Dancing With Ms. AOC (and other weekend talk)

Apparently the ignorant bigot Trumpalos set things a little bit of Footloose is now some kind of slam on AOC. But it it is not. It is just stupid. Seriously, what kind of bigots go there? AOC is bigger and better than that, why are her detractors not?

As Ray Davies and the Kinks would say:

Don’t be afraid to come dancing,
It’s only natural.

And off we go.

Yep, dancing is real. it is awesome, and completely great and @AOC is the epitome of that.

I hope I am not too late for critical Mr. Gun Scribe, but I have been at the vet with my one of my dogs, Kiki. I know he will write 1000 words of bullshit about “his” dysfunctional Steelers. So be it.

At this point, let us talk about teams that are actually in the playoffs. And, no, that is neither the Stillers or the Cheese. Nor the local dope Cardinals.

As to games and teams that can and will happen, let us lead with the AFC.

On ESPN, the Colts are already leading the Texans by 7-0. I do not feel good with it,and will not bet one red cent on it, because Deshaun Watson is really special, but Captain Andrew Luck seems on a real roll.

Second game today is Squawks at Boys. Hard to take a second road team on a home turf, but I will do that. Yes, I know, I will die with my hat in my hand, okay. So be it, and just wait for the next predictions for Sunday!

As to that….And, no I do not feel good about this, but I will take Phil Rivers and the Bolts over the Ravens. Rivers is a WAY better QB than people give him credit for being. This is his opportunity to show it or blow it. I think show it, but need to see it.

The Philly Special will be in Chi Town, The Windy City. Khalid Mack is the anchor the Bears defense always relied on. The importance of his arrival to the Midway because Chucky Gruden was, and is, a total dope, cannot be underestimated. The Bears have been transformed. They were a team on the obvious upswing, and are now legitimate contenders.

Hell of a last game for an insanely good wildcard weekend.

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66 replies
  1. Pat Neomi says:

    It’s that time of year when you can’t bet against a good defense. That makes the bears, especially at home, seem like a good bet. Similarly for the cowboys, but I’m with bmaz- I think the sea chickens pull it out. I just don’t trust the boys in the postseason. When you have two good defenses, as with superchargers and corvids, you gotta take the better qb and that puts my money on San di… L.A. And I would’ve bet on Houston but they’re only 15% to win at the moment, so yeah. All that said, as a broncos fan, I hope the chargers (and next week chiefs) lose spectacularly

  2. scribe says:

    Watson just threw a pick, the Lucks are up 14-0 and driving.

    Dogs at vets is rarely fun, though my late, lamented setter loved to go there because they had a near-endless supply of biscuits and, well, she was a food slut.

    How much of one? Well, there was that time someone had dropped an entire order of Buffalo wings on the sidewalk. Like a dozen. Soaked in hot sauce, dripping Frank’s Red Hot. Didn’t matter. And this was a dog whose nose was so good she once found a field mouse at 30 yards. It was a hard sell for me, while she blew through all that capsaicin trying to wolf down all those wings, to go into her mouth and pull them out (loaded with chicken bones they were), but I pulled it off. One of many examples.

    That appetite was ultimately the beginning of her undoing. She ate a 3 pound bag of the bone meal I used to fertilize my garden. This led, in due time, to a case of pancreatitis that left her dependent on supplements (to supply the digestive enzymes her damaged pancreas no longer produced) so she could gain nourishment from her food, which in turn had to be a limited lower-fat diet. And she slowly declined from there.

    That was kind of the way this Stillers’ season went. Started off with a bang and gradually faded from there. It, too, was the result of indiscipline and self-indulgent behavior. I will limit my further discussion of the Stillers to reiterating my demand that Tomlin must go. I was at the supermarket first thing yesterday morning – needed trash bags before the trash guy would arrive. Where I live, it is most definitely NOT Stiller Country. The checkout lady noted the hypocycloids on my hat and, with sympathetic concern said she thought Tomlin had to go, that he had lost the team. And she was right. And I told her so.

    Tragic. They have pissed away 4 or 5 years of the prime of Ben’s career, and of the other players’. The talent on that team, they could – and should – have gone 13-3 or even 14-2. They didn’t, thanks to Tomlin.

    On to the playoffs.

    This weekend I get a couple good (i.e., interesting to me) games. I’m watching the Colts at Texans right now. Luck was just picked off – pass was tipped and floated into the defender’s hands. I haven’t seen much of either team this year and it will be interesting to see how this one turns out. If I had to pick a fave I’d go with Luck, Frank Reich (ex-Iggle coach) and the horseshoes. Just because.

    The later game is more interesting. I sincerely hope the Legion of Boom 2.0 shows up to put an end to the Owboys’ season. I have been getting unending grief from a friend who long ago (the 70s) fell in for the Owboys mystique and has not left that delusion since.

    As Curt Schilling once said (about the Yankees) “Aura and Mystique are the names of the strippers at that bar down by the airport”. I guess he would know.

    Colts up 21-0. Clowney hurt, another Texan defender also hurt.

    Anyway, if the Owboys lose I can count on a good game when the Iggles go meet Da Bears. While, as you know, my preference is Stillers -Who’s playing Dallas – Iggles, I have a hard time disliking Da Bears. They’ve put together a good team, closed the deal when they added Mack, and look to have a chance at being good for a while. It seems the NFC is always better when Chicago is good, and this is a positive development.

    Did anyone else take away from the latest series of Bud Light commercials, the ones with the foppish royals visiting the Dilly Dilly Bud Light royals, that the foppish royals are parodies on King Roger the Clown and Mrs. Roger? They are. Please give me your thoughts on this.

    Colts D is swarming.

    • BobCon says:

      Nothing to say about football, but the mention of vet treats reminds me that the vet I’ve gone to for the past dozen or so years has always had containers of vegetarian dog treats on her counters. Not one of the dogs I’ve brought in has ever touched one. These have been dogs that eat anything – cardboard, plywood, plastic, gravel, you name it. But one sniff of these treats and they act as if you were offering them a lit match. I wish I had furniture made of those dog treats when they were puppies, because we’d have fewer bite marks.

        • Pete says:

          I too hope that Kiki is OK.

          My 12 year old GSD female had to be euthanized on Dec 27th.  We still have our male GSD 11 year old Thor – the foodie – but he has Degenerative Myelopathy which is a horrible disease.  Heart, recently passed, had hermangiosarcoma which our first GSD also had.  It’s a silent killer that usually attacks internal organs, the tumor’s inferior blood vessel rupture, and then a rapid bleed out.  That’s usually when you know they have it (Heart’s heart was attacked first which is a little different and we had two months from the first sign).  That’s when it has already metastasized and too late.

          Football is just a mind distraction right now but has such let’s not forget GO CLEMSON TIGERS on Monday night.

          • scribe says:

            My sympathies – I’ve lost one dog to cancer and another to the combined forces of pancreatitis and the return of cancer.

            The worst part about dogs is that we live longer than they do.

  3. Jenny says:

    Ms. AOC is a breath of fresh air.  Plus she can dance.  She brings new energy to an institution in need of reconstruction.  “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas comes to mind.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc

    • BroD says:

      Gotta say Ms AOC makes me a bit nervous: she’s like a high-wire act and I’m watching between the fingers of my hands over my eyes.  But I’m starting to build up confidence that she’s got a unique sense of balance and is under control–and that Nancy has her back.

      • Setlistthief says:

        Yes, I like to think that Speaker Pelosi sees something of herself in Sandy, and all her new female freshmen (sorry about the awkward phrasing).

      • Trip says:

        I’m up on the tightwire
        one side’s ice and one is fire
        its a circus game with you and me
        I’m up on the tightrope
        one side’s hate and one is hope

        The Republicans will do ANYTHING and justify anything said or done by any member of its camp, no matter how abhorrent.

        The Democrats, on the other hand, have historically worried too much about what will be said of them. They were too willing to react to the tsk-tsk-ing by people with absolutely no moral/ethical compass. Hopefully that will change.

    • Pete says:

      Believe AOC’s dance was part of a group doing a takeoff from The Breakfast Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVkTAhSxV9w

      I think she was part of a group/troupe as there is reference to other “appearances” with the group around campus.

      And the only reason one might know that is the “stick up their ass” conservatives thinks that’s  damaging.  Hahahahahahahahaha. Football players dance for gosh sakes.

      Music, dance, and the arts fill the soul unless you are a soulless terrible human being like you know who.

  4. posaune says:

    bmaz, I want to thank you for providing the link to the 9th circuit opinion in the IBRAHIM case. I starting reading this, and I couldn’t put it down. IANAL, but I tried to grapple with all of it. I am so appalled at what the government put this woman through. It is absolutely surreal. Shameful. That they knew all along, that the “terrorist” classification was erroneous, and they put her through 8 years of litigation. That, even at the end, the govt tried to invoke “state secrets.” Surely, this professional, educated, and innocent woman acquired PTSD from this. It makes me weep, even in the face of her and her attorneys successes. It is gratifying that these competent, compassionate attorneys represented her. THAT is the hope in all of this.

  5. Bay State Librul says:

    Glad Scribe brought up Schilling…. it fits in well with Cortez.

    Curt lost all his money on Studio 38…. a very intelligent man indeed

    NY Post:

    “Schilling, an outspoken conservative, responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s complaint by tweeting that she is “being scrutinized and treated with suspicion because every time you speak you say something more stupid than the last time you spoke.”

    He added: “You are a college graduate and likely the most unintelligent person, man or woman, in our government.’’

    Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) quickly went to bat for Ocasio-Cortez, telling Schilling that he should worry about his debt to the Ocean State before going after Ocasio-Cortez.

    “Curt, you still owe my state $75 million,” Cicilline tweeted. “Maybe worry about that before you go after [Ocasio-Cortez] again.”

    In 2010, Rhode Island invested $75 million to lure Schilling’s video game company, 38 Studios, to Providence from Massachusetts. The company ran out of money and went bankrupt.

    The company laid off its staff in 2012 and filed for bankruptcy. Rhode Island sued and recouped some money. The case has been settled.”

    Schilling and Clemens, two useless ex-Red Sox. A disgrace!

    • bmaz says:

      As a fan that benefitted greatly from the fact that Curt Schilling was one hell of a truly great pitcher (see the 2001 playoffs and World Series) he is a historically giant asshole.

    • Trip says:

      Translation: She scares the living shit out of me, I’m a mouse of a man. I’m also completely oblivious to real stupidity demonstrated on the daily by the president, likely because I’m as equally intellectually challenged as he is.

    • Trip says:

      Case in point about ridiculous double standards on “newness”. As far as we have seen, Ocasio-Cortez has not tried to kill investigations of a foreign government assisting in her election.

      Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russia Inquiry

      Republicans played down Mr. Trump’s appeals, describing them as the actions of a political newcomer unfamiliar with what is appropriate presidential conduct.
      Mr. Burr said he did not feel pressured by the president’s appeal, portraying it as the action of someone who has “never been in government.”
      Mr. Burr said Mr. Trump was not fully aware of the impropriety of his request because the president still has the mind-set of a businessman rather than a politician. “Businessmen are paid to skip things that they think they can skip and get away with,” he said.
      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/trump-russia-senate-intel.html

  6. scribe says:

    In the annals of trash talking, this one might be the all-time high:  https://www.nhl.com/news/crosby-serves-up-memento-to-heckler-at-rangers-game/c-303510198

    Rangers fan rides Penguin Sidney Crosby the whole game with innovative trash. After the game, Sid autographs a stick, tells the guy “good chirps, go easy on me next time” and sends it over to him.

    Better than the old NY Rangers chant, from the late 70s-early 80s glory days of the Islanders to ride Denis Potvin.

  7. Martha says:

    I’ve been reading a while but not posting….Come Dancing is a great song. Has anyone heard the Raincoats’s cover of Lola? They were a female British post punk band from the late 70s. Their version has a school-assembly sound to it, like you’re sitting in a school gymnasium, but it rocks. There isn’t any pretense with their voices, just folksy harmonies and a raw punk sound.
    And all the criticism about AOC is BS. These trolls are the modern-day version of the character in this Kids in the Hall skit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t4pmlHRokg
    I also have to tell you all how impressed I was with the way the EW commenters handled that snarky troll from a few posts back (the one whose first line was about ‘collusion’). You totally circumvented any back-and-forth engagement with the troll, and instead had an intelligent discussion of him among yourselves in the posts that followed his comments.  It was brilliant, and I somehow felt vindicated in my own little internet world.
    Marcy is the best source of information out there. I’m very grateful for this site.

  8. Rapier says:

    My Bears intuition based upon 53 years of observation puts this in the W column for the Bears but as you know, on any given Sunday. For 52 years one thing was certain with the Bears, their offense would occasionally be average but usually it would be bad. This was built into the culture where the purpose of offense was understood to be to use up the clock and fooling the opponent was considered unmanly. Real men don’t play offense. They don’t play football at all. Every Sunday is like the siege of Leningrad for the Bears.

    Against many decades of ghosts and water under the bridge Nagy came in and said, yes we can score and, horror of horrors we can actually have fun, like it’s a game or something. Actually the offense isn’t all that good but they aim to be.  One man against lifetimes of tradition is a monumental task.

    • Eureka says:

      I get the sense Nagy is similar to Pederson in having a more motivating, inclusive coaching style, i.e. like they are each opposite complements of Reid (hard not to make the contrast given their histories).  Bodes well, along with everything else.

    • scribe says:

      If it had been a Steeler scoring that TD, it would have been reversed.  Happened this year – critical spot in a game, too.  One the Stillers lost.

  9. Thomasa says:

    What a great Kinks cut! Made me go get my headphones and listen again. Hawks down at the half but I have faith. I saw a 12th man banner in the stands.

  10. cd54 says:

    Just curious. Has anybody here gamed out the idea of impeaching Trump on a rolling series of separate and distinct impeachable articles, one after the other? Maybe after 9, 12, 17 it might start to add up?

    • Hops says:

      You might be interested in the Lawfare podcast of 12/18/2018 with David Priess who wrote How to Get Rid of a President.

      What I took away from it is that impeachment by the House is to call attention to the president’s crimes. If so, the House should impeach him for every crime regardless of whether the Senate is unlikely to evict due to politics.

  11. BroD says:

    Well, with the Steelers are out,  the Ravens have served their purpose but today’s game should be interesting and I’ll root for them because home team.

  12. Trip says:

    I nominate Lindsey Graham for Best Bootlicking Duplicitous Sycophant in a Farce of Negotiations on Gov’t Policy.

  13. cwradio says:

    “..Chucky Gruden was, and is, a total dope..”

    Not as much as his boss with the Captain Kangaroo haircut, son of  Al the Genius, proving that brain cells are not handed down through the generations. He gave Chucky a 10 year contract, then refused to pay one of the two best defensive players in the league, in Mack.

    The City of Oakland now says the Raiders can take their commitment to stupidity somewhere else next year, and Las Vegas can waste their bet on these losers after that.

  14. Trip says:

    Watchdog asks DoJ to investigate Ivanka Trump over her work on the Opportunity Zone program
    The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is requesting an investigation into whether Trump violated federal conflict-of-interest law

    The watchdog organization behind the complaint, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also contend that Kushner’s non-management stake in real estate investment firm Cadre, which has launched a series of funds focused on investing in Opportunity Zones, should be considered part of Trump’s holdings.
    CREW highlighted Trump’s public involvement in promoting the program and working with primary congressional sponsor Sen. Tim Scott. President Trump recognized the work his daughter was doing on the program last February, noting that she was “pushing this very hard.”

    https://therealdeal.com/2019/01/06/watchdog-asks-doj-to-investigate-ivanka-trump-over-her-work-on-the-opportunity-zone-program/

  15. scribe says:

    Chargers playing some tough football. Harbaugh ready to put in the Game Manager; it seems the Bolts have prepared entirely too well for Jackson. Something about Baltimore having negative number for total passing so far (about 5 into the 4th Q).
    Watching Baltimore get crushed pleases this Stillers fan immensely.

  16. Eureka says:

    The fireworks were even more beautiful tonight.  One more week.

    I was going to come here yesterday to note that Doug Pederson is a genius.  I meant then of social intelligence and common sense- the most important kinds-  for how they were handling pre-game very quietly, low-key insider-type hype (beyond this being anticipated as a tough game).

    Doug Pederson* is a fucking genius for that time out on a shaky kicker.  A cosmic trade for that centimeters-ish missed 2-pt conversion.

    *Rumors postgame that an Iggle got a fingertip on the ball second time around, too.

    Other thoughts later…

    One more week.

    Fly, Eagles, Fly

  17. Eureka says:

    *As above: Eagle’s Treyvon Hester tipped the ball, so while Parkey’s aim is legendary, it’s just not _that_ legendary.
    Video and tips to see it (look for the glove); there’s also slomo out there that clearly shows the changed trajectory:
    Nick Shook on Twitter: “All-22 footage clearly shows Treyvon Hester got a piece of Cody Parkey’s final FG attempt vs. Eagles.… ”
    https://twitter.com/TheNickShook/status/1082124743233351681

    Eagles’ Treyvon Hester tipped Cody Parkey’s missed field goal in playoff win over Bears
    http://www.philly.com/eagles/eagles-bears-cody-parkey-field-goal-tipped-treyvon-hester-nfl-playoffs-20190107.html

  18. Bay State Librul says:

    The River runs through Foxboro, and what will be Scribe’s “unbiased rhetorical dance” entail?

    I heard pissed off San Diego fans (Remember January 12, 2017 after 56 years of loyalty!) have invited Dionysus for a Patriot’s Wine Celebration to commemorate their grief.

    “Rivers beat New England in 2008, but that was with Matt Cassel starting at quarterback for the Patriots while Brady was injured. Rivers played his first game against New England in 2007, and Brady passed for 279 yards and three TDs in a 38-14 win.
    It’s the third meeting between Rivers and Brady in the playoffs. The 37-year-old Rivers threw an interception in a 24-21 loss against the visiting Patriots after the 2006 season, and tossed two more picks in a 21-12 loss at New England on Jan. 20, 2008 in which Rivers played with a torn knee ligament.
    ‘‘I’ve got to focus on defense,’’ Rivers said. ‘‘I’m not playing Tom by any means. But is it special to go to New England against a Hall of Fame coach and arguably the best quarterback ever to play and get another shot at ‘em? Heck, yeah. Heck, yeah, it is special.’’- Associated Press

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