I’ve long understood that a lot of people who ended up voting for trump did so as a second choice.  What they knew was that they were tired of politics as usual.  They were tired of watching the Democrats and Republicans switch chairs and simply exchange playbooks, majority and minority, then continue doing the same old things.

Part of the problem has been the success of Charles Koch’s war against America.  As corrupt politicians have worked steadily to dismantle FDR’s New Deal, life for most Americans has become increasingly difficult – with the blame constantly falling on the victims.  Koch’s assault began in the 1970’s.  It gained steam with the “election” of Reagan.  It coalesced under Clinton with the founding of Fox “News.”

Americans suffered court-appointed “President” Bush (43).  Thinking Americans THOUGHT they’d found a champion in Obama, only to be disappointed by his ineffectiveness.  (Yes, I know, Obamacare.  The Affordable Care Act was better than the the cruel, so-called “free market” but many remember he RAN on universal health care and surrendered even the possibility before negotiations even began.  Disappointing…)

By the time the 2016 “election” came about, huge swaths of Americans were simply fed up.  Two candidates in that “election” promised change: Bernie Sanders and Donnie Dumbass.  As time wore on, it became clear that Sanders was the choice of the people.  He was proposing changes and promising to overturn the status quo.  That’s what the vast majority of Americans wanted.

But the DNC had already pre-sold the nomination to Hillary Clinton.  They were gobsmacked to discover Bernie’s popularity and had to resort to…well, let’s just say…”extra-electoral” activities in order to provide their end of the deal, the nomination.  MANY people reacted in many ways.  Mostly, people couldn’t be convinced to come out for the same-as-usual, incremental, baby-steps candidate who ran such a god-awful campaign.  But a large number of disenfranchised voters had a second choice, somewhere to go, another candidate promising to overturn the status quo: Donald J. Trump.  And so they did.

So, the Democratic Party did their postmortem and, after careful consideration and thoughtful reflection, decided to excuse their own cheating and blame Bernie.  Okay, fine, whatever.  They ALSO started paying lip-service to trying to become more inclusive – but ONLY by doing the same incremental, baby-steps thing.

Cut to 2020.  Bernie’s surging again.  Loyalist, party Dems still don’t understand.  (“Why do people like THAT guy so much more than the candidate I prefer?!?”)  Far and away, the vast majority of the American people want Bernie’s vision in the White House because he promises change.  The thing that distinguishes Bernie’s change from trump’s is Bernie’s isn’t about destruction.  Think of a kid who wants attention.  Some kids gain attention by excelling at good things (Bernie), some kids get attention by being complete assholes (trump).  But they get the attention…

Enter Joe Rogan.

By way of disclaimer, I’ve never heard ‘The Joe Rogan Experience.’  I know he hosted ‘Fear Factor,’ a show I never watched.  In short, I know nothing of Rogan from personal experience.  After two or three minutes of “research” I think Rogan leans Libertarian but sees himself as liberal.  I also know he doesn’t understand the transsexual community.  I know that because Rogan recently said on his podcast that he would probably vote for Bernie Sanders.  Sanders highlighted the “endorsement” and the loyalist, partisan, Democrats went nuts, highlighting the fact that Rogan once said trans women weren’t “real women.”

The fact that Sanders continues to draw air is enough to disqualify him in the view of the loyalists.  They’ll pounce on anything that seems even remotely able to derail the Sanders campaign.  So, Rogan saying he liked Bernie was portrayed as Bernie agreeing with every word Rogan has ever said, not because Bernie agrees with Rogan but because it’s a fun smear.

In point of fact, the idea that a left-leaning Libertarian (who knew?) might consider voting for the Democratic nominee SHOULD be welcome news.  Rogan’s is one of the most popular podcasts in the country.  If Rogan says Sanders deserves a look, literally millions of people will look.  In short, Rogan’s comments should be everything the Democrats pretend they want to see happen: the tent opening up to a larger crowd.

But Rogan can’t pass the Democratic purist test so, he’s out.  (And let us not talk falsely now, Rogan endorsed Bernie.  I suspect if he had endorsed, say, Warren, purist Dems would be just fine with him.)  “Let’s not accept any votes unless they come from dyed-in-the-wool, tested pure Democrats,” say the Dems.  “BUT…let’s be sure to bitch and moan endlessly when it turns out there aren’t enough dyed-in-the-wool, tested pure Democrats to put one of our own in the Oval Office.”

It’s starting to look as though the Dems are preparing to use their superdelegates to defeat democracy again.  The party wants Biden and the party will GET Biden whether he can win or not.  The thing is, California is voting in the primaries on Super Tuesday, along with much of the nation.  Bernie does VERY well in California.  Without DNC interference, it’s VERY possible Bernie could win the nomination.  Personally, I would enjoy knowing all of the purist, loyalist Democrats are out there casting ballots for their hated nemesis because the party told them to.

I’m voting for Bernie in the primary in part because he’s bringing in a larger swath of Americans than the other candidates.  Yes, I’ll vote “blue to block” in the general but I genuinely don’t believe Biden can generate enough enthusiasm to overcome the deceived right.  Warren might be able to, having co-opted many of Bernie’s positions but why accept the copy when one can have the original, yes?  A Sanders/Warren ticket would be MY dream team.

I STILL believe Bernie would have beaten trump in 2016.  (So, I think, do the Dems.  That’s why they’ve been so aggressively smearing him since.)  I think Bernie could beat trump in 2020, given the chance, precisely BECAUSE he attracts more than just the loyalist base.  But it’s looking more and more like the party would rather lose with their purity intact than actually DO what they claim they want to do: include everyone…

 

Apparently, it’s a test of gullibility.  The Trump team just wants to know, “How stupid are you?”  Most of the rank and file conservatives are responding with “How stupid do you need us to pretend to be?”

Here’s the trumped up defense as summarized by the Guardian:

• The transcript (which the White House said is not verbatim) shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything.
• Ukrainians have said there was no quid pro quo.
• Ukraine did not know security assistance was paused until a month after the 25 July call.
• No Ukrainian investigation into Joe Biden took place.
• Ukraine received assistance without such an investigation.
• Trump has been a bigger supporter of Ukraine than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Okay, first if it’s not verbatim, it’s not a transcript.  It’s an abstract.  The White House chose which information to include and what to withhold.  The actual transcript?  The White House hid that on a secure server and won’t let anybody see it…

Yeah, the Ukrainians said there was no quid pro quo.  They were trying to negotiate a meeting with Dumbass in the White House and knew they needed to massage the man-baby’s fragile ego.  Besides, as the cons confess, Ukraine didn’t yet know about Donnie’s crime…

Ukraine didn’t know the assistance had been paused at the time of the call.  This particular bit is like receiving the ransom note before discovering your child has been kidnapped.  You wouldn’t really take such a threat seriously – until the day your child doesn’t come home as expected.  THEN, you’d feel threatened.  THEN, you’d know you’re being extorted.  THEN, you’d realize your child had been kidnapped.  But you STILL might keep it to yourself, if you feared that doing otherwise might make the problem worse.  Once Ukraine discovered the depths to which the Beast was willing to stoop, they had an entirely new reason to fear retribution from this White House…

No investigation took place.  BFD.  No investigation was ever going to take place.  Trump didn’t want an investigation.  He wanted an announcement of an investigation.

The conservatives pretend that releasing the aid and saying “No quid pro quo” AFTER getting caught in his crime is the same as not committing the crime in the first place.

I did not see the claim that Dems just want to overturn an “election” though I think they’ll try to make that case as they proceed.  Let’s think about it, though.  Let’s say you get a job as a bookkeeper.  Three years after you’re hired, the company discovers that you’ve been embezzling.  When they try to fire you, do you think you can forestall that outcome by shouting that they’re just trying to overturn their own hire?  Do you think they should have to retain the employee if it turns out he/she is able to form the sentence, “The process is unfair?”

I did NOT see in their list the con that ImPOTUS won’t try to prove his innocence because the process is unfair.  I guess even THEY realize just how stupid that argument is.  I recently saw a story in the news about a guy who was released 27 years after being convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.  You know who suffered from an unfair process?  A guy who gets convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.  (Sadly, it happens FAR more often in this country than we admit.)  Did that guy just refuse to participate because the process was unfair?  Why, no he didn’t.  He used the process to – eventually – prove his innocence.  I ask: what moron would NOT try to prove their innocence if they could?

I’ve had several discussions with cons about this whole process.  There’s not a single argument trumped up by the defense that ANY of the cons would accept if it affected them directly.  Let’s look at the kidnap analogy again.

If the kidnapper sees the cops pull up in front of the house and sends the kidnapped kid out, shouting “No kidnapping.  Arrest this kid for trespassing!” should the police just…shrug their shoulders and walk away?  SHOULD they arrest the kid?  Of course not.  What a person does AFTER they’ve been caught cannot be considered exculpatory.  (In fact, it’s called a “false exculpatory.”)

A friend of mine asked me how we can know if we’re right and the cons are wrong.  There’s a very simple answer: I NEVER have to do anything differently than anything I’ve ever done before in order to make my understanding work.  I don’t have to do any mental gymnastics.  I don’t have to pretend I have no ability to connect dots.  I don’t have to pretend that claiming the process is unfair is a get out of jail free card.  Cons have to pretend – aggressively – not to understand these very simple, basic things.

I don’t think that the fact that Republicans have no actual case is going to change the outcome.  I believe Senate Republicans are going to nullify the impeachment.  It won’t make Trump any less guilty, though…

Well, it looks very much like corrupt Republicans in Congress are about to anoint a king, 53 – 47.  (The rich guys who bought Moscow Mitch are certainly getting their money’s worth.)  It breaks my heart.  I loved our Constitutional Republic.

But the truth is, the United States of America isn’t the first country in history to fail and devolve into some kind of monarchy or dictatorship.  I believe that anything begun dishonorably is destined to fail.  Slavery was our dishonorable beginning.  Greed has been our unforgivable sin.  The fall was inevitable.

The thing that makes me the saddest, though?  THIS:

is our new “royal” family…

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My friends tend to agree, I’m being overly concerned.  They insist there’s something, somewhere playing out that I can’t see that will swoop in and save the day.  I’ve been wrong before, of course.  Maybe there IS something going on that I can’t see.  So, I keep an eye out for…whatever.  Anything.

Here’s a possibility: “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.” Revelation 13:5.

Do the math.  42 months equals 3 and a half years.  ImPOTUS has been uttering proud words and blasphemies and exercising his authority for, almost exactly, 36 months, now.  That puts the end of Trump in July, 2020…

Granted, if you know the story, things go downhill from there…

But I’ll tell you this: when the only glimmer of hope one can find comes from a 2,000 year old storybook, one does not feel sanguine about the future…

This is kind of funny…

I wrote recently (yesterday, in fact) that Donnie Dumbass had assembled his legal team.  The very best team Donnie could get – likely because nobody in their right mind would trust the guy.  Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr are the lucky opportunists.

Dershowitz defended or participated in the defense of OJ Simpson and (along with Ken Starr) Jeffery Epstein.  He’s currently working to defend Harvey Weinstein – and now he’s doing Trump.  I guess he was once viewed as a liberal – likely because he once helped get a porn star (Harry Reams) out of jail on obscenity charges.

Ken Starr actually did to Bill Clinton what Trump now claims is being done to him; railroad a sitting President until tripping him up enough to…well…trump up an impeachment.  The difference, of course, is that Ken Starr had to create a crime.  (Starr “got” Clinton by asking about an illicit affair.  Clinton tried to parse words, as cheating spouses are often wont to do, and Starr called Clinton’s response perjurious.)  Curiously, Starr did put in a good word for an old pervert, Christopher Kloman, who, yes, pleaded guilty to molesting 5 girls but, c’mon…he’s an old family friend!  Pretty much, Starr is a dependable conservative, willing to adjust his legal opinions depending upon the political affiliations of the people in question.

These two legal scholars have offered up the official defense of the ImPOTUS’ crimes.  The thing is, the positions they’ve taken are just the Fox “News” crap conservatives have been spewing ever since Fox “News” told them to spew.  But these are in a 171 page legal brief filed today!  These two highly regarded legal scholars have filed Fox “News” talking points as considered legal positions.

Oh, the process isn’t “fair”.  (It is…)
No Republicans were allowed to participate.  (They were…)
No impeachable offense was committed.  (More than one…)
Dems want to overturn the last election.  (Not possible…)
Dems just don’t like the President.  (Likely true but moot…)

They just don’t like the President?!?  As a legal defense?  Since when did ‘you can only be arrested by someone who likes you’ become the deal?  Feel free to file that one right next to ‘the process is unfair.’  If accused criminals can avoid prosecution simply by claiming the process is unfair, I think we’ve convicted our last criminal.

I like the ‘No impeachable offense’ bit, myself.  In my own reading of the Constitution, I’ve always believed that a President had to commit an actual crime in order to be impeached.  Still, I’m no Constitutional scholar and a case was once made that says I’m wrong.  “It certainly doesn’t have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don’t need a technical crime.”  You know who said that?  Alan Dershowitz on ‘Larry King Live’ in 1998.

I still think I’m right…but the point is moot.  There was, in fact, an impeachable offense.  Trump tried to commit bribery – an actual crime.  The fact that he failed doesn’t excuse him.  Also, Obstruction of Congress is, in fact, an actual thing.  Trump ordered his minions to ignore Congressional subpoenas.  They did.  That’s a crime.

It’s my understanding that they only needed to show up.  They didn’t need to testify beyond asserting Executive Privilege or Fifth Amendment protections but they had to show up.

The single most important thing I noticed about the points the shiny sober legal team offered up?  There’s not one point that directly contradicts the charges against ImPOTUS.  All of their complaints are about the process, complaints AROUND the charges.  Nothing about the charges themselves.  Just yesterday, I wrote: “The ImPOTUS had better hope they’ve got something better than that for the actual trial…”  Turns out, they don’t.

This might be the scariest moment I’ve ever known as an American.  The mountain of actual admissible evidence against Trump is so high as to be undeniable.  The defense is and has been pure sophism – fallacious arguments used deliberately to deceive.  I don’t care that the rank and file conservatives repeat the silly things they’ve been conditioned to repeat.  But the grown-ups in the room, the people who will be presenting evidence at trial, haven’t offered ANY exculpatory evidence at all.  Nothing.  To me, that indicates that EVERYONE concerned knows Trump is guilty.  Yet the Senate has already stated their determination to nullify the charges regardless of their validity.

What happens to a country that moves from rule of law to “Yeah, he did it.  So what?”

Okay, so, is “They’re trying to overturn an election” a dumb response or the dumbest response ever?  Just asking.

See, nobody can “overturn” an election.  With a little help from Putin, trump got the votes to take the Electoral College.  He got inaugurated.  He set up office in the White House.  He assigned his criminal cronies to important positions (then replaced them as they were hauled off to jail).  He found the person most likely to destroy a given department and put that person in charge of that department.

THEN…he committed a crime, first in private, then in public – on the White House lawn no less.  See how that works?

“Oh,” they say, “but you’ve been trying to impeach him from the start!”

Well, that’s actually kind of true.  But it’s not an attempt to overturn an election.  It’s a proper response to the fact that trump and his cronies have been involved in criminal activity since the start.  When the FBI discovered candidate trump’s people communicating with so many “compromised” Russians, they launched an investigation.  It’s their job and it was the right thing to do.

I think trump dodged a bullet on Mueller but got caught in the Ukraine thing.  Now he’s hired his “team.”  Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr.  Remember Starr?  He’s the guy who thinks a personal peccadillo is impeachable but, apparently, bribing a foreign country isn’t – or at least, shouldn’t be.  That’s a quality team, right there – the very best  trump could get.  (And it took awhile to get them…)  What did this crack team of legal irregulars offer up?  “Democrats are just trying to overturn an election.”

The ImPOTUS had better hope they’ve got something better than that for the actual trial…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of the trial, Moscow Mitch has been repeating his determination to nullify the process in thrall to his dedication to party over country for some time, now.  THEN, he swears and signs an oath to be impartial.

Was he lying then or is he lying now?  It will be interesting to find out…

When all is said and done, though, it will be important to remember that at NO time did Republicans ever offer point by point defenses of the charges.  That, of course, is because trump is guilty and plainly so.  The Republicans can offer distractions, nothing else…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m disappointed in the Sanders campaign.  His people have sent out a carefully edited video that shows sleepy Joe seeming to agree with Paul Ryan that Social Security should be cut.  Biden says it’s taken out of context.  My disappointment is that the Sanders campaign didn’t need a carefully edited video.  They’ve got Biden’s actual record to point to.  He has been calling for cuts/freezes in Social Security going all the way back to the 1980’s.  Here’s a quote from Sleepy Joe in January, 1995:

“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well; I meant Medicare and Medicaid; I meant veterans’ benefits; I meant every single, solitary thing in the government.  And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” — Joe Biden defending the proposed balanced budget amendment.

Apparently, candidate Biden’s website currently calls for increases in Social Security payments.  I don’t know.  40 years of clamoring for cuts/freezes and a sudden reversal during a campaign?

Seems like pandering…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, the Santa Clara 49er’s are playing the Green Bay Packers today for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  I hope the Niners can pull it off.  I’ve been VERY disappointed in the NFL and tried to step away.  Then the Niners started doing well.  Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.

Still, I have firm resolve and intend to stick to my guns.

Um…next year…

This morning, I got into a social media “discussion” with an individual who seems to believe himself a constitutional scholar.  He’s got ALL kinds of information about what the Constitution says.  It doesn’t even seem to bother him that the Constitution says no such thing.  It seems that conservatives have been conditioned to believe that if they just say, “the Constitution says,” then there can be no more discussion about it.

It got me to thinking…

This country was declared – as most of us know – on July 4, 1776.  It didn’t actually become a country until 1789, when the colonies finally signed off on the deal.  When the Constitutional aspect of this once-great nation finally failed will be a question for future historians.  I think one could put the date of demise at January 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in.  That was certainly a dark day for the vast majority of Americans but I think future historians will pin the actual, final death of the country a bit later.  Reagan started the destruction, sure, but it was still possible to save it – had Americans understood sooner what was happening.

These days, we’re witnessing an American “President” more faithful to Russia than the United States lying about trying to extort a political favor from a foreign national in order to win the next “election” with his accomplices in the Senate (Moscow Mitch, for example) working tirelessly to defend the ImPOTUS’s illegal activity and protect him from consequences.  Moscow Mitch (among others) has already declared his intention to nullify the impeachment process for his preferred partisan outcome.  To me, that makes it pretty clear that the passing of the Constitutional United States occurred sometime before – because the Constitution is currently being totally ignored…

This country went through a lot during it’s short Constitutional period.  At one time, I would have pegged slavery as the single most devastating thing ever to happen to the nation.  Certainly slavery was the single most devastating thing ever to happen to the slaves and racism has been an ongoing cancer in this country since long before day one.  This country has suffered natural disasters, man-made disasters, and war after war after war after war.  But we survived it all, clinging to our aspirations.

Even the Civil War failed to destroy the foundations laid by the founding fathers…

History now pegs the fall of the Roman Republic to when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river with his army.  That isn’t precisely true, though.  That was the moment that led, inexorably, to the Empire.  But it’s not as if Caesar crossed and the next day Rome removed all of the “Republic” signs and replaced them with “Empire.”  It took time for the precipitating event to lead to the final outcome.  Still, historians generally agree that Rome shifted from “Republic” to “Empire” in January, 49 BCE.

In like fashion, I think an excellent date for the “crossing the Rubicon” moment for our once-beloved Constitutional Republic will prove to be October 7, 1996.  Why that date?  That’s the day Fox “News” launched.

A democracy – or in our case a Constitutional Republic – requires solid information in order to function properly.  Fox “News” entire reason for being is to spread false information.  It succeeded brilliantly.  Apparently, up to 40% of this country is simply unable to distinguish actual information from the devious misinformation repeated by Fox over and over, day after day.  According to the book of Mark (3:25) Jesus said “if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

The little bit of Roman history, above, was brought to you so you can understand that I don’t mean to suggest that the day Fox launched saw the end of the republic.  It has taken time.  It’s a transitional thing.  Hell, Fox operated at a LOSS for YEARS after it was launched.  They stuck with it, though.  They hung in until they built up a large enough audience to sustain the channel and then to undermine the country with the most effective disinformation campaign the world has ever seen.

When you think about it, our great experiment was kind of paltry.  207 years, total.  The “greatest nation on the planet” part lasted a mere 63 years.  It didn’t have to be that way.  This country was teetering on the brink of failure in the 1920’s.  FDR introduced the New Deal and not only saved the country but created the greatest middle class the world had ever seen.  We KNOW the programs FDR envisioned work because they’re working brilliantly in Scandinavia – where the masses are happier, more productive, better educated, and live a much higher standard of living than anywhere else in the world.  All we had to do was protect the New Deal.

It seems odd to me that the founders didn’t ever seem to conceive that the country might be brought down from the inside but that’s exactly what happened.  Charles Koch made a determination that he loved his money more than his country and he launched his attack.  The Australian Rupert Murdoch was only too happy to join in and bring down the county and Fox “News” was born.  Literally, two super-rich assholes (and a few of their friends) did the deed.

Oh, it’s important to note who was President when Fox first aired: William Jefferson Clinton III.  The reason it’s important is because the Clinton administration had to issue waivers to allow Fox to exist in the first place.  Apparently, the coup was bi-partisan…

Don’t get me wrong.  I know the United States of America will continue to appear on maps for the foreseeable future.  It just won’t be the SAME United States of America the founders envisioned…

I’m kind of tired of hearing Trumpsters pretend the ImPOTUS has been tougher on Russia than any other President.  CONGRESS has been pretty tough on Russia – and I mean BOTH sides of the aisle.  But Donnie Dumbass, himself?  He’d bend the knee, unzip Putin’s fly, and get to work on national TV if Putin told him to.  (And conservatives would explain how it was exactly the right move, of course…)

Yes, Congress has imposed sanctions.  Congress, not Trump.  Congress had to FORCE Trump to sign the legislation (by passing it by a veto-proof margin).  But where the decisions/actions are up to Trump and Trump alone, Russia wins.  So far, every time…

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My conservative brethren have started pretending that as long as Nancy Pelosi doesn’t send the Articles of Impeachment to Moscow Mitch’s corrupt Senate, Trump isn’t technically impeached.  Of course, this is wrong.  Trump HAS been impeached.  It’s just that the impeachment hasn’t yet been adjudicated.  Think of it as an indictment.  A criminal gets accused, THEN there’s a trial.  The criminal isn’t free of the charges until the trial date.  He remains indicted.  Trump is impeached and he remains impeached with a trial pending.

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so Trump decided now is the time to kill a known bad guy, Qassem Suleimani.  I haven’t heard anybody saying Suleimani was a good guy.  Just the opposite, in fact.  I HAVE heard many people question the wisdom of such an action.  The concern isn’t for Suleimani or his family.  The concern is about the expected blowback.

Apparently, Iraq has voted to expel all US troops in Iraq and the killing has created a suspension in an international group dedicated to fighting ISIS.  There is no expectation that Iraq can force the Americans out.  Trump claims he’ll hit 52 targets “very hard” if Iran retaliates for the extra-judicial killing of one of it’s top generals.  (He’s just waiting for Putin to tell him which 52…)

Trump’s distraction war with Iran will be different that George’s Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Iran has teeth.  Iraq had been effectively disarmed when George misled America into attacking them.  True, they had a large army but it only had rifles.  Afghanistan?  Rocks.  (I note that we STILL haven’t defeated them, though…)

There IS an upside, of course.  Now the US can find out if Iran has finished it’s nuclear bomb program since May, 2018 – when Trump gave them permission to restart it.

Yes, I know the conservatives don’t know this…

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Patriots fans, you might want to stop here…

I’m glad the cheatin’ New England Patriots got bumped from the playoffs in the Wildcard round.

There’s an ongoing argument about whether the Pats cheat or not.  If you’re a pats fan, they didn’t and don’t.  If you prefer evidence, they did – and do.  I recently thought of a less concrete consideration in the matter.  Bill Belichick, the coach of the Patriots and one of the masterminds behind Spygate, is said to be some kind of “genius” coach.  That’s no big deal, really.  The league has always had coaches with real vision, true genius.  The thing is, THOSE coaches produce OTHER coaches who learned from the original great coaches.  The phenomenon is so common it has a name: a coaching tree.  One can trace the occasional great coach back to some mentor someplace.  Al Davis produced Bill Walsh who produced Mike Holmgren, that kind of thing.

Belichick has never produced an “offspring” great head coach.  MANY of his assistants have been picked up.  None have achieved greatness in the NFL.  Most haven’t even achieved success in the NFL, if success is defined by a winning record.  That suggests Belichick has no great vision to pass along.  He just cheated…