Tag Archives: Nancy Pelosi

This N’ That

Must say, I’m glad the SuperBowl is over.

It’s an economic boon for businesses around here, but the congestion and some of the… characters… you have to deal with can be a bit much.

Understand, though: Some 90% of the people who came down to enjoy this event, whether football or 49ers or Chiefs fans, are damn good people. They came, they enjoyed, and they left. It’s that 10% -maybe even less!- that unfortunately stick in your mind. I had to deal with some of that percentage and, to say the least, Monday and Tuesday (moreso Monday, though) were rather stressful.

But its over now and the game was good and most of the people were indeed nice so I shouldn’t bitch so much, no?

As for the game itself, I’m really intrigued with the winners, the Kansas City Chiefs. Throughout the playoffs and into the SuperBowl, they have this weird habit of playing really badly and getting behind before seeming to suddenly “wake up” and destroy their opponents.

It’s a weird thing they do and I can’t imagine it will continue working out favorably for them, but if they can get some of that sloppiness resolved beforehand and play more consistently, they will be a very fearsome team for many, many years to come.

Meanwhile, it strikes me that the New England Patriots may have finally, finally reached the end of their magical run. With sports, its a matter of time and New England, though they started with an incredible record, did so by playing mediocre or worse teams through that time period. When they started to play stronger teams, they were exposed as not as good as they first appeared.

Today there’s intrigue regarding what will happen to quarterback Tom Brady. Much as it pains me to say so, he is probably the best quarterback to date to have ever played the position. He is focused, he is relentless, and he is very accurate in his throws.

However, he’s getting quite old now and while this year he played well, those around him did not. He was clearly very frustrated with many of his receivers and, following the end of this season, he’s a free agent.

Will he return to New England?

If so, are they willing to pay an aging quarterback the money he wants? Brady’s agreed to be paid less than he was worth for most of his career but this allowed New England to hire good players around him from the savings they made through his lesser salary.

Word is he wants to get paid what he deserves and, given the cast around him wasn’t all that good this past year, will giving Brady what he wants allow them any wiggle room to pick up a good roster?

At least one other team, the Raiders, have indicated they want Brady if he’s willing to give them a shot.

So I repeat: Is this the end of the New England Patriots/Tom Brady era?

Only time will tell.

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Politics… how can you escape it the last week or so?

You had “President” Trump’s impeachment and when the matter went over to the Senate, it was clear almost from the very beginning the courageous (he says very sarcastically) Republican majority was intent on making sure the matter ended effectively there. They didn’t want any more witnesses, twisting themselves into pretzels to justify that action, and now twisting themselves even more (as if you thought that possible!) to acquit the man.

Not even a censure vote is coming.

Here’s the thing: These people are not only short-sighted, they’ve just tied whatever legacies they have to him.

It’s incredibly difficult to predict the future, but I can’t help but wonder if this is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and the Republican party might have finally gone too far.

There is some 35-40 percent of the country that loves Trump and, I imagine, “Republicans” but that means that some 60-70% do not or are, at best, indifferent to them.

Will we see this reflected in elections later this year?

I certainly hope so.

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So last night we had the State of the Union speech and it was another chapter in the “how low can we go” politics. First, “President” Trump comes out and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi offers him her hand… which he pointedly refuses to shake.

The speech itself… I didn’t have the heart to listen. I’ve read the recaps and it sounded like a rather typical piece of self-aggrandisement. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, politicians have done this since forever.

What gets me is when the Medal of Honor was given to Rush Limbaugh right then and there.

Ugh.

Limbaugh noted he has advanced lung cancer. This is the man who many times argued against the reality of second hand smoke and who made it a point of smoking cigars near constantly on his radio show (and I’m sure in his free time as well).

There are many, many people who noted the irony and many, many others who were quite glad over his predicament.

I’ll try to be nice and not say something rude… even though if there’s anyone who deserves it. And I certainly wouldn’t be so cruel as to suggest, when Limbaugh does eventually pass -whether from the lung cancer or something else- that we should all cue up Bette Davis’ quote regarding the death of Joan Crawford.

No, I wouldn’t suggest that at all.

The State of the Union started with Trump snubbing Pelosi’s handshake but it ended most emphatically with Pelosi once again getting the last word, though it was through actions:

Image result for pelosi ripping trump speech gif"

Yeah, she ripped up Trump’s speech when he was done, right in front of him. By the way, the reason Trump’s putting himself where he is is because he realized what she’s doing and was trying in vain to block her actions out.

It was ineffective and made it clear that one hurt.

Trump keeps trying to one up Pelosi and she seems to always find a way of slapping him down.

It must irritate the hell out of Trump.

Which is fine by me.