Could the Browns win?

Sure. Weird shit happens.

But only the most clueless could think they will win, or even should win.

Did they see the Titans game? The Browns were thrashed by one of the worst teams in the league.

Are they actually encouraged by the Browns’ performance against the Jets? I don’t know what they saw, but I saw a Browns team struggle for much of the game against a bad Jets team playing with their third string QB. So far Mayfield doesn’t look like he’s improved at all.

I expect that, as the season progresses, the Browns will steadily improve. They are a fairy talented team.

But it’s way too early in the season to think they are good enough to have a legitimate shot against the Rams.

AD is likely the most talented player there ever was.

zn wrote:

I actually think Goff is prepared to return to his “regular 100 qb ratings” days from before the bye last year. I just think they had a game and a half of rust and are now hitting stride.

What do others think? What’s the “informal poll” on that?

I hope that’s true and would not be surprised if it was.

But there’s a lingering fear that teams have figured out ways to disrupt Goff, and it takes McVay/Goff awhile to adjust.

Rams’ 2018 rushing up the middle (per ESPN Stats & Information research):

vs. Eagles: 2 carries, 11 yards

vs. Patriots: 3 carries, 12 yards

vs. Bears: 3 carries, 21 yards

Average over the other 16 games: 10 carries, 53 yards per game

Rams’ 2018 rushing between the tackles:

vs. Eagles: 11 carries, 47 yards

vs. Patriots: 14 carries, 43 yards

vs. Bears: 10 carries, 52 yards

In every case except one (between the tackle runs against the Pats), the Rams averaged well over 4 yds/carry. In most cases they were averaging over 5 yds/carry.

Based on these numbers, defenses didn’t bottle up the Rams running game as much as McVay abandoned it.

Zooey wrote:

We occupy different realities. They FEEL like theirs is the Truth, and that’s that.

Their ‘truth’ is unexamined. It’s based purely on faith. I’m not saying that’s true for all conservatives, but it’s true of the Trump supporters/GOP. To me it’s hilarious to see them rail against extreme versions of the Muslim faith while being blind to the fact that right wing evangelicals and the Taliban are two sides of the same coin.

Billy_T wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

I’m constantly fighting the “the Nazis were socialist because ‘Socialist’ is in the name” battle with my brother.

Your brother should think about North Korea’s official name:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. What a nation or a political party decides to name itself is totally irrelevant. It’s what it does that matters. It needs to be judged according to that.

And, of course, Hitler’s Germany was a capitalist society, not socialist. It was also a workers’ hell hole, which included (literally) slave labor. And, the nazis got their start (in the 1920s) in the streets thuggishly attacking leftists, including socialists and communists . . . and once in power, slaughtered, jailed, tortured or exiled them and made the German Left flat out illegal.

Oh, and there’s the rather inconvenient fact that all neo-fascist and neo-nazi groups, political parties, individuals, proudly claim the mantle of “right-wing,” and are seen as right-wing by their enemies. Charlottesville’s “unite the right” march was a coalition of neo-fascist and neo-nazi groups. Same thing all across Europe.

There’s no historical support whatsoever for your brother’s view, or Carlson’s . . . but it’s been mainstreamed.

Yeah, the only reason it was called the National Socialist Party was because socialism was popular among the working class in Germany during the economic turmoil following WWI. The newly formed Nazi party simply wanted to tap into that.

I use the same argument you mention above whenever my brother thinks he’s scoring points by reminding me that the KKK was started by southern Democrats. Then I remind him which political party the modern KKK endorses. It shuts him up for about a week. Then he’ll rehash the same argument. It’s like I’m stuck in a bizarre, Trumpian Ground Hog Day time loop.

No matter how often I tell him that even though I’m a registered Democrat, I don’t really consider myself a Democrat. I’m a Dem only because in a two party system, I was forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. Regardless, he still thinks he’s going to shock me into submission by reciting Dem transgressions. He can’t see beyond the Dem/Rep false dichotomy, or understand that the Left and Liberals aren’t synonymous.

Billy_T wrote:

Zooey wrote:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-hails-firing-of-john-bolton-he-was-fundamentally-a-man-of-the-left

This is the political climate we live in. A country where one-third of the population gets spoonfed absolute nonsense.

Up until roughly 20 years ago, this was fringe-right-wing nonsense. Now it’s mainstream right-wing nonsense. I bump into it all the time.

There’s a range, of course. From right-wing pundits who know better, but spread it anyway . . . to the rank and file who really believe it now. They apparently actually believe it’s impossible for right-wingers to be in charge of totalitarian systems, or for those systems to be right-wing. They see “fascism” and nazism” as left-wing, even though virtually no one did at the time these systems were in place . . . and when this is brought up to them, they dismiss or ignore the facts. They also dismiss or ignore the fact that all the resistance movements in Europe were led by leftists, and that fascists and nazis started to wipe out their leftist enemies even before they went after the Jews.

I’m currently rereading 1984. This is a replay of “those who own the present, own the past,” etc. etc. They’ve rewritten it to suit their beliefs. They’ve convinced themselves that “big government” is always already “leftist,” even though “conservatism,” going back thousands of years, entailed a massive, generally oppressive “state.” Or a massive, oppressive Church/State nexus, etc.

Right-wing ideology has always been extremely comfortable with Big Gubmint and authoritarian systems. Ironically, it’s “the left” that traditionally fought against them.

I’m constantly fighting the “the Nazis were socialist because ‘Socialist’ is in the name” battle with my brother.

Whoopi to Sanders: “Would you force corporations to pay taxes?”

Other questions asked by Whoopi…

Whoopi to a bear: “Do you shit in the woods?”

Whoopi to the Pope: “Do you where a funny hat?”

I wouldn’t extend Peters. Not based on what we saw last season. As a Ram, he has only looked good when Talib was on the field with him. Without Talib’s steadying influence, Peters was a wreck. I think the Rams can get better production from more affordable CBs.

Littleton I would keep. The guy makes plays.

Manson thought there was going to be a race war. However, as time went on and nothing happened, he feared he was losing control of his followers. For this reason he tried to bring the war on. That’s what the Tate and LaBianca murders were about. He thought the Black Panthers would be blamed.

Manson thought the blacks would win the race war. However, he also believed blacks were too stupid to lead themselves. His plan was for him and his followers to come out of hiding after the war was over and with his superior intelligence, enslave the inferior blacks.

wv wrote:

Why cant we have GMO-poison ivy ?

If GMO is so great, why cant it make poison ivy…um…bigger, or even more poisony. Or somethin.

w
v

Well, before they could develop it there was this incident in the lab, and well…

When a billionaire dies, who inherits their senators?

— Amir Talai (@AmirTalai) August 23, 2019

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

Are you going to get another dog?

Not right away. The way our schedules work, most dog care and training falls on me. That’s just a product of having a partner that works nights. Because Bondi was on chemo for nearly a year, a lot extra fell on me. At some points he needed 24/7 care. As a result of all that—I need a break. I can’t just leap into taking care of a new dog right away. So, probably next summer. This time I think we will get a shelter dog. I love pure bred aussies, they are great dogs. But, it’s a luxury to get a pure bred pup when there are so many shelter dogs that need homes.

We had to put down two dogs within a couple years. My wife and I told ourselves that our current dog, Fritz, would be the last. We’ll never get another dog after this one.

The pain of having to put a beloved pet down is too much to bear.

At the same time, it’s hard to imagine our lives without this big furry goofball. He brings us such joy.

So I guess the take home of all this is ‘never say never.’

The author doesn’t really make a valid argument against GE chestnut trees.

I like the idea and am encouraged by the success the trees have had against the fungus up to now.

Genetic modification and gene editing will likely help a lot of species “on the brink”. Bananas are another important food crop being threatened by a fungal blight that could be saved by GE technology.

However, I’m not sure I’d like to see the GE chestnut trees released into the wild. Not because of baseless fear-mongering, but because when I go into a forest, I like to at least have the illusion that everything in it is wild and untouched.

So for that reason I’d prefer the GE chestnut trees be kept in orchards.