Mr.TaterSalad

The thing I cannot wrap my head around is how the MAGA right and Republicans are always talking about how they are being ripped off and the game is rigged by powerful special interests. Yet, when government does step in and try to course correct and put regulations in place they fall hook-line-sinker for the same old "but that's socialism" bit and regurgitate it. So they want things to change, but when change does happen it's socialism. There are some on the right still who legitimately believe the Milton Friedman/Ronald Reagan line of government is the problem. But I think most of your modern day Republicans and the MAGA right would not want or endorse the kinds of deregulatory measures we saw under Reagan and Clinton. Yet ever measure of regulation is evil Socialism. The other thing that's always hard to comprehend, and this centers around the Ukraine argument, is the whole "imagine if we spent all the money we're sending to Ukraine on the American people." Spend that money on what exactly? We did do that in 2009 under President Obama with the ACA and the expansion of Medicaid and the right lost their minds of expanding Medicaid. They had an entire tea party movement, the precursor to MAGA, form partly as a result of expanding Medicaid and diverting resources away from Iraq and Afghanistan towards helping actual Americans. It's a real headache trying to dissect and understand the mental gymnastics of the right.

I ****ing love this kind of country/roots/Appalachian music. I hadn't a clue who Oliver Anthony was until earlier today, but damn is he good. He's got the vocal characteristics of a Tyler Childers for sure and I love it.

I was reading some comments on Pride of Detroit about the potential type of ACL surgery that Jamo had and whether or not it was a hamstring graft used to repair the ACL. One poster was saying that Jamo may have had a hamstring graft to repair his ACL. The poster was furthermore saying that on occasion, players who have a graft from the hamstring to repair their ACL can have reoccurring hamstring issues. I'm not medical expert, but I wonder what the percentage is of people who have a hamstring graft to repair a torn ACL and then have reoccurring hamstring issues. I also one the severity of those hamstring issues.

I don't want to agree with all this because I want Jamo to be a huge part of this offense's and team's success, but I do agree with it. If he's not trending into bust territory he's at minimum trending in the wrong direction and quickly.

He missed almost all of last year with an injury and then didn't show much in the little he did play. Now he starts this year off with a 6 game suspension and another injury that will knock him out of practice and preseason games. This is not trending in the right direction. We were already talking up Okudah and Levi as busts at this stage of the game, so why is Jamo so different?

Jamo is heading towards bust territory. I don't want to think that way but I just can't shake that feeling.

If you liked this song you should check out the Uncle Lucius song "Keep the Wolves Away" that I posted on the other page. I think you'd really dig it.

You'll take what your capitalist masters give you and be happy. It's X now. Capitalism baby, wooooooooo!!!

Brandy Clark's new self-titled album is so, so good. It was produced by the other, also equally amazing Brandi, Brandi Carlile. My top tracks off of it are Dear Insecurity (which is tops by a mile for me), Northwest, Come Back to Me, and this song below, She Smoked in the House. Fantastic songwriting as always by Brandy Clark who continues to be one of the best singer/songwriters out there in the Country/Alt-Country/Americana genres.

What is it with Lions Tight Ends and dropped passes lol

Back in my libertarian days I always liked Charles Krauthammer because I thought he was very poignant and insightful. He attempted to make sound, reasoned arguments and not just make personal attacks and baseless claims. I liked his WaPo columns too. Looking back, he was 100% wrong about Netanyahu and failed to see the rise of a wannabe authoritarian and dictator. I would certainly hope he has the capacity in him to admit he was wrong. I know my views on the Israel/Palestine relationship changed and my former stance of being firmly pro Israel were wrong. Failing to see not only the dangers that Bebe posed, but also the cruelty and lawlessness of Israeli settlements, sanctions, and a military blockade of Gaza and the West Bank that have created apartheid conditions. The other one I always want to hear from about Trump is Christopher Hitchens. I loved Hitch's views on religion, the church, and politicians he thought were either corrupt, moronic, or both. I didn't like his foreign policy views, but respected his honesty and critiques. I would hope Hitch would see Trump for the corrupt, crackpot, moron that he is.

I saw that post last night on X but didn't see any other credible X accounts or X's that confirm the story, at least as of last night. I didn't see Friedman, Dreger or any of the other NHL Beatwriters X anything about it.

It was more than weird, it was nearly disqualifying to some. Now you can nominate a presidential candidate who mocks disabled people, dodged a draft but says POWs aren't war heroes, and talks about vaginal bleeding of news commentators and none of that is disqualifying.

Uncle Lucius Keep the Wolves Away always hits me. Such a well written, emotive song.

You don't think the fact that he was a system QB in a very specific, spread offensive scheme is at all an issue? The offense that Tennessee ran last year will likely translate very little to the NFL schemes. Tennessee lines their receivers out way wide to the sidelines on many plays. I think Hooker is a very talented QB, but I think the scheme he ran helped him out a lot too.

I did think Hooker would be ready for some point down the line this season, but not right away. I did think someone else we could have drafted at that spot could have played and potentially started and contributed this season. I'm not going to get too worked up over this as I recognize the talent Hooker has and I recognize the fact that many 3rd round picks never start right away or amount to anything in the end. It is what it is.

Goff is 27 and has played more than fine the last year and a half. I see no reason to replace him if he keeps playing well. In which case we did just draft Hooker to be a backup QB. Unless Hooker ends up being Russel Wilson 2.0, given where we are at right now as a team, I'd have rather used the pick to get a player who could potentially start for us this year.

Remind me again why we drafted Hendon Hooker?

Who do you think will be a surprise cut at training camp? I think Julian Okwara potentially ends up getting cut and won't be on the regular season roster.

San Jose has needed to rebuild for the longest time. To fully complete a rebuild they needed to get out of their high-priced contracts and get draft capital. This is a good deal for them it seems. BTW, I L-O-V-E those new teal jerseys of they have. Those are some of my favorite jerseys in sports. Those and their inaugural teal and silver jerseys.

The Bears success is all entirely on Justin Fields. If he breaks out and is a Lamar Jackson type of player then I think they can give us a run for our money because he'll be a superstar QB. But that requires him to be a much better passer, displaying much more accuracy, awareness, and ability to breakdown a defense than he's ever displayed at any point in his young career. While I think Fields can be a nice player, I don't know that I've seen anything from him yet as a passer and a QB, not just an athlete with the ball in his hands, that really scares me. It also requires their offense to have more balance on the whole and not just him running 40 times per game. They have no running game without Montgomery as Roschon Johnson is an unproven, 4th round rookie and they added no one else in free agency of note. I like DJ Moore as a WR, but am not sold that he'll be a stud playmaker with Fields throwing to him. Both Mooney and Claypool are below average #2 WRs in my view too. Their success is predicated on Fields being some sort of breakout star and being their offense with Moore. While I think their defense improved, it did so at one of the least important positions on the D, the LB spot. While I think Edwards and Edmunds are both really nice players, neither are players that will get after the QB or be lockdowns in coverage. The Bears defense had 20 total sacks as a unit last season. Ngakoue comes in and is instantly their best pass rusher and he had a down year last season himself. They have no one else on their roster even sniff double-digit sack totals. I'm just not afraid of their front 4 and don't think they have much ability to get after or sustain pressure on opposing QBs. I think Goff and other QBs should get decent in the pocket against the Bears. If they had drafted Will Anderson instead of trading back, that would be a different story. But they did not.

You have to feel for Jeff Okudah with this injury and all the bad luck he's had in his career. Hopefully the injury isn't too serious and he can continue his NFL career at some point. All the best to Jeff Okudah.

The hype train has gone way past the statin at this point. I watched the Inside the Den video that MICardinal shared here and man did I get jacked up to see these rookies on the field. I was sour on several of these picks when they happened on draft night, but after watching that, and having faith in this regime, I'm all about it now.

Trump to Howard Stern: You can call my daughter a “piece of ass”

The Hill: Yet another Hunter ‘bombshell’ is a dud I'll say what I have always said, if Joe Biden is provably implicated in business dealings with his son and tried to enrich himself in anyway I think he should be investigated and held to account to the fullest extent of the law. But I keep hearing and seeing things about Burisma, Devon Archer, etc. and have yet to see determinative and definitive evidence that Joe did anything wrong.