The leftist sees capitalism as a horror, and believes that so long as money and profit rule the earth, human beings will be made miserable and will destroy themselves.

That’s one version of the left.

As a description of the left in general I find it to be something of a caricature.

..

JEREMY CORBYN’S ACHIEVEMENT

John Cassidy

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/jeremy-corbyns-achievement?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(177)&CNDID=24038857&spMailingID=11225109&spUserID=MTMzMTgyMzE4NzQzS0&spJobID=1180803808&spReportId=MTE4MDgwMzgwOAS2

By the time that Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, arrived at the vote count in his Islington North constituency, in the small hours of Friday morning, it was clear that something historic had taken place in British politics. Thursday’s snap general election, which Theresa May, the Conservative Prime Minister, had called to bolster her party’s slim minority in the House of Commons, had turned into something of a calamity for her party and a humiliation for her personally. The outcome was also a stunning vindication for Corbyn, who had defied the predictions—some of them offered by his own colleagues at Westminster—that he would lead the Labour Party to a crushing defeat.

On Thursday, after the polls closed at 10 p.m., a network exit poll projected that the Conservative Party, far from improving its position in the Commons, would fail to gain an over-all majority–an outcome that virtually nobody predicted a month ago. As the results filtered in from around the country, they confirmed the exit-poll projection. On Friday, with all but one of the six hundred and fifty seats in the House of Commons accounted for, the Conservatives were projected to win three hundred and eighteen seats—thirteen fewer than the Party won in the 2015 general election, and eight votes shy of a majority. Labour won two hundred and sixty-one votes, a gain of twenty-nine. Later on Friday, May said that she would form a new government with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which won ten seats. But there was a lot of speculation about a possible leadership challenge to her in the Conservative Party, and even talk of another election sometime soon.

Corbyn kept his own seat, which he has held since 1983, by a record majority—a fact he pointed out in his acceptance speech. He also thanked the police for the work they have done over the past couple of weeks, which have seen two deadly terrorist attacks, in Manchester and London. Then he gave his owns analysis of the election outcome. “You know what?” he said. “Politics has changed, and politics isn’t going back into the box where it was before.”

“Because what’s happened is people have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics,” he went on. “They have had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society. . . . And I’m very proud of the results that are coming in all over the country tonight, of people voting for hope, voting for hope for the future and turning their backs on austerity.”

Corbyn, who also called on May to resign, had ample grounds for celebrating. Labour entered the six-week election campaign trailing by twenty points or more in opinion polls. On Thursday, according to the BBC’s vote tally, Corbyn’s party came within 2.4 percentage points of matching the Tory vote share of 42.4 per cent, which suggests that an unprecedented swing took place during the campaign.

In many different parts of the U.K., Labour exceeded expectations. In northern England, May had targeted Labour’s traditional working-class base with promises of restrictions on immigration and a “hard” break from the European Union. But Labour held onto most of its seats in the region, and even picked some up, such as in Leeds North West and Warrington South. In Scotland, Labour made up some of the ground it lost to the Scottish National Party in 2015. In Greater London, Labour picked up three seats from the Conservatives, as many affluent pro-E.U. voters turned against the government. (One seat in London, South Kensington, is still too close to call.) And in other bits of southern England, it won in places that had long been considered parts of the Tory heartland, such as Canterbury.

How did it happen? Corbyn ran in opposition to the Conservatives’ long-standing austerity policies, and after years of being told that there was no alternative to shutting down libraries, cutting benefits, raising tuition fees, and starving public projects of investment, large sections of the British public apparently had simply had enough. In its election platform, Labour promised to spend more on the health service, schools, higher education, and care for the elderly. The Party said that it would raise the extra money by increasing taxes on rich households and big corporations. Labour also pledged to bring the water-supply industry and the railways, which are very unpopular, into public ownership.

But there was more to the result than voters rejecting the economic legacy of George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and David Cameron, the former Prime Minister—though such a rejection was important and welcome. By design or good fortune, Corbyn and his Labour colleagues also managed to turn the Brexit debate to their advantage. In 2015, the Labour Party, which was pro-E.U., lost a significant number of its working-class voters to the U.K. Independence Party, which held anti-E.U. and anti-immigrant positions. In calling an early election this year, May was betting that many of these same people would vote Conservative this time. The plan didn’t work out.

Last year, after the Brexit vote, Corbyn publicly accepted the result of the referendum—against the wishes of some Europhile Labour M.P.s—and said that Labour, which had long championed European integration, would seek to restrict the movement of workers across borders. But Corbyn also pledged to pursue a “soft Brexit,” and stressed the importance of continued access to the European single market, thus distancing himself from May, who is committed to a “hard Brexit” that could see Britain crashing out of the E.U. with no exit agreement at all. “What is remarkable about Corbyn’s achievement is that he is getting Remain votes in London, and he’s getting ukip voters in the rest of the country,” Nigel Farage, the former leader of ukip, who is no fan of Corbyn, noted in admiration as the vote tallies came in. “He kind of boxed off Brexit as an issue for ukip voters.”

Farage also complimented Corbyn’s campaigning skills, saying, “He looked comfortable in his skin. He seemed to be enjoying himself. The Prime Minister came across as insincere, and frankly robotic.” Certainly, May, if she is forced to resign, will have played a large part in her own downfall. By calling a third national vote in three years, she irked many voters and portrayed herself as an opportunist. By constantly falling back on stilted sound bites, she failed to give the voters much of a positive reason to vote Conservative. And by refusing to debate with Corbyn and the other Party leaders, she gave the impression that she was trying to hide. (What role was played by her awkward embrace of Donald Trump, who is extremely unpopular in Britain, it is hard to say, but it certainly didn’t help matters.)

Corbyn, by contrast, dived into the campaign. As I noted a few days ago, there were echoes of Bernie Sanders‘s insurgent Presidential campaign in Corbyn’s approach. To circumvent a largely hostile print media, he relied on social media and television appearances. That didn’t prevent the Tory newspapers from trying to smear him. On the day before the election, the Sun’s front-page headline was “jezza’s jihadi comrades.” The Daily Mail ran a front-page photograph of Corbyn and two of his close colleagues under the headline “apologists for terror.”

In defying such gutter tactics, Corbyn demonstrated the limits of Fleet Street’s influence in a fractured media age. Wherever he went during the campaign, he stuck rigidly to his message and avoided any ostentation. The Sanders comparison, however, shouldn’t be pushed too far. Many of the policies that Corbyn promoted over the past few weeks, such as higher taxes on the wealthy and stronger labor laws, he has supported for decades. But, like Sanders, Corbyn mobilized countless young people, who saw in his campaign something fresh and hopeful.

Ever since the 2010 election, when the Conservatives and Fleet Street successfully portrayed Labour as spendthrift and economically irresponsible, many of Corbyn’s colleagues in the Labour Party had been scared of advocating a sharp break with Tory austerity policies. Corbyn took on this task and didn’t suffer the electoral consequences that many of his internal critics had feared. “You can argue that public resources should be in public ownership,” Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, who has had his differences with Corbyn, said as Labour’s gains came in. “You can argue that we should spend more on public service. You can argue that we should spend more on giving people a start in life.”

In a country where, in the past decade, political debate has been denuded of some of its substance, this was an important achievement on Corbyn’s part. While he didn’t do well enough to form a government, he defied the political, media, and economic establishments to breathe fresh life into a politics that had become stale, formulaic, and moribund. Whatever happens over the next hours and days, this achievement will hopefully be one of the more lasting consequences of the 2017 election.

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff, coming off a trying rookie season, has been working with noted quarterback coaches Tom House and Adam Dedeaux.

House and Dedeaux run 3DQB, a quarterback training facility based in Los Angeles. And one of their many notable clients is reigning MVP Matt Ryan.

—

Pitching guru Tom House also tutors top NFL quarterbacks

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82acaf67/article/pitching-guru-tom-house-also-tutors-top-nfl-quarterbacks

LOS ANGELES — Tucked away behind the third-base dugout of USC’s Dedeaux Field lies a modest green rectangular structure that looks ordinary from the outside. Fans of all ages come to watch the USC baseball team without a second glance in its direction. But inside those walls is the Rod Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute, a state-of-the-art facility (eight cameras rolling at 1,000 frames-per-second, three-dimensional analysis) that has attracted some of the NFL’s most notable quarterbacks.

It is run by Tom House, a former pitching coach in the major leagues and at USC. That’s right: Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Matt Cassel, Alex Smith and Tim Tebow have all paid a visit to USC this offseason to work with a pitching coach.

House’s contributions are widely recognized in baseball circles. The 65-year-old spent eight years pitching in the big leagues, compiling a 3.79 ERA. But he left his greatest mark as a pitching coach, tutoring Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, among others. Ryan praised House’s work with the Texas Rangers in the mid-1980s.

“Tom is a coach that is always on the cutting edge,” Ryan said during his Hall of Fame speech in 1999. “And I really enjoyed our association together, and he would always come up with new training techniques that we would try and see how they would work into my routine.”

That sentence could be repeated by any of the quarterbacks who roll through House’s office these days.

“I’m a rotational-athlete evaluator,” House said. “Pitching, quarterbacking, tennis, golf, hitting … all rotational athletes have the same timing, the same kinematic sequencing — hips, shoulders, arms and implement. And depending on the verbiage, the same mechanics as each other. It’s all the same, in order of importance: timing, sequencing and mechanics.”

For more than 20 years, House and his staff collected data on the throwing motion of elite quarterbacks such as Dan Marino and Joe Montana without knowing how to use it. Then in 2004, San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron recommended that Brees see his friend House to help with some struggles. Today, House and Brees are neighbors in Del Mar, Calif., and Brees works out with House just about every offseason. Brees’ workout opened a new line of opportunity for House, who also has a Ph.D. in psychology. He proceeded to draft a five-day program for quarterbacks that combines physical and biomechanical coaching with nutritional and mental/emotional instruction.

House drew up the program based on quarterbacks’ demand for him, not vice versa. He says all of his NFL business is generated by word of mouth: Brees tells Smith; Cameron joins the Baltimore Ravens and tells his new quarterback Joe Flacco (who missed his annual visit this year as fatherhood came calling); Palmer and Cassel hear about it when they return to their alma mater; Cassel tells his former teammate Brady; and it goes on.

“All this recent activity with quarterbacks is because of Drew,” House said. “They all come for different reasons, but they all get the best information we have to make them better physically, mechanically, nutritionally and emotionally.”

House’s decades of experience with pitchers, combined with his rare high-tech equipment, help him detect and correct even the tiniest inaccuracies. He captures all the data by sticking tiny sensors all over the quarterback’s body. When the quarterback throws, a computer is able to render a three-dimensional stick-figure representation detailing every phase of his motion, and the 1,000-frame-per-second cameras help both player and coach see what happens in a nanosecond.

“That’s what probably gets their attention the most,” House said. “It’s not what my eyes are seeing. It’s what the cameras are seeing. … It’s not what we think we see. It’s what is actually being done.”

This helped House point out to Smith that he was using his head as a lever trying to generate arm speed, thus creating shoulder ailments. It also helped him caution Brady (who had sought out his help) to keep his non-throwing elbow up during his delivery.

Smith has likened House’s expertise to that of a pitching coach in football. In baseball, coaches work specifically with pitchers and their delivery. In football, very few coaches focus solely on the biomechanics of the throw.

“These guys are already pretty good and they’re trying to get better,” House said. “That surprised me on their burning desire to get better. That’s unique.”

House isn’t planning on giving up his primary job with baseball, but said he will continue to provide instruction and analysis to quarterbacks as long as they ask for it.

“It’s a niche,” House said. “I’m proud of what we do and I think we’re making a difference with all these guys.”

Mike Thomas, Tyler Higbee look to move up Rams’ depth chart

By Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/33994/mike-thomas-tyler-higbee-look-to-move-up-rams-depth-char

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Tavon Austin remained off to the side, running routes and catching tennis balls while wearing a guard on his surgically repaired left wrist, and Mike Thomas was on the field with his teammates, taking snaps with the Los Angeles Rams’ first-team offense on Monday afternoon. The Rams have 17 pass-catchers on their roster, 14 of whom are heading into their first or second season in the NFL.

In other words, they’re young at the position.

And while Austin and free-agent addition Robert Woods will serve as the two primary receivers, the Rams must still figure out how the second-year players will mix in with the rookies. It’s an interesting dynamic because of the sheer volume, and it’s fascinating because Sean McVay, the Rams’ rookie coach, only hand-picked about half of them.

Suddenly a group that includes Pharoh Cooper, Tyler Higbee and Thomas, among others, is competing against Gerald Everett, Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds, all of whom were acquired in this year’s draft.

Kupp, like Cooper, profiles as a slot receiver.

Everett, like Higbee, is a pass-catching tight end.

Reynolds, like Thomas, is a deep threat.

“We’re looking to find the best combination of guys that can make plays,” McVay said after a recent practice. “We want to be an offense that gives the quarterback answers.”

McVay, who will host a three-day, mandatory minicamp next week, mixed up the way he dispersed reps during organized team activities, with Woods seemingly the only mainstay. Sometimes it’s Everett with Kupp and Reynolds; sometimes it’s Higbee and Thomas with Nelson Spruce, a ballyhooed undrafted free agent from 2016 who never stepped on the field. Thomas has been the one getting most of Austin’s reps.

He believes he has made “tremendous growth” since his rookie season.

“My rookie year, I was a little hesitant,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t feeling myself as far as playing fast. But now, I know what to expect.”

Thomas, a sixth-round pick out of Southern Mississippi, made critical mistakes in the scant playing time he received last season. Against the Falcons in Week 14, he fumbled the opening kickoff. Against the Seahawks in Week 15, he dropped a well-placed deep pass from Jared Goff while wide open. But the Rams badly need a deep threat. At 5 foot 8, Austin may be too small and Reynolds may be too raw. Thomas could emerge in that role this season.

“I feel like they see my potential in this offense, and Coach Bones [special teams coordinator John Fassel] sees my potential on special teams,” Thomas said. “You can’t really define a player off his mistakes; you’ve just got to define him off how he comes back from those mistakes. I feel like I came back pretty well, and I didn’t let that get to me. Last year, my rookie year, I feel like I got all my mistakes in on the field. I got them out of the way.”

Thomas is among 12 receivers; Higbee is among five pass-catching tight ends.

Higbee’s primary competition is Everett, the 44th overall pick who built a name for himself as an athletic pass-catcher who can stretch the deep middle of the field. Higbee, a fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky in 2016, seemed destined for a primary role in Jeff Fisher’s offense last summer. But the 6-foot-6, 257-pound Higbee was targeted only seven times in the first seven games and only 29 times all season.

“It was a coaching decision,” Higbee said. “Whatever they thought was best, that’s what they did.”

In the offseason, the Rams thought it best to let veteran Lance Kendricks leave via free agency and stay young at tight end. Temarrick Hemingway, a sixth-round pick in last year’s draft, and Travis Wilson, the former Utah quarterback who recently made the transition to tight end, could factor into the mix. But it figures to be mainly Higbee and Everett at the position, and both could play a big role.

“You see what Coach McVay’s done in Washington with those tight ends,” Higbee said, alluding to a 2016 Redskins team that led the NFL in tight end receiving yards. “He had two great guys with Vernon Davis and Jordan Reed over there. Not saying we have a Jordan Reed/Vernon Davis over here, but I think we’re going to be all right.”

Holt Likes What He Sees from Rams Rookie WRs

By Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Holt-Likes-What-He-Sees-from-Rams-Rookie-WRs/f672a16b-631e-45d1-92f6-2f80edf45820

Between 2000 and 2009, no one in the NFL caught more passes or recorded more yards receiving than former Rams wide receiver Torry Holt. With 920 career receptions for 13,382 yards and 74 touchdowns, Holt clearly knows a thing or two about being a successful wideout.

And so when Holt says he likes what he’s seen from Los Angeles’ two 2017 draftees at his position, that carries weight.

Holt was around the Rams’ facility last week during the club’s legends reunion, and had the opportunity to watch practice film and chat with some of the players. With 11 years of playing experience, Holt had plenty to share.

“I was talking to Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds, when they were playing in college it was natural, it was comfortable, it was instinctive,” Holt said. “Well, how can you get to that quickly as a rookie? You’ve got to know the playbook, you’ve got to be out on the football field, you’ve got to be healthy. And you’ve got to keep your mouth closed and do what you’re told as a rookie.”

“And we talked a lot about patience and trust in the process,” Holt added. “Trusting your coaches. Getting familiar or getting as comfortable as you can as a rookie with the playbook, with your contract situation, with your living arrangements. Making sure that is in tact as quickly as possible so you can get to some normalcy — and that’s playing the game and doing it naturally.”

Holt was able to make that kind of smooth transition his rookie year in 1999, making 52 receptions for 788 yards and six touchdowns, helping the Rams win Super Bowl XXXIV.

So what did Holt think of Kupp and Reynolds’ practice film?

“I saw some attention to detail,” Holt said. “They — so far — have got a pretty good understanding of what’s asked of them on the offensive side of the ball.”

Overall, Holt seems to feel the two rookies are set up for success. But they’ll have to work at it in order to make it happen.

“With the way [head coach Sean] McVay puts in the offense, the way they talk offensive philosophy, Todd Gurley and the way he works, Tavon [Austin] and the way he works — there’s veteran guys that they can lean [on] and see what the example should be every single day,” Holt said.

Thomas has a good shot for two reasons

3. He’s good on special teams coverage units.

Getting to know Rams linebacker and NFL hipster Connor Barwin

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/33960/getting-to-know-rams-lb-and-nfl-hipster-connor-barwin

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Connor Barwin, the Los Angeles Rams’ new outside linebacker, doesn’t fit the mold of your stereotypical football player. He is environmentally conscious, prefers getting around on his road bike, loves watching local bands, wears V-neck T-shirts and appreciates a good pourover coffee.

He is, in many ways, a hipster (though hipsters never really admit to being hipsters).

Barwin compiled 46 sacks while playing in all 96 regular-season games from 2011 to ’16. He spent his first four years with the Houston Texans and his next four with the Philadelphia Eagles, who released Barwin after the 2016 season and paved the way for his one-year deal with the Rams in the middle of March. Before all that, he was raised alongside three brothers in Hazel Park, Michigan, just north of Detroit. His parents stressed the need for balance in one’s life.

“Sports were never a huge focus,” Barwin said. “There was never anything that was really a big focus. Well, maybe school. But it was school, sports, learn an instrument. It was kind of this idea that you had to be a well-rounded person. The best citizen was a well-rounded individual.”

Barwin didn’t completely take to that, because regardless of his outside interests, he’s still all-in on this football thing. He loves the game, loves working out, loves all of the details that go into training. You can’t do the things he has in this game without a mindset like that. But Barwin, 30, and newly married, is also all about the local scene. In Philadelphia, he started the Make The World Better Foundation. It began by refurbishing an abandoned basketball court — now a big hit in the community — and will announce plans for a fourth project later this summer.

Barwin wants to contribute on the West Coast, too, but two things need to happen: He needs to sign an extension, and he needs to settle in. He’s still living out of a hotel in Westlake Village, which is in many ways the anti-L.A. But soon Barwin and his wife will settle into a rented house in Malibu — 20 miles from Thousand Oaks, where the Rams train, and 40 miles from Silver Lake, where the hipsters hang.

“I gotta kind of ingrain myself in the community here before I’m ready to take that on,” Barwin said. “I just got here. I’m super focused on this season, because it’s right here in front of us. But that would be something that I would really kick into gear come February — after the season is over and we get a couple of down months, and I kind of know my way around L.A. a little bit more.”

Barwin sat down with ESPN late last week to talk about his outside interests, the hipster label and the one job he cares most about. The interview has been edited for brevity.

Based on all I’ve read about you, it seems like L.A. is really your scene. Am I wrong about that?

(laughs) I don’t know because I’ve only been out here two months, and we’re out here in Thousand Oaks [part of Ventura County, just north of the County of Los Angeles]. I don’t know if that’s L.A. But on the weekends I’ve gotten around a little bit. I’ve kind of gone back and forth. It seems like I’m on vacation every weekend.

Because of the weather?

I don’t know what it is. Probably mostly the weather and the water, I guess. But I’m excited to be here.

I know you like to ride your bike almost everywhere. Can you do that out here?

That will be harder here, yeah. Surprisingly it was cool to see how much public transit L.A. had. But riding your bike for functional use isn’t going to happen here.

So instead you have your Tesla (he has a Model X out here and a Model S in Philly). Do you own the only Tesla in the players’ parking lot?

Yep.

Has that always been the case?

Yep. Always the case. But guys are into Teslas now. When I drove a Prius in Houston, that was really out there. It was before driving electric was cool.

You’ve been to Coachella a lot (five times). Do you have a favorite Coachella moment or year?

For me, Coachella — this year was probably my last one. But every year, it’s gotten better. I mean the music is always great. There’s obviously some highs and lows in some of the shows you see, but I feel like when you go to Coachella — you can go to Coachella every year, and every year [you will see something new]. … It’s a huge production. You gotta know how to do it, so to speak.

Like, what to do when you’re camping out?

Well, if you know how to do it, you know you don’t camp out (laughs). So, we rent a house. We always get a better house every year. You get one close to the venue, and you learn how to go through that weekend. Me and my group of friends who always go have got it down pretty good. Every year it gets better.

So you have mastered Coachella, and now you’re retiring from it?

Yeah, I think so. When you’re my age, you retire. I’m married, you know. It’s done. I’m done.

Burning Man?

That’s for after I’m done playing football, because that’s in September. So I’ll do that when I’m done. Maybe I’ll do that when I’m done.

Have you thought about how much longer you want to play?

Yeah, I think I want to play 12 years. This will be nine, so I think I have four more. I’d like to do three stints of four – Houston, Philly and L.A.

So, four with the Rams?

Yeah, that’d be great. I gotta get to that new stadium [in 2020].

Is that the goal?

That’s the goal.

What to do you think playing in Wade Phillips’ system will do for what remains of your career?

It was definitely part of my decision. I loved playing for Wade [while with the Texans in 2011-12], just in general. But I think playing in this system will be good for me to keep playing for a couple more years because it takes advantage of what I do well. It allows me to still play every single snap. Play first down, second down, rush the passer on third down. But be able to cover guys when I need to — tight ends, running backs, that sort of thing.

What’s your favorite Wade Phillips story?

It’s just the way he is with words. … I mean he’s very subtle in some of the things he says, but you always have to pay attention, because everything he says is usually pretty damn important. My favorite Wade Phillips line, back in Houston, is, ‘Good times and hard work go together. But hard work always comes first.’ It’s one of my favorite sayings of all time. But he’s got dozens of those.

So how do you feel about the term ‘hipster football player’?

(laughs) I don’t know. I don’t really have any feeling about it. … I’m fine with it, I guess. But no one calls me that around here, in the locker room or anything like that. I mean I guess they did a little bit in Philly. …

Well, they don’t really know you here yet.

Yeah, I guess they don’t know me yet (laughs). But I don’t mind. I embrace it. I embrace the kind of things that I’m interested in outside of football. I think it’s important. And for me, that’s always been a fun part is kind of introducing guys in the locker room to some of that stuff. Whenever I’ve done that, guys have always enjoyed it. And that’s been a cool part for me.