Guard Dog

When the editor takes a day off

Just to follow up on the last point. The "Gulf War" was IMO the textbook example of how a military intervention should be conducted. If one must be conducted at all. A mandate. A clear objective. A plan to achieve the objective. Overwhelming force. And an exit plan once the objective was achieved. The intervention in Afghanistan did not have all of those. Iraq had none of them.

One more note on Iraq, the lesson to be learned here is nothing in the world is so bad that it can't be made worse by not leaving it alone. But I'm not holding my breath that we're going to learn it.

That meme was more for a laugh than to provoke any kind of serious discussion. Funny political seems out of place in the funny things thread so we usually leave that here.

#19 Mile High no hitter Coors Field is where bad pitchers go when they die. Fly outs in any other stadium are home runs there. But in 1996 Hideo Nomo threw a no hitter there for the Dodgers. The cool part is oERA at Coors that season was 5.12 so this was a pretty big deal. And as far as I can tell this was the only no hitter thrown in Denver to date. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7GSAhAWkSo

Of course you are assuming Bush knew in advance the was was being started under false pretenses. And didn't believe he was right and found out otherwise later. Or that Obama didn't know all along his plan was going to do a lot of damage to private health insurance. I'm not sure Bush was anywhere near so competent. And I figure Obama is trying to sell a wheel barrow full of donkey s--t and was willing to say whatever would get people to buy it. The point of the meme other than to get a chuckle, is they are all goddamned liars. Anyone who actually WANTS to be President is likely someone who should not be.

Bo knows left field! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB9wi_zvMdM

there were something weird in the water during the early-mid 80s. herschel walker actual had faster track times than bo in college, and competed olympic two-man bobsled. in high school, walker won state in 100, 200 and shot put. two guys, one year apart, who were once-in-a-generation athletes and had near identical size at 6'1" and ~225. HA! Good Fun! And both attended SEC schools. By the way Frank Thomas was also at Auburn right after Jackson graduated. He was a two sport athlete and likely would have been a 2nd or 3rd round NFL linebacker but choose baseball. He was also the same size and build as Walker and Jackson. Somewhere in the south there had to have been a factory where a group of engineers were tasked with designing the perfect athletes. The production run may have been limited but it was definitely memorable.

Bo Jackson and his hobbies! Remember that commercial? That guy was something else. But it took a while for me to forgive hm for what he did to my Bucs. This just broke. Bryce Harper chose the Phillies: https://www.mlb.com/news/bryce-harper-deal-with-phillies

Like Shady said, better no deal than a bad deal. If it's any consolation Kim does not look like he'll be with us much longer. Between his eating habits, smoking, and other... recreational pastimes... I'm expecting an early check out from him. I'd be curious to see what comes after.

Kyler Murray: Hmmm... would I rather be the starting QB of the Phoenix Cardinals/Miami Dolphins next year or a staring infielder for the Stockton Ports? When you're a millionaire either way it's a nice problem to have! If I were him I'd pick baseball. Better earning potential over a longer period. Plus baseball contracts are guaranteed. The NFL not so much.

#20 Breaking the Curse In 2004 after an 86 year drought the Red Sox finally break the curse of the Bambino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCBFjmtLgSI

This.... this just... there is so much to laugh at here beyond the seriousness of the subject: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6752221/Gambino-mob-heir-predicts-Michael-Cohen-WHACKED-prison.html

I loved PoE I & II so I'm in on day 1. I'm likely only buying two games this year. OOTP 20 and this one.

Best thing for all parties involved is for people who stumble into positions of power and say such inexcusably vacuous things to be exposed nationally. If they can't removed in the next election cycle at the very least everyone will know the person speaking is a fool. The only thing worse than a diabolical genius in power is the ideological idiot. Don't make me break out that C.S. Lewis quote.... you know I'll do it!

After all she is the one who gave us this little gem: It's more important to be morally right than factually correct

The Montreal Alouettes have released Johnny Manziel for a breach of contract. Whatever he did was bad enough the CFL has forbidden any other team to sign him: https://www.sbnation.com/2019/2/27/18243427/johnny-manziel-released-montreal-alouettes-statement-cfl When Canada is so mad at you they kick you out you KNOW you've f----d up!

OK, there is a little bit to unpack here so bear with me. That was not a short list of bad Presidents, it was a short list of bad people who were President. Taylor is not there because he was a bad executive. He was a drunk, opium addict, and was physically abusive of his wife and staff. Franklin Pierce was a drunk and a womanizer. Harding... well... Trump may even be his spiritual successor. When you start making moral judgments on people from the past it's not productive to apply modern mores to them. Being slave owners during a time when slavery was legal and commonplace (although not moral you could certainly argue) does not make them bad people necessarily. Just people of the time they were living in. That some people rose above those times and fought against immorality like slavery is more a credit to them than a detriment to the ones who did not. That we find that kind of thing reprehensible now says more about us than about them. 100 years from now people might look back on us as evil savages because we eat meat or something. That doesn't make us bad people, that's just how we rolled in the early 21st century. Being a drunk, or corrupt, or physically abusive of those who can't fight back has never been OK. So you CAN take those facts and form a judgement about people doing wrong, knowing it was wrong, and doing it anyway. To take your example Hoover was a very intelligent, religious, and morally upright man. He was just unlucky to have been in office when a crisis happened he did not know how to deal with. You could argue he was a bad President but not a bad person. We've had more than a few like that. In fact I'd say that kind outnumbers the rest. Oh hey Jimmy Carter! When did you get here?

Yeah, as racist and terrible as Johnson was, the Johnson one was partisan as all hell, but what if the President is a real dirty piece of **** that needs impeaching? That's the problem with the system. Not neccesarily saying impeachment should be made easy, but the President shouldn't be above the law, as civillian or politician. On Al Gore, I get the feeling that the Republicans at the time either didn't care or definetly didn't take that into account as they just wanted their piece of meat, so to speak. I don't know if this is true or not but I do remember the speculation that the Clinton impeachment was payback for Nixon. It sounds so petty that it actually is credible! We have had some genuinely terrible human beings as President. Hard to say right now where Trump ranks among the likes of Taylor, Pierce, Harding, etc. But Congress needs to be careful when it comes to removing them. Don't forget they are substituting their judgement over the millions of voters that put that individual there. There is a blowback for playing the role of Brutus and Cassius on the Senate floor. So removing someone for being a POS unfit for office is dangerous. But if they have actually committed a crime then it becomes easier IF and only IF the magnitude of the crime is so large that an overwhelming majority of people will agree it needs to be done. You are right , the President is not above the law but some offences, like Perjury I guess, are not sever enough to be worth the effort. We do have a remedy for the POS presidents who haven't violated the law. It's called elections and term limits.

Well, Nixon left office because they had him on tape discussing the Watergate break in. It was after the fact but there was still more than enough incontrovertible evidence of conspiracy that impeachment and removal was a certainty. I don't think any approval rating would have saved him. They way he went out at least ensured pardons all around and saved face for the GOP a little bit. One thought on impeachment. It's been done twice in hour history. Both times it failed. And in both instances while there was a violation of the law it really did not rise to the level of severity that made it worth the trouble it caused. In Johnson's case the radical republican caucus in Congress was an example of the inmates running the prison. They would likely have turned on Lincoln with equal vigor had he not been murdered. Johnson was impeached for making recess appointments. Appointments they could have removed in the next session so they were just gunning for him and that was the excuse. Clinton they had dead to rights on perjury but that is a crime that is rarely prosecuted and even more rarely convicted on as a stand alone charge in the US. It's usually a throw in. Don't get me wrong, it has teeth. You can spend 5 years in prison for each count. But according to JTSOR there have been just 314 prosecuted cases of perjury as a sole indictment since 2016 that resulted in 112 convictions. So even thought they had Clinton it probably wasn't worth the trouble to try (and fail) to remove him. Besides, if they succeed we'd have had Al Gore as President. You really need to beware what you wish for! But if you do it you better be damn sure you have a smoking gun everyone will believe. Because the next time your guy is in the White House and the other guys ontrol Congress til will come for tat.

Too soon to tell. Absent something tangible impeachment is extremely unlikely. And futile given the makeup of the Senate. And to tell the truth ill advised with an election around the corner no matter what. The Dems would be better served getting all the dirt out in the open than they would be actually doing anything about ti once it is. But... being who they are I suspect they won't be able to help themselves.

The Rockies sign their franchise player long term: https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-arenado-extension-with-rockies

#21 Did you catch that? Jose Fernandez catches a line drive right off the bat of Tulo. Such a damn shame he passed away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N94vJZF5PhE

You are right about that. Even the accusation of child abuse or sexual assault would likely do it. But any kind of conviction for something like that would have them in prison for so long a comeback bid would be moot. Well, Rothlinsburger had to deal with something like that not too far back but I seem to remember that was a credibility problem with the complainant. That whole anthem protest thing and the reaction to it was so stupid. Doing something like that to purposely annoy people is dumb but actually getting annoyed by it is only rewarding the behavior. It's like training a dog. If they do something bad to get attention don't reward the behavior with attention. Even negative attention. If everyone had just let it go it would have died quietly in a week or two. Instead it turned into a two year absurdity that never quite seems to go away. On the other side CK & Co really should have kept their political protests to their own time. Don't bring your politics to the office. Levi's stadium was his office. Do whatever you feel is right on your own time but check it at the door when you go to work.