Indictment Weekend Trash Talk
While we spend the weekend wondering and theorizing what Bob Mueller has in the candy store for us on Monday, it is time for some Trash Talk. Who will it be? Are there more than one? What are the “charges”? Exciting times.
Okay, on to the games. In the student athlete portion of the weekend, Wisconsin should roll Illinois, and look out for the Badgers down the road. Same for Georgia against the suddenly average Florida Gators (sorry Jim). The Bulldogs are the only real threat to Alabama at this point, and they may be a real threat. Even with a close loss to Bama in the SEC title game, Georgia might be worthy of a final four bid, they have been that good so far.
NC State and Notre Dame is also another make or break game. The Gamecocks Wolfpack are on a roll behind QB Ryan Finley, has a hard hitting defense and fantastic ball security on offense. If this was a home game for NC State I would take them for the upset; but it is in South Bend, so I’ll take the Domers. Potentially excellent game though. The real cheese this weekend, however, is second ranked Penn State versus 6th ranked Ohio State in Columbus. PSU has been seriously lights out this year. So too has been OSU seemingly forever QB JT Barrett. This game is totally for a spot in the B1G Championship and a likely playoff berth. Win you have a glide path, lose, and you are likely out. No clue on this one, it is a pick em. On overall talent, slight edge to the Nittany Lions, but the Bucks are home in the Horseshoe.
In the pros, Miami got absolutely smoked by the Ravens Thursday night. Ouch, did not see that coming. Vikings should have no issue with the Brownies, nor Eagles with the hapless Niners. Bears are better than anybody expected, but they don’t have nearly enough offense with young Mitch Trubisky to keep up with Drew Brees and the Saints in Nawlins. I don’t know why, but the Bolts are really playing better, and have the kind of front line pass rush that can drive Tom Brady crazy. I’ll still take the Pats, but could be interesting! Honorable mention to Texans at Seattle, Dallas against a capable, but thin in depth, Skins, and Steelers at Lions. The last one is a critical game, at home, for the Kittehs, they need a win. The Monday Night game of Denver at KC tow weeks ago would have looked fantastic, but the Broncos offense is dead in the water. I’ll take the Chefs.
Baseball is in full bloom. All three WS games have been excellent to date, but game two was one of the best ever. Wow. Game four tonight in Houston is critical. The Dodgers do not want to go down by a 3-1margin with the prospect of Justin Verlander looming down the road.
This year started out decent in Formula One, but has turned truly shitty and boring. Hamilton basically just needs to finish 5th or better to cling the drivers’ crown, and his Mercedes team has already clinched the constructors’ title. Blergh. But, this weekend is the Mexican Grand Prix from the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez. It is maybe one of the finest circuits on the Circus for TV viewing, and the Grandstand Corner is really something. Worth a watch even in a tepid end of the season stretch.
Gamecocks are South Carolina, NC State are the wolfpack NC are the tarheels.
Isn’t tonight game 4 of the World Series, not 3?
Yes, thank you and JR above. Was working too fast, and on multiple things when writing this post.
Now, more trash talk, less copy editing!
Charges: Money laundering and tax evasion.
I think somewhere in the bowels they have tapes.
I am also predicting that Don the Con may try to fire Mueller, his only recourse.
Rest assured that Chief of Staff John Kelly will come to the president’s defense when word of indictment(s) finally comes out. The first of many, perhaps. I wonder if he’ll call Bob Mueller an empty barrel and decry our over-supply of uppity German immigrants and their progeny.
The immigrant-shy Boston Irish John Kelly seems to have forgotten the history of his fellow countrymen, when potato famine-era Irish emigrated to the world and Americans responded, in part, with signs that read, “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.” (A common enough sentiment in the 19th century and later. Signs in parks in the international settlement in Shanghai would read: “No Chinese or Dogs Allowed.”)
These charges are like the Oscars — what you want to happen is different from what probably will happen. On the want list: indicting everyone from Trump on down, for conspiracy, bribery, treason, money-laundering, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and conspiring with a hostile foreign power to disrupt a U.S. election and commit related crimes. On the probable list for this round: Manafort and Flynn for not registering as foreign agents, Manafort for money-laundering and tax evasion, Flynn, tax evasion and possibly for conspiring to kidnap the Turkish cleric Turkey wants extradited. That doesn’t mean Mueller won’t surprise us with others and it doesn’t mean there aren’t many more indictments coming later. And I agree with Bay State Librul — Drumpf will try to fire Mueller. It’s possible Dana Boente resigned because Drumpf offered him Rosenstein’s job if he’d agree to sack Mueller.
I’m not sanguine about getting Mueller into the courtroom for this first round of indictments (plural more to come before Thanksgiving) but if he does survive I’m confident that by the 2018 elections he will be hip deep in making obstruction, RICO, money laundering and maybe even treason cases. If this comes to pass, I would bet that the Mercer and Trump operations will be hit with RICO indictments and Breitbart will go down with him. The Republican Party could (and should) be named as unindicted coconspirators. But this all depends on Mueller surviving this year and the Democrats not screwin’ the pooch in 2018.
Giving short shrift to Pennsylvania football is never a good idea. This year, three of the class of their respective leagues all hail from the Keystone State. The Iggles are awesome, making their choice of Wentz from No-Name NoDak look better by the second. Not that it’s hard, but they’re also making the Browns’ draft team, who passed on Wentz in favor of trading that pick (2016 #2 overall) to the Iggles, look even worse. That was just a year or two after listening to the homeless guy who lives outside Browns HQ and spending a high draft pick on Young Mr. Football, now a civilian.
My Stillers are superb. They have had more than a couple rough spots to smooth out, but they are getting the winning done. Recall, the Chefs looked unbeatable, and were unbeaten. before the Killer B’s – Big Ben, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown – came to town and showed Andy Reid he should spend less time at the barbeque joint and more on coaching. Last week, only seconds into the game, Vontase Burfict showed the world his favorie cereal is Kix. He should have been tossed for that, but lame-ass refs let the character sewer residing under the Bungles banner roll on toward the sea. As it was, my current fave Pittsburgh Dad said it well: “Marvin Lewis is from Pittsburgh, yinz know. Back in the 90s, we made a deal with uh-hi-uh: we’ll give you Marvin Lewis and we’ll take the Division.”
So let it be written, so let it be done.
This week the Black and Gold will be going under the dome with EW’s Kittehs. Tough to call. A lot will depend on how much of the Stiller D shows up. They have the look of a team jelling into a Champion, and their D is no small part of it. As Pgh Dad said while watching last week’s game: “we sacked Andy Dalton so hard we broke Carson Palmer’s arm”. I think Matty Stafford will have similar nightmares, including the recently-unleashed James Silverback Harrison coming from his left.
On O, more rough spots being sanded away. This week, Coach Tomlin had enough of Martavis’ Bryant blaming his girlfriend for the “he wants to be traded” social media posts and took a page from Cheatin’ Bill’s book. He demoted Bryant, one of the better deep threats in the league, to the scout team. And inactivated him for the game this week. I dunno whether the Jamie Collins/Chandler Jones examples didn’t make it through Bryant’s hazy mind, but if he wants to get the ball thrown to him, he needs to do two things: (a) catch the damned ball when it is thrown to him and (b) STFU. The Stillers are not going to cut him, nor trade him, nor waive him. They do not want to repeat the Blount saga, where Cheatin’ Bill picked him up and he went from clubhouse cancer to league leader in rushing TDs and Super Bowl champion.
Which brings me to the other team: Penn State. Please greet The Return of Linebacker U. As I sit here writing this, there’s about 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter and PSU leads OSU 14-3. I missed the first TD, which came in the first minute of the game (I’d been working in my garden), but the second came off good linebacker play causing and recovering an OSU fumble, followed by the effective PSU offense banging it in. As the TV guys said, Penn State’s defense came out with all guns blazing. And boy were they effective. OSU just came up short on a 4th down, thanks to some great open-field tackling, to end the 1st.
Which leads me to point out something: Penn State is gang-tackling. Effectively. Something every great defense does. And, as EW will tell you, defense wins championships.
Speaking of which, the Patsies have lost Dont’a Hightower for the season to a torn pectoral muscle. He was one of the last guys on that D whose name you might know. This year is turning into a very bad one for the Pats. Biebs is minus his favorite receiver. Hogan, Gronk, Amendola & Co. are not going to make it all better. And their D’s impression of a sieve is even better than last year’s. Sorry, EW. TB12 will be sitting home with Giselle come the first weekend in February.
Watching the PSU-OSU game, another TD, this one on a 36 yard run. I know that somewhere, Joe Paterno is smiling.
The Lions actually have a team that could beat the Steelers. If they were all there and in perfect shape. They are not, including Stafford. Not gonna write them off, but wouldn’t bet a penny on them.
Pats are fine. They have David Harris to plug in for Hightower. As young and good as Hightower? Nope, but a very good substitute if he only has to play half a season. Plus Nill Bel defenses always gel down the stretch.
Too bad a boat load of Dems are unlikely to be contestants.
30 minutes ago I had a bit of hope the Gators and/or Buckeyes might help Badgers into BCS hunt – for a week. It’s hard for me to root for FL and OSU and on the same day. I will need a long shower.
Wisconsin may just have to try to punch their ticket against PSU in the conference championship. But PSU looks scary and a hell of a lot better than Wisconsin.
Pete
PS
Dolphins? ‘Tis but a flesh wound.
https://youtu.be/zKhEw7nD9C4
mueller indicts dodgers.
offers plea bargin.
I have not seen a single down of a Notre Dame game this season. It’s starting to hurt.
Uh oh, looks like TCU got exposed again.
Jesus, Penn State is gonna lose this game. Wow.
JT Barrett in the 4th Quarter today:
13 for 13, 170 yards and 3 TD’s
Wow. Just wow.
The Badgers are very grateful to OSU and Iowa State. Possibly 4 or even 3. A case could be made to keep PSU in top 4 and OSU jumps over Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has a lot of game play elevatin’ to do.
Think that exactly right. In fairness, if Wisconsin wins out though, they are in.
Is it me, or have UGA managed to get to 8-0 relatively quietly (outside of Athens and Georgia, that is)? Lots of attention on Bama, pretty soggy opposition in the SEC East so far this year, and maybe they’ll lose two or three on the run-in, but for now they can enjoy the best start they’ve had in years.
Welp, my Hilltoppers got it handed to them by the Lane Kiffin’s (FAU) this PM, losing 28 – 42. TN’s Butch Jones hot seat could be sizzling if the Vols go down to the Wildcats tonight, playing here in Lex. ‘Cats are up 7 – 6 in the 1st as I type.
Oh, bmaz. Becoming suddenly average would be a huge improvement for my poor Gators. They barely scored late in the game to continue their streak of not having been shut out for 29 years. But losing to Georgia 42-7 is not sitting well with the Gator faithful.
What many of you may have missed in this very news-filled week is that in his weekly press conference, McElwain made a passing reference to death threats having come both to him and players. Nobody in UF administration had heard anything about this, and when they approached him afterward to get details to send on to law enforcement, he clammed up and refused to cooperate. The AD was clearly not pleased by this.
Early today word started circulating that UF was starting to look at buying out the remainder of McElwain’s contract, which sits at around $12.5 million. Only two hours before kickoff, the AD put out a statement that no such talks were underway. Around the end of the third quarter, word came out that UF is in fact looking to fire McElwain for cause because of the death threat dustup. Stories vary on whether a partial buyout might be involved. But look for Randy Shannon to be interim head coach by late Monday.
Oh, and I’m having fun with Trumpbots invading my Twitter feed. I’ve been trying to start a mass trend to have everyone respond to each tweet from Trump with just #Resign. Last night, I happened to be able to pop that in very early on a tweet. I’ve gotten over 140 retweets and 1900 likes. The tweet now has over 103,000 impressions and lots of replies are now coming in from the Trumpies. Quite entertaining.
As for Mueller, I hope he has a long list of indictments. I realize the smart money is on dragging them out over time, but wouldn’t it be grand if he brings down a substantial portion of the rot on Monday in one grand move?
If they think that is just cause, McElwaine will own them.
jim –
i would gloat but i’m so old and i’ve favored so many teams over the years, e. g. dodgers, packers, redskins, i have trouble getting fervent over any one team.
besides – millenia ago i was a strong, oft-dissappointed gators fan. they only got really good after i was long gone.
i’m so old i remember when ray graves was florida’s coach :) good guy.
Ray Graves….the original Gatorade spokesman (and coach who let his team help develop it).
Yeah, Graves was before my time here but is still talked about very reverently.
Sounds like departure terms for McElwain have been agreed to but not yet announced.
As for the Gatorade thing, Gainesville will be opening the new Cade Museum early next year. It is a combo children’s and “inventivity” sort of place named for Gatorade’s inventor. They’ve been working on the new building for quite some time and it will be the anchor in a new redevelopment on brownfield space around the old train depot. An event was held in the atrium of the new building this week and from the photos that came out, it’s going to be quite the place.
The Astros closer doesn’t seem to close much this postseason.
Just hoping my championing Pennsylvania football does not have the same results today, that it had yesterday.
That, and The Baseball Gods are going to toy mercilessly with the Astros, after Guriel’s stunt the other night.
Down memory lane?
After reading the NYT article today, here is my bet
Come Monday, my money is on Paul Manafort and General Flynn.
Prediction: Don the Con and his merry gang of outlaws’s defense will be: “Paul, Who? Whose Flynnie Boy?
Comment:
United States President Donald Trump claims there is no way he could forget the name of a fallen soldier because he has “one of the great memories of all time”.
The defense rests, your honor
One of the things I find interesting about the chatter on this news is that it only took six months to indict someone (apparently the average is seventeen, so that is significant if true), along with much speculation as to why so fast.
My theory is that it is simple and related to Boente’s departure from his non-USA duties: it is insurance to ensure Trump does not fire Mueller. I would not be surprised to find out that Boente had been “asked” by the Kaiser to find some reason to ditch Mueller (like Rosenstein was “asked” and later blamed for finding a plausible reason to fire Comey) and in response resigned instead. Lending some credentials to this idea is the reorganization of the DOJ for the order of succession that placed Boente after JeffBo (“recused”) and Rosenstein (probably will not take the fall again) for making the decision to fire Mueller.
If Kaiser Disgustus fires Mueller now, it would seem to me as a layperson to be as clear of an obstruction case as one could get for a government entity since it is a campaign / WH person on the hit list and the effect of such a deed would be to stop the process of justice before the trial.
That is why all of the HRC talk and the Steele dossier jabber focusing on who paid for it (BOTH sides did plus the Rudybot-infested FBI) because there needs to be something to point the attention away from this stench. Also, Mueller helped himself here by putting Tony Podesta into the investigation hopper (which he should have done, anyway) to undercut the witch hunt talk. Who paid for the dossier is not remotely as important as how much of it is true, and we are finding that Steele got many things right.
Also, remember that the national GOP used the data in FL at least (the HRC / DNC campaigns did not anywhere in the USA) from Cambridge and we still have the problem of the June meeting (where we also learned this week that Nathalia was not telling the whole truth about her connections to Putin’s Chief Prosecutor) among others. We also have the visits from Reince and note-taker Spicey (and soon Carter Page and Michael Cohen) giving Trump’s team nightmares and this rot digs deep into the GOP including Pence, McTurtle and LyinRyan. They have reason to worry and fight back as if the GOP’s life depends upon it, because it very well might.
However, as we learned from the IRS “picking on the conservatives” theme earlier (funny how it turned out that the RW was abusing 501c3 charitable organizations loopholes and not the LW), the GOP loves being martyrs so we will hear the fake news / witch hunt / nothing to see here storyline going forward. Will the corporate MSM let the GOP get away with it? I think it will if the GOP offers up a sacrifice. However they still need the Kaiser to sign off on their fetid agenda so he can get blamed for the ills that will follow and not Pence. When the Kaiser is no longer useful he will be eased out.
More chatter on Manafort, for money laundering. Given what I’ve seen posted about Paul M’s connections, I’m sure he has a well-defined paper trail where such proof is easy to find and child’s play to prosecute. Even given Mueller’s reputation about not wasting time, I do think there is a reason he’s doing this now and the flailing by the FauxBots make it clear Mueller hit a nerve and they are as scared as their masters. They’re pulling out fully debunked HRC stuff (time for decaf, Judge Jeannine) in the wasted hope that Mueller will be pressured by the corporate press to lay off the Kaiser.
Mueller has enough to ruin at least one person’s day, and he will act on Monday. The fact there were no denials on Friday made that clear. However in the words of the Wicked Witch of the West he wanted to make (all of) his targets “think about it…” before he tosses the legal hourglass.
As usual, the politics of F1 is where the real action is, with Bernie throwing some attention-seeking-bombs out his pram about the storied history of Ferrari International Assistance. He’s essentially hinting that F1, under him, was corrupt and/or unsporting;
http://www.planetf1.com/news/ecclestone-fia-helped-ferrari-in-the-past/
Yeah, I saw that. It is literally like Bernie was feeling forgotten and so blurted out something to get attention.
If the dark forces are conspiring to make Ferrari competitive, they need to work a little harder. And spend some time on the rest of the field too.
Bernie has felt left out in the last few months. Schumacher’s year at Ferrari were aided by Mosley and Balestre, I always thought so. Verstappen is driving like a man possessed these days, and mightily pissed off too. Lots of empty seats in racing all over the world these days, the racing base is shrinking with high ticket prices.
The cost is nuts these days, but especially so when you can see pretty much any race you want to on TV.
Well, that was quite a start, those first few turns were mad. That stadium really is a spectacular place.
OSU (3) jumped Wisconsin (4) as I thought they might.
I guess the AP and rest of the Division 1 football voters don’t like PSU. Dropped them 2 to 7. I’m thinking that’s overly harsh.
Maybe because…
PSU is behind OSU and MSU in the B10 East but they play in East Lansing next Sat. I’m thinking pissed off Nittany Lions. And then MSU at OSU Nov 11. More to be revealed.
Guess will have to wait for the CFP/SB poll.
Fly, Iggles, Fly.
I looked at Vettel’s altercation with Hamilton, probably reviewed it 15 times, Vettel does give a quick tug to the left to his wheel that is not necessary. À la Schumacher against villeneuve or hill when the championship was on the line. Mature driving for Stroll. Yes, Mexico is a nice track with great fans.
Thinking about going down there next year.
When the Stillers celebrate scoring as a team it contains a level of mockery directed at King Roger the Clown and his rules which, though subtle, is nonetheless pointed and direct.
An inspired musical choice, bmaz. “Send lawyers, guns, and money – the shit has hit the fan.”
Tomorrow should be an interesting day.
Seems like the Houston Texans don’t take well to being dissed by their owner. And by owner, they mean the guy who actually seems to believe he OWNS them:
My only question is whether McNair will bench damn near the entire team next week.
My only other question is whether Jerry’s Boyz in Dallas will allow the folks in Houston to show them up.
Speaking of Houston, the team formerly known as the Lastros keep coming back like a bad Halloween horror movie. Long ago, I worked at an AMC complex (only six) that was the second level, so we got all of the slasher movies.
Kershaw was due for a bad start, but the fall-off was impressive after mowing down Houston in the first three innings. Maybe what Roberts needs to do is something that Tony LaRussa did long ago with the A’s: have pitchers only go three innings to minimize the effect of fatigue and batters figuring the tendencies of the day and adjusting.
The Niners continue their quest to make history (this is the first team to get to 0-8) but do not meet Cleveland this year to settle it like men. They do have the 1-6 Gints in a couple of weeks so I guess that will have to do.
I’ll be frank: when the Kittehs got the ball back late in the 4th, down 20-15, I got a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. They had been going all Veg-o-Matic on the Stillers secondary. Doing the math, I figured Matty and friends had enough time to drive down and get the TD, and not leave enough time for Ben and the B’s to come back and score.
In other words, I was sure we’d lost.
So I turned to a different channel only to find out early this morning that somehow they’d held off Bubbles.
This Stillers fan smiles wanly, more out of relief than anything else. But we’re going into our bye week, so what injuries and coachable issues we have, can be addressed before the next game.
Warm thoughts and prayers for Bears TE Zach Miller, who suffered a dislocated knee trying to make a TD catch yesterday. According to ESPN this morning, he was rushed into vascular surgery last night to try to save his leg; the dislocation either tore, or impinged upon, a major artery to his lower leg. https://twitter.com/mortreport/status/924983042761949184
Garop to Niners for 2018 2nd round pick.
Who will back up Biebs, the Ancient One?
Was this Cheatin’ Bill ridding himself of a pesky, though quiet, malcontent?
Are the Pats running up the surrender flag on this season, too many injuries (Hogan yesterday) having sapped their chances of winning?
Discuss.