Mitt Romney was attacked for calling out Soviet Russia as an aggressor state. Now Russia has broken yet another cease-fire in Syria, its forces rampaging and evoking bad memory of the invasions of Afghanistan et al, and Secretary Of State John Kerry acts surprised, this amid Soviet aggression in European Georgia, the Ukraine, and now Soviet intelligence sabotage of US computers in a direct assault on the US election.
"When asked if the (computer hacking) amounted to a Russian intelligence operation on Wednesday, CIA Director John Brennan confessed (that it is). But even this concession was something the White House hoped to avoid, lest they threaten the project of rapprochement with Russia."
"The question has been catnip for the chattering classes for decades, especially during the Obama presidency. And now we have a presidential candidate who vows to “make America great again. Says Donald Trump: Our country is in serious trouble. We don't win anymore. We don't beat China in trade. . . . We can't do anything right. The problem is military as well as economic, he says: I don't mind fighting, but you have got to win, and . . . we don't win wars, we just fight, we just fight. It's like . . . you're vomiting: just fight, fight, fight. "The Trumpian version of American decline channels the anguish of residents in what Charles Murray has called Fishtown, a neighborhood in Philadelphia that has been white working class since the Revolution. The problems of America's left-behind middle class are not simply economic but social; they're not just relatively poorer and more frequently unemployed than they used to be, they're also less likely to be married or to form stable families. By all of Murray's metrics—industriousness, honesty, and religiosity among them—their America has come apart, unraveled. Their response, as expressed in enthusiasm for Trump, has been to embrace a kind of blood-and-soil nationalism."
The Falcons routed the Saints on Monday Night to finish Week Three and it displayed some ominous signs for the Saints
The NFL is a mess entering Week 4 with a number of 0-3 and 1-2 teams that were supposed to be better than this, especially the young quarterbacks; seeing rookies like Trevor Siemian and Carson Wentz sparkle and storm forward is good, but seeing talented young players like Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota continue to struggle can become galling as a league fan. The grind of the season begins to pick up with Week 4. The predictions -
Bengals over Dolphins - It's still not a scenario where the Miami Dolphins can be taken seriously despite a stunning win over the Browns. Ryan Tannehill is in his fifth season with NO improvement over his rookie year - it took him this long to reach thirty wins. The Bengals meanwhile won in Week One and have been in a mini-tailspin since with another poor outing last week; that there isn't a quarterback controversy between Andy Dalton and AJ McCarron is striking because there should have been one in preseason.
Colts over Jaguars - The first London game of the year features the Jaguars - perennial sacrificial lambs to the myth of an NFL team in London - against the Colts, who got off the skids against the Chargers and have routinely feasted on division teams under Andrew Luck. The lack of progress from Blake Bortles this season has been a huge letdown.
Redskins over Browns - The Redskins got a needed win last week and while they're not great shakes they get the winless Browns. The only silver lining for the Browns could be new quarterback Cody Kessler, who put up a genuine fight against the Dolphins, the best a Browns quarterback has looked in recent memory.
Lions over Bears - Jay Cutler is toast, that's been clear for awhile now. Brian Hoyer is a slight improvement, but that's all. The Lions come in better than their 1-2 record might indicate, though it's a stretch to consider them a playoff team.
Patriots over Bills - The funniest moment of the season happened with the publication of Tom Brady photos while naked sunbathing. It serves to further infuriate the failures that have rooted against him from the fans to the NFL league office as the Patriots have stormed to 3-0 having to play everyone and his brother at quarterback. Brady returns after this game while the Bills come in after a stunning win over the Cardinals.
Titans over Texans - This is a reach after another disappointing showing from Marcus Mariota against the Raiders; Mariota has played from behind basically his entire short career of now nineteen games and has not cashed in on comeback opportunities outside of three. Yet of his three wins two have come on the road, and he's had a higher yards per throw average (6.8 YPA) than Brock Osweiler (6.4), this even without the IR status for JJ Watt. Both teams are top-7 in fewest points allowed and at the bottom in scoring. While the Titans have been respectably consistent - just not good enough - the Texans showed some graphic weakness in their last outing with clueless coaching and a noticeable lack of discipline, especially on returns.
Falcons over Panthers - Suddenly one has to worry about Cam Newton, who has thrown five INTs this year so far and is 1-2 going against a Falcons team flying high after whipping their bitterest rival. Matt Ryan comes in with the highest-scoring offense in the league right now and with just one INT to seven touchdowns, and an eye-popping 9.4 yards per throw.
Seahawks over NY Jets - We're assuming right now that Russell Wilson plays despite an MCL sprain; even if Trevonne Boykin plays the Seahawks get a good matchup after Ryan Fitzpatrick fell apart at Kansas City (a laughable 18.2 passer rating and 4.2 yards per throw) and blew his only home game so far with the late INT against Cincinnati.
Raiders over Ravens - The last time the Raiders played the Ravens the league got its true introduction to Derek Carr. This year the Raiders are 2-1 against the most quiet 3-0 team in memory. Carr leads an offense 8th in scoring against a 24th-rated offense but with a defense 4th in fewest points allowed. Joe Flacco, though, has thrown four INTs in three games.
Broncos over Buccaneers - The Broncos have proven the doubters wrong and Trevor Siemian has risen to the occassion, and he gets a Bucs team that beat the Falcons and hasn't risen since. Jameis Winston did improve after a miserable game at Arizona but couldn't finish a comeback against the Rams; he needs to pierce a Broncos defense that is only 8th in points allowed.
Cardinals over Rams - Which Cardinals team will show up here? The one that crushed the Bucs 40-7 or the one that got embarrassed by the Bills? They get the inept Case Keenum as their opponent and that should help.
Chargers over Saints - The loss to the Falcons further illustrated several hard truths about the Saints - they can't build a quality roster and Drew Brees is in permanent decline. San Diego's road woes have been graphic; they get New Orleans at Qualcomm this go-round.
Cowboys over 49ers - The Week One shutout of the Rams is history, and the Niners' season appears to be history as well with two abysmal losses and no capable quarterback on the roster. The Cowboys meanwhile come in with a solid young core led by Dakota Prescott, who has been solid and more despite only one touchdown so far.
Chiefs over Steelers - The Steelers got undressed by the Eagles and now former Eagles coach Andy Reid comes to town a year after the Chiefs' season turned around in spectacular fashion beginning with a win over the Steelers. Alex Smith comes in with a better passer rating (90.6) than Ben Roethlisberger (83.2).
Vikings over NY Giants - The Giants got two wins but then got stunned by the Redskins and now have to go to the surprise of the season, the unbeaten Vikings. The Giants are once again in the bottom third in scoring with nonetheless decent effort from Eli Manning. The Vikings aren't much better in scoring but have done so having to start Sam Bradford and Shaun Hill.
The third week of the NFL season warrants takeaways, and not just the ones off fumbles.
The most striking parts of the Patriots-Texans game was the cowardice of the Texans overall and the rawness of Jacoby Brissett, who led four scoring drives but overall showed how raw he is as a true rookie. The Texans almost from the beginning were playing scared; Brock Osweiler showed mediocre command of the offense and never delivered drives worthy of a quarterback being paid over $15 million per season; the Texans also were terrible at ball security with two ugly fumbles on returns.
The first fraud of the year comes from the Steelers, a decent but ultimately mediocre squad crushed by an ascending Eagles team whose rookie quarterback isn't making mistakes.
The Bills got a shocker of a win as they humiliated Carson Palmer, himself less than what he's accomplished of late
Despite superb effort by ex-Raiders quarterback Terrell Pryor, the Browns are still the Browns as they botched it against a weak Miami Dolphins team.
The Chargers appear already to be finished after blowing another one, this after the other teams in the AFC West all won.
The Browns aren't the only pathetic resident of the NFL as the NY Jets became the NY Jets again with six picks, one of them a pick six.
There was the usual plethora of scoring as the Seahawks rolled over the Niners and the Redskins exposed the NY Giants, among other games.
Zeke Elliott's game was part of the Cowboys' surge past the always-nondescript Bears.
At approximately 9:35 a.m. on Saturday, September 17, a garbage can exploded along the route of the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K Race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Fortunately, no one was injured. The event’s organizers later cited a delay, caused by registration problems and a suspicious backpack that had to be investigated, as a blessing in disguise. Had the race started on time, participants could have been killed or wounded. No one knew it yet, but America was about to get lucky several more times in the hours that followed.
The pipe bomb explosion at Seaside Park was the first of five attacks planned for that day. On 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City that night, a much larger bomb made out of a pressure cooker rocked storefronts and sent shrapnel hundreds of feet in every direction. No one was killed, but 31 people were wounded. A separate bomb, built in a similar manner, was intercepted before it could explode just several blocks away on 27th Street. Still more improvised explosive devices were later found inside a backpack at a train station in Elizabeth, N.J. Those IEDs were also neutralized.
Recent news that Wells Fargo employees had opened as many as two million unauthorized customer bank and credit card accounts since 2011 was shocking. The bank fired 5,300 workers and agreed to pay $185 million in fines to the Los Angeles City Attorney, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB's media blitz reduced the other two agencies to bystanders.
The CFPB has been more political theater than good government since then-law professor Elizabeth Warren prodded the Democratic president and Congress to create the bureau in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The law insulated the new agency from Republican participation through a single director structure and funding independent of the congressional appropriations process. Warren was elected Massachusetts's senator. The CFPB quickly became a single-party, clandestine organization whose top priority is self-promotion.
"The Obama Administration and some economists argue that the recovery since the Great Recession ended in 2009 has been unusually weak because of the recession's severity and the fact that it was accompanied by a major financial crisis. Yet in a recent study of economic downturns in the US and elsewhere since 1870.......historically the opposite has been true."
What does economic crisis always breed? Extremism.
"The central problem with 'responsible nationalism' is that we know that economic protectionism and immigration restrictions will only deepen the West's economic woes - just as a return to economic nationalism deepened the Great Depression."
All of Week 2's touchdowns as we count down to Week 3
The NFL enters Week Three amid some genuine shockers but also amid a surprising - and surprisingly sharp - drop in TV ratings; explanations for why have varied between boycotting of Colin Kaepernick, boycotting of Roger Goodell, the absence of Tom Brady, the retirement of Peyton Manning. Certainly there is likely some element of all involved. A correction was probably overdue so right now one should not be excessively worried.
Certainly it's not for lack of competitive games; the first two weeks have been strikingly well-played and competitive, and expectations have thus been heightened for Week Three. Picks for the week -
Patriots over Texans - Jacoby Brissett has to start with the out-of-left-field shoulder injury to Jimmy Garappolo and his unplanned foray into the NFL against the Dolphins showed his rawness but also showed there is legitimate ability there. He will certainly have better preparation knowing he's going onto the field so leading more than two scoring drives should be a given, though one should keep an eye on Stephen Gostkowski after his stunning gag of a makeable late FGA. They face a Houston team that's clearly on its way to a strong season with Brock Osweiler, a guy clearly not intimidated by facing the Patriots, but with a defensive front led by JJ Watt that isn't any better than the Cardinals and Dolphins fronts the Patriots O-line has manhandled already, plus Watt has been decidedly quiet against the Patriots in the past, notably last season in his own house.
Cardinals over Bills - The Cardinals showed they mean business by laying 40 on the Bucs and they go to New Era Stadium for a Bills opponent that fired their offensive coordinator but that put up 31 points last time out. The Ryan brothers are buffoons, though, so they will find a way to lose.
Panthers over Vikings - The Vikings are onto something this year after stunning the Packers, but they go to a Panthers team that was stewing over the lost opportunity at Denver and responded by breaking out of a competitive game against the Niners and turning it into a massacre. A key matchup to keep an eye on is Sam Bradford to Stefon Diggs, who exploded against the Packers.
Broncos over Bengals - This one I think will be tighter than some may expect. Clearly there is no collapse for the Broncos as Trevor Siemian has already proven doubters wrong with poised play, but this is his first road trip and he goes to a Bengals team hitting its home opener. The Bengals got embarrassed last week at Pittsburgh and have the talent to fight back given the opponent, the defending champs, and one recalls the last time the Broncos visited Cincinnati. The matchup to watch is AJ Green vs Aqib Talib.
Lions over Packers - This is an upset pick for me; both teams are 1-1 and both are coming off losses. The Lions, though, face a Packers team that has now lost four of its last five division meetings and hasn't won a home game against the division since 2014. The Packers also have signs of locker room dissension with one of Aaron Rodgers' O-linemen calling him out publically after the loss at Minnesota. Rodgers' inability to lead a comeback when he has to erase a gap of at least two scores showed up again at Minnesota.
Ravens over Jaguars - Suddenly the Baltimore Ravens are stringing together wins again after a head-shaking 2015, while the Jaguars still have not taken that next step, and looked awful at San Diego last week.
Dolphins over Browns - Only the Browns. They go to a shellshocked Dolphins team hitting its home opener with a revamped Joe Robbie Stadium - now sporting sponsorship from Hard Rock - and with a quarterback in Ryan Tannehill playing his way out of the NFL. But the Browns have bigger problems - they fell apart against the hated Ravens and such collapses usually bode ill for the season.
NY Giants over Redskins - They didn't do it against the Cowboys and now the Redskins face a 2-0 Giants squad that's eking out grinders of wins.
Andre Johnson's game-winner at Detroit
Titans over Raiders - This could be the highest-scoring game on this week's slate as Marcos Mariota and Derek Carr lit it up in their preseason matchup and their teams are 1-1; Carr has exploded the Raiders to 63 points scored while Mariota staged a memorable comeback from down two scores to beat the Lions; his touchdown to Andre Johnson was an absolute thing of beauty. Anyone for a Titans-Raiders playoff meet?
Seahawks over Forty-Niners - The Seahawks are struggling out of the gate having lost on the road again to the Rams, and they face a Niners squad that Blaine Gabbert has made into a team that's not the joke their backup quarterback has become. The Seahawks did win their home opener and the Niners come back from the East Coast and Russell Wilson is the kind of quarterback who can start turning things around fast.
Buccaneers over Rams - Tampa Bay's obliteration by the Cardinals was the punch in the face that should motivate them to lash it out against a Rams team traveling from the West Coast to the East and which has shown zero offense.
Chargers over Colts - There is an ominous sign for the Colts. The opinion has been expressed that the Colts made a fatal mistake signing Chuck Pagano instead of Bruce Arians, but the real warning sign is Andrew Luck may have plateaued in 2012-13 and simply can never be the transcendent quarterback his talent promised he'd be. He lit up the scoreboard at home against the Lions and still lost, then struggled against a Broncos team he'd dominated. San Diego has won six of the last seven meetings with the Colts, and Philip Rivers is 1-0 against Andrew Luck so far.
Chiefs over NY Jets - The Chiefs are smarting after losing to the Houston Texans, and they face a high-scoring NY Jets team that's looking like a team going for the playoffs. I doubt Andy Reid will let the loss in Houston carry over to this meeting with the Jets, a team Reid has yet to lose to.
Eagles over Steelers - The Steelers have a potent offense and a proven championship quarterback, but in the Eagles they face a team that's well ahead of expectations and has a quarterback in Carson Wentz who's looking like the real deal.
Cowboys over Bears - Why John Fox keeps Jay Cutler remains baffling as he is a failure, as Dak Prescott steadily proves himself to be one to watch down the road.
Saints over Falcons - Neither team has proven they're up to a playoff bid, and one should start to be concerned that Drew Brees is no longer the elite competitor. Matt Ryan certainly is not an elite anything even with a strong win at Oakland.
More Islamic terrorist attacks have broken out in the US, in New York City, in New Jersey, and in Minnesota, and have killed more people than all the other demographics in the US combined. The hard facts remain Islam is a terrorist religion.
"Whenever there is a terrorist attack there's an almost palpable determination to determine the attacker was not Muslim and the attack had "no connection" to international terror, in spite of the fact it is now ISIS and Al Qaida strategy to inspire lone wolves."
The NFL hit Week Two and the surprises of the season have already started.
The first Thursday Night game of the year was the most competitive Thursday Night game in years - it got weirder as offensive coordinator Greg Roman was fired, reportedly by ownership - a bad move as meddlesome ownership never succeeds.
No surprise hit harder than Jimmy Garappolo's shoulder injury after torching the Dolphins
Jacoby Brissett had to come in cold and it showed - what also showed is there is legitimate quarterbacking talent here
The Titans erased a 12-point gap to stun a high-flying Lions squad in their home opener
The questions must be asked more and more about Andrew Luck and whether he plateaued as a quarterback in his rookie season, while Trevor Siemien is establishing himself with the Broncos and Aqib Talib exploded
Another young quarterback is starting to get something good going as R. Dakota Prescott grabbed his first career win
The Vikings won their second straight over the Packers despite a serious injury to Adrian Peterson, an injury that may not be as onerous as it appeared. It also showcased the continuing weakness of Aaron Rodgers in his inability to lead a comeback down by two or more touchdowns - and Rodgers' bad habit of trying to extend plays too much got called out by Packers O-lineman T.J. Lang -
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to blame someone else. We definitely have to be better up front, but it felt like there were a couple of plays there where it starts to get five (to) six (to)seven seconds, and it can be a little frustrating at times."
Those who will criticize Lang need to keep in mind Rodgers' career-long weakness when having to lead a comeback, having won just four games in his career when trailing by more than one score.
The news for the San Diego Chargers was not their 38-14 massacre of the Jaguars - the news from CBS' pregame show is Chargers ownership has given up on the city and is prepping to play in LA in 2017, presumably Carson, CA - which raises anew why the NFL allows such nonsense and why these teams don't get the hint from the Dolphins and spend the money to refurbish their existing arenas.
Only the Browns, up 20-0 to a Ravens team that has - quietly - stormed to 2-0
Remember when Blaine Gabbert was a failure with the Jaguars? Despite getting crushed at the end by a Panthers team still stewing over blowing a winnable game at Denver, the Niners have shown more fight than we thought they might have and it's clear Colin Kaepernick's bitch act is just the flailing of a guy who can't play
With the Seahawks suddenly struggling the Cardinals are taking early control of the NFC West
After dominating the final third of the Chicago 400 and leading 75 laps in total, Chase Elliott found another way to blow the win, raising further question about whether he is in fact able to figure out how to win. Such a question bedeviled Kyle Larson before he broke through at the Yankee 400 at Michigan, though, so writing off Chase Elliott is premature to an extreme.
It was also a bizarre weekend for NASCAR. NASCAR's new laser inspection process has seen multiple teams fail postrace - including Truex as well as Kyle Busch after the Chicago Truck 250 - and NASCAR's Steve O'Donnell addressed it to Sirius Radio's NASCAR channel. That the process is seeing so many failures brings the inevitable question - is the concept behind the process the real problem as opposed to the teams?
Brian France also addressed media during the Chicagoland weekend as NASCAR's top touring series is in need of a new title sponsor for 2017, with a name - Coca-Cola - finally emerging from Rumor Control Central, and with Brian France again saying (in a Tom Jensen interview) another manufacturer is wanted for NASCAR; Jensen speculates Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Nissan are the targets for France. Dodge of course is not coming back, stating in essence NASCAR is no longer worth their while - a bad sign for France.
Adding to that angle was a Twitter posting from Brad Keselowski - "We have to cut costs in this sport for sustainability." That's been true for decades, but it was offered in seeming defense of NASCAR's laser inspection process, which is doing nothing to costs. It remains that teams and NASCAR need to get together to work out a true spending cap, as spending is what keeps driving up costs. Yet as Richard Petty has asked, "Who's running NASCAR?"
As for the racing, the Trucks once again had the most competitive racing while the Xfinity 300 turned out to be surprising with some excellent dicing for the lead in the first half. The Cup 400 had the shocker of a finish, but it all shows anew the need for more passing - and far more incentive to go for the lead.
His failures have taken the hammer to several quaint 20th-century assumptions. The public no longer believes politicians understand how economies work, or that government has practical solutions to ordinary people's problems.
And who can defer to the authority of the only $4 trillion corporation in world history that cannot even set up a working website for buying insurance, let alone protect the private information of the millions of people it employs or investigates?
When he entered the Oval Office eight years ago, Obama wanted to persuade people that Washington was a potent force for good, that citizens could turn to it and it would fix things for them.
Such trust is now further away than ever, despite Obama's domestic legacy — the vast expansion of government. Perhaps Washington's huge intrusions into everyone's lives (right down to the bathrooms they use) would be more accepted if trust had not evaporated.
Obama's answer to the financial crisis was a costly, ineffective stimulus that failed to create jobs, high-speed trains or a new era of green energy, as promised. It instead delivered a citizenry vastly more dependent on food stamps.
Obama's healthcare reform was supposed to fix a broken system. Instead, it put one-fifth of the economy under the federal thumb and displaced millions from coverage they wanted to keep. And like a house built incompetently, Obamacare is falling apart. Even the largest insurers are exiting, finding they cannot sustain their losses. The roof looks likely to fall in.
Obama's arrogation of executive power became especially acute once Republicans re-took Congress. The president, lacking tame majorities, decided to force through his agenda by bypassing Capitol Hill.
He's used regulation to erode religious and press freedoms, and even scolded the Supreme Court for its robust view of free political speech. And in his determination to undermine the Second Amendment, Obama also weakened the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, proposing a no-fly list to side-step due process and deprive citizens of their right to bear arms.
"Earlier tonight, the NCAA announced it was pulling seven different collegiate championship events out of North Carolina this year. The NCAA's actions were prompted by North Carolina's law that stops local governments from passing ordinances forcing businesses to allow biological men into women's restrooms and vice versa."
The NC GOP responded noting the biological difference between men and women and also noting the NCAA's enabling of rape at Baylor.
"Over the weekend, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem at the beginning of an NFL preseason game. Predictably, this touched off a firestorm after Kaepernick explained at a press conference after the game that this was done to protest injustice in America. 'I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed,' he said. 'To me, this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand.'"
"We don't want another Cold War-style arms race," said Obama to Vladimir Putin. No, Obama, we DO want another arms race because we WIN THEM, and life is about winning.
So Week One of the 2016 has exploded forth into the most exciting opening week since 1999. Takes on all thirty-two teams -
Broncos escape again, Panthers still can't hold a lead - The Broncos defense gets more credit than it deserves and it showed again as they once again didn't stop a game-winning drive - they escaped when the Panthers missed a FGA at the end. The Panthers continued a trend where they struggled all 2015 to hold a lead and here they didn't hold on again. The Panthers also got beaten up with some dirty hits but Cam Newton played tough in the best football tradition.
Against the Indianapolis Colts the Detroit Lions did something doubly astonishing - Matthew Stafford pulled off a spectacular win against a quality opponent (something he simply hasn't been able to do outside of four times in thirty-four attempts) but the Lions wound up exposing the Colts as even dumber than we thought in the Puntfumble game as they gagged up a safety on the final play.
The Chargers suffered a loss they may not recover from as they continue to become irrelevant.
One struggles to recall when a team rebounded from blowing a three-touchdown lead at a time when they haven't win anything all decade and are coming off a miserable 4-12 season - Week Two suddenly becomes Must Win for San Diego is staring at failure already. The Chiefs for their part made a statement about their own toughness as they've won twelve of their last thirteen games
The Raiders made a statement - this time they're running for the playoffs.
The Saints also made a statement - they're still not that good.
The Patriots are better prepared than people were assuming after Rob Gronkowski and 3/5ths of the starting O-line were ruled out for the game at Arizona. The Cardinals for their part actually overcame stupid mistakes, especially late, for a FGA that astonishingly missed.
The NY Jets got away with Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2015 before he finally cost them - they won't get as far in 2016. The Bengals continue to be regular-season muscle.
Other takes -
The Falcons need to start planning for the era after Matt Ryan as he proved again he will never be the answer. The Bucs meanwhile got off to an encouraging start to Jameis Winston's second season.
The Ravens won, but they played poorly in doing so. The Bills meanwhile played worse in perhaps the weakest game on the Week One slate.
The Titans looked like a nowhere team with a nowhere future after gagging against a Vikings team that looked weak after their reaction to Teddy Bridgewater's injury. Week Two usually isn't a must-win in the NFL - like with the Chargers it suddenly is for the Titans, this with a second-year quarterback in Marcus Mariota who has what it takes to make them winners.
The Texans have become the AFC South team - while the Bears proved again that they are worthless.
The Dolphins are irrelevant - but the Seahawks didn't acquit themselves all that well.
The Jaguars played well but need to step it up more, as the Packers got away again.
The Eagles got off to a solid start, and the Browns now see how worthless Robert Griffin III is.
One of the bigger surprises was the NY Giants upsetting a Cowboys team that has a better quarterback in Dak Prescott than what they ever had with Tony Romo.
The Steelers made a mockery of the Washington Redskins 38-16 while the San Francisco 49ers started Blaine Gabbert and Gabbert was almost flawless in shutting out the punchless Rams 28-0; Gabbert's career rebirth in particular serves as a rebuke to Colin Kaepernick.
And so it went in Week One with Week Two beckoning
It's become the latest media scare story - student debt. The media and Democratic politicians (notably Bernie The Bozo Sanders) proclaim it a crisis. The actual data, though, indicates it isn't.
"A growing body of economic literature supports....the idea that federal student aid itself is responsible for the rise in college tuition."
"Faced with (the scenario of Iran breaking the agreement on the first day of implementation), the Obama administration blinked and let Iran off the hook, because the appearance of Iranian compliance is far more important to it than actual compliance."
At last week's National Sexual Assault Conference, OCR's Rachel Gettler called inconsistent sexual violence data collection by government agencies a never-ending issue. She added with a chuckle, "We'll see if the government can solve that." The annual conference at Washington's Wardman Park Marriott spanned three days of meet, greet, and agenda-mapping for victim advocates, experts and policymakers. From crisply uniformed JAG officers to activists with edgy haircuts, the attendees were those whose jobs increasingly require expertise in the growing list of government regulations and guidances on sexual assault. Like any other industry conference, it should have been an ideal venue to learn from fellow field professionals' practical knowledge. The problem? Within the federal government are multiple differing and conflicting approaches to defining and adjudicating sexual assault."
Further illustrating confusion is that friendly kissing and hugging is actually considered assault, and UC Berkley wants to punish a respected professor again for that despite a settlement everyone involved agreed to.
"Berkley has opted, in the case of Sujit Choudhry, to obfuscate, delay, and deceive."
The Southern 500 saw throwback week but the real throwback to some of racing's uglier moments erupted at Bowmanville's Truck race when John H. Nemechek swerved Cole Custer so violently it led to an on-track brawl
Southern 500 weekend resumed the theme of Throwback NASCAR with paint schemes conjuring up memories of NASCAR's past. The most popular was Tony Stewart's Coca-Cola Chevrolet. It turned out to be an ugly race as Stewart swerved Brian Scott pretty gratuitously - reminiscent of Bobby Allison at North Wilkesboro in 1972 with these colors
Jimmie Johnson drove a Rod Osterlund-flavored Chevrolet and it wound up like Osterlund's team in June 1981 - it crashed
Richard Petty's team has always struggled at Darlington and 2016 saw yet another wreck there
Stewart-Haas Racing's frustration was team-wide as Kurt Busch and Paul Menard tasted the wall
So what to make of all this? Several takes -
***
The capacity for utter hypocrisy by drivers showed again with heavy driver criticism of Nemechek and seeming ignorance when Tony Stewart blamed "old tires" for taking out Brian Scott.
***
Kevin Harvick's reputation for frontrunning and then folding at the end got another notch, and his anger at his pit crew exploded again - one eye-popping stat said he lost an aggregate of seventeen seconds on pit road in the Southern 500. Another eye-popping stat is he has finished second some twenty-four times since joining Stewart-Haas Racing.
Martin Truex's win is the first time the Barney Visser team has won more than once in a season and is a sign his winning is only beginning, especially with a second car forming for 2017.
***
Remember how NASCAR's low downforce package was supposedly making the racing better? Remember how jazzed everyone was for the racing at Darlington last year with low downforce? Even with the epic of yellows in the second half the racing wasn't very good - and the ugly Truck finish at Bowmanville earlier that Sunday showcases an embarrassing fact for Brian France - the Truck Series has become the most competitive series in NASCAR with deeply competitive races at Daytona, Kansas, Texas, Michigan, and now the most insane finish in years at Bowmanville; the series also saw some interesting competition at Kentucky. And they're doing it exactly the opposite way the cars are trying it - with high downforce, substantially less horsepower, and a noticeably more raceable tire. Combined that with spectacular Indycar races at the Brickyard, Pocono, and Texas and Brian France gets exposed as having no clue yet again.
***
Reading reaction from former crew chief Barry Dodson to the Stewart melee, one ponders an age-old question - at what point does NASCAR flag off certain drivers for causing these wrecks? The Nemecheck-Custer fracas brought to mind Ricky Rudd's penalty out of victory at Sears Point in 1991 for spinning out Davey Allison, which caused more than the usual fury of controversy (and was in keeping with Rudd's frequent outbursts in his four-year tour with Hendrick). One is hard-pressed to recall similar penalties for dirty driving - the only other one I can come up with is Robert Black - later curiously blackballed by NASCAR - penalizing Dale Earnhardt out of Charlotte's BGN 300 in October 1991 after spinning out Phil Parsons.
It is always a tricky proposition given that NASCAR overofficiates the races to an often-embarrassing extent. Holding drivers accountable - especially recidivists like Stewart - certainly is a necessity, especially with the collapse of professionalism in the sport to where few of its winners display genuine character.
***
Lost amid all of it is Kyle Larson finished third while teammate Jamie McMurray had a respectable night, and with Chevrolet losing SHR next year one wonders if Ganassi's team may benefit from getting engineering help that was going to SHR.
And so it went as NASCAR enters Richmond and hypes its ace of Chase.
A surprising German poll showed Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) tied for second place with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) just before this weekend's regional elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The incumbent Social Democrats are at 28 percent, the CDU and the AfD at 22. Do these numbers capture the real strength of the AfD? We'll see, but Germany is not the sort of place where one brags to strangers about casting a ballot for the most right-wing party in the country. (This, by the way, is the most mainstream of mainstream pollsters: Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, working for the TV network ZDF.)
It is a warning. In about 12 months, France and Germany will have national elections. Top politicians face the equivalent of a Brexit /Trump/Sanders vote. Maybe that is why they have just killed a planned American-European trade pact. They will now inter the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement. (The pact is called TTIP where associations with NAFTA are toxic and TAFTA where tip is the preferred word for dumpster.)
