Mr.TaterSalad

I really feel for the Vikings organization and fans at this point. Everything that can go wrong has for them. We've been there as Lions fans and experienced the tragic death of a young player in Eric Andolsek and a promising young QB go down for the season in Matthew Stafford. This all really sucks for the Vikings.

They'd flip back the same reason some potential Hillary voters flipped when the Comey Letter came out in October 2016. Harris, for better or worse right now, is still largely a blank slate to the average voter. There is a race to define her to undecided and swing voters. Trump and the Republicans haven't really been able to define her with a narrative that's stuck yet, ala Crooked Hillary. Trump is stumbling and slurring and flailing his way through awful nicknames and narratives. As is his party on the whole. But they'll keep trying until they feel they've found one they think works, if they can find a narrative at all. Trump may be simply too stupid and undisciplined to make anything work. She's too liberal, a radical leftist, too far to the right on certain issues, Border Czar, a tax and spend liberal, a floozy who slept her way to the top, whatever. Some of these swing voters flipped back to Trump, went third party, or left the top blank in 2016 in part because the Crooked Hillary narrative stuck and the Comey Letter was the last minute icing on the cake. So if they find a narrative that works and there is a confluence of events that add to that narrative, people could flip back as they did in 2016. I think it's highly unlikely to happen and I think Harris is much better positioned than Hillary was back then. People have gotten a taste of who Trump is now and how ****ing bananas his tenure in office was. So I do feel they're less likely to flip to Trump, to third party candidates or leave the top of the ticket blank. The things the Clinton campaign did to themselves that hurt them seem not to be happening here. She's campaigning everywhere, has messaging that's polling well, has a robust get out the vote effort, etc. I don't know that any of this will happen. Kamala may just, and hopefully will, win. I'm just trying to answer your question as best I can think of.

Did you believe Christine Blasey-Ford or no? If yes, did you believe her allegations were enough to disqualify Brett Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court? Regarding Biden, he wasn't accused by three different woman of inappropriate behavior like Clinton was. He was accused by one woman, who changed her story multiple times.

In the era of MeToo trotting out a man accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and taking advantage of a 21 year old girl who was your intern makes us look like hypocrites as Democrats. We are supposed to believe Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford and E. Jean Carroll. However, we're not supposed to believe Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey. Not to mention that we're trying to make the case against Trump because he was on Epstein's flight logs knowing that Bubba was on them too.

Who am I to say what the DNC should look like. But one thing the RNC did that I liked was they had a theme to each night. I would do something similar for the primetime speaking hours of the DNC Convention and have speakers that match the theme. I would center everything around resorting freedom, protecting basic rights, making America a compassionate and welcoming country for all, promoting economic fairness and equity, and taking on extremism to protect democracy. These are the themes and speakers I came up with for each night. The primetime speakers would be from 7pm to 10pm. The 2020 DNC Convention averaged about 7-8 primetime speakers per night, so I stuck with that for this schedule. Monday (Creating a fair economy for all Americans and standing up for workers): Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, Vice President of the National Nurses Union Catherine Kennedy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Bernie Sanders, UAW President Shawn Fain (Keynote) and a performance by Bruce Springsteen. Tuesday (A compassionate, welcoming country for all Americans): Sen. Cory Booker, Voto Latino CEO Maria Teresa Kumar, Sen. Ruben Gallego, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, First Man Doug Emhoff, Congresswoman AOC, President Barack Obama (Keynote) and a performance by Demi Lavato Wednesday (Standing up to extremism and protecting democracy): Capitol Hill Police Officer Michael Fanone and Capitol Hill Police Officer Harry Dunn together, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Governor Wes Moore, Governor Josh Shapiro, Governor Gavin Newsome, President Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, VP Nominee Tim Walz (Keynote) and a performance by Beyonce Knowles Friday (Protecting our freedoms and resorting our basic rights): Gun Reform Activist David Hogg, Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill-Johnson, Martin Luther King III, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, Congresswoman Ayana Pressley, Congressman Jim Clyburn, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Vice President Kamala Harris (Keynote) and a performance by Taylor Swift.

How many teams have had their starting QB go down early/mid season and still have been able to make a successful season out of it? I don't have the direct stats for the question I'm asking, but I bet the answer is not many. I agree that Sudfeld can't be our option at backup QB. I think we should make an offer to Ryan Tannehill if Hooker isn't ready to go or keeps getting hurt. But if Goff goes down, even with this Oline, set of weapons, and Ben Johnson's coaching, we're still f'ed I believe.

No, it's still DubyaMD. As bad as Trump is, he has yet to commit war crimes, torture, or engage in an illegal invasion and occupation of another nation under false pretenses and fabricated intelligence reports as DubyaMD did in Iraq. Over 4,000 American servicemembers lost their lives and hundreds-of-thousands of Iraqi civilians did because of DubyaMD's and HaliburtonDick's lies and war crimes. Bush should have been tried at the Hauge for war crimes, authorizing torture against other human beings, and the use of chemical weapons (when he used white phosphorus bombs) during combat. He should presently be sitting in a prison cell for the remainder of his life for committing war crimes, authorizing torture of other human beings, and using chemical weapons on the ground in Iraq. And to the argument that Trump wanted to subvert democracy and is an authoritarian leader, so did Bush. Let's not forget that him and HaliburtonDick were believers in and pushed the Unitary Executive Theory. They sought to expand the Presidential powers well beyond what is regulated and allowed by the US Constitution. Not to mention, Bush was against search and seizure requirements and attempted to subvert the US Constitution with the Patriot Act and provisions around warrantless wiretapping. Trump is awful in every way imaginable. But Bush is still the worst!

An injury to anyone's starting QB will derail an entire season. Just look at the Jets last year with Aaron Rodgers. For every Tom Brady, ready and waiting to take over from Drew Bledsoe type of scenario, there are dozens and dozens of failed seasons because the backup simply isn't as good as the starter who went down.

Nate Sudfeld looked really bad last night and like he hadn't read the playbook ever. I don't think they can go into the season with Sudfeld as the backup if Hooker isn't ready to go. I don't know if it is Ryan Tannehill, Blaine Gabbert, whoever is the right person to bring in as a backup QB. But Nate Sudfeld just isn't the answer it seems.

That was a dud of a first half. Sudfeld looks awful.

That was a dud of a first half.

INTERCEPTION!!! Nice start to a meaningless preseason game. This guarantees a Super Bowl!

The A's GM is Billy Beane and this gentleman who sadly passed away is Billy Bean. This Billy Bean apparently worked in the MLB front offices as an executive.

Am I wrong to think Harris should go on Fox News and do a debate? When Mayor Pete and Bernie when on Fox and did townhalls I thought they both did great. Both really took it too the Fox News BS talking points and propaganda. I also think it is a great way to expose yourself to this group of voters and allow them to hear something other than the right wing drivel they are fed on the daily by Fox News.

Thank god he wasn't an offensive coordinator. Could you imagine if he had in his playbook to run the ball on second and long.

I've been listening to Canadian country music singer Corb Lund lately. I posted a couple of my favorites from Corb below. Including one where he drops a Stompin' Tom Connors.

I'm editing my post because I thought it was the A's GM Billy Beane that passed away and it is apparently a different person than whom I thought it was. In any case, RIP to Billy Bean and it's always sad to see someone pass on from cancer.

First off, I like the Walz pick a lot. I think it helps shore up the base with progressive voters and gets them reengaged into this election. There will always be a segment of the left that will find qualms with any Democrat not named Bernie, AOC, Rashida, etc. Given Tim Walz list of people-focused, progressive accomplishments as Governor of Minnesota (free lunch program, gun safety reforms, public education spending, child tax credits, etc.) I think it's enough to excite the progressive/left base of the party to get out and vote for Kamala. The other big thing I like about Walz is his appeal to men, specifically white working class men. While we will never win a majority or anything close to even with white working class men, Walz does give us a chance at holding onto to some of the ones Biden won back. He can the Hank and Peggy Hills of the world that might not vote for Trump but aren't exactly excited to hold their nose and vote Democrat. He also overperforms, to an extent, with working class voters in rural America. I still don't think many of those voters will vote for a black women named Kamala, but picking Walz certainly doesn't hurt. Walz has that authentic, folksy, everyman kind of persona. He has a record of service in the military, he was a HS football coach, he's a dad. As a friend said to me this morning, he seems like the kind of guy that actually likes going to the state fair and eating a corn dog, riding the rides, and being there. Not a guy whose only doing it for the photo opp. He also neutralizes JD Vance's military service record because he has served himself. I don't know if there is one, singular, big knock on Tim Walz. Certainly nothing that compares to what Trump has done. I think their knock on Walz will be more of the same they've already been attacking Kamala on. Too far to the left, too radical, a marxist, bad on the border, responsible for high inflation, etc.

Looks like it's Walz

JD Vance yelling at his kid is a weak argument if true. It fits into the category of Trump is an asshole and that's not proven to be a politically successful argument for Democrats. Voters, swing voters in particular, already know Trump is an asshole but don't seem all that bothered by the cursing, name calling, and jerk behavior. Hillary's campaign focused a lot on the Trump is a mean jerk narrative and it didn't seem to work with swing voters nor motivating the base. The better arguments against Trump and Vance I believe is that they are phony working class populists who are out of touch and only care about themselves. People who are too radical and too extreme to be in the White House. Agents of chaos and calamity. Those are better arguments to be making than Vance was a jerk to his kid imo.

AThe Levi news is really encouraging considering I was on the train of thought thinking that he wouldn't even make the team out of camp. Could just be empty compliments from a team mate trying to encourage him, but those words are high praise and sound like more than empty you can do it encouragement.

Decker has thus far continued to play at a high level and hasn't shown signs of slowing down. I would imagine there is a team option for the third year too or that the money is more front loaded in this deal. I'm happy with it though given Decker's play hasn't really declined much as he's aged into his 30's.

That sucks for Badgley. Always feel bad for a guy when he gets a significant injury like this.

Has any candidate ever fizzled out more on a national stage than DeSantis?