Day: August 15, 2019

Okay, I’m officially starting to worry about the divisive nature of U.S. politics. Just today Trump reached out to Israel to encourage them to ban two U.S. Congresswomen from coming to their country. That is a hot mess. Consider the coverage of the action from here and here. Can you tell which is the pro-Trump engine? Then his state department went and did this. Seriously, we are pandering to such a degree to the big interests and powers that this present administration looks a lot like the administration in Charlize Theron’s Longshot. This is just getting stupid now.

Okay, I’m about to rant…

Look, we are supposed to be a country that is comfortable with disagreement–that wants to hear the other side, and make a need-based decision that is built up from shared interests yet allows us the independence to localize policy to fit our local demographic. That demographic shifts from place to place and shouldn’t be representative of all of America, because there IS NO all of America outside of the very idea of what we as a country are supposed to stand for. Even that has become highly divisive. Give us your tired and poor? Not so much for this iteration of the federal government. Most of it feels driven by fear–fear of racial dilution and an overt loss of the white majority. That is simply inevitable. Globally.

Deal with it. Accept that white is not the higher power and move towards a stance where equality is something we actually want or define class and social stratification by a different medium than the color of your skin. That starts by establish beauty by different standards than the color of your skin and length and texture of your hair. Once we start down that road–which we have–the rest is inevitable.

What we are witnessing is the blowback to the reality of the inevitable. The old and the power rich are realizing that their grip is slipping, and nobody wants to let power go. Those who felt they could one day become powerful are recognizing that this dream is not so much inevitable as it is improbable and that too is hard to accept. This is what change looks like. This is what blowback to that change looks like.

We need to start growing up fast as a nation before we make such a mess that we cannot clean up.

Madden has me wanting the Bills to move to Brooklyn.

According to the simulation it seems to be the only way Barkley stays in the city beyond his rookie deal. I’ve learned a great deal about the financial side through Madden-inspired research. The game pays attention to contracts though the algorithm suggests players generally want a lot more than they are worth and remain surprisingly finicky. My situation became difficult when I found that I had two x-factor QBs who were both due big money contracts. I signed both, but later tried to trade the 91, because I thought I could grow the backup and reap rewards for the starter in free agency. It turns out I destroyed my cap beyond all recognition and was unable to sign any of my starters who were up for big deals due to the trade. Still working my way out of that one.

I play the Bulls, which is to say I play with a Bills team that I moved to Brooklyn and traded damn near everybody in order to build from the ground up. It feels good to have done so. I don’t particularly care for the Bills, but I enjoy competing in the underrated AFC East. Here’s something to consider: If the AFC East is so bad then why is it that the top team has been in most of the Superbowls over the last decade?

Exactly. Perhaps the division is good and also seen as not as good because of the dominance of the Patriots. These are the things I’ve been considering. Still, I ought to be paying better attention to who is getting minutes and making rosters, because the fantasy draft draws nigh.