● The obsessives pushing the NCAA football playoffs swore that it would not make the other bowl games any less significant. No no no... it will make them even more important... somehow. Well, that was obvious BS and I've been predicting all along that it would destroy the current bowl system. It looks like I'm starting to be proved right.
Since the playoffs began, bowl attendance has been falling year after year. Bowls that regularly drew 40,000 to 60,000 in the past now find themselves drawing 20,000 to 40,000 -- the networks have needed to avoid showing the empty stands in many instances. Only six of 33 bowls distributed more than 50,000 tickets, with actual attendance being around 60% of tickets issued. The ninth best bowl this year had its worst attendance since 1957. A couple bowls had less than 10,000 attend. Ohio St. versus USC, a game premium featuring two storied teams with two potential top ten draft picks could sell only 67,510 tickets out of the 100,000 available.
What's more NFL-ready players are starting to drop out of bowl games so as not to get hurt, and the playoff pimps have taken to encouraging them because they see the bowls as "irrelevant exhibition games now that there's a playoff."
That these bowl games will keep fading until they collapse was an easily foreseeable result of creating a playoff system. With almost everyone in the media talking almost exclusively about the playoffs and the human trend to focus on what we are told is important to the detriment of everything else, it was clear that the herd would slowly stop caring about the other bowls.
● Michele Bachmann is back and ready to claim Roy Moore's mantle in Minnesota. Maybe she can finally oust the Muslim Brotherhood from their secret position running the US Government... but probably not. Most likely, she's just being paid to make sure the Democrats retain Al Franken's seat.
● Roy Moore aside, it's been a horrible year for the left. First, despite numerous tantrums, they managed to change nothing: the pussyhat movement died the same day they littered the parks with their placards as they raced to Starbucks to applaud themselves for raising awareness of their upsetness; Black Lives Matter brought out support for the cops which had been flagging; the #metooIwannabeharrassed movement achieved nothing and actually seems to have pushed the standard backward from their perspective... in fact, what the #metooIwannabeharrassed movement really did was (1) ravage the leftist media, (2) wipe out a lot of Democratic infrastructure in Hollywood, (3) expose Hollywood starlets as hypocrites who let other women get raped so they could be in films, (4) revive the right to challenge sex claims and revived due process, i.e. end the "every woman should be believed" crap, and (5) bring shame on a lot of leftists. Gays are nowhere to be seen as a political force, as predicted.
They haven't even been able to slow Trump either, who has had a vast number of conservative victories:
Kept the Supreme Court conservative... appointed vastly more federal appeals court judges (12) than Obama (3) or Bush (6)... let the military crush ISIS... got China to engage in North Korea... Iran appears to be in flames... backed Russia down... brought unemployment way down... growth-creating tax cuts... manufacturing at 20 year high... stock market spike... undid dozens of Obama's socialist/workers/environmentalist policies... reversed the government's position stripping away the rights of those accused of harassment... neutered Obamacare's individual mandate... opened ANWR to drilling... 23.7% drop in illegal immigration... reforms to the VA including adding whistleblower protection... and more. Trump even finished the year equal to Obama's first year in terms of popularity: 46% approve 56% disapprove.And all the left can do is tear their hair out that Melania Trump wears heels, Trump Jr. took a photo with a confederate flag somewhere in the distance, Ivanka... well, she just pisses me off! And Donald eats at McDonalds and OMG I hate him so much!!!!! Ha ha.
Anyways, I wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best this coming year. Remember the things that are important and let the rest roll off your back. Happiness comes only to those who choose to be happy. Seriously. Decide to be happy this year! Have a great year, everyone!
Thoughts?
Yep! The Left has created this "RUN, THERE'S A WOLF/THE SKY IS FALLING!/WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" vibe for the last year. Like most childish tantrums, I really thought this all would peter out by say...April 2017. Maybe we need to put Prozac in the water supply instead of fluoride.
ReplyDeleteAlso, tax reform - It's got NY in a sell off tizzy Poor little rich celebs are selling off their tax sheltered second homes in NYC as other have been fleeing for a long time.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-New-Jersey-Are-Most-Moved-From-States-in-America-Study-Finds-467725193.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_NYBrand
Bev, This is really going to change a handful of states. It's also going to spur the economy a lot.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I think it's funny that Iran might be on the cusp of historic change and all the left wants to talk about it Trump deleting a tweet, which they "think" violates the record keeping laws... like Hillary deleting tens of thousands of emails.
ReplyDeleteI'm still amused at all the hoopla in response to the tax bill. I thought Democrats considered paying taxes a sacred duty and an honor. Now they all want to find ways to avoid it? The number of media hours spent on the topic also goes to show how largely those unmarried, childless, high-income, coastal elites figure on the left.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, Making others pay taxes is patriotic... avoiding taxes yourself is glorious.
ReplyDeleteOregonians,,,,Oreganinans,,,whatever, have to pump their own gas down, they are in full Left Coast Meltdown...this will end badly...
ReplyDeleteCritch, May the Mighty Duck or whatever they pray to in Oregon have mercy on their potheaded little pagan souls. Half of them will be dead in a week.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I didn't know that Oregonians were being forced into...oh, I can't even say it...pump...their...own...oh, dear...gas??? Oh the HUMANITY OF IT ALL!
ReplyDeleteBev, It's going to be a cold, harsh year as Trump forces us into uh.... hm... self-slavery? ;)
ReplyDeleteNow this photo from IowaHawk makes more than just sentimental sense...it's of his father gassing up the tractor at 4 yrs old.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/948691466498560002
Bev, Showing that to Oreganos is racist... just like showing cotton to black people apparently. (LINK).
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteYou are setting a low bar. Since when is getting judicial appointees past one's party or issuing executive decrees considered a big accomplishment? Those are nice things but kind of like crossing the street without tripping they are expected of functioning adults.
I've been saying Trump is Republican Obama (big talker, lousy administrator, boasting a brand of personality driven politics his party can't seem to successfully follow) since before his nomination, I guess that is a good thing now? Fair enough. Seems like we could aim higher to get past the wave goes in wave goes out cycle but maybe we can't.
Also I can't be the only one here who remembers the 2009 protests in Iran or the Arab Spring. Democracy movements in the Muslim world are good things for the U.S. but A) the benefits manifest only in the medium term and B) there isn't much that can be done to help them without diminishing their local credibility.
Last of all I confess to not seeing a dime's worth of ideological difference between Trump and Bachmann and I recall them once being almost as close as Trump and Putin. Has there been weird Bannonesque drama between the two?
Anthony,
ReplyDeleteA low bar, huh? First tax reform in 37 years. Corporate taxes lowered to match the rest of the world... ending the red state subsidy of blue state taxes... corporations giving $1,000 bonuses to their employees as a result. Kind of significant. All time high in stocks. Highest manufacturing in 20 years. Lowest unemployment in over a decade. Crushing ISIS. Bringing Asia together on North Korea. Low bar? That's a stronger list of achievements than most Presidents can claim for their entire terms.
As for the judges, most people consider saving the Supreme Court from going liberal to kind of be a somewhat important achievement... kind of. So is appointing around 8% of the judges on the vital 50/50 Federal appellate courts. Again, kind of important. You did see how many more he got than Obama and Bush, right? He actually set a record. Again, kind of important.
I have no idea what your second point relates to. Nothing in my article.
Not sure what your third point is either, but that said, of course I remember the 2009 protests. What does that have to do with leftists attacking Trump's use of Twitter rather than focusing on Iran though?
Finally, Bachmann is fringe religious right. Trump has been a mix of liberal and fringe libertarian. Those are polar opposite ideologies in many areas.
The tax bill is a wonderful thing. For a while it looked like there wasn't going to be a big legislative accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that the economy is humming along. I'm sure given the opportunity Trump will kill that particular goose with protectionist nonsense. He hasn't done anything monumentally stupid on that front (legislative paralysis has an upside) but that might change. It was a big issue for him on the campaign trail.
My second point was related to you viewing Trump having the same approval rating as Obama at the same stage as an accomplishment to be excited about.
Conservative court nominees are important but expected. Given that Republicans pretty much stopped appointing Obama nominees well before he left office it seems to me that Congressional Republicans should get most of the credit rather than Trump.
Your initial claim was that Iran was in flames. What does that have to do with Trump's tweets or leftist reaction to them? If you are surprised that domestic interest in international events is low unless the public sees a stake or finds a sympathetic (or unsympathetic) character to key on, you shouldn't be. That has always been the case.
Along those lines, ISIS being crushed on the battlefield is wonderful but that is the sort of thing presidents don't get much credit for. The two relevant factors for most voters are soldier deaths and the death toll from domestic attacks. Perhaps ISIS being crushed on the battlefield will mean less terror attacks being staged in the West. Time will tell.
As for North Korea I see business as usual. Like every president before him Trump has tightened sanctions and as always China and Russia continue to cheat on sanctions. What is this radical change you are seeing?
It looks like the Northeast is being destroyed. Bev, do you need us to come dig you out??
ReplyDeleteAlso, by the way of an official announcement, I won't be discussing the Bannon book. It's obvious crap. Sadly, the anti-Trumps will wrongly see this as the four hundredth silver bullet, but I'm not interested in discussing it with them. Never wrestle with a pig...
ReplyDeleteAnthony, if we pretend that all the things that are aren't or one day will not be or if we attribute them to others because we don't like giving Trump credit, then you will be right about Trump. But in the meantime, these are things he has done. They are real. They are concrete. They are significant.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone think Bannon and Trump turning on each other would be a big deal? It's amusing to watch since both guys are cut from the same cloth but all it does is give late night comics fodder for a day or two.
ReplyDeleteSNOW??? <<> WHAT SNOW?? Oh, yeah...RUUUUUUUNNNN!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!
ReplyDeleteActually, it is pretty intense. The snow is going sideways at about 45 miles per...second! But somehow I think we will be okay.
Bev, Sounds like an interesting storm! I couldn't believe the pictures of ice hanging from palm trees. I don't think I've ever seen that before!
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteCrediting or blaming presidents for everything that happens in their watch is not a reasonable thing. Our two most recent presidents have been big talkers who like to take credit for everything, which has furthered a delusion a large segment of the American electorate has always had.
Presidents are not the only actors and every single thing that happens in the world is not a result of their decisions. Recognizing that reality is not insult to whoever happens to hold office.
Anthony, Presidents don't act alone and they should not be given total credit for everything that happens, but they do get credit when they act on something, it happens, and it changes things.
ReplyDeleteThis list is full of things that Trump did on his own - foreign policy changes, legislation he wanted, repeal of regulations, appointment of judges. And while I don't generally give credit for economic changes for a few years after passage of budgets and the such, there have been a LOT of direct connections between Trump's policies and how business is reacting. There are a rash of $1,000 bonuses being given in direct response to the tax cuts. His communications with various companies brought billions of investment dollars and tens of thousands of jobs here. He gets credit for that.
Moreover, you have to look at his achievements by comparison to his predecessors. Bush and Obama achieved piddly by comparison. Obama had a super-majority and he only achieved two bits of legislation: Obamacare, which satisfied no one and has been in slow motion implosion since passing, and Dodd-Frank, which too is being repealed. His eight years moved the foreign policy ball zero inches. Bush did nothing until 9-11 and then squandered vast amounts of good will. Clinton's successes were flopping and taking credit for things he opposed. Trump, by comparison, has effectively dismantled the Obama years and has passed conservative legislation like we haven't seen since 1986.
You may not like him (I don't), but these things are undeniable.
Just want to add one thing - North & South Korea are heading to high level talks. May amount to nothing, but Trump's threats and not backing down managed to get them to a table.
ReplyDeleteBev, He's also got both China and Russia engaged. Both have troops on the border and China has been pushing Kim to stop.
ReplyDeleteI think he's played this very intelligently so far. His mockery is exactly how you unsettle a guy who thinks he's God (i.e. Kim). Hence, Kim goes from thinking he's the big dog that everyone is afraid of to seeing that he can no longer control the situation.
Moreover, Trump's belligerence has made China think that a war is possible, which means they might lose North Korea. So they are now thinking regime change to keep their client state. Up to now, like Kim, they've seen the West as impotent.
Oh, even though this has nothing to do with Trump, 'member the big recount in VA for the Virginia House of Delegates -
ReplyDeleteDemocrat Shelly Simonds was leading by one vote against Republican David Yancey. Court decided that the winner would be decided by pulling the name out of a hat.
Fast forward - yesterday the name was drawn our of the hat... Republican Yancey. Board of Elections swore him in immediately. We are now deciding votes by sorting hat...
Bev, "by sorting hat" LOLOLOL! Bravo! I do suppose a toilet bowl would make more sense though.
ReplyDeleteSo let me add that all the descriptions about Virginia being a blowout for the Democrats now are called int question as the GOP did retain the House of Delegates.
As an aside, the collective is now droning on that Trump will start his plan to "kill social security in his second term."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why he would wait. Maybe he needs time to clean up all the bodies from "Operation: Kill All The Babies" and "Operation: Let The Poor Starve In The Streets."
Idiots.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteMost of its existence North Korea has been in talks, seeking to get sanctions/pressure generated by its antics (including but not limited to its nuclear push) reduced.
It pushes things as far as they can go, then negotiates a reduction of tensions (pocketing whatever it gained) then the cycle begins anew.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the job tweet from Fox News? Trump has been great for business but the Obama era demonstrated the Dow hitting new heights doesn't necessarily filter down to workers.
That is not an argument against business or globalization (that ruthless efficiency gives us all, rich and poor, a lot of affordable, high quality stuff) but it is a reality that needs to be kept in mind.
It's worth noting workers need to be so a better job of acquiring the skillsets companies are looking for (nods towards tech degrees).
https://www.mediaite.com/online/fox-news-research-trumps-first-year-in-office-worst-for-job-growth-since-2010/
Despite President Donald Trump and his allies boasting that the president’s agenda has immediately resulted in stock market surges and job gains, the truth is that 2017 resulted in the slowest year for job growth since 2010. This morning, the Fox News Research Twitter account sent out the following tweet showing recent year-by-year comparisons:
Fox News Research
✔
@FoxNewsResearch
Average Monthly #Job Gains
-by year
•2017: 171,000
•2016: 187,000
•2015: 226,000
•2014: 250,000
•2013: 192,000
•2012: 179,000
•2011: 174,000
•2010: 88,000#JobsReport
Its worth noting that while the absolute numbers may not look great, percentages are favorable to Trump.
ReplyDeletehttp://money.cnn.com/2018/01/05/news/economy/december-2017-jobs-report/index.html
The job market may be the only thing hotter than the stock market.
The U.S. economy added 2 million jobs in 2017, another solid year of gains.
In December, the economy added 148,000 jobs, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. That was below what economists expected, but still the 87th straight month of gains -- the longest streak on record.
"The 2017 job market was really great," said Cathy Barrera, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, a jobs website.
Unemployment remained at 4.1%, matching the lowest level in 17 years.
Wages grew 2.5% compared with a year ago. Wages still aren't growing as quickly as the Federal Reserve would like, one reason so many Americans still feel left out of the recovery from the Great Recession.
I just read that in NY reining in stop and frisk hasn't caused a rise in crime. Like I said a while ago blank checks tend to result in waste.
ReplyDeletehttp://commentaramapolitics.blogspot.hk/2014/01/new-york-state-of-mind-inauguration.html
Targeting black and Hispanic males makes sense (I'm sure the police were doing the same under Giuliani), but giving anybody a blank check (search who you want to when you feel like it!) is generally a bad idea because it tends to encourage waste and abuse (when 1 in 1000 stops results in a gun seizure, one is casting too broad a net).
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455035/new-york-city-stop-and-frisk-crime-decline-conservatives-wrong
Stop-and-frisk was deployed in New York City some 686,000 times at the peak in 2011, dropped sharply in 2012–2013, the last couple of years of the Mike Bloomberg administration, and plummeted to 12,000 incidents in 2016, according to NYPD data tracked by the New York Civil Liberties Union. That’s about a 98 percent reduction in use of the tactic. De Blasio is not the primary reason for this reversal; the courts appeared to be on their way to killing stop-and-frisk on Fourth Amendment grounds before he even took office as civil-liberties advocates built a case that the “reasonable suspicion” standard seemed to have devolved into “a hunch is good enough.” So it seems likely that the sharp declines that began under Bloomberg would have continued if Bloomberg had remained in office. Nevertheless, de Blasio was correct in saying the city could withstand a sharp decrease in stop-and-frisk. And he was right to draw attention to the social cost of the practice; more than 80 percent of those subjected to stop-and-frisk since the start of the Bloomberg administration were, according to the NYPD, completely innocent. That means hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were unjustly subjected to embarrassment or even humiliation.