay tax on it?

Hilarious take! Congrats. Now I’ll ruin it all by commenting: true. Maybin really didn’t like playing football. When I was a kid I imagined everyone out there fit the cliche: “I still can’t believe they’re paying me millions for playing a kid’s game I would play for free.” But no. Some guys are pure mercenaries out there. Part of all this draft stuff (the interviews, background checks, etc) is just figuring out who really fits the cliche and who is Aaron Maybin 2.0. Good for Maybin if he invested wisely and just walked away. Bad for the Bills, but good for Maybin.

Swanson TV dinner heir frustrates by small size of his peach cobbler.

I couldn’t agree more. On a related point: the only reason WWII in Europe went on so long was the bullheaded insistence of Churchill and FDR to keep fighting the fight the French/Dutch/Belgians gave up on, to the detriment of their fine countries. On another related point: the only reason the Cold War went on so long was the mulish devotion of men like Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and Reagan who didn’t see the wisdom in simply letting the Soviet Union have all of Eastern Europe, thereby depriving hose fine people of the brilliance of their Russian overlords. Thank you for this remarkable insight. You may have just brought us peace in our day.

He did. Same old Latavius. Melvin Gordon: 3.5 YPC Murray: 4.3 Bad offense, productive back.

I thought B-Man approved of a good bit##, err, teacher slapping! I got a few of those administered by some mean nuns. It probably made me a law abiding adult. I mean, “studies show” that.

Correct. A draft pick backup QB is a depreciating asset UNLESS the starter gets injured and he plays really well over the course of at least 4 games or so. (Think Brock Purdy if he’d been a high pick.) So you would be gambling on Allen getting hurt, Hooker stepping in (which he probably couldn’t do until next season) and playing well, and then turning Pick 27 in 2023 into, say, Pick 15 (none of the best dozen or so teams will be looking for a QB) in 2025. And by then Hooker would only be under team control for 2-3 more years, so that would depress his trade value. So let’s summarize: - minimal value for Pick 27 over the next two years in exchange for slightly better value come 2025 - and that slightly better value only comes if Allen gets hurt in at least one of the next two years Sounds like a great plan! Can’t believe I didn’t see it before given that it’s so obvious now.

Lauren Boebert disagrees. https://www.westword.com/news/lauren-boebert-son-car-wreck-injured-friend-16586981 Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the New Trailer Trash Republican Party and one of its rising stars. Like mother, like son. On September 17, 2022, Representative Lauren Boebert's eldest son, Tyler, was issued a "careless driving causing bodily injury" ticket in connection with a late-night car crash in which he flipped his father's SUV into a Garfield County creekbed. Noble D'Amato, a nineteen-year-old friend of Tyler's who was riding shotgun, wound up hospitalized with multiple concussions and a severely lacerated hand. "I still have problems with my hand," D'Amato says. "My thumb almost got cut off. It prevented me from getting a welding job, because I can't hold a TIG torch anymore. I'm a personal-care provider now." **** Records show that Lauren Boebert, who was first elected to Congress in 2020 and fought off Adam Frisch in the 3rd Congressional District House race last November, has received a summons or been arrested at least four times in the past decade. The 2016 careless driving incident resulted in her being tossed in jail for approximately 100 minutes for failing to appear in court, according to the Denver Post. A plea deal later led to the careless driving charge being dropped and only the unsafe-vehicle charge stuck, according to records. Boebert's record also includes a charge of disorderly conduct for verbal altercations and dog code violations related to the alleged harassment of a neighbor and her dogs. Jayson, meanwhile, was charged in 2004 for public indecency and lewd exposure for showing his penis to two women at the Fireside Lane bowling alley in Rifle.

Umm, no. I suggest you read up on what is now called classical liberalism. Because you just got a D- on this “discuss the origins of liberal thought in political theory” assignment. Chat GPT would do a lot better.

Meanwhile: Disney 2, DeSantis 1, Bottom of the 5th.

Interesting that the "Murdochs" of Succession all jetted off to Lake Placid for one of those Men Who Rule the World meetings. You know the kind of meeting: Davos, Aspen Institute, all those things are resident Right Wing Conspiracy Theorists claim to despise. Not to mention the weirdly homoerotic men-only Bohemian Grove retreat Thomas, Crow, and various other billionaires have gone on. They used a Lake Placid setting as a stand-in for Aspen, but still - art imitating life imitating art.

If you're saying some QB needy team will make us a great offer for Pick 27, well, that would certainly be nice. But its quite a different thing to say we should pick Hooker ourselves at 27, hoping that some other team will come out of the woodwork and all of a sudden offer great value for him. I would assume that if some other team really likes him, they'll be on the phone with Beane trying to make that trade for Pick 27.

For those who watch Succession (recommended!): "wealthy benefactor" Harlan Crow = Conor Roy.

Makes a fool out of me too. I'm no fan of his wife's political activities, which seem: (1) insane; (2) ridiculously ill-advised given her husband's job. But I have defended him as a Justice based on his adherence to a particular view of the law (even though its not my view) - an steadfast adherence that sometimes has led him to split ranks with the standard Republican position. And I also believed his thing about loving the common man's RVing, Walmart parking vacations instead of the wining and dining his colleagues get when they go to Europe to "teach" a summer class for 6 weeks. So much for the Last of The Regular Guys in Washington meme.

Well, I don't know if every single one is, but there sure are a lot. When I was a kid in a Catholic High School, they invited this guy to come talk to us about his mission rescuing NYC street kids: https://nypost.com/2018/09/13/this-nyc-priests-dramatic-downfall-was-just-the-beginning-of-perv-priest-scandals/ My friends and I joked about how he seemed like a perv. Oh.

Hendon Hooker: 25 years old Sam Darnold: 25 years old