The Guardian has an article today, ‘Is Bill Belichick’s Glorious Patriots Reign Approaching An Ugly Conclusion?’ I just want to say, Bill Belichick never had a “Glorious Patriots Reign.” He came into the organization with a clever plan to cheat – and it WAS clever, but it WAS cheating. He got lucky in drafting Tom Brady as his backup QB – in the third round. The success of his scheme caused extra-talented players to want to play on his team, so he carried on successfully for a few years after the NFL told him to stop cheating. (No, they didn’t DO anything to the team and they have tried valiantly to keep anyone from finding out what the Pats did, but too many people know.) BUT…

The greatness of the team began to fade pretty quickly after the cheating stopped but they DID have Brady and Gronk and all the other players who were attracted there without knowing the real reason for the success. Those players had to leave, too and that did happen over time. Now? All we’re really seeing is the true Bill Belichick.

Petty, I know. I get a little petty with sports “accomplishments” that should never have been. Players who get to keep their “records,” even after everyone knows they were juiced are a particular pet peeve. We forever have to hear how “great” they were and, collectively, pretend we don’t realize, “Oh, yeah, they cheated.” Rubs me wrong every time I have to hear how great the Patriots were during that period. Yeah, they were great. But they were great at cheating…

(Editors note: none of this Patriots rant is intended to reflect on the players, themselves. I have no information that the players knew what the coaches were doing behind the scenes…)

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We watched the mindless minions storm the Capitol and then get what I thought were light sentences, considering what they had done. But the leaders who have been tried so far? Not so much on the “light sentence” thing. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years. Now two of the front men of the Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, have been sentenced to 17 years and 15 years, respectively. THEIR leader, Enrique Tarrio, is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday. He wasn’t at the Capitol on J6. (He wanted to be, but had been ordered out of town by a judge for a different crime he had committed.) But, before the “big day,” he helped organize the assault and he personally chose Biggs and another guy, Ethan Nordean, to run things on the ground that day.

It will be interesting to see what Tarrio gets as a leader and organizer who wasn’t actually present that day. It will be a great indicator of what the primary leader and organizer, Donald J. Trump, will face…

In a related note, another one of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, was sentenced on Friday. 10 years. He’s very upset. He promised the court that he would stay out of politics if they showed him some leniency. They gave him 10 years. (That’s less than the other misleaders, so far.) He raised his fist and shouted, “Trump won.” He can just wander around his cell muttering “Trump won” for the next ten years. Trump STILL didn’t win…and this Bozo went to prison for him.

I’ll tell you this: In the phrase “blind loyalty” the keyword seems to be “blind…”

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I’ve been hearing a lot of comments from the “lawyers” for team trumpster about how the trials should be held starting in, oh, say, 2026, maybe 2027, or maybe even just leave it perpetually at TBD (To Be Determined). They say there’s a LOT of reading. I suppose that could be a problem. I wonder why the trumpster’s financiers – his struggling acolytes – don’t pay for lawyers who can already read. That would speed things up a lot…

It’s not like ANYBODY fails to understand 45’s goal: get “elected,” get out of jail free. All he has to do is keep the witch hunters from showing his cauldrons, eyes of Newt, potions, bones, talismans, and Book of Spells and Conjurations to the jury before then. Easy.

Maybe not. 45 has been a “legal bully” for decades. The courts are a place he has been able to manipulate most of the time – until now. It’s one thing for the trumpster to run out the clock on, say, paying a piano seller who got screwed doing business with the Trump group. Threatening and assaulting the United States Constitution is another matter altogether. People take that more seriously, more personally.

The collective gaggle of judges in these cases seem to be coordinating so they don’t have scheduling conflicts and they seem to be determined to try these cases before November of 2024.

MAGA cons, for their part, maintain pretty much the same rebuttals. “Uh-uh!” “Did not!” “That’s not what I saw!” and my favorite, “Evidence doesn’t count.” Yeah, it’s dumb but it’s what they’ve got so they’re sticking to it…

What is it we can say about “blind loyalty?”