football

Is It Worth It?

by MyBaconPress

Okay, so, tell the truth. Don’t you find it ironic that Trump’s plane crash happened at Reagan National Airport? The tower at Reagan National was understaffed by Air Traffic Controllers that night. Reagan was the one who attacked Air Traffic Controllers in the first place. It was an ideological position. (He wanted to bust their union and didn’t give two figs about safety.) Control towers in the US have been undermanned ever since and air travel in the US has NEVER been the same.

After the crash, The First Felon blamed, well, everyone but himself. He pointed the finger at most every Democrat and delusion currently in play in MAGA ethos. Obama? That one might have been a mistake. We’ve had two Presidents since Obama, Donny. One of them was YOU. If Obama had a bad policy and you didn’t change it, it was your policy, too.

He also blamed current MAGA boogie man, “DEI.” (I don’t think he meant ‘Don, Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, the unqualified nepo-hires of his first mess.) He said he knows it could have been DEI because he has common sense. I think he meant NONsense. He said the last administration put so many DEI hires in place, like dwarfs – he blamed dwarfs – as to set up this very dangerous situation. He blamed dwarfs!

Then, when he was asked if it was safe to fly, he reassured everyone that indeed, it is. I don’t mean to put too fine of a point on this but if the DEI hires are so prevalent as to make flying dangerous, then it can’t be safe to fly, too. Which is it, Donny?

What Trump won’t tell MAGA is that he allowed the director of the FAA, Michael Whitaker, to resign the day The Felon was sworn in, leaving the department without a leader. Whitaker was effectively pushed out by co-president Musk because Whitaker wanted to impose some $600,000 in fines against SpaceX. Oh, he also disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.

So far, one of the few things people agree on is that the control towers at airports are dangerously understaffed. One element of this crash being investigated was that ONE person was managing both incoming fixed wing craft and helicopters, even though those jobs are normally separated. So, naturally, the day before the crash, according to ABC News, the maladministration sent buyout offers to Air Traffic Controllers. Leave your job with eight months pay! Excellence in action, I guess. Then the crash happened.

So on Friday, the maladministration “clarified” that Air Traffic Controllers weren’t subject to the hiring freeze nor eligible for the buyout. They were just sent the offer, um, randomly, for no real reason. MAGA is a defect of morality. Republican ideology is dangerous and the world has a body count to prove it…

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I guess one could make this up, but we’re stuck with Trump so we don’t have to. He sued ABC for saying he’s a rapist. The judge in the case said he’s a rapist. Legal experts said ABC would have won their case. They buckled anyway.

He sued CBS for interviewing Kamala but not him. They invited him. He turned it down. So then, when he saw the Kamala interview, he randomly decided they had carefully edited the interview to make her seem better than she is. Get THIS: In his suit, he accused CBS of, “malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public.”

Every accusation is an admission with this guy. Every one. Nearly every word this guy vomits is a malicious, deceptive and substantial distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public. Still, CBS is considering settling. They want to merge with another company and The Felon has control over the FCC. They anticipate he’ll make life tougher for them if they don’t bend the knee, so it looks like they might do it.

47 controls the FCC and the stations need broadcast licenses to do their job. You’d better get used to British accents when you’re getting your news because very, very soon, all we’ll get from the American networks is “truthiness.”

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Speaking of fictions standing in for facts, I’m seriously considering giving the Stupid Bowl a pass this year. I can’t say, for sure, I won’t watch. I’m a huge football fan and there is some aspect of FOMO, ‘Fear Of Missing Out.’ I have personal identity tied up with being a football fan and that makes it harder to turn away. But it’s possible. Right now, I don’t WANT to watch.

I made a mistake, once. (I’ve made LOTS of mistakes but this one specifically applies.) I took the average time of a football play and multiplied it by the number of plays in a game. When you sit down to watch a football game, you’re committing three and a half hours of your life to the viewing experience. My calculation showed me I was getting right around eleven minutes of actual action for my three and a half hour investment. (That’s when I took to recording the game, then coming in late and skipping all the crap. If you time it just right, you can even catch the live ending of the game.)

The Stupid Bowl won’t be asking for three and a half hours. No, it will be FOUR and a half hours of your life – for the SAME eleven minutes of football. My reward for that time investment? I get to watch a team I don’t much care for, the Eagles, win the game, or a team I REALLY don’t like, the Chiefs, win the game. (Both teams are very good. I’m just not a fan.)

Okay, so there IS the halftime show and the commercials have a reputation. It turns out, when I sit down to watch football, I don’t WANT to see a concert. I want to watch football. So, for the last several years, I actively avoid the halftime show. Also, the commercials have become seriously over-rated. There were, like, two Stupor Bowls with really good commercials. The rest has been hype – and if there IS a good one, you can probably catch it in “previews” these days. And not one word of that has anything to do with the Chiefs getting the “boosts” they’ve received to get there in the first place.

See, the Chiefs went into this season with a chance to do something no team has ever done and only two teams in the history of Super Bowels have ever even had a CHANCE to do, win three in a row. The league knows the possibility of a “three-peat” is a great ticket seller. So, throughout this season, the officials have given the Chiefs the occasional…boost, just a little help, here and there. The Chiefs are a very good team so they didn’t need a LOT of help, just that little boost, here and there.

I should add, the NFL strongly objects to the charge they’ve been helping the Chiefs. It hurts their product if people realize it isn’t on the up-and-up. Chiefs fans deny it, too. But everyone else? If you’re a football fan and know the game, I have only to mention the First Down that wasn’t and the catch that bounced and you KNOW exactly which plays I’m referring to with no further explanation needed. And, yes, those things are debatable. That’s part of the fun of being a sports fan.

But tell the truth. As they broke away to commercial while the officials “reviewed the play,” you KNEW in your heart of hearts, how those calls were going to go, right? Benefit, Chiefs. “Bad calls happen.” That’s the official explanation – AFTER the Chiefs have been named the winner and are on their way to the big game. It’s true, too. That’s what makes it a plausible explanation. But “plausible” doesn’t make it “true.” When the so-called “bad call” advances the NFL’s goal – selling more tickets – was it a “bad call?”

I can’t say if the NFL will continue to help the Chiefs. It seems the goal of just getting them there for the possibility would sell all the tickets they need. They can let the game play out properly and not really care about the outcome. In fact, if the Chiefs lose, the NFL would be in a good position to use that tactic again, down the road.

Bear in mind, at some point, the NFL redefined itself as an “Entertainment League,” not a “sports league.” Just like Big Time Wrestling…

Fixed…

by MyBaconPress

In fairness, it CAN be difficult to understand, the idea of an economic system that prevents people from amassing too much wealth. But even if we can’t understand it, we can see the value of it, now, right before our eyes.
“Well, yeah, but how do you define ‘too much wealth?'” some ask.
“Fair question. Difficult answer. But I’ll say that having enough to buy the government is WAY too much. Having enough to buy more than one government? Well, that’s excessive beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.”

Among the fixes FDR initiated that the One Percent have now successfully eliminated was to limit the abuses owners can inflict upon workers but more importantly, he limited how much people could take out of society by taxing wealth increasingly as it went up. It’s literally true that once a person reached a certain point in wealth, they couldn’t keep most of the rest, anyway, so… they re-invested. Not, “might someday.” They actually did.

The combination of worker protections and the prevention of wealth hoarding made America great in the first place. Check you history. The United States was a struggling place, economically, until FDR introduced the New Deal, now known as Democratic Socialism. Then we became the economic powerhouse of the world – by limiting how much a small handful of self-serving people could stuff into their own pockets. Now we’re back to the corrupt Robber Barons of old – and one should properly expect the economy to struggle again, just like it did before.

To be sure, people still got rich. They just didn’t get SO rich they could use their money to undermine government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It was a better system and I hope we go back to it, or something like it, after the revolution…

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It looks like Michele Obama is going to skip the inauguration. I think that’s a good move. In this moment, I think ALL Dems should skip the inauguration. I know, I know, the left puts on the good show. The left makes nice. The left shows decorum. But we shouldn’t.

I don’t call for all-out war and I certainly wouldn’t want to see the left acting like the right in most cases. But I’d be okay with overt shows of displeasure, at the very least…

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Have you seen how much those oligarchs gave to Trump for the inauguration? Millions and millions of dollars flowed in – all in hopes of currying favor with The Felon. The final numbers aren’t available, yet, but, so far, it looks like they gave him $250 million dollars. He CAN spend that on inaugural parties and such, but he doesn’t have to. He CAN just slip it into his pocket and, officially, it isn’t even a bribe. Sweet deal, if you’re able to buy him. Kinda crappy for the rest of us, though.

Speaking of which, Steve Bannon, who did NOT get Musk removed “before the inauguration” as promised, is claiming that the “tech bros” showing up to the event should be viewed as total surrender to Trump. Bannon couldn’t get them out, but he could CLAIM success anyway. Still, I’d bet they’re there to check out what they’ve bought.

Now the inauguration has been moved indoors. “It’s too cold,” said the tough-talker. For him, it might be too cold. He IS very old. Of course, it might ALSO be that he’s afraid people will see his, um, crowd size and laugh at him again. I haven’t heard much about this aspect, but it’s ALSO possible he’s afraid to be out in public in crowds. Many people DO seem to want him dead, and we’re a heavily armed nation. Someone could make it happen, if they were of a mind to.

Mostly, though, I remember that he IS the anti-Christ and worries, first and foremost, about himself. I’d say he just wants to be comfortable and warm, so he’s staying inside. MAGA spent money to come to Washington DC to attend the inauguration. Now they get to watch it on television. They could have done that from home and saved a bunch of money.

So The Felon will be comfortable and warm, sitting inside, surrounded by all his oh-so-wealthy donors. MAGA? No, MAGA is left out in the cold. It’s an apt metaphor – and they’d better get used to it…

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Did you see the games yesterday? NFL football, I mean. I suspect if I had to explain that to you, YOU didn’t pay attention to the games. Sorry, this bit isn’t for you. I went 1 for 2 on my expectations. I WANTED the Houston Texans to beat the Kansas City Chiefs but expected the Chiefs to win. I expected the Detroit Lions to beat the Washington Commanders, too.

The Chiefs DID “win,” but not without TWO separate assists from the officials. TWICE, officials called ‘roughing the passer’ on the Texans even though replay clearly showed no such offense. In both cases, the called penalty gave the Chiefs new life after the Texans had stopped them. Apparently, the rule is, no touching Patrick Mahomes under any circumstances. That’s hardly fair and it gives the Chiefs a tremendous advantage. Nobody else gets the kind of consideration Mahomes enjoys.

There’s big money shaping up, here. With some very generous assists from the league all season long, the Chiefs have the opportunity to win a third straight Stupid Bowl. It’s referred to as a “three-peat.” The term was coined by Roger Craig of the SF Forty-Niners back in the 1990s, when the Niners had a chance to do it. They didn’t make it. Nobody has ever done it. The Chiefs have a chance.

I’ve been warning from time to time, NOT to bet on the NFL. The games are clearly rigged. People tell me that one can still bet. You just need to figure out what the NFL wants and bet accordingly. But what does the NFL want, in this case? Do they WANT a team to finally achieve the three-peat? Then bet on the Chiefs. BUT… maybe, they want everyone to bet on the Chiefs, boosting the odds against the opponent, then have the Chiefs fall short. HUGE money for the NFL “partner,” Fanduel.

Did you notice that according to this bit, I’m expecting the Chiefs to go all the way again? Why even wait for the games, if the NFL has already determined the outcome, at least for the Chiefs? And with those kinds of calls, it looks very much like the NFL has already determined the outcome…

Attacking The Defenseless…

by MyBaconPress

Do you remember the beginning of this century, when greedy corporate interests crashed the economy through corruption and fraud but managed to blame field workers? One of the results of that crime was a new agency in government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog that helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices. Keywords? “…helps protect consumers from predatory financial practices.”

So, naturally, that’s one of the areas Elon sees as the place to cut. He wants to just “delete” the CFPB. It turns out, predatory lenders don’t LIKE an agency that protects consumers from predatory financial practices. Go figure. Fortunately, they have totally-in-touch-with-the-common-man, extremely weird Elon Musk in their corner to help protect them from the dangers the victims pose to the predators.

I suspect this will be the most successful and repeated pattern of the incoming chaos; harm to the most vulnerable…

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Speaking of which, Mike Rounds (R – of course) has introduced a bill to eliminate the Department of Education. The thing is, he introduced it to the current congress, not the GOP fevered congress coming in January. I wonder why he did that. Cons don’t even have a majority in this congress. Why not wait until the next?

Either way, apparently, he needs a super-majority in congress to get that bill through, whether this congress or the next. He says he thinks he can do it through reconciliation, meaning he would only need 51 votes but others say he can’t do it that way. We’ll all find out together.

The Department of Education is just one of the departments Trump has attacked. Shortly after taking this “election,” he said the education department was staffed by many people who “in many cases, hate our children.” He’ll have a briefing, soon, explaining to him what the Department of Education does. Then he said, “we want states to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it.”

Some of them will, sure. Some won’t. Kids in Massachusetts will do just fine. Kids from West Virginia? Well, thay stil wont no howe to spel. But, in fairness, they don’t now. Still, just in case he can’t eliminate the DOE that way, Trump is all set to attack on another front: he put Linda McMahon in charge of the department.
“Who?”
“You know. That super-qualified wife of the guy who ran big-time wrestling. She doesn’t like the DOE because it makes ‘some people think they’re so smart.'” Much of what the DOE does can be shuffled to other departments but some of it will fall through the cracks.

In my opinion, one of the more important functions of the Department of Education is ensuring and enforcing fair access to education for disable students. That part will likely disappear. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that one of the first groups the cons have chosen to attack is disabled kids. Who, after all, is more vulnerable than that?

I’m not sure WHY this next bit suddenly popped into my head. Do you think there’s some sort of message, here?

“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’” (Matthew 25:42)

I’ll tell you this: you’d think the “let’s put the Bible everywhere” crowd would have SOME idea of what’s in the book they pretend to love so much…

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The lowly Raiders were in a good position to knock off the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs with a field goal. On a critical third down to position the ball for the kick, the Raiders center snapped the ball early. The QB wasn’t ready for it. The ball fell, uncontrolled, to the ground and a Chiefs player fell on it. Bummer for the Raider fans. But, no. An official had blown a whistle, ending the play. He ran onto the field indicating a false start. A false start is an automatic penalty. The opposing team doesn’t get to accept or decline. In effect, the play just “didn’t count.” The ball just gets moved and the team gets the attempt again.

We all saw the indicator from the official. It was clearly a false start signal. But a false start call would have meant the fumble never happened and would have left the ball in the hands of the Raiders. A false start call would have allowed the Raiders to attempt the game-winning field goal, after all, and, perhaps, hand the Chiefs their second loss of the season. A false start, in this case, would certainly have messed up the betting by having a deep underdog unexpectedly defeat the super-favorite.

That’s no problem for the NFL. They just had the officials huddle up and “discuss” the penalty. The zebras came up with an effective workaround: they called an illegal shift. That little “adjustment” allowed the Chiefs to decide if the penalty was accepted or not. They declined the penalty (meaning the play counted) because one of their players had fallen on the ball. In short, the NFL just…took the ball from the Raiders and gave it to the Chiefs, sealing the Chiefs “victory.”

People are STILL waiting for some explanation from the NFL. I suspect no explanation will be forthcoming. How do they “explain” controlling the outcome of games in order to maximize gains from their ‘Fanduel’ partnership?

I’ll tell you this: It’s not “betting” when the outcome is a foregone conclusion…

Corruption Plus Greed…

by MyBaconPress

Wow, it looks like people in the Trump orbit plan to enrich themselves in their positions. Who could have guessed? We’ve already seen Boris Epshteyn, who wants people to pay him – substantially – to put in a good word with Trump for a job. Now we get Elon, who, let’s face it, needs an infusion of cash in order to make it through the week. Sometimes, he’s the richest man in the world. ALWAYS, he “needs” a little more. To my mind, that’s the same mental illness that makes a person weigh in at 600 pounds…

You see, thanks to conservative deregulation, the larger internet providers have been buying up many of the smaller providers and making decisions about where profits can be mined and where there just aren’t enough people to justify certain expenditures. It’s the corporate way. Because of those calculations, the large internet providers won’t lay fiber optic cable in some areas. Not enough return on their investment.

So, the Biden administration put together $42.4 billion dollars to help rural communities hook up to various high speed internet systems through smaller, local services the large services haven’t swallowed – yet. Elon’s Starlink program didn’t qualify. It’s too slow. So, naturally, Elon thinks the program should be shelved. I mean, he doesn’t qualify, why should anyone qualify, right? Sure, he could have tried to speed up his system to meet the requirement but that would be hard so, better to just eliminate the requirement.

Fortunately, the areas that won’t have that zippy broadband because Elon sees a great place to cut funding will still have access to Elon’s crappier Starlink service. Oh, and it should be noted that as people sign up, the service is getting even crappier…er…slower. Do you see any problems with the idea of a richie-rich guy – a guy who can never be satisfied, a guy who only understands ‘more, more, more’ – having control over the fortunes of his competitors?

Ah hell, who knows, maybe he’ll be visited by three ghosts, here, pretty soon…

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Trump ran on, among other things, a promise to impose backbreaking, VERY destructive tariffs on pretty much everybody. Some of the countries he has mentioned specifically, have pushed back, announcing that if Trump DOES invoke his ill-advised tariffs, they would do the same. Let the trade war begin, right? Fortunately, Trump has been having phone calls with these countries and now has an excuse to NOT impose those crippling tariffs.

He can just tell MAGA that he got on the phone with these people, talked real tough to them, and they collapsed in the face of his awesomeness so now the tariffs won’t be necessary. The truth, of course, is that his entire campaign was a lie and no tariffs were ever necessary so what he needed was an excuse. Now he pretends his phone calls have solved the problem even before he took office and conservative media will support that story like it’s true and MAGA will eat it up with a spoon.

But at least he may not impose those tariffs, aggravating inflation and sending the economy into the tail-spin he managed during his last maladministration. He’ll find another way to crash the economy, you just watch…

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I haven’t been writing about the NFL as much as I expected to this season. That’s mostly because my Niners suck…er…I mean, ‘are struggling…’ this season. But the thing that is making the game almost unwatchable? Effing penalty flags! Oh! Em! Gee! It’s gotten SO bad, if two plays happen consecutively without a flag, it’s astounding. (I’m not sure it has happened even once this season, two consecutive plays without a flag…) Sometimes the broadcaster goes back and shows the violation and it’s clearly a good call. Sometimes the broadcaster goes back and shows the “violation” and it’s clearly NOT a good call. Sometimes, they don’t even show the problem. The game just moves on. Slowly. Oh, my gods, so slowly…

I continue to believe the NFL is manipulating the outcomes of games via their officiating crews. It’s likely more a matter of point shaving and beating the spread than dictating winners and losers but it STILL helps fortify their “investment” into ‘FanDuel,’ the online gambling site with which the NFL has “partnered” to take your money.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, if you think you’re “betting” on NFL game outcomes, you’re not. You’re really just posting how much money you intend to gift the NFL today. Don’t be an idiot. NEVER “bet” in a situation where your “bet” is controlled by the group who stands to profit if you lose.

But, hey, at least the Niners don’t have to contend with Head Coach Matt Eberflus, the Head Coach of the Chicago Bears. No. Strike that. The EX Head Coach of the Chicago Bears. That guy. The other day, I watched, perhaps, the greatest single failure of coaching I think I’ve ever seen -hyperbole is very big in sports – and it was all on Coach Eberflus.

All he had to do was line his team up for a field goal attempt to tie the game and send it to overtime, giving his Bears a reasonable chance to win. His Quarterback got sacked, making the field goal a greater challenge, but there was still time on the clock and he still had a timeout. ANY other team would have tried to position the ball a little closer then taken their shot at the field goal. Eberflus…did something else.

He very carefully used up the time left on the clock and then ran a desperation play that failed as time ran out, losing the game by three points. You can read that sentence over and over and, if you know the game, it will never make any more sense than it did the first time you read it. But that IS what he did. The team ran back to the locker room after losing with that timeout in their pocket. It was one of the most amazingly bad clock management moments in the history of the game. And the Bears agreed, parting company with Eberflus the next day.

Some guys just never make it as Head Coaches and I believe Eberflus is one of those. I wonder how many people in Chicago will forever refer to him as “Everflub…”