The Frankish Reich

Kickoff forecast: 80 degrees, winds 5 mph, partly cloudy. Post-NE game sentiment (heartbreaking L): We Need a Dome! Post-Tampa game sentiment (thrilling W): No, We Need to Move to Orlando!

Unions provide the single best vehicle within the U.S. economic system for bringing back the "forgotten" middle class that both parties focus their campaigns on. I have no doubt that unions became too powerful/too obstructionist back in the 1970s and 1980s; they contributed to their own decline. But over the last 35 years or so we've seen the drop-off in unionized jobs go in lockstep with increasing income and wealth inequality in this country. It is time for some rebalancing here. I for one applaud the concept of shifting more power to workers and employee through the time-honored mechanism of collective bargaining rather than the newfangled approaches like giving away money through increased "refundable" (read: you get a tax refund even if you didn't pay any taxes) child tax credits, universal basic income, etc., etc. Collective bargaining shifts the balance of power in the employer-employee relationship without creating burdensome new entitlements - entitlements that don't necessarily reward work, and sometimes actually reward not working.

Good on you, Buffalo Starbucks workers.

Doing some end of the year tax planning here (and some pre-retirement thinking to ... maybe a couple years or so for that), so I'll chime in with a few thoughts: - Good advice from people who say don't overthink it. Go with Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, something like that for your 401K, and at your age keep it index fund heavy. Check out the standard portfolio distributions based on your age/how long you plan to work and keep more or less in those ranges. - If I had to do it over again, I'd max out whatever Roth IRA contributions I could make. I got into Roths when my income was technically too high to qualify. Just google "backdoor Roth" and you'll find the workaround for this. Just make sure to do it in lockstep with what the sites recommend (it requires moving money twice). If your income isn't too high, the Roth is really easy. You put in post-tax dollars so your earnings (and what you put in) will theoretically never be taxed. - I say "theoretically" because the big wild card is what future congresses will do with taxes. A lot of people recommend putting off taking social security until you're 70 I disagree. I will take it as soon as I can. Whatever age you start taking it, on average it works out as the same benefit over your lifespan. So why take it early? Because I don't trust that it won't be means tested later on. Congress almost never takes away a benefit you're already receiving. It's easy to take away (or limit) a benefit you haven't started taking yet. - Boring old guy advice: right now Savings Bonds are a ridiculous 100% safe investment paying an annualized rate of 7.12%. Check it out. 7.12%. There's an interest penalty if you withdraw early, but even if you have to you're way, way ahead what any other "cash" investment would pay. Limit of $10,000 per person (not couple) per year. I just did 10K for me and 10K for my wife, and will go back and do the same in January. - More boring old guy advice: if you are in NY particularly and you are looking to make some income off investments, municipal bond funds can be a great option. No state or federal tax. So you may see a low dividend rate like 3 percent, but find a municipal bond equivalent rate calculator on the internet - because it's tax free, that 3 percent can easily be the equivalent of 5 percent in a normal bond/CD, etc. This is probably better for older people trying to hold onto a nest egg who can't stand to see inflation whittle away their savings while those savings earn 0.5 percent or less in a bank. But google "interest rate risk" too. Nothing (except those Savings Bonds!) is really without risk. I got serious about savings when I was about 40. Wish I'd done it earlier, but I'm in good shape now in my late 50s. Good luck!

And the one who wasn't near the line gave up contain on the play to pursue the ball carrier leaving precisely no one to stop the RB once he got 5 yards downfield. Really, it was the worst of all possible defenses. The alignment was all in to stop the run against the heavy formation, but with players like all 178 lbs of Levi Wallace to do it. Hyde was back there just in case, but he overpursued it too. And it's not like that changed later on as we played 2 CBs on every play and 3 CBs on half the plays, even with one receiver out there an an extra lineman and TE.

Dayum! Finland's Prime Minister gets a hall pass from me. And I just about got over wanting to move to Madrid so I could live under the watchful eye of Isabel Diaz Ayuso. Europe, you are winning. Bigly. https://elpais.com/espana/madrid/2021-10-07/diaz-ayuso-rechaza-la-propuesta-de-vox-para-colgar-la-bandera-de-espana-en-todos-los-colegios.html

AAAGH, THE MENTAL IMAGE IS GOING TO DRIVE ME INSANE

All true. But individual wealthy and powerful Russians care a whole lot if sanctions hit them in the pocketbook or disrupt their jet-setting way of life. One constant: they amass wealth and power (mostly through graft and shady dealings) in Russia, but they really can't stand to have to LIVE in Russia, at least not most of the time. So there's a little self-interest here that moderates the behavior of their king Putin, and we have to depend on that to keep him from flying off the deep end.

I don't think we've had a post-game thread stay alive for this long. This one has breathed new life into it. Casey -- I get it. It's frustrating. It's kind of like being a Red Sox fan before 2004, or a Cubs fan before 2016. I guess I'm a new fan compared to you (first season I have a memory of is ... 1970). But my fandom has kind of gone in the opposite direction as I got older. I used to care way too much. Then it became kind of a whimsical thing - oh, you're the guy who's a fan of the team that hasn't made the playoffs in decades! At the risk of getting blowback from everyone else, I have to say I saw what it meant to be a Red Sox/Cubs fan in the bad old days. It got to be an identity, and an almost perversely enjoyable one. The glutton for punishment. In what Billsy way will they destroy THIS season? Cubs and Red Sox fans aren't much fun anymore (although the Cubs are headed back in that direction). I went to both Wrigley and Fenway in the last half dozen years. They're popular, corporatized, playing in those twee historical parks but otherwise pretty much like fans everywhere. I think certain old time fans won't admit it, but they miss the clubbiness of being that sad sack who's devoted to the perennial loser. The guy who shows up for that Monday night game in late September with 12,000 other die-hard fans when they're 25 games back just because it's a beautiful late summer day and that top prospect kid is making his first MLB start. So I'm enjoying good football in Buffalo, putting it in context, realizing that being a fan is an ultimately ridiculous thing (why am I devoted to these particular 53 guys who tug on a helmet with a Buffalo on it every Sunday when approximately zero of them are even from Buffalo), but a distraction from the more depressing sides of life as I watch the generation above me slip away. So I had to stop caring to keep caring. Or something very Zen like that. Stick around! I promise, it'll be fun even when it's bad. Sometimes even more fun.

Good points, OP! So a lot of this reiterates your points but in a somewhat different way. The Bills kind of doubled down on what worked in 2020 - not just for the Bills, but NFL-wide. It was the highest scoring season in NFL history: 24.8 ppg. Nine teams, including the Bills, averaged 28+ ppg, and all of them made the playoffs. It was reasonable to assume that the scoring environment (as they say in baseball) had shifted, and that the shift was ongoing. Trying to make the playoffs by holding your opponent to 21 or under? Not a very good strategy. But as you noted: in retrospect, maybe a bit short-sighted. Every NFL action causes a reaction, and we started to see it toward the end of last year when, lo and behold, certain run-heavy (by 2020 standards, not by historical standards) teams started to have success, and certain pass-happy teams started to run into roadblocks. That trend continued into this year: scoring is down 2 points per game, right back to where it was in 2019. A few weeks ago everyone was outraged when the Bills were characterized as running a "spread offense." I'm not sure that was technically true (as "spread" has traditionally been defined), but it was damn close - Allen in the shotgun most of the time, one back (if any), no fullback ever, etc., etc. And as we've seen with KC, defenses started to figure out how to defend the big play-dependent teams. And there were by luck or inability to get the big play certain teams that zagged when the best teams zigged, including our old friends, the Pats. They'll get it figured out. But I think it's too late to do it this year. By the time December rolls around your identity is your identity, it's too late to make major changes to offensive philosophy, and it's really too late to bring in new personnel. So maybe we get lucky this year. Or maybe we play the wait till next year game again.

Valid points (in relation to my comment about the southern domination of NCAAF). But isn't this on the conferences themselves and not on the NCAA as a whole? The power conferences expanded. They demanded lucrative conference championship games, but heaven forbid that ONLY the conference champion advances to the NCAA playoff. No, we need a do-over. (Maybe if they also met in the regular season the rubber match would satisfy some fans?) I think the season is too long. I don't need to see more playoff teams. I need to see the conferences do what they're supposed to do - declare a champion and weed out the also-rans. I'll admit it, I'm old (enough) and I kind of like the certainty of the old Bowl structure. You win your conference, you play another game. The expansion of the conferences and their internal dynamics is what warps the recruitment derby. If I know Alabama is winning the SEC from now till kingdom come and I'm a big-time recruit from the Midwest, maybe I'm not going to Georgia. Maybe I'm staying closer to home, and maybe I'm evening out the warped playing field a bit. Letting NCAAF devolve into a regional attraction doesn't strike me as a good idea overall. It's like having the Olympics with multiple U.S. and Russian teams (Gold Medal Game: U.S. Southeast vs. U.S. Pacific!) This is college athletics. Championships should bring the best teams from different regions together.

I just don't think he has the personnel to do anything different. Whether that's partly on him (the players he wants on offense are those that make the roster) I don't know. But there's really no NFL block-first TE on the roster, only a special teams/TE guy as a FB (and he was hurt), and not even a bigger RB. And the fast RB drops the ball ...

Ouch. True, but ... ouch.

Very true. But when that stopped working for them in 2018, all of a sudden the Pats turned on a dime to be a run-first team. I'd say the key isn't to be run heavy, or pass heavy, or balanced. The key is to be able (having the personnel and the concept) to change strategies when the opposing defense decides they're going to take a particular element away from you. It's too late to be able to get the personnel to do that this year, but I guarantee you that Beane will be working on that in the offseason. He's no dummy, but sometimes it takes an obvious fail to learn that lesson the hard way.

Well then I'm convinced. Woody Paige wrote my etiquette guide. EDIT: actually if Mina Kimes said it, all is forgiven. Obviously. We kept playing 2 (half the time 3) corners when they'd made it abundantly clear that Mac would never be allowed to throw a pass against the wind.

With your two CBs on the field 100% of the time to defend against 3 passes.

Because holding a team to 14 points on a night where they were unable to pass the ball should get you some kind of special achievement award.

Exactly. No need to try to put up 30 points, or even 20. Just keep grinding it out and let the other guys make mistakes.

I think he was. Now THAT was pathetic. 3rd and 4, QB sneak gets 3 ... it was all push. They had it, we didn't. I just had to laugh when I stumbled across this while trying to figure out if Star had an excuse (weight loss while on the COVID list, etc): https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2021/12/a-star-returns-bills-dt-lotulelei-could-be-key-to-stopping-patriots-rushing-attack.html

In one of the many, many other post-game threads, I looked back at what happened in that famous 1974 game where the Bills and the Jets combined for 2 completed passes. It was a September rain and wind storm with gusts in the 40-50 mph range. Joe Namath threw 18 passes. 2 completions. 3 interceptions. Joe Ferguson threw 2 passes. 0 completions. The Bills won the game. Nobody anywhere ever accused Joe Ferguson of having a weak arm. And he attempted two passes. It's called strategy, not "trust" of your QB. Back in Sept 1973 and again last night one coach got it.

Maybe they should have Edmunds carrying a clownishly huge hypodermic needle labeled "COVID-19 Vaccine" behind him to see if that will make him move.

I'm still astounded that we played 2 CBs 100% of the time, and 3 CBs 41% of the time. To defend 3 passes.

That "absent" game is always a fun one to play. And both sides can play it! - absent Allen's 21 yard run and Singletary's 17 yarder, we ran the ball 23 times for 68 yards: 2.95 yards per carry - absent Diggs' great catch for 26 yards and Sanders' 19 yarder, Allen went 13-28 for 100 yards.

The only way you could sell some people here on the idea of a dome is to include loading docks with dedicated tailgate party access. Complete with folding tables and ketchup and mustard dispensers.

Agreed. Just having fun with the idea that Daboll probably considers last night a success because his team found a way to move the ball through the air while the other guys didn't.