As a regular guy, I am bored with the presidential race at this stage. Maybe that's because at this stage the race hasn't begun. Or maybe it's because I already know that no matter what happens electorally and infotainingly-wise, little to nothing will change as a result of the ballot box. The US system is designed for slow, inexorable change with its chief feature being outright gridlock.
I want Bernie Sanders to win. Yet Bernie has not evolved. He was born into this race with a certain message and he has stuck with that message. Don't get me wong. It's a great message, the correct message for the times, a leading edge message (at least as far as Washington, DC dipshitism is concerned).
But he is not only being defined by his message, I am afraid that is what he is: a message. The Amerikkkan sheeple will not elect a message to the White House. They want a flesh and blood dynamo, particularly one who will kick ass on all those Muslim-Mexicans lurking beneath their virginal angelic white granddaughters' boudoirs.
Yes, Bernie has fallen into a dogmatic slumber. He is all message all the time. He might a well be that Lincoln robotic figure at Disneyland. You really can't tell the difference.
OTOH, the sheeple demand a better puppet show, and preferably an infotaining one.
We don't get that with the Bern. With the Bern we get all message all the time.
I still say Bernie is 50-50 for the Demotardic nomination. Nothing will change that opinion before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries take place. My colleague here states that the polls are obsolete. Maybe. Maybe not. Time will tell. What we do know for certain is that polls are meaningless at this stage. Especially national polls.
And readings of polls are clearly meaningless but some are more infotaining than others.
This one, from my favourite infotainment site, 538, is interesting and timely because it colours an internal debate raging here at DFQ2: what qualities exactly make a guy a "regular guy."
The esteemed social theorist Leonardo Doritos enjoys referring to himself (and me too on the occasions when I am not a "DLC plant" or a garden variety pedophiliac "paid fake") as a "regular guy."
Now, I am old school. I came of age in the 60s working class milieu of Southern Californiadise.
In my day a "regular guy" swung a hammer or a paint brush. He maybe mowed a rich guy's lawn or fucked the rich guy's wife while the rich guy was at work making more money than the regular guy even dreamed of earning.
Unfortunately, that was my dad doing the fucking, not me. But I learned by watching and understanding more than by hearing about his exploits from the old man.
He was a regular guy. Regular guys kept their mouths shut. I grew into one of those hippie types, peace/love/smoke-it. We definitely did not consider ourselves "regular guys."
Some of us went to college, many of us being the first in our family trees to do so. We were "smarty pants faggots" to our dads. Not regular guys. Some of us dodged the draft. We were "anonymous cowards." Not regular guys.
In our world, a guy with two masters degrees in social theory by definition could not be considered a "regular guy" no matter how hard he worked at being one.
Regular guys back in the day became the "silent generation". They took over politics in 1968 and their dear leaders were Nixon, then Reagan. Now fast forward to the present.
For all intents and purposes, blue collar unions are dead. The "silent generation" is gasping it's final breaths through ventilators and oxygen tanks strapped to their elderly behinds.
These are the Trump supporters.
Today there is no good job available unless you have a college degree and increasingly even that degree is worthless unless it is in a hard science for which "regular guys" of the Caucasoid persuasion need not apply. We are too dumb and/or wasted too much precious time infotaining ourselves and forgot to get an A in calculus.
To be perfectly frank, I'm not even sure what calculus entails. Do they even teach calculus anymore?
I cheated my way through high school algebra and my science electives in college were Human Sexuality and Astronomy. Alternately, this means I had my head buried in some girl's ass or in the stars or in the stars in some girl's ass. Yes, I turned on, tuned in and dropped out. (Ed. Note - Tale eventually graduated by going to night school).
Ultimately, all experiences are unsatisfying (sayeth the preacher) but thanks for the mammaries, ladeez!
I realize this piece is a mailed-in series of Socratic-wannabe digressions hoisted atop other digressions. We are not Worthy.
The point is, or maybe it's the most vital question during this election Season in Hell: what defines a "regular guy" in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Enquiring minds want to know.
79 comments:
Yes, this is a mailed-in entry. And you must read the link to the 538 piece to be relevant at all.
Or you become Vince Lombardi, whose most enduring quote (at leas for me) is:
"What the Hell is going on here?"
I did skim that link. I looked at the first few and realised they were not as relevant. Or when you linked to a Wikipedia entry on James Worthy.
Yesterday I stumbled onto a "journalist" whose whole premise was what will the BernBots do once the inevitable Hillary coronation takes place in the Summer. I got into contact with him. Of course I was rude, but that's beside the point. The dude had no clue there is even a debate over polls as to whether they are merely a bit skewed or if they are obsolete.
There is something in academics called a point of departure. If you start out at a ridiculous angle, it won't matter how much good work one puts into the beef of their essay. This may be akin to the butterfly effect.
Political coverage is completely slanted towards a Hillary coronation based on polls. It is an extremely undemocratic way of looking at things.
In America there is a heavy emphasis on divide and conquer. That is the point of departure for this paragraph. I am not basing it on polls that only reach a small fraction of eligible voters. The landline issue is not going away. Young people cannot be found on landlines. The law was changed so cell phone numbers cannot be automatically dialed. One recent poll was so unable to contact the Millennials/Generation Y, that they weren't included in the poll result. It was based only on voters 50 and older.
You know what is the #1 dogmatic slumber in regards to electoral politics? It's thinking that polls which get crammed down our throats have any relevance.
I doubt Donkeytale has looked into this. He's saying we shall see. His argument against national polling has nothing to do with the inbuilt failure mechanism of modern day polling. It's to do with Iowa and NH. It's about Bernie showing people he can win, then they will consider voting for him.
There is some merit to that.
However, donkeytale ruins his argument by spinning everything as Bernie's fault. It's his fault he is not resonating with enough people to do better in skewed polls. Points of departure are everything.
A new poll seems to include Millennials. It too is probably skewed but not as much as most of the other polls. It has Bernie is a statistical tie in Iowa and up 14% in NH.
The other polls seem to have NH as neck and neck.
A regular guy to me has nothing to do with donk's rigid definition of caveman versus nerd. Or Edith versus the more sophisticated Gloria Bunker Stivic Schultz Wasserman.
At question is how aware or unaware are the "Ready for Hillary" people. I think most people are stupid and sop up whatever CNN tells them to which includes catastrophically skewed polls.
Smart people who aren't full of themselves are regular guys, too. For the middle of the road to the left, this is what happens. First of all kudos to Obama for destroying the Republican Party in regards to the presidency. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a neoliberal. That's why Obama and the DNC were unable to win elections across the board. They are paid fakes, not regular guys. Being regular means to be authentic. It doesn't matter what you say or do. It resides deep within one's heart. It is the difference between integrity and snot.
Sorry to schlong around with this post. I'll try to wrap it up.
(continued)
1. Most people will do the right thing when aware of the truth.
2. Old-school Republicans want nothing to do with the GOP. Or they are knocking on wood for Rubio. Or maybe they don't even like him. They are not a big demographic. None of us are a big demographic. So they become libertarians, regular guy types for that, not the Koch fake libertarianism. They don't like the GOP, nor Hillary. Many seem to like Bernie Sanders for his anti-Patriot Act schtick. We've been through this before many months ago, how Bernie for a commie has an amazing ability to skew political identity. He did that when evoking Eisenhower. And we both agreed here such a strategy combined with reacquiring the Reagan blue collar regular guy vote would serve Bernie well in the general election. And it does appear this will help Bernie in the primaries, though to what extent is to be fake polled at a later point of departure or perhaps an arrival.
3. Ready for Hillary votes. There will always be a chunk of folks who will vote for H. no matter what. I doubt that's a very high number. I know someone who was ready for Hillary when it started, a friend's mom in her 70's. She dropped H. very early in the process. This woman is a regular guy, no doubt. Doesn't hurt anyone. Wishes things were more copacetic.
But when one is told over and over again Bernie has no chance and it is Hillary as one definite choice, this type of regular everyday voter took a looksie at the GOP side. There's no there, there. It's a clown dominated circus with Mr. Donald Schlong dominating most of the mainstream news coverage.
In short, such voters are left with nowhere to go. The vast majority of voters apparently have nowhere to go!
4. That's where Bernie and donkeytale's prescient analysis comes in. People are twiddling their thumbs observing the infotainment. The electoral season has become boring because it indeed hasn't even started.
Most people like Bernie. If and when it becomes visible that Sanders can beat Hillary, then Bernie reemerges as an option. Period.
Bernie seems to be living in Iowa. That is a clever maneuver. He seems to be making this thingie about Iowa. He probably reads donkeytale for pointers.
I think Bernie has tapped into the Black vote, for example. Bernie evolves. He is a McLuhan sitting there, watching the world revolve. This is why his message never changes. He is running for President because he gives a damn. His words.
The middle class Bernie schtick is extremely effective. It is the economy, stupid. Donkeytale can put up images of fascism and how wittle dinky schlong is so scared and wants to be protected from Muslims.
No. That is too simplistic.
(continued)
Do even 40% of eligible voters usually vote? That number has stuck in my head for decades. Bernie is going after every vote. I remember when Namibia gained independence, something like 98% of the people voted. Bernie is able to generate votes. This is why he doesn't smear and play it the usual slimy political consultant way. He has a method and it obviously works.
Bernie has come a long way since the first debate and seems much more comfortable in his presidential skin. In debate #1, he seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. He crushed Hillary in debate #3 and the second one had Hillary with unforced errors showing how brutally cynical she plays the game (see 9/11, Wall Street).
Bernie is at a disadvantage with super delegates. If the thingie is close at the end, we know the DNC will steal it from him if those delegates could make the difference. We are potentially looking at another Florida 2000 where we are unsure who is the actual winner.
So basically Bernie has to crush it. He is the rookie getting schlonged by the refs while LeBron Clinton can take five steps, commit an offensive foul, and then still end up at the free throw line.
No one is perfect including myself and Bernie Sanders. It doesn't mean we aren't regular guys. Hillary is not a regular guy. That is the message. Donkeytale keeps moving the field goal posts. First it's Bernie never attacks Hillary. Then when he does, that's not good enough. Now it's Bernie never discusses foreign policy. There is always some kind of new hurdle cynics throw at him.
And we are now at a point of arrival. Regular guys want to vote for regular people. Regular guys do not usually vote for regular guy candidates with no chance.
Donkeytale often supplies us with great insights. But in this instance, he couldn't have started out from a worse point of departure. That is why we have landed in East Bumfuck situated about twenty miles from Schlongville.
The polls are garbage, period. Bernie is doing a fine job. I am not sure Elizabeth Warren would have done this well. And if both she and Bernie were running, they would have split their votes as Biden seemed to do with Hillary in fake polls.
So all two of us are in agreement. Bernie needs to show that he is a winner and not a schlong. If he does well in Iowa and NH, expect that to carry over to Nevada. Hillary apparently pissed off a lot of Hispanics! They claim she is not their abuela.
South Carolina is the monkey wrench and of course there are other states that make my stomach churn for Bernie's chances such as Oklahoma and Texas. But what do I know? Think about Utah. They are Mormon infested and quite insane, but could Bernie beat Hillary there? It all comes back to the fake polls. It has been spun non-stop that Bernie has no chance.
If one's point of departure is that based on skewed polls, then yeah, we are merely mired in infotainment and not truly typing away to do our part to ensure the BernBot Commando Unit prevails.
Bernie's got this thing. He is already President if one was able to time travel. You know, zippedee doo forward a bunch of months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W9bHTEj8pg
Are we witnessing an American Trilogy or tragedy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBhVlJw1gP8
Glory, Glory, Bernie Sanders. His truth is marching on.
Hush little donkster, don't you cry. You know Bernie is bound to win.
I LOVE DRAMA!
I found a youtube video with Elvis explaining how to make his famous peanut butter steak breakfast souffles. Unfortunately, it has been removed for copyright.
Y'know what is truly a point of departure?
I almost used the term "on an Army base somewhere in East Bumfuck, West Germany" in this very piece but decided to not go there when I cut out any descriptive of where I'd end up had I allowed myself to get drafter. And here you use the term East Bumfuck too. Wow.
I really would hate to think that that Osborne doof is correct and we are wrong about not being each other? Or even John Malkovich
Otherwise, everything you say is fine and dandy, although it is also only as truthy as what I say. Your conjecture equals my conjecture all day long. That;s why they call it bloviation.
But I wrote a dairy while you just bellyache about the polls, and the media, and poor poor pitiful Bernie. Here I am expecting you to answer by regular guy schtick and you are fixated on Bernie. As usual. The game hasn't started yet. We are in the 3rd inning...of spring training.
I'm not making excuses before the fact or blaming anybody before the fact. Part of silly season is playing the media. Trump does it. Bernie among others doesn't do it.
If Bernie wins Iowa and NH he's off to the races. No question.
This talk of polls being obsolete is of course well-known conspiracy fact.
The lack of cell phone representation is a known-known.
New polling methodologies are bring utilized, in fact some have been utilized and found to be as good or better than the old school. This is why we now have a new layer of poll analysis in the form of Nate Silver and his cohort. They delve into which polls tend to be accurate and which are snot.Silver himself believes polling may be obsolete that;s why he hired Enten to be his butt boy.
Emails are being used in some polls.
A form of online polling is also being used, similar to the unscientific kind but where the results are being statistically validate/normalized AFTER the info is received.
I think you are crying too much about the media, polling, Hillbots, donkeytale, you name it. It is as if you want to find an excuse for Bernie loosing before the game has even been played. Hold your head up high BernBot.
But don't become a mindless Bernie homer.
He can and has made several mistakes and he needs to be called on them by his friends. His enemies aren't ging to help him that's for sure. This is a long, long campaign. He needs some schtick upgrades along the way to keep it fresh.
When circumstances change he needs to show winning adaptability. This is a skill that comes hard for old timers [projection alert] but is necessary to being an effective POTUS.
Yes, 38% vote or something.
No one is seriously paying attention to ANY primary polls. It's a known know that the polls hardly ever predict Iowa and NH until days before the events, and even then surprises occur.
But that means teh polls showing Bernie head are just as meaningless as those showing Hillary ahead.
So relax, dude. This was a funny dairy. Enjoy it for what it is... a mailed in masterpiece.
38% or something....is the voting electorate.
It's a known known that I used too many known-knowns in the above mailed in comment.
We both nailed a specific definition of a regular guy. Yours is the guy carrying the lunch pail. In basketball, it would be Larry Bird or Jae Crowder.
We often co-opt and then circumscribe stolen phrases such as regular guy. I am pretty sure regular guys has been around since the early 30's and definitely by the full fledged onslaught of Film-Noir in the late 40's.
If you are not lying and the phrase east b**f*** entered into your vernacular (see guy, regular) saloon lingo, that was psychic.
Regular guys to us was a phrase used by this moderator we both had. And it was tied into the Dave Weintraub UGOG blog war story. I'm sure someone could piece together what we both know for sure. If that's what they like. I used to. I used to love seeking out true narratives. It didn't even have to do with anything important. Just because I wanted to know the truth.
The lesson of Kimberlin is if I couldn't have gotten even the back of page 32 for a blurb from The Washington Post, it's obvious that the medium doesn't give a rat's schlong about what we think or what goodies we may have found through the honing of superiour search engine skills.
Lots of people have said we were the same guy. [yeah, I gotcha on the 38% number.] Or at least a few. Myself and TLNL were smeared as the same dude. I've had that allegation thrown at me since late 2006. There was that dude from Taiwain who showed up at Pffugee. I think he claimed I killed his wife. I've never been to Taiwan. I never met the dude or his wife. Anyway, I have doubts the Smithsonian will ever want the more esoteric data from me life. Maybe some dirty, rotten idjit gives a gallon of sheep milk on it.
Osborne. I assume you mean the guy with the Gorbachev skull map but on his mug. I'm done with all that. I couldn't care less. But yes, point taken.
I had a decent point .... loading .... please wait .... that data is irretrievable.
Yes, I tweeted but was too lazy to find on my page links to a couple great articles on polls. I looked into this first when you woke me from dogmatic slumbers. The one I tweeted yesterday was great. It was very schlongy and went over the herstory of it. It started in the 30's. Upton Sinclair was their first victim. They were the original Rauhauser.
Something about Earl Warren.
That's another strange coincidence. That dude was right wing and did a 180 degree turn to leftier than thou. Same thing happened to Elizabeth Warren. Do you know what else they have in common? Warren. The last name. It's goose bump inducing. Jill Lepore is who I think the journo who covered the topic. Oh, I think the other mainstream goody was from The New York Times.
(continued)
There was a new cop story out of Los Angeles. The victim is Noel Aguilar. No one has been covering it except for Carlos at PINAC. Last year the L.A. Times ran a story smearing him. A new video has emerged proving it was an assassination. So I tweeted the person who covered it last year asking where's the update? The next day as in today there is a story on it from The Los Angeles Times. Just another coincidence?
I remember the lost data. Yes, there is always going to be a market for good prognostication skills, from Jimmy the Greek to Carnac the Magnificent. I don't think it is about aggregating polls as Silver did. I imagine Nate is aware that polling has become obsolete since he got embarrassed by the British elections. I should find the Jill LePore article. It is truly helpful to regular guys who care and don't mind classy infotainment.
It's about finding ways around the problems. Math never lies. David Hume was full of it. Of course the sun is going to rise tomorrow morning. Kant was also a numbnut. He was anal retentive. People other than Kant were better at writing his material than he himself.
But I digress.
I think the YouGov/CBS poll is the best of the lot. I think that is tied in with pollsters who do not live in denial. But I am not sure. I do know the media is incompetent. It's the Peter Principle.
Oh, I remember. Yes, Bernie needs to mix it up. We heard you Bernie the fifteenth time. Enough is enough.
He's at his best one on one with Couric or Maddow. He is more laid back. He's from Brooklyn. He has the John McEnroe gene. Some people are very demonstrative and like to talk loudly.
Bernie has it a lot harder than us. We can say f off wingnut. The salty sailor talk. Bernie is the coach who does not keep making the same mistake. Bernie heard Black Lives Matter. Dixon was prescient. When it looked bad for Bernie in the Summer after the initial surge, Dixon predicted this would help Sanders in the long run, and it did. Things Nina Turnered.
Don't underestimate those endorsements Bernie just picked up. The DFA one is huge. He just got a lot people to do dirty work, hit the streets, talk to folks.
It's like the basketball player who doesn't mesmerise the fan with stats, but by doing all the little things. They are called intangibles and cannot be measure by polls. Only by zeitgeist sniffing.
Perhaps we have reached a middle ground, a form of chess detente.
I believe we are always on middle ground. Or as Buddha would say the middle path.
I know what you mean about Bird being a lunch pail guy because he played the game the right way. But he is transcendent basketball royalty. Difference there. Havlicek was a lunch pail/transcendent hybrid as well.
Magic wasn't a lunch pail guy. Nor was (we are not) Worthy. Michael Cooper was a lunch pail guy.
ML Carr was a lunch pail guy. Dennis Johnson. It is apparent to me (non-homer observer) that all the current Celtics are lunch pail guys at best and that is their admirable strength as a team (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts to use yet another tired cliché) but it is also why we both know they need a transcendent player, maybe two, to compete for the throne.
I agree with you. Larry Bird also got in a bar fight and injured himself. I think he abandoned a kid. Not a regular guy. Only in the technical sense. Yet even then, he was a great shooter and passer. He was such a freak no one could believe he was that good. Players got in trouble saying it's because he's white he gets overrated.
Yes, the only guys close to not being regular guys on the Celtics are Sullinger, Isaiah Thomas, and David Lee.
Rondo and Green were obviously divas. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Marcus Smart is fun because he plays it the right way. Same with Crowder. They just don't have the talent on offense. Crowder though has definitely improved at that. He may be even better than above average. He has a real chance of becoming an all-star. He is strong. He is practicing shooting. He is no M.L. Carr at shooting.
Scalabrine was both lunch pail and scrub. Gerald Wallace. Jae Crowder is probably on a Gerald Wallace type trajectory, though he looks much stronger than Crash.
Amir Johnson is done or probably needs to take off a half season to fix his feet. Plantar Fasciitis.
So that's why he has looked flat-footed.
You may need to update your Celtics rating system. Isaiah cannot be stopped on most nights. Then your only chance as opponent is to take advantage of his short man defense. Isaiah is good. He is probably the best player on the team to go with Avery Bradley. Bradley should make the all-star team, but I doubt he will. Or maybe I am being a homer or Brad Stevens doesn't let anyone play enough minutes to compete for the all-star game.
I like Olynyk.
I like running the game with pace, so Zeller is back in the mix. I'd love to see Lee benched and the rookie Mickey get some minutes. The C's need to cement their offensive identity. The last game was good, but it was against a chump team. Tonight should be extremely interesting.
Boston at Charlotte. 7:00.
This will be one of the rare tough games in what is now the easy cupcake portion of the schedule. It's not Golden State, but they are 15-13.
If all those teams in the East aren't tanking, that's some nice parity which makes for more exciting games.
There's a website called tankathon. They list the Celtics having the best draft position of any team. I simulated them ten times and we got a lot of top picks. One time, the 13th slot C's got the #1 and Brooklyn came in third. Boston had picks 1 and 3, Philly with 4 and five. Oops, Lakers.
But the fun is in the game not tanking. I saw on ESPN that Carlisle has called out the whole team. Boston fans want Dallas to be the eighth worst and I think Minnesota to end up at # 13. Ainge is the anti-Hinkie. Red said that he knew of no one more lucky than Danny Ainge.
Guessing at draft order in the early season before the draft is about like following polls during primary pre-season. the word nebulous springs to mind.
First it's a lottery for the exact order and second who you draft is a crap shoot anyway no matter where you are slotted. Does anyone recall who got drafted 1-6 the year Curry was picked 7th?
So, yeah Ainge's luck may be the most important variable in the equation.
I guess it depends in regards to this trading season. L.A. and Philly look unbeatable for losers. Philly has only one win. It is outrageous. And their pick Okafor is not that good. He reminds me of Jermaine O'Neal but not as good at defense. Noel has some flaws also, but flip those around.
Philly is awful. Ainge is lucky in that he can go for the playoffs while hoping that Brooklyn can hold onto third best for ping pong balls.
The C's are coasting with a twelve point lead approaching halftime.
They are all decent players but not transcendence like you said. But they come at you in waves. With different players and fresh legs. This is when the Celtics will cement their induction into the tier below the best.
They are not missing the playoffs, so that freak simulation winning the top pick will not happen.
Is it illegal to do voodoo? I'd have to learn it first. Anyway, I wouldn't try to hurt Brook Lopez of the Nets, but when he goes in for layups, I could tickle his armpits or something. Non-lethal voodoo tampering for ping pong balls.
This is that article I mentioned. This is why I love the internet. I am the anti-fakeleft in that I will link to solid old-school journalism.
The Lie Factory
How politics became a business.
BY JILL LEPORE
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/24/the-lie-factory
Olynyk is going to be on ESPN highlights. Sully missed a shot. Olynyk jumped up and with one hand dunked it. He's good and Canadian who are better people than us. Games like this he looks very coordinated and does remind one of Bird and Nowitski. He makes a lot of good plays. The announcers are saying that good players are consistent in making the right choices each opportunity. I think he has all-star potential. This could be the Wally Pipp moment with Amir hurt. Lee as old man is playing better than usual. This is a great win. I am standing firm with them and Bernie. My heads been up the whole time. I done good, maybe.
I love the New Yorker. I have Mark Singer's business card. He sent me a personal copy of his book on Brett Kimberlin. Looking back years later it is kind of funny. It's a good book and bizarre story.
FWIW, here is an analysis of polls by 538.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/pollster-ratings/
I have long enjoyed the NY'er too although lately I believe the The Atlantic to be a superior read. They currently have several excellent long form pieces regarding the Demotardic left, the GOP right and Trump.
The piece on the resurgence of the left contains much schtick theft of donleytale prescience.
Lot of good infotainment nuggets for political junkies, and lovers of longer form journalism.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/why-america-is-moving-left/419112/
Yes, very impressive road win for Boston. You have been prescient and an expert voice on all things basketball for many years. I kid you for your homerism, but as you noted it doesn't matter when you are correct.
I still think you are overselling Thomas and Olynyk quite a bit. I see these as half glass empty guys who will need to be replaced by better players if the Celtics are to rise up to the highest levels. They seem like good but not great talents. But I admit I don't watch the games so mainly just see the stats and the record against really good teams. They may take another step up by playoff time and if so you will be anointed the King of Basketball Prescience for all time.
Thomas at 5'9" and not a great percentage shooter especially seems like a guy who would be a lot more effective for the team off the bench to provide a spark rather than be the scoring leader. His efficiency just isn't there.
Not really sure about Olynyk other than he seems very inconsistent, something that would never be applied to Bird or Dirk who are both rock solid with the rock game in and game out over many long years. Of course Bird was a can't miss onec in a lifetime talent and Dirk was a bit of a ? coming from East Bumfuck, West Germany but he quickly established his bona fides early in his rookie year.
Ironically, I witnessed the rise of both players, especially Bird as I was able to attend a lot of Celtics games in those days when tickets were still easy to obtain.
Bird was a perfect fit in Boston while Magic had "West Coast" written all over him.
The league had to have orchestrated both of those key draft picks. I remember the controversy surrounding Bird but I don't recall how Magic ended up in LA.
Both were detrimental to the outstanding legacy of the Dr. J Sixers who also lost a lot of mojo when Portland throttled them a few years earlier.
Those Sixers had some great talents, however from top to bottom. Same in the 60s when they couldn't get by the Russell Celts but maybe once. Still a very memorable and talented team back in the day.
Maybe teams that tank should have their ownership rights yanked. I don't know, though, that is a very subkective call and would lead to tons of infotaining litigation that might overshadow the game itself.
For better or worse the Kimberlin Kerfuffle will likely be the defining moment of your blogging career and if it is you can take a great deal of satisfaction from the result.
I daresay you held together very well and grew from the experience. What you may have lost in blogging excellence you definitely gained in perspective.
Yours is one of the relatively few examples I can find of the internet actually helping a person to mature in real life.
In a hundred years when people are getting PhDs in social theory based on the life and times of Socrates and DFQ2 and the post-Kos blogging milieu that rejuvenated leftism in the US of A-Holes it will all have been worth it.
I guess we will be relegated to the section of heaven where the Van Goghs, the Nathanael Wests, the Franz Kafkas and the Daves from Queens hold forth atop the mountain of eternal wisdom.
I can think of worse places to spend eternity....and maybe I need to stop blogging and start setting my accounst straight before I end up in one of those places instead.
I'm done.
I also noticed The Atlantic. The Daily Beast is another one that seems to have improved. Salon has to be the worst, although there is a former Bill Clinton dude named Bill Curry who writes some interesting articles.
That Harry Enten dude is some kind of Frank Burns. It would be nice to know how he landed that cushy job. Your link looks pretty, pretty good. However, after taking a look at some of the ratings they give to various polling companies, I say too little, too late, Captain Obvious, and we already figured that out no thanks to them.
From your new 538 link I found myself on Enten's new article.
Harry’s Guide To 2016 Election Polls
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/harrys-guide-to-2016-election-polls/
WOW! The guy has made a 180 degree turn since Nathaniel took him to the Greek sauna to discuss negative feedback loops.
It makes sense that Enten has been pimping the Hillary coronation. He is the male version of her. Talk about hypocrisy. Talk about changing tunes without admitting one was wrong. Enten is the metaphorical example of the cop who sees the camera, knows it's there, yet continues to break the law.
No, I do not accept someone switching gears. If someone makes a mess, it is their responsibility to clean it. One can't simply ignore their past decisions. Harry Enten is part and parcel of what is wrong with the internet. If someone is incompetent, there should be no do overs.
Okay, I accept the idea of redemption and that people can change. That is part of the definition of a regular guy. He will man up when necessary. I don't see any Harry Enten piece on what has woken him from dogmatic polling slumbers. He acts as if he did nothing wrong. Instead all we get is the equivalent of do you know who I am? I'm fricking Harry Enten and you're snot.
Trump is the same way. Even when he gets busted making fun of women for having periods (the Fiorina and/or Megyn Kelly stuff) or the more recent schlong story, he acts stupid. He acts like every NBA player who claims to have never committed a foul.
The prof who taught me about Descartes, Hume, and Kant said that once you know something is true, there is no need to remember why that is so. The record shows that Harry Enten took the blows and did it his unprofessional way. He can't then show up months later with a hey guys, yeah, polling is garbage and forget about all my thousands of words spilled claiming Hillary is the guaranteed winner.
It is Ministry of Truth stuff, no?
I haven't read The Atlantic piece yet, but will do. Thanks. Yes, I am a big fan of long-form entries when done well.
Basketball: You seem to recognise where I'm coming from with the Boston Celtics. I'm not saying they are greatness. I am saying they are on a trajectory to glory. Only one can win, however, so I admit one must wait for chickens to hatch and not make assumptions.
I have set the bar as the C's being a top ten team. I am arguing that their winning percentage will rise as the season progresses when attrition comes into play. Washington and Toronto last year were the gold standard for good, mediocre teams. The C's are only two games over .500, but I do expect them to end up in that kind of team bracket. I am thus predicting they get anywhere from the #2 to #5 seed; Not #7 or #8 or end up just outside the playoffs.
Olynyk is not as well-known as a top prospect as the flashier young players. He is penalised for playing the game the right way. He has to be told to be more aggressive with shooting because he is so unselfish. I've already pointed out that he had a freakish growth spurt late in life and thus cannot be tracked/polled in the conventional sense of age. He is a late bloomer. That is literal and figurative or wtf. It is true in every sense of the phrase.
You make it seem Isaiah Thomas is a chucker. He isn't that bad at shooting. He can be a bit streaky, but that is not the same as a player who should never shoot or only for layups.
You'd have to watch Isaiah game in game out to understand how great he is. I agree his best bet is off the bench as a microwave. But one never knows. His defense is a lot better that I thought it'd be. He is also young. Everyone seems to be running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. Can we stop trying to predict such and such a player or elections and see how it unfolds?
I am not sure if my blogging got better or worse over the years. It definitely became less research-y/screenshotty snotty, and more straight from the hip half bizarro/half wise prose.
Within Blogger I can see sometimes where traffic is coming from. There is some offshoot of Democratic Underground which has linked to us. Apparently there is some kind of purge there with BernBots.
I expected this would be how the internet evolved for fake left websites. It is a similar process to Harry Enten's evolving. Just act like no mistakes were ever made. Continue on as if nothing ever happened. Didn't Barnum say there is a sucker born every minute?
Someone at this forum linked to my expose on Democratic Underground as a DLC tool.
http://jackpineradicals.org/showthread.php?951-Well-they-done-got-the-ol-Jester
http://davefromqueens2.blogspot.com/2010/03/democratic-underground-directly-tied-to.html
Same as it ever was.
I was a reluctant admirer of those 76er's teams. Andrew Toney was exceptional. I think what tanked it for them was the great C's comeback in their 1981 playoffs. They were the two best teams. That was when I fell in love with the original seven game schedule of 2-2-1-1-1.
The 2-3-2 is dreadful. I don't care about how that makes traveling easier. It makes for a more boring series. 2-2-1-1-1 allows for greater endings to series that start 3-1. That's what happened in 1981. One of those games was a miracle win. The Celtics were trailing by six without the ball with a minute left. Philly was about to win the series 4-1. I remember Tiny Archibald with a three point play. I don't remember much of it, but it ended well for the Celtics.
The Magic-Bird era was pretty good for those cities. However, I find it a little boring and unfair when there is a lack of parity. For this reason I hated Tiger Woods. The problem with Tiger is he collapsed too quickly. I almost want him to win a major or two to bring back the idea he might overtake Jack Nicklaus for all-time golfing greatness in Majors.
It comes down to Rumsfeld, however. There are knowns and unknowns and we go into war with the army we have. Rumsfeld was basically a blind squirrel philosopher who found an acorn or two.
Irony o' ironies, alas, yet again it turns out that we have been the heart and pulse of the zeitgeist. We isolated the problems with electoral politics and polling. We forced Nate Silver's hand to back off of calling races on polls that fail us. We have exposed Harry Enten as the Frank Burns he is. The only question remaining is why does Harry Enten have so much power? I am not going to gay-bait, as it is common knowledge Silver hits from the other side of the plate, but it is mysterious and alarming.
I want to live in a just world where the class president is elected on merit and not on popularity. That is what this election will boil down to. Will the best candidate end up with the presidential belt? I think the Napoleon Dynamite movie covered this genre. Pedro was running for class president. I forget how that turnered out, but it was a much better movie than I expected. It was getting hyped to the yin-yang. It was a pleasant surprise.
I watched Deadline U.S.A. (1952) last night. It was Bogart at the end of his career as a newspaper editor with integrity at an original big American paper. They were starting to get crushed by the tabloid competitor. It was a decent movie, not great. Even mediocre old movies tend to have more heart and soul in take any five minutes than the crap that gets produced today.
The Millennials are doing great work. They are the ones carrying Bernie on their shoulders. They are out in the streets for Black civil rights. Most polls are only reaching dinosaur voters. A bunch of us dinosaurs are actually on the correct side of issues. Heck, Bernie is showing the whippersnappers that problems and solutions go beyond any kind of divide and conquer pigeon-holing including ageism.
I do like the fact that Bernie is doing better in the skewed polls. I think his recent bump is from down 25-30 nationally to around 14-16%. Hillary had a good stretch with debate #1 and Benghazi. But that momentum has shifted and I don't think it's any stretch of the imagination to assume Bernie is clobbering Hillary in the voting tendencies missed by obsolete polling methods.
If I had to give a prediction based on recent fake polls, I think Bernie wins Iowa by five to ten points and NH possibly by 20+ percentage points. I will make one further prediction that at that point many Hillary supporters' heads will literally explode or such people will be vulnerable to spontaneous combustion.
You are too hard on yourself. We can't fix exact karma violations or it is very rare. That's why it's said tell the people you love how you feel while they are still alive. All one can do most of the time is pay it forward. The idea that we are doomed to be scumbags based on past experience is fallacious. I have the feeling it is one of the roots of pathological behaviour. Someone who cannot admit their mistakes is doomed. Harry Enten is doomed. And he should really shave off that raccoon tail growing out of his face. Grow up, Harry Enten! What a self-centered, full of it lost soul. He should be harder on himself, while you should be nicer to the inner donkeytale. Imho. I'm done. I still have that Atlantic article to read for my morning chores.
With Thomas I'm going by the stats only. I did peruse yesterday and noticed he's come up lately in both 2 point FG% and FT % where he is now at a nice 90%. I'm not saying he's a poor shooter just that when you look at percentages for the top shelf guards he's lower from 2 and much lower from 3. And I'm not even talking about Curry who exists on another planet. More like Paul, Butler, Wade, guys like that.
Frankly, I seldom if ever get to watch Boston or any NBA games as I don't get cable TV and I admit stats aren't the only indicator. Game situations and clutch shooting are huge too and I don't have enough data there.
Boston looks like a top ten team to me. The thing about young players is that they are mostly all pretty young these days. I mean a 24 year old has been in the league 4-5 years if he was any good in college. That's the new normal. So do yu go by calendar age or NBA experience. I tend to go by the latter. Except in rare occasions, I think a player is pretty much what he is after 3-4 years tops.
I checked out Dirk who went from prep school to NBA and he got off to a rocky start his first (strike shortened) year but his final 8-10 games of that season it became clear he was going places and by year 2 he was over the hump. In year 3 he emerged a superstar. That seems about average ascent for a transcendent player.
I believe you are a better, more relaxed and well=rounded writer and thinker these days.
I think you have chosen to be less prolific and less investigative which is what I meant. Your narrowly focused impact on certain paid fakes and attendant controversies have receded by choice, but not your talent.
I didn't think The Atlantic article was that great. It seemed to leave me with the question tell us something we don't know. Yet, that could be more of a reflection that those are not new topics to me. You certainly have been focused in on political trends that span many decades. You scooped that angle. You were timely with the entry on Greece.
My eyesight got bad. A lot of what I did was pure research skills. Finding Lori Grace, to me, was the icing on the cupcake scoop. I could finally see the narrative. And reading Mark Singer.
It's esoteric, but yes, we made a little bit of history even if it remains a hidden story except to garbage internet outlets.
I would put us in the genre of Dave Weintraub or Francis Holland.
It is definitely by choice. If it were years ago, I'd be all over Democratic Underground going through recent archives and try to understand what's been going on.
I did do that for Obama-Hillary. I wasn't completely blind to there being an election. But I was more attracted to esoteric and mysterious atmospheres. I hate to repeat myself. I wanted Howard Dean, then Edwards, then I stopped caring whether Hillary or Obama won. I had no clue. I only just learned this year how creepy Hillary actually is. For this apathetic leftier than thou, Hillary-Obama was a win-win. Either the first Black or woman president.
This internet addict noticed things like PUMA's and Larry Johnson and other various internet fakes.
Yes, it wouldn't be for a lack of knowing how to do it. I did so with those obvious informants doing youtube way out there tinfoil.
There have also been some non-paid true freaks out there. That woman who stalked Spielberg. The internet is fascinating.
That Cannon guy. I remember him being suspicious and extremely weird, similar to the Osborne role, Rauhauser's buddy.
It's weird. It makes one wonder who these people really are.
I bet the wingnuts are disappointed I never discuss that shite no more. You called it. It got boring. I think it's still going on. How's Grouchie doing? Paid fake or useful idiot?
Thomas can be ridiculously streaky, same as Bradley. And Olynyk. You have to find a way for these guys to relax and be able to elegantly hoist them into the air. I was good at shooting. It's fun. Nothing matched the feeling of knowing you could jump in the air and swish them. You have to get so good or you are taunting the basketball gods. Knoblauch ended up like that in baseball. Or Tiger. What's it called, the giddy-ups?
I don't forget John Kerry just standing there while the student gets tased despite nicely asking bro not to do that. Don't tase me, bro. Or there was a UMASS protest perhaps against Andrew Card? Does that sound familiar? It was on Youtube. That's when I first noticed Youtube was becoming a zeitgeist player.
Players have to be scouted on an individual basis. Bird was an all-star already as a rookie. The brain keeps developing until age 22. Bodies are shaped.
There does seem to be ages where the body starts to ruin the player. It's ironic because that's their true prime, from 32-36, their brain prime.
There are exceptions to the rule. Dirk's recent run is impressive. Duncan seems done as greatness. Pierce seems cooked. The drama this year seems to be in the West.
In theory, you will get prime years from age 28-32.
You'd have to make a list of all the transcendent players. Perhaps it is down to LeBron and Curry. Maybe Durant if he is healthy. He'll get old too. LeBron is approaching the calcification stage. I would suggest Wade is cooked.
Barrett Brown made an entry on DKos with most of it copy and paste of grouch.
There's transcripts on cryptome of Fatterico and Brown shooting the shite.
SWATs, etc..
Nothing to see, move along?
You have to figure in Isaiah's free throw shooting. They have a stat now called eFG%.
Ok, now you have me perusing stats and I admit I may be underrating him a bit. He's had two really good games lately, one for 38 and another for 29 back to back in losses. If he gains a bit more consistency he could be considered one of the top guards.
Brown seems like a fine young man. I hope he does well in the future and kinda think he will. Prison sucks under any circumstances but he seems to be holding up well and manfully.
Leonard is transcendent. I think a case can be made for Draymond Green. Wade of course. Proven transcendence means carrying your team to a title. Wade carried Shaq to the title over Dallas back in 06. That was a truly dominating performance. And these guys all did it young. I disagree slightly with the 28-32 thesis. I'm going to say that more like 25-30. Athletes in all sports are excelling at younger ages and basketball no different.
Durant doesn't belong yet. His teams have underachieved given the talent levels, same with Paul, Westbrook, and Conley.
Off the grid no longer means what it used to mean. It means not on the internet. Maybe you are watching t.v.. That is now off the grid.
Those guys are only as good as the opponent lacks for defense in that player's position. I think someday you might find yourself perusing Durant's stats and wondering if you cut him a bad break. Maybe it was the coach's fault. Westbrook seems like a ball hog. Perk was damaged goods by the time Oklahoma got him, etc..
Harden is the ultimate example, and Carmelo, of so-called greatness which is overrated. On the flip side, sometimes you can't blame a player for being on a lot of loser teams. Remember O.J.? He wasn't transcendence? He'd average 200 yards every game. Was he ever in a playoff game? Weren't those teams always 2-12?
KG on Minnesota? No one can blame him for that mess.
The league was wrong to penalise McHale and the TWolves as much as they did. For Bird, Red drafted him an extra year before he was coming out of college. They had to get rid of that loophole.
Red got Ainge who was playing baseball.
He traded #1 Joe Barry Carroll for McHale and Robert Parish. That was a huge front court. I wonder how they would do in today's game. I don't wonder. They'd go 78-4. Perhaps 82-0.
Maybe it's because of the kids coming out too soon and diluting the product, but I think the NBA has gotten worse for the science of it. No one thinks the Celtics are that good in terms of talent in relation to most other teams, but they play the game right. Brad Stevens has been the exception to the rule that college coaches can't get it done in the NBA. Or most of them.
McLuhan was a regular guy. All you have to do is watch him on youtube. Erich Fromm was a regular guy. Watch him in the Mike Wallace interview. Maybe I should get back to doing jigsaw puzzles. I want to be a hybrid of Henri Matisse and Marshall McLuhan for blogging. I am hopeful there is spiritual Lenny Bruce DNA acting as the glue.
I think Bernie will win 78% of the vote in NH. It will be a rout of epic proportions.
What's going on here?
https://twitter.com/Truman_Town/status/680200196693688320
DataGate was dirty Clinton politics. That's why she went silent. The strawman argument is that she owed Bernie one for the "damned emails" support.
Maybe there were PaulBots. Maybe that was the first electoral Bot system. Then HillaryBots versus ObamaBots. BernBots are actually not real bots. They are sincere people. They don't have to spend money on persona management to create a Hillary sock puppet army. Anal retentive people go blah, blah tinfoil. But it's conspiracy fact.
I am almost ready to guarantee Bernie is the next president.
Yes, there are any number of factors, including luck and timing, which is how Dirk got his one title.
But without that title Durant doesn't meet my definition of transcendence. Same with Stevens. He wins a title then he proves college coaches can make it in the NBA. And yes, that title will more depend on Ainge bringing in some title-winning talent.
Actually, Larry Brown is the exception that proves the rule. He was a college coach who won a title. Detroit I believe.
The OKC team was stacked. Harden was the 6th man. They also had Sefolosha. You are correct about Perkins, he did nothing for that team and frankly not much for the Celtics either. Clogged the lane and grabbed some boards on another stacked team. He was lucky to be in right place at right time.
OKC got buzzsawed one year by SA when they were favourites Spurs the best team in the NBA since the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. They got trounced in the finals by Miami one year. Then once again upset by that darned Dallas team that inexplicably went all the way and got a ring for Kidd and Dirk. I don't buy coaches getting blamed. NBA is a player's league and OKC had the talent and several chances but just never got it done. On the floor.
Some people think Westbrook is actually a better all around player and floor leader than Durant. Both seem to have health issues in the last several years and they supposedly resent each other too.
The Walton Portland team would fit today's game better than that old Celtics team. Walton would be dynamic in the Golden State lineup. A 7 foot small forward/power forward/center who could do it all.
Parish was an odd one, a high post 7 footer with a nice fade away 15 foot midrange shot. McHale replaced Cornbread and brought the needed inside presence. I always felt Parish was a good solid dependable presence on a great team.
The other thing that damages the quality of the quality of the NBA game today is the same as all major sports: Over expansion. Too many teams diluting the talent. But what ya gonna do? It is what it is.
Bernie has a shot. A great shot. He needs to produce. Fair or not it's all on him, just like its on Durant. Still the same ol story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die.
Oklahoma is way more conservative than Texas. Farming, ranching, rural states all tend to very conservative. The inbred outlook of frontier self-reliance. The land was stolen from natives who were extremely fierce and war-like in both Texas and Oklahoma. No easy wins out here.
In Mass the duped Injuns actually helped the looser pilgrims survive. That didn't happen in these parts.
Texas will be a challenge for Bernie. There are large pockets of Demotardic voters here. Austin is as liberal as Boston. San Antonio and Houston are generally always governed by Demotards. South Texas. You have a very high Hispanic content that favoured Hillary in 2008 like 2-1 in the primaries over Obama, then Favoured Obama 2-1 over the GOP candidates in 2008 and 2012.
Nothing fundamentally has changed for Bernie. He needs to win a lot of Hispanic and black votes. Most Hispanics and black believe he will be ground down by the same obstruction that stopped Obama. Yet somehow Hillary like Bill before her will triangulate her way into providing some tangible benefits for the minourity community. It's the old pragmatism vs idealism conundrum. Comfrotable white liberals can afford ideals. Unemployed imprisoned poverty stricken minourities need help now. Bill helped them but at a price. He brought jobs jobs jobs but he also brought more cops and more prisons. Some minority groups were pleased to see crime reductions in their communities.
Don't forget that element of the equation. There is also a minourity "silent majority" who know the facts behind the headlines: street blacks kill far more street blacks than cops do.
Very complicated issue.
Paulbots originated in Austin.
Alex Jones is also from Austin. I first of him by fiddling around the AM dial while driving through town. He was mainly an internet radio guy in most places but he made the commercial dial here.
There is a strain of libertarianism in Texas that doesn't get along or mix well with the religious/social/brain dead conservatives that dominate, many of whom are mad as hell and not going to take anything but a Trump presidency.
It is actually more interesting to see how well The Donald does here versus home state boy Cruze in the GOP race.
Russell and Havlicek also would reule in today's NBA.
For my money Russell followed by Walton are the two best centers ever and it's not even close versus the Wilts and the Jabbars. The proof is in the head competition. Russell dominated Wilt and Walton dominated Jabbar. Bill was far too quick and athletic for Jabbar, who was a plodder by comparison.
Not as sure about Magic and Bird. Of course they would still be great players but were probably better suited to their own eras.
Russell, Walton and Havlicek would fit the current style better. And of course, Jordan would fit well today too.
Yes, I would put Shaq up there too ahead of both Wilt and Jabbar. His quick first step and inside athleticism was amazing. Plus he could easily out muscle both Wilt and Jabbar especially who both spent like half their career whining to the officials.
That's todaze Christmas bonus contrarian viewpoints.
I'm done.
I will say the exception that proves the reule that NBA is a players league is Popovich. He has won titles and remained competitive for so many years you have to give him immense credit, especially on the defensive end.
But he's had Duncan the whole time too.
GS v CLE
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2602254-who-would-win-a-7-game-cavaliers-warriors-series-right-now#
I could easily say two words and end this quickly. Ted. Williams.
If he wasn't transcendence, no one ever was.
Winning a title can't be a factor in defining someone as transcendent in team sports. It's simply not fair.
Charles Barkley ties together all topics. From hard luck transcendent athletes to this right wing perspective on Black on Black violence which has excessive influence.
I won't link to it, but at your Bleacher Report link there was another one with Barkley claiming Golden State would have gotten their arses kicked twenty-five years ago.
I suppose GS could go back in time and make a mockery of the Bird Celtics in a Back to the Future way. Michael J. Fox ended up in the 50's and started playing like Steveie Ray Vaughn mixed with Hendrix. He blew away the audience.
Didn't you doubt GS could beat the Cavs once they made it to the Finals. It was you or another friend. The Cavs were injury depleted. It looks like we'll get another look at those two in this years' Finals. The league probably wants that to happen. They are all in with protecting their stars. Jordan rules.
I remember Larry Brown was the poster child for coaches sucking out the energy of an NBA team. I guess all that is forgotten because of the Pistons' heroic upset with a regular guy roster.
Rubio to me looks like a much more serious threat to Hillary or Bernie than Cruz. For one, Ted Cruz looks too much like Grandpa Munster. While looks/health is not the absolute factor, Rubio is much more presentable. He also seems to be a regular guy on some issues. Or at least on one. He might have sounded progressive on BLM. I am not sure. There was something I read that made him look not so dangerous as the typical wingnut.
Black on Black violence is the product of four hundred or wtf years of white supremacy.
People are people, period.
Bernie is correct that if you put capital into humanity, that violence will recede.
You are also correct that he can't focus on economics completely when making his case for the Black vote. Most people regardless of colour simply do not understand. Or maybe they do, but because of history, they think that will only apply to poor whites.
Boston seems to have escaped that sort of violence. I do not know about Roxbury, but Mattapan looks good. Those are the two urban Black folk centers in Beantown.
Baltimore is a mess. They made a show about it called The Wire. If that police/political structure isn't the root for Black on Black violence in that city, then I will never understand any of it.
And I can't think of any better reason to tell Martin O'Malley to stfu than that he was the fricken mayor/governor.
I think he best drop out after Iowa/NH. I am tired of him being a distraction.
Bernie has been kicking arse the last month. I think he is doing much better with both the Black and Hispanic demographics. It's pitiful that so much emphasis is placed on South Carolina, as if the Black people of that state represent all Blacks.
I don't think Bernie has to win all those votes the way Obama was dependent on them.
If someone wants to win the internet by predicting Hillary/Bernie, all they have to do is start with the skewed polls, then guesstimate how many Snowden and Millennial voters are not being included. So if Hillary is now ahead by 15% in fake national polls, perhaps it is actually the 50-50 situation you have proffered.
If so, all Bern has to do is show that the polls have been wrong by winning actual primaries. Then the narrative swings back to our advantage, just like when an earlier national poll had Hillary with only a seven point lead. That was right before she had her best month in a superficial way, looking "presidential" at the hearing and thanking Bernie for the email comment.
Then we look prescient and numbnut media looks idiotic and sounding like Lombardi with a what the heck just happened here, guys? Why did the polls fail us? Oh, the zeitgeist sniffers were correct?
Baseball is a 25 man roster. Football is 45 man roster. Dan Marino also never won a ring.
Basketball is a 12 man roster and with the exception of GS (again) you are talking an 8 man rotation maybe 9.
So, yeah, I will stick to my argument that transcendence in basketball requires a title while conceding you made a brilliant blog parry with your Teddy Ballgame analogy. Maybe we are both right. Or both wong. Or sometimes wight and sometimes wong.
I just read somewhere that Hillary actually pantsed Bernie in the last debate on Libya. He tried to criticize her, which is valid of course as she led the charge, but she easily parried his thrust by playing an unknown factoid that Bernie actually co-sponsored a bill (with alleged felon Menendez no less) calling for the removal of Qadaffy. So she made him look like a hypocrite and a foreign policy non-entity. I think it was from another story from the same link where Lizzie Whatsherface made fun of the Brooklyn hipster BernBots.
See, I want Bernie to win for real. I'm already secure enough in my {and your}prescienceness that I don't feel the need to play fantasy foosball politics turning it into a game. In fact that is exactly Bernie's own critique of the media.
Of course, it is all about winning Iowa and NH. As we have been saying since at least July. I'm not too worried about what the polls say because we know that primary polls are meaningless. However, I also don't believe the sheeple (except for political junkies who are not that many in number to matter) really care about the polls or the election itself either at this stage so stating polls are the cause of voters taking one side or another I believe is fallacy, like blaming the media when you (not you personally) loose. Good point but guess what. You lost, looser. Maybe instead of whining about the polls and the media you should have found a way to, y'know, win.
Cruz I mentioned only in the context of Texas primary versus Trump. I agree he looks terrible. Trump also looks more terrible and fat to boot.
Rubio is the betting favourite for the GOP nom which is interesting. He is being criticized for not running a retail campaign kissing babies and so forth that is supposedly required in Iowa and NH. Others say he will come into his own in the more moderate big states of the NE and Southeast that he will upend the dynamic of not needing to win an early primary.
One of Enten's few good points is how important the moderate states are in nominating the GOP candidates and how most candidates overlook this in their rush to the insane nut fringes. Rubio is probably trying to play to both and it may work out for him.
I agree he is telegenic and a very good debater although most of his schtick is as fake, reprehensible and duplicitous as anything Hilary says. He is sort of slimy like a GOP version of the Bill and Hill Foundation.
Don't forget too that Ted played in an era where there were no playoffs unless you had a tie for first which was rare. Teams had to win the League title over 154 or they were done. Hard to cover up team weaknesses in baseball. In basketball, what 60% of the teams qualify for the playoffs?
And NYY pretty much won every year during his career as a result of the Ruth curse.
Although it must also be stated the one year the Sox made the series he did squat and his team lost to St. Louis in 7. He batted .200 no HR and RBI and struck out 5 time....and although that is a very small sample size, clutch hitting = transcendence in the post season. (SEE Jackson, Reggie and Clemente, Roberto for details)
Or how about Gibson, Kirk?
One pinch hit at bat in the 1988 series was all it took.
I bet Ted would have traded his .406 year for that one swing of Gibsons and the 4 games sweep that followed.
Well, maybe not. That .406 will never be challenged at least in our lifetimes.
Herstorical perspective on .406:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/sports/baseball/ted-williamss-406-average-is-more-than-a-number.html?_r=0
That's true. Basketball and then hockey (five players plus the goalie) are much more dependent on star power than teams having to fill out a million positions.
As a homer, I may not have much to add. Pierce was greatness. I witnessed it. If we didn't get not only KG and Ray, but the whole rotation cooked up by Ainge, those three guys would have ended up with no champion ring.
KG was obviously more transcendent than Pierce, though probably not for their one year together when they reached the top.
Williams apparently had one chance and blew it. Pierce won the MVP if I'm not mistaken.
I would call Shaq transcendence even if like you said Wade carried him. I think Shaq carried Kobe in L.A.. Shaq was greatness to the last drop of his career. He was greatness and the C's almost stole a second Pierce era title.
I still hold firm though and believe even in basketball, a transcendent player doesn't have to win it all to have that descriptor.
Some win titles who don't deserve it. Doc Rivers used to be very overrated. Only a few of us would point out that he was a moron. Now lots of people come out of the woodwork with oh yeah, he's awful.
John Stockton and Karl Malone? They seemed fairly transcendent. Wilt Chamberlain was transcendent because he won one championship sandwiched in between eleven Bill Russell titles?
A lot of this is debatable.
I did notice that Bernie vote accusation, but I do not trust Liz Crocker.
Hillary pissed off Latinos, while Bernie continues to hit hard at the Black vote with leftier than thou compassion.
I am missing my fastball today. The coffee is not kicking in like it usually does. I may need to watch more Shemp.
There will be someone who breaks the .400 barrier. George Brett came close. It's the triple crown that might never be duplicated.
My reasoning is it's a lot easier to get any kind of hit than to try to crush it each time.
I meant Pierce as MVP of the Finals, not for the year.
True story: I saw the game from early in his career when Pierce went nuts on the Lakers. Shaq was interviewed after the game and called him the truth. That's how he got the nickname. As a homer, I'm not sure if that is common knowledge.
And I watched him calcify starting at the age of 32.
I would say that individual player trajectory does not have a definite starting point, especially now with next to no one going the full four years and it seems for only one year, that nearly every player falls off the cliff at around age 32. Then they either adapt or it gets ugly.
The new immigrant story is emerging. A couple hundred people might be getting Gestapo styled eviction from the country. Bernie and O'Malley have come out against it. Hillary in the past has apparently supported this sort of thing.
I've been a fan of Shaq ever since. It was refreshing to hear an opponent and of his stature give a young player his due. Dirk was #9. Pierce at #10. I don't remember who was picked ahead of them. Vince Carter?
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/how-paul-pierce-became-the-truth/
The 1998 draft. How are Pierce and Dirk not the two best and by a country mile?
http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_draft_history/1998.html
1. LA Clippers Michael Olowokandi Pacific
2. Vancouver Mike Bibby Arizona
3. Denver Raef LaFrentz Kansas
4. Toronto (a) Antawn Jamison North Carolina
5. Golden State (a) Vince Carter North Carolina
6. Dallas (b) Robert Traylor Michigan
7. Sacramento Jason Williams Florida
8. Philadelphia Larry Hughes Saint Louis
9. Milwaukee (b) Dirk Nowitzki DJK Wurzburg (Germany)
10. Boston Paul Pierce Kansas
Olowokandi and LaFrentz were two stiffs who played on the Celtics. i don't recall Mike Bibby was that good. Vince Carter was great in a Sugar Ray Leonard showoff manipulate the judges way. Jamison was solid but not greatness. Traylor sounds like a name that ate himself out of the league. Jason Williams. That sounds familiar but maybe not for good reasons. Was he in some scandal? Larry Hughes. Doesn't really ring a bell.
What a weird draft. If they were always like that, then no one should be trying to tank. Why alienate your fans if it's a crap shoot anyway?
The Russians came back yesterday and padded the stats very nicely.
And it turns out Bernie was set up by the DNC and Hillary.
In other words, the tinfoil spin is correct.
The Sanders campaign is taking its fight with the DNC to the next level
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/the-sanders-campaign-is-taking-their-fight-with-200738611.html
The guy Sanders fired was a plant!
Draymond Green was a second round pick. Part of the game, a major part, is team chemistry and how you fit in with the others. Since Green and Barnes (now injured and out for quite a few games) stepped in at forward slots the Warriors have been, almost literally, unbeatable. Someone said it wasn't the Bucks as much as the league schedule maker who deserves credit for their lone loss.
Yesterday I watched the second half. Another LeBron hater's feast as he chumped three free throws at the end that cost CLE any chance. And GS didn't play well, just as they didn't in last year's final and won anyway, not even really challenged. CLE hung close but seldom came within more the 3-4 points.
When a team wins against top shelf competition without playing well, what can you say?
LaFrentz played in Dallas too. He is remembered for his name only.
I don't know that tin foil was spun on the Bernie/Hillary affair as much as campaigns spun it. But politics is a very dirty business and yes, conspiracies happen. However, that doesn't mean any tin foil is ultimately correct.
Wilt won two championships, and those two were among the greatest teams of all time, so yes he easily meets my definition of transcendence. But Wilt was for many years surrounded by awesome talent both in Philly and LA and only has those two, which is why I rate him below Shaq. And yes, of course Shaq is transcendent, as you note especially in LA. In Miami he was great too, but I recall clearly that Wade took the team on his shoulders and beat Dallas in 2006. He was series MVP for a reason. He defined "taking it ot the hole." Wade is a very great player.
Pierce is one of those hybrid guys, lunchpail/transcendence. If you say KG was the spark of that team I'll take your word.
Wilt had this weird low post shot where he would get the ball with back to the basket and then turn and shoot a fade away bank shot. When it was on it was a thing of beauty but in the clutch he tended to miss it and you'd go, WTF is this guy, the biggest man in the league and incredibly athletic for his size, doing falling away from the basket when he shoots? And why the bank shot? Made no sense. I remember clearly when he got to LA Bill Sharman made him stop taking that shot. His game was meant to play under the basket and shooting mostly dunks and lay-ups, like Shaq. In LA they didn't run many plays for Wilt he had to get Offensive boards and put them back to score points which of course he did.
Shaq was more physical than Wilt and much quicker.
Jamison and Carter also had stints in Dallas. Both were good players.
Isn't Jason Williams that tatted up white point guard who maybe had some drug issues or something? He played a long time and was a talented passer as I recall. Pretty good player.
Bibby actually had a couple very good playoffs runs leading Sacramento. One series they were jobbed by the refs or would've taken out the mighty Kobe/Shaq Lakers in the conference finals in 6 and another year I believe competed manfully against the Spurs in a conference final. Both times as serious dogs, obviously.
"Jason Williams" may be the most common name in the history of sports, at least since the 1980s when the name "Jason" became the most popular male name in the US-of A-holes so I could be wong.
And don't feel like googling it to make sure.
I did google Bibby and this is very interesting example of tin foil theory from the Wikipod:
"In his first season with Sacramento, Bibby formed one of the league's best duos alongside Chris Webber. The two of them guided the Kings to an NBA best-record at 61–21, and a Pacific division title over the Los Angeles Lakers, who at the time were the two-time defending NBA Champions. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, they easily defeated the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz, setting up a Western Conference Finals match-up against Lakers.[6] The 2002 Western Conference Final between the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers was one of the most memorable in league history. The popular (though small-market) Kings led the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers three games to two heading into Game 6 at Staples Center, a game which would prove to be the most infamous of the series. The game, which the Lakers won by four, featured several disputable calls, including a late-game no-call foul on Bibby—after he was bleeding from being elbowed in the nose by Kobe Bryant. This game was the epitome of the major issue in the series. Both teams complained about the officiating at different points in the series (the Kings in Game 6 and the Lakers in Games 2 and 5).
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy filed in court papers in 2008 said that Game 6 was fixed by the NBA. NBA Commissioner David Stern denied Donaghy's allegations. Lawrence Pedowitz, who led a review of the league's officiating following the outbreak of the scandal, concluded that while Game 6 was poorly officiated, no concrete evidence existed of it having been fixed.[7][8] The Lakers won the series in game 7, and would go on to win their third NBA championship in a row.
Bibby's performance during the series, perhaps most memorably his Game 5 game winner,[9] earned him a reputation as a clutch performer, and as a reward, he was granted a 7-year, $80.5 million contract.[10]"
I read your link and didn't see where they tied the fired guy to Hillary's campaign.
So, yours is the tin foil which you reference....and very plausible too. lol. Great work. Sounds like a future masterpiece unless you twitter it away.
Funny, I saw my masterpiece back at the bottom of the charts. This confirms Russians, who enjoy literature perhaps a tad but more than Americanos do.
Or tin foil theory, which states that one of us is rigging the charts with anonymizers.
I will state unequivocally that is not me.
I did take the time to edit the ending.
I can (and should) tinker with these things more before I post them.
Thanks for this.
I'm not sure you did anything but a random skim of the link.
The company which has direct links to the DNC and Hillary was the plant's references.
Maybe if you were more interested in the truth than some silly gotcha game, you wouldn't now be running interference. Obviously we now know you are a regular guy, but sometimes you might as well be David Brock of the Astroturf the Truthiness Record Super PAC.
In a social media world which mocks everything messy as tinfoil, there is never any positive social change, only fake social change.
That's without even linking yet again to the weird Snowden doc which speaks of herding, conspiracy stories, and using cyber tricks, online covert action, and in general, illegal psyops conducted on American people.
I thank you for this.
I guess Bibby and Vince Carter were decent picks then for that year, but that those two were still not anywhere near the talent of Pierce and Dirk.
KG and Pierce were the two stars from 2008. Ray Allen, Rondo, and especially Perk were in the tier below them with not much separation from the rest of the rotation. There was one guy in particular who might have meant more to that team that Ray. I can't remember his name and am forced to google.
I found it. His name is James Posey. Without him, that team might not have won anything. Eddie House maybe too. And Perk and Rondo. P.J. Brown too. Leon Powe was also a factor.
Ray was close to Paul and KG in terms of reaching individual career glory, but the true basketball fan knows the Celtics MVP was between KG and Pierce. They were both crucial to the team winning it all.
KG put them over the hump for a team identity. Perk back then worked very well for KG. The Texan Growler (a nickname I just invented) neutralised the freakish big centers enabling KG to be an all-purpose defender. No man is an island. Another reason the C's never won again with that roster is they never replaced the Perk role. When they did briefly with Shaq, it became who is Perk? It became Perk huh wut?
When KG was forced to do everything, he was not the same player. He also couldn't play every minute, so having a great bench including P.J., Powe, Eddie House, and Posey was what made the 2008 Celtics arguably the best team of the last twenty to thirty years, better than any Jordan teams. In the annals of the greatness which is the Boston Celtics, to pick their best teams, you would include one or two with Bill Russell, the 80's version with Bill Walton, and the KG/Pierce team.
Pierce was not only an outstanding player on offense, he turned himself into a two-way player. KG was two way also. Ray was for offense. Perk was for defense. Rondo was a two-way player, but we both know he was never one to rack up a lot of points, just assists.
If the Sacramento-L.A. series wasn't rigeed, then nothing is. I recall one of the games where Heinsohn flipped out turned out to be a game Donaghy included as being manipulated by refs.
No one believed Canseco at first. Donaghy doesn't get much respect. Few believe him because he was probably trying to save himself from prison.
That hit by Kobe on Bibby is famous. There was another one I think also including Kobe where he smacked Nash. I don't know. Sometimes refs make mistakes. Sometimes they are unduly influenced by the fans. There was one play I tweeted from a LeBron versus Celtics playoff game. He took seven steps, no one touched him, and he still ended up at the free throw line.
You can see Pierce motioning for the travel call. And you can also see Bradley with a shocked wow just wow look walking past LeBron about to take free throws he didn't deserve. If that wasn't part and parcel of NBA corruption, then there is none and everyone whining is wrapped in tinfoil.
I did think of tweeting that link or writing it up as a new entry, but it was around 3 a.m.. I figured it made more sense to post it here.
Maybe after the New Year, I will feel inspired to blog. It is still the holidays.
I think the tide has turned in Bernie's favour.
We're down to five weeks to go.
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