Same as it ever was

Eli,

I loved this illustration from Thomas Hazlett's "The Political Spectrum," a history of the FCC and its regulation of radio/TV and other forms of communication.

We like to think our problems are unique, but most of them aren't.

Bill

Trump as Leeroy Jenkins

Eli,

Ben Domenech has a fairly standard view of the shutdown politics. I love this part:

The only rational explanation for this shutdown error was Democrats’ belief that President Trump would not be able to resist the urge to intervene and worsen the situation – either by making some base-splitting promise or saying something objectionable. This is not an entirely unreasonable bet, of course – but President Trump manages on occasion to avoid behaving like Leeroy Jenkins for 72 hours, and he absolutely did so here.

Definitely watch the video of Leeroy Jenkins destroying a carefully planned attack with his unplanned, self-destructive, counter productive foolishness.

I share with many the fear Trump will one day pull a Leeroy Jenkins when it really matters.

Bill

Eli,


I think this kind of sums up my thoughts/feelings:

I wasn’t a Trump supporter. I am now.

What she leaves out as his accomplishments are defeating ISIS and I think responsible for the progress with North Korea.

If the election were held today, I'd vote for him.

Bill

Pats Win! Pats Win!

Eli,

Here's my fantasy:

Pats win Super Bowl
Trump invites them to White House
They all go.
National Anthem plays
Everyone sings the lyrics with hands over their hearts
MSNBC spontaneously combusts.

Bill

What is Wrong with the NFL?

Eli,

This was kind of shocking to me, kind of.

NFL ratings were down 16% this weekend for its divisional round match ups compared to the same weekend last year. That includes Saturday's games on NBC and CBS down 6% and 10% and Sunday's playoff games on CBS and Fox down 15% and 27%.

Only kind of shocking to me because my Broncos were out of the picture long ago, so I stopped caring that much. And I'm sure there's something about big market teams out of the picture and all that, but still, the drop is pretty big.

I've heard a lot of theories: Kapernick and the kneeling turning off viewers (turned me off), crappy quarterbacks (makes sense to me), the increased focus on the dangers of the game (bothers me). I'd add the increasing complication of the rules and the interruption to the flow of the game interpretation of those rules create.

Bill

Another Government Shut Down. So What. Buy Why are Dems Shutting Down Gov't Over DACA?

Eli,

I'm not particularly alarmed the US Government has shut down again. The prior shut downs haven't resulted in Armageddon, I doubt this one will.

And when it comes to immigration, and DACA, I'm probably closer to the Dems than I am to GOP. Although I doubt the Dems are as sincere about immigration as they claim.

What I don't get, from a policy standpoint, or a political standpoint, is why the Dems are willing to shut the government down over DACA.

Bill

Patriots Defense

Eli,

My first reaction to the Patriots loss was, "they sure do seem to be giving up a lot of points this year." Unfortunately I was right.

In 2016 the defense had the best ranking for points allowed. I'm not foolish enough to bet against Belichick and Brady. However, this ranking can't be good.

Bill