Lat word on this topic, at least for a little while, I promise.

;>)

WV can and does argue his case without bashing other leftists, or calling them “fake.” He can make his case on the merits of his own views, and avoid attacking those who differ.

He’s repeatedly shown how to do this. I wish he could “coach up” others when it comes to the how-tos. Perhaps set up a camp, one for rookies first and then vets.

Word out of Rams park is that McVay and company are really happy with Goff. They love him. All the reporting says this. They’ve sourced it well. We have TV clips and radio interviews to back that up.

Suddenly, the FO trades Goff to the Oakland Raiders for two of their number ones.

All hell breaks lose and media bashes itself for being so wrong for so long about Goff and the Rams.

No. They got their reporting right. They wrote their pieces based on inside info from Rams’ Park, plus umpteen interviews saying the Rams wanted to stick with Goff for the long haul.

The Rams just changed their minds and went in another direction.

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

Who does this serve? No one. Does it feed a single hungry person? No. Does it stop a single bomb from falling? No. Trump has actually escalated ALL of our military ventures.

Who is this helping?

And, again, we only have Barr’s summary. We all need to be patient for a bit longer.

=================

Well, comrad, we agree on the big-picture. The big stuff. So, I’m not inclined to debate/argue about Russia (or Syria, where we probly disagree?).

I am prettysure we both think the corporo-tacracy, or deep-state, or plutocracy or oligarchy, or
corporate-capitalist-State, or Mega-theo-patriarchal-racist-corporate-batshit-crazy-biosphere-terminating-nationalist-jingoist-thingie — or whatever we wanna label it — is a very bad thingie.

A very bad thingie, indeed.

…how long have we been at this now, BT? Since…1998? 99? We are getting old, my friend. Its been an honor, btw. An honor to post with you radicals. Hard to believe we’ve been doing this, this long.

Go Rams
w
v

WV, don’t do that. :>) I’m gonna get all emotional from reading stuff like that. Aside from the sentiment, which I share, too much is going on in my life right now, including recent losses of close family, and my own health struggles.

Anyway, yeah. We do agree on the Big Picture. And the honor is all mine, going back to the 1990s. I consider you and the rest of the “radicals” here to be real friends and great people.

And, WV, I’ve always thought you missed your true calling. You’re one of the funniest people I’ve ever met online. I’m betting you’re a great lawyer, but you coulda been a contender as a stand up comic.

Be well, always.

A bit off topic, but what the hay.

One mock has us taking Metcalf.

Part of me thinks this would be crazy, given the excellent receivers the Rams have now, especially their top three. I think Reynolds proved he belongs too, and helps make the case that the Rams arguably have the best receivers’ room in the league.

Another part of me says, Go for it. Definitely bring in a receiver who stands close to 6’4″, can leap out of the gym, runs a 4.33, and breaks tackles often. Definitely bring in a guy who can not only “stretch the field” like Cooks, but can leap over DBs for contested catches — which Cooks can’t do.

Yes, they have actual holes to fill elsewhere, and receiver isn’t a need. But, sheesh. Metcalf could just be “the guy” who helps the Rams’ O do in the playoffs what it did in the regular season.

Then again, he’s likely not there at 31.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Billy_T.

Sad, too, how “the left” seem to be attacking each other, with suspicions running to 100 on a scale of 1 to 10.

I was actually a happy young person when I didn’t much care about politics, one way or another. I always cared about issues like the environment. But the Dems and the Republicans, their battles, their spin, didn’t interest me in the slightest. I was basically apolitical for a good bit of my early adult life.

It was always a mistake for me to jump in and start caring about politics, and I’ve tried, from time to time, to go back to my youthful ways.

Time to do so again. Concentrate on friends, family, art, music, literature, etc. etc. Spring time, mountains and all the rest.

This other shit is just not worth it.

It’s taken a personal turn for me, too.

On another forum, loaded with Dems and Republicans, I’m one of the few leftists there, at any time. Maybe two or three others.

But one of them seems hellbent on trashing anyone who even remotely accepts the reporting done on the investigation. He or she follows Greenwald and Dore almost word for word and then accuses “Russiagators” of wanting to kill brown and black people.

He/she actually makes that leap. The mere acceptance of most of the reporting, in that person’s mind, leads directly to war, to the support of war. This accusation was lodged after I spent a few post praising the recent excellent history book, How to Hide an Empire, by Daniel Immerwahr . . . a devastating take down of American empire and its atrocities on the road to that empire.

In short, even consistent antiwar, anti-empire, anticapitalist leftists are not safe from the lashing out. Apparently, if you stand with most of the reports on Russia, you want to literally kill people.

It’s gotten that crazy.

Also, the rationale from that corner of the left who screamed about how terrible this all was . . . makes no sense and is itself hysterical in my view.

The investigation and its coverage was never going to lead to war with Russia. It has nukes. We don’t attack countries with nukes. And our relationship was for shit already.

The investigation/reporting wasn’t going to lead to Clinton back in the White House, because that’s not how impeachment and removal works. Pence would be the president, not HRC.

The investigation was started by Republicans, with Comey the Republican at its head. Trump wins, fires Republican Comey, which gives us Republican Mueller, because Republican Sessions had recused himself, and Republican Rosenstein — a Trump appointee — names Republican Mueller to head the investigation . . . all the while the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court is in Republican hands.

But this is all supposedly on the Dems to get Clinton in the White House again?

The Media simply covered Trump and his fellow Republicans. And if the media overdid the coverage at times, guess who really is to blame for all of that?

Trump. He never shut up about “Russher.”

So, again, this was all some nefarious plot to bring Trump down, led by Trump himself and his own party?

Seriously, the hysteria is on the part of those bashing the media and the Dems right now.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Billy_T.

Taibbi is normally really good. But he, like so many others, have jumped the gun on this.

Barr, Trump’s hand-picked AG, who auditioned for the job with 19 pages of suck-up, summarized Mueller’s report. It’s basically an Op Ed.

Let’s at least wait for the actual thing.

Also, I’ve noticed a real pattern from the lefty folks who lashed out at anyone who had the nerve not to call this all a hoax:

They seem absolutely giddy with the Barr summary — the guy who pardoned all of those Iran Contra crooks.

And their description of the supposed media crimes is filled with the same kind of hysteria and overreach they accused the Media of.

As in, the vast majority of the reporting was measured and based entirely on Trump’s own words and deeds, as well as Mueller’s. Very little of it, beyond a few TV pundits, was “overreach” or “hysterical” or “vocally calling for Mueller to save us all from Trump.”

But that doesn’t stop Greenwald and company from tarring and feathering ALL media with that brush, which would be better directed to a few screamers, most of whom were Republican Never Trumpers, btw.

“Capital” is money above and beyond debts and cost of living — to the point where the owner of that capital doesn’t have to sell their labor power to others in order to live.

It’s not just accumulated cash. It’s enough cash to make it possible to be financially independent, basically.

Again, how many Americans will ever have that kind of cash? Much less invest it to produce commodities, etc?

In short, the vast majority of people who say they’re capitalists, aren’t. Elizabeth Warren is a recent example of someone who shouldn’t have answered yes to that question.

On Bortles:

I’m all for the signing. They need to do it. He’s been a starter, and the Rams currently have no one who can win games against good teams behind Goff.

I also like the idea of coaching him up, giving him some games to shine in, and then trading him later for draft picks. In fact, I think the Rams should have QBs for that every year. Develop them, trade them at their “peak,” have another waiting in the wings. At least as long as Goff is QB1.

nittany ram wrote:

I haven’t read those books, Billy. They do look interesting so when I get a chance I will check them out.

Cool. Would really like to hear your take. ZN talked about them a bit. He has a much better background in science than I do. But, unless I’m mistaken, you’re an actual scientist in real life, so your view would be a great addition.

I don’t want Jachai Polite in the First.

Too slow, too short, seems to have a bad attitude, at least from what we’ve been told. Which may be unfair to the guy, but who knows?

I’d rather they just stick with the guys already on the roster than go for another undersized edge. Obo and Ebukam are both faster. Though I really don’t know what to make of the latter.

He tested at sub 4.5, but plays slower than that. The eye-ball test for me is that he gained too much weight to better handle bigger O-line guys, and lost a step or two.

Still, he had one of the most dominant games I’ve ever seen, against KC. Or was it another team?

Anyway . . . if he could crush it in one game, that means he has the potential for much more.

IMO, if they can’t find someone 6’4″ or taller, with serious speed and a very quick step, go in another direction. DT would be the most logical, in my view.

Can’t help but be a bit worried about the defense so far. I have confidence in the O. Not the D. But even the O needs work along the line, and for McVay to really surprise opponents with varied personnel packages.

If they do, I think the Super Bowl again is the likely end story.

I think Fowler is much better than what they have behind him on the depth chart, but I also think he’s an underachiever, and will likely remain so. I don’t see him as ever being dominant, and I don’t think opposing OCs “fear” him.

Just my gut, and I hope I’m wrong.

Of course, if it were easy to find great edge rushers who alter games, every team would have them. But I sure would love the Rams to find one to pair with AD. Two, preferably.

And this may be neurotic worrying of sorts, but AD isn’t getting younger. He’ll be 28 for the upcoming season. So, the Rams can’t mess around when it comes to finding him serious help — now. He also plays like a crazy person every game, and I don’t see him taking downs off, like a typical DT.

In short, the Future is Now for the Rams when it comes to this.

Am still hoping for Dexter Lawrence in the Draft, or Brian Burns. Neither, however, is likely to be there at 31.

I agree with Dore and Palast about Venezuela, and election fraud. It’s all 2+2=4. But Dore frustrates the hell out of me on the Russia question. He just doesn’t take his own advice about “looking down the street,” and he’s never been able to make the case that “People are after X (Trump), because he or she is helping the poor, or POCs, etc. etc.” He hasn’t tried to, of course, cuz it would be ludicrous.

Investigating Russia’s interference in the election, and Trump’s corruption there and elsewhere, in no way aids some grand conspiracy to help the ruling class or the power elite or makes anyone richer. Russia is a far-right oligarchy, to our center-right oligarchy. Holding them, and Trump, to account doesn’t alter this, doesn’t serve any “Masters,” doesn’t help the oppressed in any way, shape or form.

And, it can’t be some pretext to war, like the lies in the run-up to Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran and Venezuela . . . because America isn’t ever going to go to war against Russia. It would mean the end of the world.

Dore also ignores the hundreds of times Trump, his family, and his surrogates have lied about dealings with Russia. We know this, because we have this on tape. We’ve seen them go from “There were no dealings with Russia” to “Well, we had a few,” to “Well, there were many but they were all innocent,” to “Well, yeah, they happened but none of that is illegal.”

Our corporate media do suck. But when it comes to the Russia investigation, they keep revealing truths and forcing Trump and his team to admit them, eventually. If there were some grand conspiracy to manufacture this, why is it continually being proven to be true? Why is there overwhelming evidence to support that it happened, much of which Trump and company had admitted to?