Guy Chamberlin

This may not get talked about enough, but in issues of extreme importance to the American people, the bill presented to Congress may be loaded with ancillary or even totally unrelated riders that either party will stick in as political gamesmanship. The headline is about the party who rejected this seemingly wise proposal and not the behind-the-scenes horses#!t. It's no secret that most Americans aren't well informed about the issue or policy in the first place. Probably moot anyway, as we've moved into 100% partisan silos on virtually everything presented. We've always had partisan bickering, but it's never been this feverish and absolute.

Who knows, right? But given that the GOP's SOTU response echoed things you often post in here, does it really stand up to scrutiny? All the talk of elderly men and struggling housewives and the working poor taking multiple jobs.....and the cost of health care....and the diminished sense of security.....and the American Dream itself....does anyone truly believe that policies put in place starting January 2021 altered their trajectory for the worse? Could you have dropped that exact same narrative into any SOTU over the last 40 years regardless of the party in charge? I know Democrats certainly have. The policies that might conceivably address these systemic problems will likely be considered extreme, given that systemic problems are pretty well entrenched. If you're talking about banning abortion, that will actually make the bad stuff worse in a multitude of under-reported ways. If you're talking about student debt forgiveness, that actually comes with a pro-business benefit. If you're not actually talking about policies, but about woke language regarding race and gender, that's just silly. Although......yeah, that's the kind of stuff that influences voters. Geez, we've become a silly country.

What grades and subjects do you teach?

Gas in California is around $4.35 a gallon. It has never occurred to me that the price of gas would affect my vote, or that it was even political. I used to work for Chevron and have a basic idea how that sausage is made.

Why do you keep associating the deaths at Kent State with partying teenagers? You sure it wasn't something more than that?

Not a huge LeBron fan, but even as an 18 year old who became rich and famous overnight, he seemed to have a lot healthier perspective on life and basketball.

Or --- and hear me out --- it could be having policies that are supported by a majority of Americans being cockblocked by Republicans, including Republicans who supported similar policies back when Republicans would get the credit. Not to mention having America's #1 news network demonizing policies they willfully misrepresent as extreme. I will give you the border crisis, which the Biden administration underestimated and obfuscated until they realized it was perhaps THE electoral hot button. But as you and I both agreed, it's not as though a conservative policy is more easily implemented or likely to succeed.

Agree that Biden's behind-the-scenes governing and even his on-camera (prepared) speeches have been better than I expected, and you can even make a compelling case for his success as President. The Left's criticism of Biden is not dissimilar to its criticism of Obama and Hillary because leaning farther left is what they do. While some fret over the Left's influence (and others the lack of it), you look up decades later and realize some of America's most cherished mainstream values were once derided as leftist utopianism. But I digress. At the end of the day, or end of the term, Biden is being judged not for his governance but for the lack of energy he provides, whether it's a cheap shot about his age, the highly relevant "enthusiasm gap" the Biden/Harris ticket has with voters, or the messaging battle they are clearly losing. There has to be a way to talk about this openly and critically without being considered a Trump enabler. BIden's path to the Presidency in 2020 went from being an underfunded and under-performing primary candidate to being the unifying moderate whose only job was to beat Donald Trump. We would worry about his age and popularity later. Later is now here and when you throw together all Joe's accomplishments and misteps, the #1 reason to vote for him is still Not Trump, and it just might be enough to pull this off.

There were also the rumors that Michael Jordan's dad was killed as payback for Michael's gambling debts. I used to accept that as fact, although I've seen subsequent reporting that strongly discounts it. I don't know if you can tarnish Jordan's career, or if we're even looking the other way. The dude is a competition junkie, and there are tons of anecdotes from golf courses, casinos, and informal practices of Jordan making high stakes bets with anyone who will take them. It's not exactly an admirable quality, but it does explain his incredible in-game performances, and that's what he's remembered for. Not sure if people really looked the other way on Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech, where he went off on some bitter and unnecessary flexes on anyone who ever doubted him. I recall the reaction as mostly: Whoa. That's what's on your mind when you're receiving the game's highest honor?

Trump soundly defeated all GOP challengers by doubling down on everything Haley accuses him of. Even a non-delusional candidate would be unlikely to change his strategy. But as political calculus goes, Haley made the safe and less-courageous call. It's not hard to envision her crafting an endorsement further down the line.

Regardless of your position on immigration, the simple truth is that the numbers are overwhelming. There are not enough government employees in any capacity to either process or round up the undocumented. And anyone with a proposed policy knows it.

It took Mitt Romney, Chris Christie and others a few years before they finally cut the cord, having already embarrassed themselves with forced displays of fealty to Donald Trump. They will never be welcome at conservative events, and face the rest of their careers as guests and political analysts on CNN and MSNBC, where they can get limited and tepid recognition as Republican turncoats.

The majority of Americans don't understand the roots, the players, or the consequences of any international conflict, and Israel Palestine is more conflicted than most. We generally don't have strong electoral opinions on foreign affairs, although the right is thrilled to have this mess happening on Joe Biden's watch. You can easily find some delusional college student romanticizing Hamas, but if "supporting Isreal" is your criteria, that has become increasingly conditional and gone well beyond "lefty circles." The mere act of calling for a cease fire in Gaza, as Biden and most of the world advocates, is in opposition to the Netanyahu government, which has declared its intention to prosecute Hamas however it wants, regardless of the devastation to the Palestinian people. Netanyahu is a genuine a$$h@!e who hates having his massive military and financial support come with any conditions. Dig a little deeper, and Netanyahu's own right wing circle has made no secret of its longstanding intention to simply take over Gaza. They are a minority in Israel, having gamed the system to avoid a corruption recall. The Tea Party if you will. While early reporting on the war leaned heavily on Israeli sources, subsequent reporting across mainstream and international media has confirmed that some pretty horrific s#!t is being perpetrated on women and children in reprisals that have gone well beyond hostage freeing. Of course there's always something horrific going on the world, so it hardly rates as a single-issue voting priority, but it's still hard to watch and pretend you shouldn't say something. As mentioned, virtually no one is unaware of the binary choice coming our way in November. In the meantime we can wonder why Not Trump is our only position in any discussion, and whether we have the right to ask for more.

I do remember. The only people who thought we should nuke all the commies were ignorant knuckle-draggers rejected by both parties.

They're not stupid. Most will vote for Biden when given the binary choice in November, as they have the last two unhappy elections. Most likely by a larger percentage than disgruntled Republicans, independents and Dems turned RFK lackeys. The backlash against Israeli prosecution of the Gaza War has grown broad and mainstream, for very good reason. Rooting for Trump to show up the leftists is an odd take for a post about virtue signaling at the expense of electoral outcomes.

So what does finishing the problem look like to you?

And now we live in an age where all major sports leagues operate as subsidiaries of BetMGM and FanDuel.

The irony, of course, is overwhelming.

Well if you're suggesting Gaza is another taxpayer funded war, does it follow that Americans want to pull the billions in weapons the taxpayers fund to Israel every year? At the moment that's the Far Left argument. I'm just wondering on the smaller, more immediate scale if there's more open and bipartisan criticism of Israel's prosecution of its Hamas/Gaza war than there was a couple months ago. If you're suggesting most Americans are too overwhelmed by other stuff to think much about Gaza, that's hard to argue.

It did feel like this thread was going a lot more P&R than it warranted.

Is it just me, or has the narrative slowly shifted to acknowledge that Israeli actions in Gaza have gone well beyond targeted reprisals and need to be curtailed? I see both media and politicians saying things they wouldn't have four months ago.

Dementia aside, Donald Trump is a clinical narcissist of the highest order as demonstrated his entire life. It's not simply the arrogance, it's the delusional arrogance and inability to view life through the lens of anyone else. I'm trying to imagine a MAGA follower encountering this behavior in a boss, co-worker, client, friend, neighbor, or Democrat and not saying: what an a$$h@!e! Stay away from that loser.

For me, it's that some folks have this same take for every single sport that involves a referee, including Nebraska fans convinced the conference is using the referees to punish the Huskers because they hate them. For a conspiracy theory to hold true you'd have to go deeper into statistical analysis than either of us probably wants to. Just going by the traveling video that started this, I'd point out that many of those players were not superstars, that some of those violations actually were called, and wonder aloud how many of those you'd find in the 200 possessions per game of every game played in the NBA. And it IS a funny video because the violations are so comically bad. I think you find the stronger argument in foul calls, where people have long claimed superstar treatment. Even then, after you find Giannis and Luka among the top foul shooters, you'll see a lot of the supposed superstars down the list, and a lot of less flashy players above them. James Harden and Chris Paul became notorious for their kick outs - where they intentionally made contact with a defender to get the foul - and while it was technically legal everyone thought it cheapened the game, so the NBA changed the rule. It's not even questioned in Warrior-land that the NBA's biggest box office star Steph Curry doesn't get the foul calls other players get, and that actually is backed up by stats. I love watching LeBron James go ballistic when he doesn't get the call, but sometimes he's right, too. Last year the refs ignored a blatant foul on James in what could have been a game-winning play against the Celtics. You could almost make the case that some refs like to bait the biggest superstar in the game. My guess is that every sports league reminds every referee crew that fans pay to see the players, not the refs. That's solid advice whether you're a business or a fan. Even then, there's enough adherence to the rules that every game in every sport grinds to a halt as judgement calls are analyzed for all to see. What's also good for business is when big market teams make the playoffs, and some fans are convinced the refs are in the league's pocket to make sure it happens. Which doesn't explain all the times it doesn't. I mean, what do the Knicks have to do, besides win a lot more games? What I like most about sports is that it's the only true Reality Show out there. The producers really can't control what will happen, and the results hinge on what individuals and teams pull off in any given moment. I can name 100 bad calls across my favorite team sports that will live in infamy, but it honestly doesn't occur to me to hate the League for letting it happen, much less to stop watching the games. Especially not in the NBA, which has the best commissioner of the bunch, a growing global following, and a huge influx of young talent playing the game at the highest level.

That happened on President Benjamin Harrison's watch. Thanks, Ben. Although in fairness, America was pretty hopped up on the introduction of electricity and the modernization craze of the 1890s was really out-of-control.

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense to me. But I was listening to an NPR political reporter, who follows this stuff for a living, and he admitted we're in a different realm now that doesn't subscribe to our normal political opinion polling and it's full of rabbit holes and unknowns. It's now identity politics and some stuff is not going to follow logic or projections.