Day: March 27, 2025

I waited several months to write this initial post. Knowing where things are headed it is probably really stupid to say my piece at all. However, I am a writer, and I do have a small measure of protection in terms of relative anonymity and, more importantly, natural born citizenship. They haven’t tried to come for that yet. If I were a student on a Visa or an immigrant I would be afraid right now. I would be afraid of trying to embrace the very bill of rights that citizens cling to. I’ve read multiple articles in the past few days about students being scooped off the streets and disappeared into a complex and non-transparent deportation system simply because they stated an opinion that was contrary to what the majority party thinks.

Ozturk was not the first student detained for an opinion and will not be the last. It is worth noting that these claims are being made as a part of a larger conversation about what it means to be anti-semetic in America. From what I have gathered, Otzurk and several others were reported to the government as terrorist supporters via a website called Canary Mission whose purpose is to identify anti-semites. The Nazi’s used a similar system, btw. It is rough to see this thing have come full circle in under 100 years.

What is really disturbing–beyond the fact that there are very little facts attached to these profiles–is that there is no distinction made between Hamas as a terrorist organization and Hamas as a governmental entity. To explain, when Hamas took over the strip in 2007, it became the legal government of the region. This means that anyone speaking about or in support of any official government action or taking part in any government action (such as voting) is considered to be a Hamas supporter. These profiles argue, “they supported Hamas” yet fail to distinguish what this support was. Otzurk’s op-ed (which she co-authored, btw) never mentions Hamas. Yet support for the organization is the reason stated for her being detained.

I thought we were on the verge of something bad. 3 months in, we are in something bad that is going to get much worse.

I want to believe–I really want to believe the Giants know what they are doing. I’m not sure that’s real, or that what they are doing is actually a working plan. They picked up “Not-s0-dange-russ” Wilson, adding him to a pile of QBs that live in the Madden slush pile. Wilson was good a decade ago. Winston is a big time gunslinger who, with the right WRs can put up big numbers. They are not entirely different, but they are entirely different from anything that Daboll has had success doing, and they themselves have never had success behind a trash O-line.

So, what they heck?

Here’s what I think: The Giants want to grab the best player in the draft. I think that is Travis Hunter. I think they think that is Abdul Carter. I don’t at all think they intend to pick a QB early. It looks more like there is a plan to scoop someone (like Carter) early and then work a trade (likely Kayvon) to get a late first simply to have the optional year available only for the first round tenders. Who is the QB? No clue. At one point I thought they were looking at Milroe. The Jets are the only other team who may take a QB in the first, so gambling on getting a guy late is a good bet. This is a pretty deep draft. I see options. I see hope…

I hope they don’t screw this up.

Some Thoughts:

1. 20 days since I blew this entire thing up. Time flies.
2. At some point in the near future I ought to go back to the day before it fell apart and get a Monday morning QB sense of what actually happened. It may still be having repercussions.