So Much For Whitey Bulger

So ends one of the most fascinating and destructive stories in the annals of US organized crime.

What makes the rampage of the Boston, MA underworld personified and long led by James "Whitey" Bulger such a compelling history is that it was actively enabled by the FBI and by the US Congress, in the person of John William McCormack.   McCormack began his association with the Boston underworld and the FBI as an attorney during Prohibition representing the Gustin Gang, bootleggers from Boston.   When elected to the US House he began looking out for the Massachusetts State Senate seat to which young Billy Bulger was elected. 

McCormack also looked out for Billy's older brother, Whitey.  When Whitey served in the USAF he was court-martialed and openly told his accusers that McCormack would keep him out of trouble.   Whitey began male prostitution activities as a teen and in the 1950s went to prison after a string of bank robberies; McCormack worked to lessen Whitey's hardship in his nine years in prison.   After getting out of prison in March 1965 Whitey was given a no-show job as a janitor for Suffolk County, and before retiring in January 1971 McCormack instructed FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover to develop Whitey as an informant.

A month later Whitey, who by this point was a member of the Killeen Gang of Boston, was with a fellow gangster, Billy O'Sullivan, and O'Sullivan shot Buddy Roache, a member of the Mullen gang of Boston; Whitey was never indicted because when police tried to obtain arrest warrants they were rejected by the South Boston District Court - this thanks to Billy Bulger.

The FBI in 1961, on orders of then-new Attorney General Robert Kennedy - this to cover up his father Joe's long criminal career as well as his own relationships with gangsters such as Chicago's Sam Giancana - began developing informants to take down the Mafia.   In Boston agent Harold Paul "H. Paul" Rico was in charge of this task.   Rico was an FBI agent but he walked, talked, and acted like a gangster, and took a personal hatred of another Boston area gang, the gang of the McLaughlin brothers.   Rico's treachery was first shown when gangster Ronny Dermody, who'd once been arrested by Rico, went to him for help; Rico set him up ostensibly for a meeting - instead Rico sent rival gangster Buddy McLean to kill Dermody, then shielded McLean in his house in Belmont, MA.

Rico developed the Flemmi brothers - Vincent James "Jimmy The Bear" Flemmi and his younger brother Steve - as informants when they were apprentice gangsters working for the Bennett brothers, specifically Edward "Wimpy" Bennett.   Rico also developed psychopathic gangster Joe "The Animal" Barboza as an informant, and in March 1965 they killed minor mobster Edward "Teddy" Deegan; Rico made sure Barboza and Jimmy The Bear would not be indicted, and Barboza fingered four rival gangsters with Deegan's murder - the result was four men framed by the FBI spent some thirty years in prison, and it wasn't until the late 1990s that the FBI was exposed as sending to jail four innocent men to cover up for snitches of theirs - among the agents perpetuating the coverup was Robert Mueller, presently investigating President Trump and getting nowhere with it.

By 1972 with gang war raging, Whitey arranged a meeting with infamous Boston hitman Johnny Martorano, who was with one of the strongest gangs in the area, based in Winter Hill in Somerville.  Martorano was friends with Howie Winter, the gang's leader, and he felt he owed a favor to Billy O'Sullivan.   As a result, Whitey was brought into the Winter Hill Gang.  In this time of the early 1970s Whitey was finally developed into an official FBI informant working for John Joseph Connolly, who'd spent his life getting favors from Billy Bulger and who apprenticed with Rico. 

Connolly now served as point man for protecting Whitey Bulger, and in the 1970s the Winter Hill Gang became involved in extortions, race-fixing, and sports betting among whatever racket they decided to become involved with.  Their strength increased in 1974 - Steve Flemmi years earlier had been allowed to escape prosecution by the FBI, helping him move to Montreal under an alias.   In 1974 the FBI brought him back to Boston to continue as an FBI snitch.   Steve Flemmi was soon taking up with teenage girls such as Deborah "Debbi" Davis, who worked for a famed Boston-area dealer in stolen items, and he also had a wife in Marion Hussey, but it was her daughter Deborah who bore brunt of sexual aggression by Steve; also imposed upon by Steve was Debbi Davis' younger sister Michelle.   Michelle would die of an overdose around 2006, but Debbi was murdered by Whitey and Steve when she became tired of being part of Steve's harem; Debbi had a cousin, Eva "Liz" McDonough, who was girlfriend of gang member Nick Giso; when she demanded answers from Steve about her cousin's disappearance Whitey and Steve tried to set up her murder - and missed.

Whitey-involved murders rampaged in the Boston area in the 1970s.   A rival gang led by Al "Indian Al" Angeli and his brother "Indian Joe" Notarangeli was killed in the 1973-74 period - this as a paid favor to Mafia boss Gennaro "Gerry" Angiulo, and at least one innocent bystander was gunned down by mistake in this gang conflict.  A former friend of Whitey, Tommy King, was murdered and later that same night King's friend, Francis "Buddy" Leonard, was killed.  Club owner Richie Castucci had participated in the gang's sport betting operation, but when the gang hid two of its members out in New York City, Castucci - himself an FBI rat - told his Buearu pals; Connolly got word to the gang and at the end of December 1976 Castucci was murdered; Connolly covered up the murder by claiming it to be the work of the Mafia - "Winter Hill doesn't kill like that."

When Anthony "Fat Tony" Ciulla, the Winter Hill Gang's master race-fixer, was indicted in the late-1970s Zip Connolly and the similarly corrupt head of the Bureau's Organized Crime Strike Force in Boston, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, made sure to cut Whitey and Steve Flemmi out of indictment - this as everyone else went down. 

Their master hitman Johnny Martorano was tipped to the pending indictment and fled to Florida, sustained there by Whitey and the FBI as an ace-in-the-hole.   Zip Connolly meanwhile fought to protect Whitey when the FBI tried to terminate him as an informant; this stemmed from MA State Police surveillance efforts continually frustrated because Connolly was tipping Whitey to them.  Connolly and Jeremiah O'Sullivan wanted Whitey and Steve as informant to justify a massive bugging operation at Gennaro Angiulo's headquarters on Prince Street in Boston.

The operation led to Angiulo's 1983 arrest, but in the meantime Whitey directly instigated or helped instigate other murders.   Another Connolly informant, a flamboyant drug lord named Louie Litif, killed one of his dealers and a witnessing bartender; Connolly covered up this murder and this was established when his letter to the insurance company of the bartender's family was presented as evidence in his later racketeering trial.   Litif was then killed himself by Whitey with help from another gangster, Brian Halloran, who himself would be killed at Whitey's behest in 1982. 

Part of the reason for Halloran's murder is he'd been involved in the murder or Roger Wheeler, a businessman who'd purchased the gaming company World Jai Alai, that had been owned by businessman John Callahan.   Callahan was ousted because he was hanging out with Winter Hill members and had been quietly giving money to them.   Wheeler retained as head of security former FBI agent H. Paul Rico, but soon discovered he was being skimmed.   He accelerated his investigation when one of his cashiers, Peggy Westcoat, who may have known who was involved, was murdered with her boyfriend in 1980.   Whitey, Steve, and Rico commissioned Martorano to kill Wheeler and thus keep them all out of jail.   Not until 2004 would Rico finally face indictment for instigating Wheeler's murder.

In 1980 a gang that included cops robbed a Medford, MA bank and stole what turned out to Angiulo cash.   The leader, Arthur "Bucky" Barrett, returned the money to Angiulo upon learning who it belonged to, but in 1983 Whitey and Steve grabbed him, extorted $60,000 from him, then killed him.   He was buried in the basement of a house the two owned in South Boston, and Barrett's two sons never recovered, killing themselves years later.  Around that same time Whitey and Steve killed Deborah Hussey, Steve's stepdaughter, because she'd confessed to Marion Hussey that she'd been fellating Steve; she was buried in the same basement. 

Then in 1984 Whitey got involved in drug running, though a weed importer named Joe Murray.  His gang tried to smuggle seven tons worth of Whitey-supplied weapons to the Irish Republican Army, but their boats were grabbed.  The DEA, unaware of the corruption of the FBI, revealed they were tipped by a gang member, John McIntyre.  Upon learning this from the Bureau, Whitey killed him.

Whitey's protection didn't end with the FBI - Boston's largest paper The Boston Globe effectively covered up for Whitey, claiming him to be innocent and repeating the line "he kept the drugs out of Southie."   Only in 1988 did the Globe acknowledge he had a "special relationship" with the FBI.  Billy Bulger, meanwhile, had become as Mass Senate President the de facto governor of the state and steered money his way while working to keep Whitey and others out of trouble; he'd even tried to get Zip Connolly appointed as Boston Police Commssioner, and when Whitey telephoned him Billy refused to inform police of such calls, despite being required to do so as an officer of the court.  Billy also stonewalled a grand jury in 2001 about helping his brother, a federal fugitive.  He finally testified before Congress under a grant of immunity, the same deal Whitey's fellow gangsters got before testifying, and even then lied in claiming ignorance.

In 1990 after busting wannabe Mafia boss "Rubber Lips" Patriarca, Connolly retired from the FBI and was given a politically-connected utility security job.   But in 1995 the feds, by now recognizing to keep the FBI out of it, handed down indictments to Whitey and his gang; Whitey fled, having spent twenty years establishing aliases and setting up safe-deposit boxes around the world.

Handling the trial was Judge Mark Wolf, a former member of the office of attorney William Weld before Weld was elected Massachusetts governor; Wolf had directly or indirectly witnessed when Jeremiah O'Sullivan worked to cover up for Whitey and Steve, and thus Wolf was the one who forced the FBI to admit the two gangsters were informants and to turn over old documents - it was these documents proving Whitey and Steve had set him up all these years that caused Johnny Martorano to finally turn on his former friends and expose them for what they were.   And by the time of Whitey's 2011 arrest Connolly and Flemmi were convicted criminals and Rico was dead. 

And now Whitey is gone, responsible directly or indirectly for some 59 murders and unknown millions of dollars stolen - all enabled by the FBI at the behest of a crooked US House Speaker.

The cliche still works - you can't make up this stuff.

Week Nine To The Nines

Cincinnati raced to a big lead but when the Bucs changed quarterbacks they rallied to force a late Bengals game-winning drive; the game raised more questions about the future of Jameis Winston, benched after four INTs




The NFL reaches Week Nine, and with six teams on byes, pickings get somewhat slim.



Raiders over 49ers -   The question here is - will C.J Beathard play given a wrist issue?  He's listed as probable, but assuming he plays he hasn't proven he can handle the NFL game.   The Raiders meanwhile are still striving for some kind of momentum to win.


Vikings over Lions - Remember Detroit's three-game streak over the Vikings?  That seems like Barry Sanders-level history right now.   The Lions are 3-4 and haven't forced a turnover in two straight games, while the Vikings have something in common with the Lions in they're both coming off ugly losses.   Kirk Cousins didn't cover himself in glory last week and one wonders if he gets back the fire he showed earlier this year.


Falcons over Redskins -   This is a bit of a tricky pick given the mediocrity of the Falcons at 3-4 vs the 5-2 Redskins, but while I don't like how the Falcons are playing right now I'm not sold on the Redskins as much as I like Alex Smith as a quarterback.


Panthers over Buccaneers - This may erupt in points with the return of Ryan Fitzpatrick as Bucs starter and the Panthers winners of three of their last four with over 30 points in three games this season and the 17-point comeback vs the Eagles still fresh in memory.


NY Jets over Dolphins -  Losers of four of their last five, the Dolphins also may be stuck with Brock Osweiler for awhile with Ryan Tannehill questionable.   The Dolphins are also giving up 7.9 yards per pass, which may help a struggling Sam Darnold, stuck at 55% completion and who has led the Jets to a combined 27 points in the last two games


Ravens over Steelers -  The Ravens are still smarting over losing three of their last four and get a Steelers team they manhandled earlier this year.   The Steelers have rallied with three straight wins, but those have come against two teams they dominate (Cleveland and Cincinnati) and a mediocre Atlanta squad.


Bears over Bills - The collapse of the Bills continues and the Bears come in needing a win to continue gaining momentum with games against the Vikings and other quality teams looming.


Chiefs over Browns -  This will be a fascinating matchup with the surging Chiefs taking on a Browns team that fired its head coach and offensive coordinator - it's a wonder they kept Hue Jackson after his embarrassing hands-off/analytics philosophy expressed on Hard Knocks and resultant underachievement.   The Browns have shown genuine talent and moxie this season, so we don't expect any pushover for the Chiefs.


Texans over Broncos -   Houston has evolved from their 0-3 start to now look again like the Warren Moon Oilers, especially in putting up 42 points against a Dolphins team that hung tougher longer than expected going in.   It seems clear Deshaun Watson is healthier now and that's great news for the Texans facing a 3-5 Broncos team unable to regain the momentum of their first two weeks.


Chargers over Seahawks - San Diego is 5-2 vs a 4-3 Seattle squad that is 1-1 vs. the Chargers in the Pete Carroll period.    The Chargers have yet to beat a team with a winning record this season, but then neither have the Seahawks.   The resurgence of the Chargers has been amazing and stands in contrast to a perceived shakiness in Pete Carroll's program.


Rams over Saints -  This is the clash most looked forward to, as the Rams edged out the Saints in a lowish-scoring affair in 2017 at the Coliseum.   The potential big difference is the Saints are 23rd in fewest points allowed, but the way offenses have erupted of late I'm doubtful they won't score much against the Rams.   The Saints also have an edge in run defense, leading the league in fewest rushing yards per game (and a paltry 3.2 yards per carry allowed) as they take on the Rams' league-leading ground attack.


Patriots over Packers -  The Packers come off a bitter loss at the Rams and come in 0-3 on the road.   Aaron Rodgers comes in with the three-score comeback against the Bears - only the seventh such comeback from down at least two scores in his career -  a distant memory now and looking more like the old off-the-back-foot Aaron Rodgers vs. the one who for the first (and seemingly last) time had to play Brady Ball in the win over the Bears.   The Patriots defense looks shaky but is ahead of the Packers in points allowed, plus the Patriots offense should show up better after playing down to the subpar Bills - an annoying habit permeating the Belichick era of playing up to good teams and down to bad ones.  


Titans over Cowboys -  The Titans come off their bye and off a bitter loss to the Chargers on a missed two-point conversion.   The stats don't look good for the Titans, but the situational execution looks a lot better, as Tennessee has been in every game except the embarrassment against the Ravens, and have wins over Houston and Philadelphia, both at .500 or better.   The Cowboys come in as a rollercoaster - loss, win, loss, win, loss in overtime, win, loss - and no win over anyone with a winning or .500 record.   Jason Garrett's reputation as a sham coach/bobo of Jerry Jones isn't being dissuaded, and stands in contrast to the strong beginning for first-year Titans coach Mike Vrabel.  




Happy post-Halloween.

Overhyping Of Short Tracks Hits Again In Finale Of 2018

Talladega's October weekend was a tale of two radically different races.   The Truck 250 was a highly-competitive affair with some very aggressive push-drafting and a last-lap crash; when it was over Timothy Peters grabbed the win, his first since 2015 and first in Maury Gallagher's Chevrolets.

The slicing and dicing in the Truck 250 stood in surprising contrast to the Diehard 500 where the Stewart-Haas Racing Fords lined up together and displayed a power like race sponsor One Thousand Bulbs  - an online lighting retailer.  The SHR Fords refused to race each other, playing the team-order game to a strikingly effective - and controversial - degree.

But it's been the subsequent Old Dominion 500 weekend that's caused recent excitement.   Martinsville had the usual incidence of crashes - including a pit road gaffe by Clint Bowyer with William Byron -  as Joey Logano led some 300 laps before late-race pit shuffling put Logano back in the lead.

But it was Martin Truex who tried to steal the show - and wound up getting the win stolen on him.   Truex was livid at Logano afterward, and he arguably has a case for anger - he raced Logano clean (something too many racers seem to have forgotten how to execute) and Logano swerved him.

The Old Dominion 500 finish brought back memory of Logano's introduction to national racing and the 2009 Toyota Showdown at Irwindale Speedway.


The buffoonery at Martinsville marred what was developing into a memorable finish regardless of outcome, and the action brought yet more social and regular-media hype about how good short track racing is.   NBC analyst Jeff Burton - a winner at Martinsville in 1997 in a good clean nose-to-nose dice with Bobby Hamilton - stated on his Twitter account that "the combination of a short track and the Playoffs.....(meant) these drivers are under more pressure to perform than ever before."

Which leads, though, to the obvious - so where, Jeff, are the 35 lead changes?  The track has broken 30 official lead changes three times this decade and even such races at Burton's 1997 win, Hamilton's subsequent 1998 win, John Andretti's 1999 win, to name three, were genuinely competitive affairs even though they didn't reach that level, so Martinsville has unquestionably been a legitimately competitive track. 

Yet the hype for "more short tracks" after such races continues the deplorable approach of pitting speedways against each other and sells short tracks as more than what they are.  

It is illustrated most graphically in Dave Moody's postrace blog posting, a piece worth a response.


Moody is flat wrong about why the speedway building boom of 1996 onward favored 1.5-mile tracks - that design was chosen because it was large enough for 100,000-plus seating and luxury boxes, small enough to avoid the criticism that "we can't see the whole track," and was a competition model that had delivered quality racing.

As shown in the 1997 Vegas BGN 300, the 1.5 milers are fundamentally sound as a competition venue.  

Atlanta became a very competitive race for four seasons 1999-2003 as a quad-oval.

Moody's assertion that "Over the last five to seven years the best racing in NASCAR has invariably been found on the short tracks and the road courses," is also not true.   The best racing in the decade by far has been on the restrictor plate tracks.   Pocono has also seen some strikingly physical racing, notably the crash-torn 2010 season.   And the most celebrated Winston Cup race of this span remains Fontana in 2013.  That doesn't mean there haven't been memorable short track races in that span; it means the maligned bigger tracks have delivered as well.

An irony is the collapse of popularity of Bristol, which altered its corners to where by 2010 there was sustained side by side racing up front as had been the case there in 1989-91 - racing that was notably cleaner than the one-groove demo derbies that permeated the track 1992-2009.   And fans began protesting against it - there was unavoidable verbiage to get Bristol back to the one-groove mess it had been.   Fickle fans, indeed.

The main gripe about bigger tracks is aeropush, which ignores where aeropush began - at Martinsville.   Bobby Hamilton following the 1996 Old Dominion 500 stated there was aerodynamic push in the cars in that race.   Short track aeropush has been reality as long as aeropush has existed, making utter nonsense of the indictment of bigger tracks.

Related is the common claim that on short tracks "aero doesn't matter."   Any casual look at Late Models shows this statement is laughable - Late Models look more like superspeedway cars than today's superspeedway cars do.   And back in the day the aerodynamic rake of Richard Petty's mid-80s Pontiacs was compared to the aero rake of dirt cars.


Moody claims fans are "voting with their wallets and credit cards."   Are they?   The short tracks NASCAR has haven't sold any better than superspeedways; Bristol in particular posted a very solid crowd in its recent Volunteer 500 but some of its recent Southeastern 500 crowds have been shockingly nonexistent.   And this recent Martinsville race was anything but sold out - which led to a Twitter rant during the Truck 250 there that fans who claim to want more short tracks need to come out and actually support the short tracks.

Moody indicts several races like the Brickyard Xfinity 250 in advocating returning the Xfinity series to Indy Raceway Park.   The phase-in of the NA18D draft duct package in that race in its last two runnings makes complete nonsense of dropping the Brickyard in favor of a forgettable bullring.   No IRP race ever measured up to the 2017-18 Brickyard 250s in competitive excellence.

The same is true of the Truck Series, whose big track races have been competitive to a level its 1995-2000 run primarily on short tracks never was.   Moody uses the cliché "return to its roots."  The cliché in blunt fact means "drag the sport back to the farm" - regression.

Moody also repeats the claim that the schedules will be shaken up after 2020 when the present set of sanctioning agreements expires.   The claim has never held up credibly because of a complete lack of logic - the sport is going to drop races on big tracks in good markets in favor of bullrings in weak markets?   Often advocated is moving Cup dates to Iowa Speedway - a track owned by NASCAR and which would already have gotten Cup dates if the concept was in any way credible.

"The excitement generated by the Charlotte Roval and Martinsville in recent weeks is difficult to ignore."   The superior racing in the Talladega Truck 250 is also difficult to ignore.  The excellent racing generated by the coming NA18D package is also difficult to ignore.   NASCAR needs to field the most competitive racing the sport can get, and the objective reality is it is not a case for more short tracks.

The Hate Crime Myth

First a repost from February 29, 2016:

The numbers disprove the existence of hate crimes.

We now add this piece on fraudulence in "hate crimes."

NFL Week Eight Arrives

The Patriots had a far more competitive game vs the Bears than anyone likely expected, and concern about the Patriots defense have led to rumor of a trade for Patrick Peterson from the Cardinals



The NFL's eighth week arrives, so we try again with picks even though for the year we're not that great - about .500 -



Texans over Dolphins - Miami will be without Ryan Tannehill and ex-Texan Brock Osweiler will start.   Osweiler's regression as a quarterback has been striking as his replacement, Deshaun Watson, is steadily improving and the Texans have won four straight coming in.



Eagles over Jaguars, London - There has been a ridiculous controversy where Colin Kaepernick suck-ups have been demanding the Jaguars sign Kaepernick even though Bortles has as many wins this year alone as Kaepernick had his final two playing seasons.  The Eagles for their part aren't better off, after blowing a 17-point lead to the Panthers.


The other subplot here is Jaguars owner Shad Khan has withdrawn a big to purchase Wembley Stadium - a sign the Jaguars see there isn't a future in permanently moving to London.


Chiefs over Broncos - Denver played tough vs Kansas City the first time, expect the same here.



Browns over Steelers - This is a risky pick given the Steelers' turnaround in recent games, but the Browns are well ahead of where they were in 2017 and their comeback to the tie in Week One indicates they're no longer afraid of the Steelers.


Bears over NY Jets - The Jets' poor performance against the Vikings is a bad sign after back-to-back wins.   Sam Darnold was not prepared for the cold day and the Bears are coming off a bitter loss.



Redskins over NY Giants - The Giants still played respectably in the Monday Night loss at Atlanta, but it now seems they are in rebuilding mode with the trade of serially-immature defensive back Eli Woodard - aka Eli Apple - to the Saints.    The Redskins meanwhile are 4-2 and that should get better with this matchup.



Panthers over Ravens - Both teams have four wins but while Cam Newton and Joe Flacco both have eleven touchdowns, Newton got his scores with 94 fewer passes.   The Ravens have been uneven in their last three games at 1-2 vs Carolina's 2-1 in that same span.


Bengals over Buccaneers -  After getting obliterated in prime time the Bengals right now don't look like potential division champs but they get a Bucs team that changed quarterbacks and needed overtime to beat the Browns.


Lions over Seahawks - The Lions now appear to be slowly buying into Matt Patricia, this as the Seahawks come in and both teams are winners of three of their last four games.  


Colts over Raiders -  The Raiders now appear in true teardown and rebuild mode as Jon Gruden continues to remove players he inherited and the Colts come in off a needed win and averaging 32 points scored in their last four games.


Cardinals over Niners -  The Josh Rosen experiment is off to a terrible start, but his first win was at San Francisco, which still has yet to see any winning out of C.J. Beathard, this despite a 62% completion rate to Rosen's 55%.


Rams over Packers - The Packers and Aaron Rodgers - perennially overrated.   The Rams - right now it's hard to see who will stop them.  


Vikings over Saints -  Drew Brees' career struggle against the Ravens nearly saw at least an overtime game, and his recent struggle against the Vikings comes to mind as the Saints march into the New Humphrey Dome and in Kirk Cousins a quarterback who's actually thrown for more yards and touchdowns than Brees.  



Patriots over Bills -  Rookie quarterbacks usually struggle, and this stat illustrates the lopsided nature of this matchup - Josh Allen has fewer touchdowns this season (two) than Tom Brady had vs. the Bears (three).     The fact Brady's loudmouth wife Gisele will take over Brady's normal spot with Jim Gray on the Westwood One halftime show is almost more interesting than this matchup.



So it goes for Week Eight.

Elizabeth Warren and the Progressive One-Drop Rule

Elizabeth Warren's quest to put the ethnic fix in for her career illustrates the idiocy and illegality of identity politics.

"The leftist senator's diversity con turns into career suicide.

The UN's New Global Warming Scam

The UN's latest global warming scare uses the same fraud science and bad economics it used in 2013.

NFL Week Seven Gets Revved Up

The NFL's seventh week is coming off some eye-popping results in Week Six and the teams we felt would be contenders seem to be falling into place.

What may be Game Of The Year erupted at Foxboro as the Chiefs erased a 24-9 gap and Patrick Mahomes proved his bona fides beyond all remaining doubt, but Tom Brady showcased why he is Greatest Ever in a 43-40 shootout, the highest scoring game in the history of the rivalry dating to the inaugural American Football League season.

2002's 41-38 overtime thriller had been the highest scoring game in the rivalry



There was also the ugly incident where a fan dumped beer on Tyreek Hill at Foxboro; the fan was banned from the stadium for at least this season.  

Thus do we get to Week Seven's games -



Broncos over Cardinals -  Two going-nowhere (a combined 3-9) teams.   Both have new quarterbacks but Denver is using an experienced passer in Case Keenum, and his experience has gotten him nothing after winning the first two games this season.   Rookie Josh Rosen for the Cardinals, though, has struggled with being a rookie, and facing a Broncos team that has lost four straight is not that enticing a chance at improvement.

Chargers over Titans, London -   Tennessee's disaster of a 21-0 home shutout by the hated Baltimore Ravens was lowlighted by the sacking of Marcus Mariota eleven times. It raised the issue of the Titans offensive line - see John Glennon's breakdown - which overall has been a longtime strength of the team. The Titans have lost two straight games and have just one win over the Chargers since their 1992 Houston Oilers season.   San Diego has surged of late and stand at 4-2.

This is one of the league's London games amid a quote from league executive Mark Waller that London "is definitely ready" to have an NFL team.   Concurrent with that is the story that the Jaguars are exploring actually moving to London though keeping their executive offices in Jacksonville. 


Texans over Jaguars -  The Jaguars meanwhile have fallen badly since beating the Patriots and at 3-3 host the now-3-3 Texans, winners of three straight despite a minus-1 turnover differential.   Deshaun Watson was sacked seven times in the win over Buffalo but Blake Bortles has faltered with five INTs in his last two games.   Look for Houston to continue momentum.


Dolphins over Lions -  Miami pulled out a clutch win over the Bears and now at 4-2 they get the weaker (at 2-3) Lions, winless on the road so far and giving up over 500 yards of offense in holding off the Packers last week.    Buying into new coach Matt Patricia is clearly a slow process, but two wins in the last three games is a sign of progress; that won't be enough against a now-surging Dolphins squad.


Eagles over Panthers - Carolina didn't pull it off over the Redskins with two fumbles and another Cam Newton pick - surprisingly the Panthers are plus-3 in turnover differential, and they get an Eagles team that is minus-4 in turnover differential and has lost three of the last five games.   Even with that the Eagles have shown a little more consistency than the Panthers.


Browns over Buccaneers -  The Bucs fired their defensive coordinator - ex-Falcons coach Mike Smith - and at 2-3 have sunk from the high-scoring days of the first three games.   At minus-6 in turnover differential the Bucs haven't been able to hold onto the ball.  Jameis Winston did show improvement with four touchdowns despite two INTs over his two-INT gag job off the bench against the Bears.   The Browns for their part are coming off a home humiliation by the Chargers, but Baker Mayfield has shown more so far than some may have expected and clearly is becoming the true leader of the Browns.

Tom Brady's flying touchdown vs the Chiefs wasn't the first time he faked out the defense - Brian Urlacher is the best-known victim


Patriots over Bears -   New England's 46-10 massacre in Superbowl XX is almost the only success the Bears have ever had against them.    Since then the Patriots have annihilated the Bears, winning in 1988, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014.   The rise of Matt Nagy and Mitchell Trubisky certainly adds competition to the rivalry going in, and the way the Chiefs attacked the Patriots defense gives the Bears (presently scoring 28 points per game) reason for optimism.   But the toughness of the Patriots also showed and taking down a rising quarterback and coach aren't unfamiliar missions for Belichick.


Vikings over NY Jets -  This could be the sleeper game of the weekend as the Vikings and Jets both have three wins and the Jets are scoring 27 to 28 points a game, contrasting the sluggish 23 points per game scored by the Vikings.   Sam Darnold, though, has yet to break 60% completion for the season vs. 63% completion allowed to opponent quarterbacks; Kirk Cousins meanwhile is at an eye-popping 71% completion rate.   The Jets have also allowed 81 points (27 per game) in their last three even with back-to-back wins.    We think this game will be competitive, but that the Vikings squeek it out.


Saints over Ravens - The Saints come in with one loss - Week One's 48-40 defeat to the Bucs - and Drew Brees is looking, surprisingly, for his first career win over the Ravens  - he's had nine touchdowns, eight INTs, and been sacked ten times in four career games vs Baltimore.   The Saints ground out the win over the Browns in their first meeting with an AFC North team, and we think it gave the Saints warning of what to expect from the Ravens.   Being in the Superdome may help.

CJ Beathard's INT and Richard Sherman's stupid penalty meant Aaron Rodgers won again


Rams over 49ers - The Rams are doing seemingly everything right, though their last four wins have been competitive games.   The Niners have collapsed without Jimmy Garoppolo and one wonders if C.J. Beathard (despite having a better completion rate - 62% - than Garoppolo - 59%) will ever figure out how to actually win a game, having done so only once in his career.


Cowboys over Redskins -  The Cowboys believe it or not are 3-3 heading to Washington, now 3-2.   Destroying a vaunted Jaguars defense gives the Cowboys some momentum with four straight wins in this rivalry on their side as well. 


Chiefs over Bengals -  The Chiefs won't go unbeaten but they get a Bengals team that got taken down a notch - again - by the Steelers.   Same old Bengals - talented and consistent winners but never enough to beat the good teams.


Falcons over NY Giants -  The question is when does Eli Manning get benched?   Supposedly owner John Mara is refusing to let the coaches go with backup Kyle Lauletta, this even as Eli Manning gets worse.   The Giants decision to build the team around Eli with a shored-up O-line (former Patriot Nate Solder was supposed to be the anchor) and running back Saquon Barkley has spectacularly blown up and the season looks lost, even with the uneven Falcons next up.



So it goes entering Week Seven

US Containment Of Iran

Iranian aggression in the Middle East now appears to be being contained by sustained US effort.

The Party Of Mob Savages

Screaming women now personify the Democratic Party as they fought for a woman who made an accusation she refused to verify.


And the mob mentality erupts with the pipe bombs story of late October.

NFL Flies Into Week Five

After something of a sluggish start the NFL exploded in Week Four with a striking number of highly competitive games and the league now flies into Week Five.

Week Four began with a wild Thursday Night game, this as the Thursday Night games have usually been undercompetitive given the short turnaround time for the teams involved.    The explosion ran through the rest of the week.

The Patriots were widely thought to be in serious trouble after two ugly losses to teams - Jacksonville and Detroit - they have otherwise owned.    Against the Dolphins the Patriots got some key people back, cleaned up tackling issues, and got back to basics, especially on offense.    As a result the Patriots annihilated the Dolphins 38-7 in a game where Ryan Tannehill's lack of natural quarterbacking ability became more graphically displayed.   

Flying completely under the radar are the 3-1 Titans under new coach Mike Vrabel.   Despite being down multiple starters to injuries Vrabel has coached the Titans to three straight wins.   The return of Marcus Mariota despite a nerve issue in his throwing arm showed again as he led the comeback.   He has now led comeback wins over the Saints, Lions, Colts twice (both 2017), the Chiefs twice, the Bengals, and now the Eagles.   

That these aren't the same old Bengals showed in an enormously competitive game at Atlanta where a missed two-point conversion by the Falcons proved disastrous.   Bad injury to TE Tyler Eifert put a damper on the win, and for the Falcons it's a case of looking for answers.

But the early candidate for Game Of The Year is the Raiders overtime thriller over the Browns as Derek Carr erased an eight-point gap in the final minute to force overtime, then withstood a Browns possession in overtime to lead the game-winning field goal drive.  The 45-42 win was Jon Gruden's first as a coach since November 2008.   

The Houston Texans' thriller of a win over the Indianapolis Colts won't take a backseat in terms of rip-roaring football competition.   Andrew Luck erased a 28-10 Texans lead - shades of the Jack Pardee-era Houston Oilers - but after an exchange of field goals in overtime Frank Reich tried to convert 4th and 3 - he's gotten a lot of criticism for it but he was right - for the situation it was the move needed to win the game.   The win was desperately needed for the Texans and may now get Deshaun Watson and company on a winning run.

 
The dynamic of the NFC North may be changing as Mitchell Trubisky and Matt Nagy may be establishing good longer-term rhythm, this at the expense of a Bucs team that was exploding in offense but which now looks in trouble with Ryan Fitzpatrick crashing to earth and Jameis Winston looking rusty or worse.

The AFC West may be the tightest division in the AFC as San Diego edged the Garoppolo-less 49ers.   C.J Beatherd's rough effort to develop in the NFL continues to get rough.


So what to expect in Week Five?


Patriots over Colts - Andrew Luck has never done well in five career starts against the Patriots and New England is getting more key personnel back plus have gotten back to basics.   Luck may make more of a game of this as his presence with the Colts clearly elevates that team. but expect the Patriots to take care of business.


Panthers over NY Giants - The Giants tried to build around Eli Manning and it isn't working.   The Panthers keep winning and Cam Newton has won his last two starts vs the Giants.



Broncos over NY Jets -  The Broncos are coming off the bitterest kind of loss (and making the taste in their mouths worse is they've now lost six straight to Kansas City) and get a Jets team that's lost three straight and where much-hyped Sam Darnold has fallen fast - five INTs to just four TDs so far and a 57% completion rate.   Case Keenum has proven more than adequate for the Broncos and will certainly be doubly motivated to win this one.


Falcons over Steelers - The Falcons have been in a rut this season but are scoring like crazy.   The Steelers have also scored a lot but their team is clearly dysfunctional with the Le'Veon Bell holdout and a larger culture not conducive to team rhythm - relying on talent and big egos in the long run will fall apart and this is happening now for Pittsburgh.

2012 was the last time the Titans visited the Bills and it was one of the most exciting games of that season


Titans over Bills - The Josh Allen era in Buffalo is off to a rough start at 1-3, four INTs to two TDs, and a completion percentage of only 53%.   The Titans come in on a roll, expect them to pull off their fourth straight win.



Bengals over Dolphins - Ryan Tannehill's struggles as a quarterback are undeniable, but also undeniable is his ability to win; he just has a level of competitive muscle beyond which he can't go.   The Bengals get him this week now leading the AFC North.



Packers over Lions -  At 1-3 the Lions have yet to show improvement over the Jim Caldwell period, and they get a Packers team that's overrated but still 2-1-1.



Chiefs over Jaguars - The Chiefs come in after a big comeback at Denver.  They won last time they faced the Jaguars (2016), but the caveat is that was pre-Tom Coughlin.   Patrick Mahomes is the sensation of the league right now but then Blake Bortles is  better than people want to give him credit for.   This one may be tighter than expected.


Chargers over Raiders - Pick the home team and expect whatever the points over-under to be to get broken as both offenses (outside of San Diego's kicking game) are humming coming into this game.


Rams over Seahawks - The Seahawks have the same problem as the Steelers - a dysfunctional locker room culture overly dependent on talent and big egos instead of team-orientation.    Homefield advantage is also long gone for Pete Carroll's gang.



Eagles over Vikings - The Eagles, smarting from the OT loss at Tennessee, get back to The Linc and get a faltering Vikings team; expect the Vikes to put up points anyway.


Niners over Cardinals - Two faltering teams; pick the home team here.


Texans over Cowboys - The Texans got back on track last week and get a Cowboys team that is 2-2 but has looked inconsistent as such.



Saints over Redskins - The Deadskins are a lot better off with Alex Smith than they ever were with Kirk Cousins but the Saints are rolling.




So it goes as we fly into Week Five.

The 2018 Musket 250 Finish

NASCAR's Modified Tour raced 250 laps at New Hampshire in mid-September 2018 and the lead changed 30 times; the finish exploded, bringing back some memory of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough as Chase Dowling, thwarted at NHMS in July, stormed to a spectacular win.

The Sham Rape Accusation Stat

A statistic always cited in discussion of sexual crimes is that only six percent of rape claims turn out to be false. The fact of the claim is asserted as ipso facto proof, because women would not stoop to lying about rape.

But the stat is woefully flawed. Six percent of rape claims are declared false, but 45 percent have no or no compelling evidence behind them and thus "Case did not proceed." It is ridiculous to assume any significant percentage of such cases would be true - though some clearly would be.

The Slandering of Brett Kavanaugh

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is on his way to confirmation, until Senator Dianne Feinstein - employer of a Red Chinese spy for twenty years - outed a leftwing judge who claimed she was manhandled at age 15 by then-17-year-old Kavanaugh. The story has not held up to evidentiary standard (with a major portion of Ford's life oddly unaccounted for) and its timing betrays its malice. It also showcases how anonymity has become the new form of character assassination. And Senate Republicans giving her benefit of the doubt are seeing she's shafting everyone.

Ford's story collapsed of its own contradictions and insincerity, so out came a phony story from Ronan Farrow and Jane Meyer authored a New Yorker piece claiming another woman accuses Kavanaugh of sexual assault, a piece shot down almost right away. And then the inept lawyer for the inept Stormy Daniels claimed a third accuser had emerged claiming gang-rape by Kavanaugh - a story that isn't sticking, either, and in fact none of the stories holds up to evidence.

That six FBI background investigations before this showed no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kavanaugh is being ignored shows the Kavanaugh accusations are about nothing but hatred by the sham "Me Too" movement.

Puerto Rico And Hurricane Revisionism

A ridiculous controversy has erupted claiming the Puerto Rico hurricane killed some 3,000 people, this even though Puerto Rico's governor at the time stated some 64 people had been killed.  The models used to claim some 3,000 deaths are deeply flawed and the mammoth - implausible - death toll is cited to attack Donald Trump over recent praise of FEMA.   The controversy of course ignores the thorough corruption, incompetence, and dishonesty that makes places like Puerto Rico far more susceptible to massive damage from natural disasters.

NASCAR's NA18D Races

With a decision apparently coming down that NASCAR will phase in its NA18D racecar package - a restrictor plate, larger spoiler, and ducts in the nose blasting air out the front wheelwells - for some fourteen or more races in 2019, a look at those races to date that have run this package -

 The first race to see this package was the 2017 Brickyard Xfinity 250 and it proved a spirited race won by William Byron

The 2018 All Star Race at Charlotte was the first Winston Cup race to run this package and it opened a lot of eyes by restoring the draft at Charlotte, where it had been a major fact as late as the 2000 National 500

Pocono's Xfinity 250 was next; it was dominated by Kyle Busch but also saw a huge battle to win Stage Two - history has shown the more teams work with this package then they catch back up to someone like Busch

Rain shortened the Michigan Xfinity 250 but the racing was competitive, and the increase in lead changes at Michigan with this package was noted all weekend

The 2018 Lillys 250 may have been more aggressive than 2017's running, with noticeably more blocking and highlighted by a four-abreast battle to win Stage One.    



The package by any objective measure has been a success, yet has caused pointless controversy and illustrated the disconnect of some drivers from racing reality.   There is no credible reason not to run this package as the universal racing package. 

None.

NASCAR, make the right call and speed up implementation of this package.   Make The Draft Great Again.



UPDATE October 2: A modified form of this package will come into the sport in 2019, with a smaller tapered spacer rather than a restrictor plate.

Did Nasser Have a Hand in Dag Hammarskjöld’s Death?

A new study raises questions about the death of UN demagogue Dag Hammerskjold in 1961 and the role of Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser - who'd been rescued in effect by Hammerskjold (and also President Eisenhower) when Britain, France, and Israel attacked Sinai amid Egyptian aggression against Israel and also against international shipping.

Don’t Work with the Southern Poverty Law Center

"The SPLC cannot be trusted to discuss “mainstream hate” honestly"

Minimum wage facts and fantasies

"What percent of all the people who work in the U.S. are paid minimum wage?"

No, Separating The Cars Is Not Safer

This was initially published July 7, 2015, and has been periodically updated as of August 2018:

The Austin Dillon crash at the 2015 Firecracker 400 and the last-lap tumble at the MAV-TV California Indy 500 at Fontana a week earlier have renewed criticism of "pack racing" and "restrictor plate racing" and how the cars should not be as bunched up as they are. This criticism was renewed in 2017 after two-thirds of the field at the Rainguard Indy 600k at Texas crashed and Sebatstain Bourdais exploded in anger at "b******t racing...we can't race like this." The argument has always been "We have to separate the cars, because it's safer."

No, it isn't......

.....and Sebastian Bourdais' own crash proves him an idiot and hypocrite.


We've seen it at Atlanta on the old oval layout with the Steve Grissom crash tearing open the concrete, while the new layout hasn't lacked big crashes as seen in March 2015 and the most infamous one of all, when Carl Edwards turned into an assassin on Brad Keselowski, not only at Atlanta, but then in even more savage form at Gateway. The most celebrated Atlanta race of all - the 1992 Dixie 500 - also tore up a bunch of cars.

We've also seen it at Charlotte in this compilation of recent wrecks and also in these two wrecks from the 1994 All Star race and also the Ricky Craven melee in 1996 and also the even more vicious Ernie Irvan melee that same year. Charlotte melees never seemed to stop.

And the beginning at Texas Motor Speedway became infamous for its wrecks, lowlighted by October 2000's O'Reilly 400 for the Trucks that included Derrike Cope's enormous melee. Texas also saw the famous 2008 Michael McDowell tumble.

And it isn't limited to places like that, as Bristol is famous for crashes, as seen in this cheesy compilation,  in Mike Bliss's crash that sliced open the fencing on the frontstretch, and David Green's melee.  Bristol's history with big wrecks has been pretty long as evidenced by this 1998 disaster and the track's most celebrated finish.

Most people remember Austin Dillon plowing into the fencing at Daytona in July 2015 - forgotten is Ben Kennedy trying to slice out fencing at Kentucky a week later.  

Some have suggested running the Daytona road course instead of the oval - except it isn't a good idea. Heck, running road courses isn't a good idea as shown here and also with yet another self-important Ryan Newman soliloquy after 2014's melee.

Fans go gaga over the kind of road course melees they whine about on superspeedways - and with far lower incidence of passing than on superspeedways


NASCAR isn't the only one with this myopia about the dangers of pack racing versus non-pack racing. Indycar at Toronto for one sees melees that are really vicious with the Jeff Krosnoff melee the most infamous. The 1995 running saw a lot of nasty melees and RC Enerson recently saw a vicious melee there as well.

Toronto isn't the only such venue where bad crashes have happened - one of the worst was Dario Franchitti's career-ending melee. Franchitti also got into the air in a big way in Kentucky's non-pack race in 2007.

Serious driver injuries hit again in late August 2015 at Indycar's ABC Supply 500 at Pocono, a disaster that claimed the life of Justin Wilson in a crash he otherwise wasn't even involved in - the Sage Karam crash.

This cheesy compilation shows multiple bad Indycar wrecks, only one of which shown here can be called a "pack" crash.

The dark days of 2000-2001 saw the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin (both at New Hampshire), Tony Roper, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Blaise Alexander.   2002 was slightly better, except for a near-fatal crash for Sterling Marlin and a huge crash for Tony Stewart at Darlington.

And in April 2017 at Doington Park in England, F4 racer Billy Monger lost both legs in a savage crash.



By now I think the message is clear - There is zero correlation between size of wrecks and actual risk to drivers.

What these and other melees all showcase is this - the cars are separated as they ostensibly are not in "pack" races - yet the enormity of the crashes is not in the least reduced by being separated; if anything it has only given cars a running start before impact.   The reality is separating the cars is just dumbing down the racing.

That Will Power and Ryan Newman speak out against these races reflects poorly on them.   Racing needs to increase competition while improving safety; it should not dumb down a sport that has foolishly been dumbed down with inferior competition at too many venues.   NASCAR should let its drivers push-draft again to increase passing, while Indycar found the right formula at Fontana and needs to expand on it - 80 lead changes is a lot better than the 22 Daytona saw - a 22 that needs to be 44 and above.

Robert Wickens' crash at Pocono in 2018.



So no Will Power, and no Ryan Newman et al - separating the cars is not safer, it's dumbing down. 


Addendum May 17 2016: The biggest wreck of 2016 so far was at Dover.    While the wildest open wheel crash was this Formula 3 melee at - ironic track name - Spielberg.

More road race nastiness at Road America 2018. 



Worth noting are successful drivers in NASCAR who've never won a Winston Cup draft-pack/restrictor plate race as of October 2018 -


Rusty Wallace
Ricky Rudd
Geoff Bodine
Martin Truex
Kyle Larson
Carl Edwards
Kasey Kahne
Alan Kulwicki
Juan Montoya
Marcus Ambrose
Kyle Petty
Ricky Craven
Steve Park
Jerry Nadeau
Johnny Benson
Jeremy Mayfield
Joe Nemechek
AJ Allmenidnger
Lake Speed
Elliott Sadler

John Esposito Excuses Islamic Savagey

John Esposito heads the Oxford Islamic Studies Series and has spent his career excusing Islamic savagery. Among his worst excuses is defending the Muslim law of oppression known as Sharia.

The Fraud Of John Brennen

Former CIA chief John Brennen lost his security clearance and there's been the expected huffing and puffing about it - but the reality is he never should have gotten a clearance to start with, because he is a liar.

Santa Monica's Money For Nothing

A California town repeats the mistake made by governments forever - they want price controls.

Hungary Says No To Islam

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, vows his nation won't submit the Islam.

Germany Admits Renewable Energy Doesn't Work

Amid the brouhaha of Donald Trump abandoning the Paris Agreement was an admission by Germany's energy minister in June that sustainable energy can't work -

"Even if we did manage to get enough electric cars, we wouldn't have enough renewable energy to keep them on the road."

Trump abandoning the Paris Agreement was a big first step toward realism on energy and the environment.

Not All Cultures Are Good

Part of the moral relativism of "progressives" is that "all cultures are equally good and equally valuable." The fact is some are barbaric.

Israel's Nationality Law

A new "nationality law" in Israel as expected is under fire even though it merely institutionalizes "the 70-year-long reality of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state."

Weaponized Politics

Weaponized politics are debased politics and weaponizing words comes with a price.

Government To Make Homeowners Bail Out Pension Ponzis?

Two pieces indicate homeowners will be made to pay for pension ponzi schemes.

Shape Up Or Step Down Brian France

The DWI-drug possession arrest of NASCAR CEO Brian France serves as a vindication of the late Jack Flowers.   Before his death in 2009 Flowers had covered NASCAR for Grand National Scene and from 1980 to 2005 he covered racing for Speedway Scene.  He became very critical of NASCAR and the France family in that time and before his death he published a slim book called The Dirt Under The Asphalt where he examined how NASCAR had wronged him and several others - his primary target was Brian France and Flowers went into some detail about Brian France's drug use and how the France family covered it up.   Brian worked at Tuscon Raceway Park in the early 1990s but was moved, and Flowers' reportage indicates it was to prevent arrest.   France also had a DUI in Daytona in 2006 where police were unable to prosecute.  Years back France supposedly was also checked into the Mayo Clinic under an assumed name.

So Brian France's drug use and drinking have been an open secret effectively ignored by the Race-Stream Media outside of the late Jack Flowers.   The immediate question one should ask is - why was the France family enabling a relative they knew was a drunk and essentially an addict to take over the racing sanctioning body they'd run so well for decades?

The other question to ask is - how can anyone justify letting Brian France keep his job?  As more than one wag has observed, Brian France should be getting the Jeremy Mayfield treatment, yet instead he is getting the Harvey Weinstein treatment - "rehab" and eventual return to normality, albeit without the loss of fortune Harvey Weinstein is now suffering.

Dave Moody notes the crossroad the sanctioning body now faces. That the sanctioning body faces this crossroad stems from the widespread coverup of France's drinking and drug use and resultant enabling of such behavior, and from the utter lack of credible debate as to whether Brian France ever should have been considered for the job - his successor, his uncle Jim France, by all evidence has far greater grasp of the nuances of racing than Brian ever has.

It is no accident that next to Roger Goodell, Brian France is the most hated CEO of a major sports sanctioning body in the US, and the hatred of both is for essentially the same reason - they are PR hacks lacking credible understanding of the inner workings of teams or the sport.   Brian France's ignorance of the inner workings of racing has shown in his hands-off approach, his lack of interaction with racing people (his blow-off of Martin Truex at the 2017 awards banquet was the most egregious example), and in his bad decisions -


The top-heavy TV deal has not worked - Brian was a key in the centralization of NASCAR's TV deals beginning in 2001; the two deals negotiated over the last seventeen seasons amounted to billions of dollars, yet the net result is the sport is poorer relative to everything else than it was before centralized TV deals - "if there is such thing as too much money, we had it," the late Robert Yates noted of the dodgy business economics of DiGard Racing, and it's obvious Brian France's TV deals have made for the same result - more money, but far more overspending.  

The reality was the old "hodgepodge" system where the tracks themselves negotiated their own media deals was fundamentally more effective for racing and was already netting ever-more money for tracks and teams.   Brian's approach has kept out networks the sport now needs more than ever - notably CBS, once the strongest network covering racing.   A revamped TV deal that decentralizes back to giving the tracks some more negotiating autonomy would allow CBS, MAVTV, and others into the sport, not limit it to just FOX and NBC.

This also relates to the absurd lack of TV money spent on NASCAR's lower touring series like Xfinity, Trucks, the Mod Tour, etc.   Allowing more networks in will allow more money to go to the lower series and thus make them more viable, for the long-term benefit of the sport.


The Chase concept is a failure - This is the signature Brian France decision and the one decision above all that has harmed the sport's long-term popularity.   The concept of playoffs in racing has corrupted the season, and the fact eight of the fourteen "Chase" championships to date - 2004-17 - would have seen a different champion in a season-long title format shows how the playoff format has crowned the wrong champion on a consistent basis.


The Car Of Tomorrow - Just one view of the car - a squat-looking top-heavy sedan body with a wing and grotesque gapped airdam - was enough to prove the concept would never work, and once it was shoved down the sport's throat it didn't work - it was dubbed The Quick Brick and instead it was the Sick Brick that wasted years of the sport's existence chasing a sham.


Moreover, areas where Brian France gets praise don't hold up -

He gets praised for making the sport safer - as if the sport's inevitable technology evolution was not already doing so.

He gets praised for pushing Diversity - a concept that is never anything but a dead end, shown in the failure of Danica Patrick, shoved down racing's throat for one reason - because she is a woman.

"But what justifies diversity? Nothing but unsupported assertions, repeated endlessly, piously, and loudly."

No one has ever made a credible argument that the sport being an all-male sport waving Confederate flags was ever relevant to anything and ignores how unmolested market forces create real mixture - Bubba Wallace success with Richard Petty illustrates unmolested market forces working.


In short there is no credible reason why Brian France should not step down.   He's an addict - that's been known for a long time and quietly enabled by everyone.  He's not qualified for the job he was given - he's proven that.   There is no way around it - Brian France needs to step down.

CFL 2018 Week Eight Argonauts At Redblacks

The Toronto Argonauts stun the Ottawa Redblacks after trailing by four scores.

Europe And Antisemitism

" As the memory of the Holocaust fades, traditional antisemitism that turns into anti-Israel attitudes is no longer politically incorrect."

NA18D And Another Busch Bash At Pocono

Thoughts following the Gander 400 at Pocono -

Bubba Wallace was one of thirteen drivers busted in post-qualifying tech and thus had to start in the bottom ten - he was listed 39th but after about six cars went the back before the green he actually started 33rd - of the Gander 400.   In a season of struggle and poor finishes he clawed toward the top-20 before his brakes exploded and this mess erupted.

There was chatter about so many cars flunking post-qualifying tech and the effectiveness of punishments, but it may not be so simple to deal with.

The Wallace wreck also led to some chatter about altering the hairpin-esque Turn One, though realistically catastrophic brake failure is something no configuration of corner can deal with.   


Pocono's Summer 400 illustrated the mixed bag of NASCAR's transition period of late - while the TV ratings for the sport remain subpar, attendances overall have been solid, and fan enthusiasm isn't gone. A recent Forbes piece indicates the much-sought "millenial" audience in fact is taking to NASCAR, which seems to illustrate sociological assumptions about millenials aren't always accurate.

It also illustrated the strength of Kyle Busch (the winner), Kevin Harvick (fourth), and Martin Truex (a disappointing 15th). Busch and Harvick started in the bottom dozen while Truex started eighth. Harvick led 30 laps and Busch 52, while default polesitter Daniel Suarez led an impressive 29 laps - compared to just six led all season - and finished a spirited second.

The big story outside of the post-qualifying controversy and Bubba Wallace's ugly melee was the continued improvement of the Hendrick Motorsports fleet, as Alex Bowman, William Byron, and  Chase Elliott all finished in the top seven, this as JGR put three Toyotas in the top five.   The recent surge by Hendrick comes amid Andy Petree's radio interview where he noted the Chevrolets have not worked together, and this lack of cooperation will now just get worse because now Hendrick Motorsports can believe it doesn't need to work with any other Chevy team - and one wonders if, a la the old Childress-Petree-Earnhardt engineering alliance of 1998 onward or the Pontiac inter-team alliance of 1994 onward, there will be even closer interaction between RCR, Petty, and the JTG-Daugherty team that put AJ Allmendinger to a decent 14th.


---------------


There is the old debate - is domination as seen from Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex good for the sport?   It's a debate that can never truly be decided, for while one does see surges of attention when someone starts dominating, attention surges more when someone else takes down the dominator(s).   One certainly can admire three superstars at the top of their game, yet other teams surging and toppling the dominators and growing competitive depth is something always good for sports.


---------------


What Pocono (and almost every other track) can use most is making the draft effective again a la last week's Eastern Propane Modified 100 at New Hampshire. And a Lee Spencer report published the night before the Pocono race indicates NASCAR in 2019 will implement what is called the NA18D package, a modified form of its draft duct package at Vegas, Fontana, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Michigan, Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Indianapolis.   The intriguing tidbit is that NASCAR apparently wants to use a smaller engine spacer rather than a restrictor plate and have two unrestricted engine packages - the open motor and the "NA18D" engine set at 550 hp.  

The curious aspect is the set of tracks apparently overlooked for this NA18D package - Pocono, Atlanta, New Hampshire, and Homestead.   New Hampshire has certainly demonstrated in its 29 seasons of Whelen Modified Tour competition that the draft can kick in, and the other three are more than large enough for the draft to make a huge difference.   And even more curious is why Daytona and Talladega are not yet targeted for draft ducts, which certainly can only help the effectiveness of the draft at those places as they have elsewhere they've been used.  


One can certainly hope such a package improves the racing as the present version unquestionably already has.   For now the series surges to Watkins Glen - which has seen plenty of melees that make Bubba Wallace's wild ride look tame.

Obama Aids And Abets Al-Qaeda Affiliate

The Obama Administration funded an Al-Qaeda affiliate that had been known as such for over a decade.

2018 New Hampshire Postmotems

The in-car view of Kevin Harvick's run to victory at New Hampshire



LOUDON, NH - 2018's New England 300 weekend arrived and the end result was the first true one-on-one showdown between the Cup series' Big Three - Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex.  The showdown came with a bump-and-run attack by Kevin Harvick on Busch, and the result was the sixth win of the season for Harvick and eighth for Stewart-Haas Racing, this atop a superb effort by Aric Almirola and good effort from Kurt Busch (who led the most laps in the race).  It all added up to a huge week for team co-owner Tony Stewart after the Eldora Truck 150 at his dirt track in Rossburg, OH got a lot of hype before and afterward.


There were as always notable postmortems -



For almost the first time this year, Chevrolet actually showed some improvement -

The often-graphic lack of muscle or competitive depth by Chevrolet in 2018 has been one of the big stories of the year, but here at New Hampshire three Chevrolets finished in the top ten and five in the top twelve.   Chase Elliott led 23 laps, this after leading just nineteen all season, and his fifth-place finish was only the sixth top-ten this season and first since Sears Point.   But it was the way he ran down race leader Martin Truex and challenged using lapped cars as a pick that was eye-opening; Elliott has run up front a lot in his two-and-a-half Cup seasons but always was missing something as far as learning how to finish off such runs.

Jimmie Johnson's tenth was his seventh top-ten of the season.

Ryan Newman finished a surprising sixth, his second top-ten in three races.    

It was a curiously quiet day for Kyle Larson, anointed in some of the satellite radio chatter during the week as the most talented driver in the garage.

Chevy's improvement didn't translate to their other two teams - the Daugherty-Geschtecker Chevrolets struggled as Chris Buescher finished 20th and AJ Allmendinger was taken out by Kasey Kahne early in the race.   Bubba Wallace and the Petty 43 finished a dismal 24th and added to that embarrassment by being the pick on Kevin Harvick's decisive pass on Kyle Busch.



Almirola now making some competitive noise - 

Aric Almirola has been competitive in the SHR 10 this season, but since being taken out by Austin Dillon at Daytona he'd been the quiet member of the team most of the season.   That's been changing with 70 laps led at Chicagoland and 42 at New Hampshire, as well as a whale of a fight for fourth toward the end of the race with Chase Elliott where they swapped the spot several times over several laps.   

Christopher Bell opens eyes in Lakes Region 200 -JGR Busch-Xfinity driver Christopher Bell surprised people in the Lakes Region 200, a race where Brad Keselowski was expected to dominate - indeed, that Bell bested Keselowski led to "David Beats Goliath" on the telecast.   It was Bell's first Loudon win and the ninth in the last ten New Hampshire Xfinity races (Brad Keselowski spoiled the streak in 2012).   Bell's win comes after his Kentucky win the previous week and his popularity going forward is only burgeoning.

While Eldora gets the hype, the Modifieds deliver the best racing of the week -

Ryan Newman has run the NASCAR Modified race at New Hampshire as part of now twenty-six Mod Tour races, all at either Loudon or Bristol.   Here he drove a Curb Motorsports car and got into a race-long battle with Chase Dowling and Justin Bonsignore; Doug Coby led ten laps but was eliminated in a pit shunt with Newman and Jon McKennedy, Woody Pitkat, and Joe Degracia led briefly before Bonsignore, Newman, and Dowling took over; in all the lead officially changed hands twenty times among seven drivers.   Eric Goodale quietly crept into the fray, but it was Bobby Santos who stole the show - literally, clawing into the fray in the final 21 laps and then striking in the final six laps.   The fight for the lead turned into a multicar epic and Santos won by a rollbar with the leaders four abreast.

The Modifieds have always delivered high-quality competition at New Hampshire and showed anew how superspeedway draft-pack racing with overgripped racecars opens up passing where having more power does not, this coming after the much-hyped Eldora Dirt Debry and the exciting finish it saw.   One dislikes pitting tracks against each other and it is in no way any damnation of Eldora or other short tracks, but no short track has lived up to the sheer ferocity of superspeedway draft-pack slicing and dicing as the Modifieds deliver at New Hampshire.

The surprise remains the event does not get live media broadcasting - contrast with the days of the old Nashville Network that aired the race live; one is also struck radio coverage is not offered.

Apart from Newman, the star of the Mod Tour race was Mod veteran Ryan Preece, eliminated from contention by an early suspension failure.  

It all added up to another memorable weekend for the sport.

Carolina Cobras vs Massachusetts Pirates Week 14 2018

The National Arena League season closes in on the playoffs and a huge game for both the Cobras and Pirates erupted into a last-second stunner, with both teams in a four-way logjam with the Columbus Lions and Jacksonville Sharks for playoff seeding.

NASCAR Gets Dirty At Eldora

Compilation of wrecks in the 2018 Eldora Dirt Derby

Chase Briscoe surprised everyone with a fender-length win


NASCAR's annual Eldora Dirt Derby 150 for the Truck Series saw a spirited finish and a lot of chatter instigated by promoter Tony Stewart when he called on NASCAR fans to demand NASCAR give him a Winston Cup date.   The idea will of course get pushed by a lot of people, but a more objective look is needed here amid what was admittedly an impressive finish.

I say admittedly because for most of the race it was a pretty typical dirt race - the Trucks fighting for the cushion, the bottom lanes never really getting hooked up, passing never developing as much as drivers want, the vehicles involved looking like Triceratops on roller skates more than racing vehicles.

Dirt racing is what it is - but it's also grossly overhyped and overrated.   For local racing it's fine, for major league motorsports it may be fun but it's not that good.   And being overhyped and overrated some myths have been pushed about dirt racing -


Myth - the cars don't need aero or big-time engineering for dirt races 

Aero matters - a lot - on dirt.   Fendered dirt cars make superspeedway stockers look like the old "taxicab" cliche used against NASCAR in the 1960s - they even make modern Late Models look like old-school superspeedway cars.

The wings of outlaw sprint cars likewise put the myth to claims aero doesn't matter on dirt


There is also the reality that NASCAR teams are now beating NASCAR's new Optical Scanner, and also Truck teams have started to build special dirt vehicles for Eldora.  Local racers without the budgets or technology of Winston Cup teams may not have figured it out, but the longer NASCAR runs major-league series on dirt the more money they will spend, between the Optical Scanner, shaker machines, and the like, on engineering better dirt cars - and do not ever believe they won't succeed, having long ago made regular short tracks as much an engineering exercise as superspeedways.



Myth - dirt makes the racing more a driver skill exercise

The 150 was monopolized by Kyle Busch Motorsports and ThorSport.   Between polesitter Ben Rhodes and rookie Logan Seavey, like so many modern NASCAR guys a California native and also Toyota Development driver who has competed in the World of Outlaws - ironically driving for race winner Chase Briscoe - KBM led 97 laps while Briscoe led 54.   So the big teams of the Truck Series as usual took over.

No one else led.   Much was made of longtime veteran Norm Benning racing his way into the feature - and Noah Gragson got some heat after the race because Benning passed him - and largely lost is Benning never really got anything going and crashed out of the race.   The biggest surprise of the night wasn't even Briscoe's win - it was the fact Austin Wayne Self, perennial nobody, ran as high as third for a lengthy stretch of the race - and a bigger indictment of Self is rookie Max McLaughin (his dad is Northeast racing hall of famer Mike McLaughin) out-finished him in a second Al Niece Chevrolet. 

The blunt reality is dirt is not the equalizer it's being hyped as being.



Tony Stewart's call for Winston Cup at Eldora is yet another example in the ridiculous debate that has pitted speedways against each other, an exercise in fratricide that has never benefitted anyone.   To illustrate the rank hypocrisy involved, consider this idea -

We hear fans call for tracks like Charlotte, Texas, Pocono, Michigan, and Kansas to give up their second dates to allow more short tracks in Cup - so how about instead Bristol, Richmond, and Martinsville give up their second dates for other short tracks?

No doubt we will get pushback from fans to the idea that Bristol, Richmond, and Martinsville be forced to give up dates for other tracks - and of course the justifications for keeping two dates at those places will further display fan hypocrisy on the issue.   We've already seen plenty of speedway fratricide over the last twenty-two seasons - when, fans, does enough become enough?


The big draw Tony has in mind is simple - Cup is where some ninty percent the TV money goes; he gets little to no TV money from the Truck race.   The solution there should be clear - take perhaps twenty-five to thirty percent of Cup TV money and switch it into the Xfinity, Truck, Modified, K&N, and Weekly Racing Series; work to get a third and fourth TV network - CBS immediately comes to mind - to invest in NASCAR, perhaps even start allowing individual tracks to negotiate separate TV deals.   Make it worth Iowa Speedway's while, for one, to settle for the Xfinity and Truck series instead of Winston Cup. 

NASCAR needs to stop pitting speedways against each other and Tony Stewart needs to work better with NASCAR and everyone else for the betterment of his track and of racing.

The Eldora Dirt Derby got a lot of praise and it has shown itself - it is what it is, the sport needs to leave it at that.

NASCAR And When Solutions Are Part Of The Problem

NASCAR's Kentucky weekend began with two surprising winners in Ben Rhodes in the Kentucky Truck 225 and Christopher Bell in the Alsco 300 Xfinity race.    For Bell, it was his third win in twenty-five Xfinity races to date, atop seven wins in the Trucks.   For Rhodes the win was only the second in his Truck career, both in Thorsport vehicles.


The Quaker State 400, in contrast, was the same script seen throughout 2018 - the fourth win of the season for Martin Truex and yet another near-monopoly by Truex, Kevin Harvick (with five wins), and Kyle Busch (also five). Not only that, the racing wasn't competitive and the rest of the field has gotten perceptibly weaker compared to the new Big Three - or as Dave Moody put it, "Hope is a lousy business plan."


It led yet again to pathetic social media condemnation of the track (best shown in hostile reaction to a Darrell Waltrip tweet about the track which he helped build), of 1.5-milers in general, of NASCAR, and advocacy of dragging the sport away from big tracks to the podunk bullrings - "get the sport back to its roots" is the catchphrase, always ignoring the reality that the short track model doesn't work for major league racing. Added to this was a ridiculous commentary during the Honda Indy Toronto weekend where NASCAR's Canadian tour ran, and where Andrew Ranger jumped when race-leader Alex Tagliani bobbled on a GWC restart for the only pass of the race. Some were advocating NASCAR add a street race to the major league tours - this even with a race as typically pathetic in competition as this was.


The sport's issues by now are universally known, yet credible solutions have been resisted and the entire debate has become ever-more absurd.

"Fans have long complained about a lack of competition.....And yet, after discovering a promising potential remedy for those complaints at the All Star Race, NASCAR waved it off under pressure from its athletes.

The hypocrisy of fans and drivers has long been a laughable reality of racing.   As more than one observer has noted, fans who decried the crashes at Daytona were celebrating crashes at Chicagoland.   Add to this that fans long raved for "the old Bristol" - the Bristol with just one groove where no one could race and tearing up over half the field was the norm.

"Fans have spoken. They want fewer "rubber stamp" 1.5-milers and more short tracks, more road courses, more new, more exciting."

Moody advocates adding four short track races to the Winston Cup schedule, such as Hickory, Nashville, Oxford Plains, Berlin Raceway, Myrtle Beach.    But he notes NASCAR would have to basically throw away making any money off such weaker markets and venues and teams would have to accept seriously lower purses.   And one has to ask - for what?  

Fans are angry at 1.5-mile tracks yet are advocating going to tracks that are even less competitive?   Bristol's per-race average of lead changes is a paltry thirteen, compared to 22-plus for Pocono, Michigan, etc (fans also still lament the passing of North Wilkesboro Speedway - which only averaged seven lead changes in 93 career Winston Cup races).    The objective illogic should be readily apparent yet seems not to be for a lot of people - especially given the three short tracks on the Winston Cup tour have been hurt more in declining attendances (some recent Bristol races especially look like ghost towns) than the superspeedways.  To further illustrate fan hypocrisy - would fans support dropping Richmond or Bristol or Martinsville for Iowa?


The sport's problems have solutions - those solutions just need to be implemented and all involved need to give up something worth giving up.............



Run the plate package with larger spoiler and perhaps also larger draft ducts -
Drivers need to give up complaining the cars are "too slow" or "too easy to drive" - what is needed is making the cars more secure to the track and making the draft stronger and thus more important, and thus opening up greater combat up front.



Add downforce, stop fighting against it -
If the cars have more downforce to where they are "slowish" at 190 at Michigan et al they can get back more power; basically find the draft-horsepower-downforce balance Indycar nailed with the DW12 car that exploded in lead changes 2012-17.   Racing has to give up the myth that downforce is bad.



Eliminate the playoff format and adjust the point structure to make wins and most laps led paramount -
NASCAR has to give up the myth of "Game Seven Moments" because they don't exist in racing; also give up the myth of the 1992 Hooters 500; it was a once-in-lifetime moment, stop trying to replicate it.  Instead put all incentive into going for the lead, going for the win.   This is a championship format everyone can recognize without much complication and it makes the races themselves more important again.



Take more TV money out of Winston Cup and put it into NASCAR's supporting series -Instead of moving Cup dates to smaller markets, make those smaller markets worth their while to hold stand-alone races in Xfinity, Trucks, the Mod Tour, the Canadian tour, and the K&N/ARCA tours.   This is part of the motivation for the Truck Series when it started - the goal was to make it strong enough that smaller tracks like presumably Rockingham and North Wilkesboro could replace their Cup dates with Truck dates and thus free up those dates for better tracks and markets.   Iowa, Nashville, and Gateway for instance would benefit from more TV money and the lobbying for Cup dates at those places would be made unnecessary.  TV networks shouldn't object, as such a change doesn't hurt them at all; Cup tracks, which make enough money, also should not object to a slightly smaller TV money slice.



Put some races back to 500 mile distances and earlier start times -
TV networks and the marketing hacks who work for them have to give up the myth that longer races are not what fans want - when challenged to lengthen their attention spans fans respond to the challenge well.   Later start times have made it too inconvenient for fans to go to a lot of races.   500 miles is a better test of racecars and drivers than 400 milers.


No midweek races -This idea has gotten tossed about of late due to the Eldora Truck race, always run on a Wednesday.   There has never been any evidence that running on a Wednesday has created any benefit for anyone.   One wonders who thought this is a good idea and why this idea is being pushed.



Solutions are there to be had - everyone involved in racing needs to be more objective about these issues to find them.

Court Case To Make Diversity Defend Itself

Harvard's "diversity" discrimination against Asians threatens to outlaw the concept of "affirmative action."