Guy Chamberlin

I'm seeing some pretty crappy Game 4s, and some uninspired choices from 2014. I think Branno's the only one to list Nebraska vs. Miami, Game 4, 2014, when Miami came in like the arrogant s#!t-talkers of old and Nebraska gave them a satisfying beat down at Memorial Stadium to go 4-0. How does thrashing Idaho compete with that?

That was the very first game that came to mind. Not only was Nebraska back, we were the most exciting team in football and looking at four years of Taylor Martinez, who had just destroyed a good K-State team in every way imaginable. Individual games may have been equally fun and others were more dramatic, but that was the best I've felt about Nebraska football in the last 15 years.

It's amazing the number of people who forget this is happening all over the world, involving governments having nothing to do with our particular two party system. You know what else they have all over the world? Sports. And that got me thinking: Will there be a 2020 football season? Discuss.

On the positive side: I honestly don't feel as bad about J.D. Speilman leaving the team anymore.

I will wait here patiently for you to post all the facts you didn't find on the internet.

Feel free to post the thoughts you just shared with me in a private message. It wouldn't hurt my feelings and I'd consider it a public service.

Oh Lord. Turns out the return of hydroxychloroquine is the equivalent of using a Sharpie on a National Weather Service Chart to make it look like Donald Trump was right. Again, this is the woman who was put front and center of a Tea Party funded publicity stunt, aired only by Breitbart, retweeted by Donald Trump, seen by millions of people, then banned by Twitter and Facebook. There are two sides to every story, but sometimes one side is sheer idiocy. https://ktul.com/news/nation-world/report-texas-doctor-who-went-viral-with-unproven-covid-19-cure-believes-in-demon-sperm?fbclid=IwAR3MxWmqL3Lxcbv0yj7dZv7hbtDQuJWnJ48OfyUxSMCM5FfGxz4UFzD0nVs

There's really not that much disagreement among scientists. Scientists are a lot more comfortable than politicians and the public when discussing uncertainties. We ask them for definitive answers but they typically want to know more before declaring anything as fact. We could all benefit from a peer review process, but we're incredibly impatient as a rule. A Tea Party organization recently launched a group of front-line healthcare workers to promote hydroxychloroquine as both treatment and cure. The political motives are much clearer than the results -- the narrative is to go back in time and support Trump's early endorsement of hydroxychloroquine, blame the media for not reporting the success of hydroxychloroquine (only Breitbart covered their presser on the Capitol steps) and literally state that hydroxychloroquine and zinc eliminate the need for wearing masks. The medical establishment never said hydroxychloroquine wasn't worth pursuing: they knew all about it from malaria treatments. By the time Trump spoke they'd had the first run of tests and found the results to be either unsuccessful or inconclusive, but kept hydroxychloroquine in the mix. Trump took that tiny glimmer and ran with it. Most folks in the medical community thought it was irresponsible for the President to endorse it as a cure to a frightened nation. That's not a conspiracy against Trump, but it does reveal why scientists would prefer he shut up about all the things he knows nothing about.

I appreciate your empathy and global perspective, but by "our" lifetime I meant Americans under 93 (my dad, a WWII vet is still alive) and given American's zero fluency in the affairs of Syria, Yemen, Libya or pretty much any other county, I think my claim is much less of a reach. Few stories are global in the same moment. This is one of them. Of all the dramatic and affecting stories you mention, none of them brought the American economy to a grinding halt, threatened repercussions as serious as the Great Depression, closed our schools, churches, sporting events, and basic human contact, and extended consequences into every home regardless of geography, income level or political affiliation. The nature of a pandemic also delivers a psychological hit you don't get from a conventional human enemy. We were glued to the TV during 9/11, but free to go anywhere we wanted. Vietnam was a s#!tshow and a nightmare, but as kids we played happily through it and Nebraska won two national championships. 1968 was comparable to 2020, including riots in the street, but you can't deny COVID adds another layer of existential dread. If you want to get more into it, COVID has further fueled an American civil war where patriotism is on public display by your willingness to wear a mask, or not. Frankly, the whole story is likely a drop in the bucket compared to what my kids will face with global climate changes over the next 50 years. I'm not the first person to make this reach, either. There have been some really good articles about what an American born in 1900 would have lived through, compared to what the post-World War II generation considers deprivation and sacrifice.

Should be no surprise that highly packed population centers with lots of international travelers would be more susceptible to the initial spread of COVID. But now New York City is in a better place than Montgomery, Alabama. Rural populations are generally doing well and have been able to enjoy fewer restrictions. The notable exceptions are the meat-packing plants, ag harvesting hotspots, and fulfillment centers where low-wage workers are expected to keep the economy humming. The better countries in the world handled this better than the United States. We lead the world in almost every negative category. Our COVID caseload is now bigger than ever. 39 states have shown an increase in COVID cases in the last two weeks -- that's most of the country. Nebraska is lucky and I can see how the low impact there would have you wondering what all the fuss is about.

I think we'll look back and realize the scientists were largely correct on this point --- COVID came in 5x more deadly than the flu and far more communicable, and dead bodies were soon being stacked up in refrigerator trucks and nursing home storage closets. Drastic measures and highly accelerated medical research began to mitigate the risk around the world. Relaxing public safety standards immediately caused a spike in infections, and although per capita fatalities didn't jump at the same rate it was a reminder we were still fighting a pandemic. If it doesn't get worse it doesn't mean COVID was no big deal. It means that the global response worked. The media will always dramatize a story, but they've basically reported the available facts, along with every flavor of speculation. In fairness, it's the biggest story of our lifetime. So far. FWIW....the U.S. was born on risk. Australia was born as a prison colony. If it's a contest of badass mavericks who mistrust authority, don't assume Americas have the edge over Aussies.

More dirty. Less secret.

Let's be honest: none of these are no-brainer decisions. Whatever you do, people are going to get hurt. In a year we will look back at July 2020 and marvel about some of the presumptions we had wrong. Right now the numbers for the young and healthy are good and treatment is rapidly improving. It remains a pandemic, but might be considerably less deadly than the first wave that hit the most vulnerable population. So what would that look like? Maybe one game where an outbreak forces Purdue to forfeit. Maybe one game where Nebraska has to bench five sick starters, but plays anyway. Maybe JoJo Domann and Rahmir Johnson are the only players requiring hospitalization and maybe Johnson is the only one who has to quit football due to COVID-related lung damage (he could just as easily have torn an MCL.) Maybe Mario Verduzco is the only person on the staff to actually die. Nobody in in the stands because the super-spreader danger is the one thing people can agree on. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but would we be okay with that scenario? I'm honestly not sure about anything.

The dirty secret is that long before COVID, no one wanted the full NFL preseason other than the owners. Season ticket holders are forced to pay full price for four glorified scrimmages loaded with injury paranoia and guys who won't even make the team.

Somewhere between proud and stupid is angry defiance and personal exceptionalism. This video helps explain why So Cal is responsible for 80% of COVID cases & deaths in California:

I enjoyed watching the opening night of MLB, and even with the cutouts and the piped in crowd noise it felt welcome and surprisingly normal. We had been warned that they'd be playing with some new rules: no high fives, no chatting on first base, masks and social distancing in the dugouts. But from what you could see on national TV, there were lots of bare-handed high fives, all kinds of chatter on first base, and selective or non existent social distancing/mask wearing by the players in the dugouts (coaches seemed to be toeing the line). I guess that's what helped it feel normal, but apparently the whole not-taking-this-seriously vibe is going to end up making it more serious.

I've actually learned a lot on this thread.

Georgia.

No. Not the rioters.

Yes, it was appropriate to call it the Wuhan Virus until the The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) came up with the official names "novel coronavirus" and "COVID-19," which everyone in the world started using in February 2020. Long after that, Donald Trump was the only person in the world still calling it "The Chinese Virus" or the hilarious "Kung-Flu" because yeah, he's a racist. Or more accurately, when he realized it was really serious and hurting his election chances, he needed to blame someone. Also, he's a racist. When I learned that the more useful designation for marijuana is indica and sativa, I stopped calling it by nationalities. That was 40 years ago. Time flies.

You gotta be s#!tting me. Mexican pot came from Mexico. It sold for 15 dollars an ounce. Jamaican pot came from Jamaica. It cost a little more. Colombian pot came from Colombia. It sold for 40 dollars an ounce. Panama Red came from Panama, a little cheaper than Colombian. Thai Stick came from Thailand and it was the priciest, but sometimes the dealers lied and just tied Colombian to a stick. Skunk Weed came from the ditches of Cass County Nebraska. If it makes you feel any better, I boycotted Afghani Black Primo hash in solidarity with the Afghan War. You were correct about not having an A-game.

One group is made up of voters. The other is the people they elect. Once elected, Democrats typically trim their ideology to fit the lobbyists. They are marginally better at representing the little guy, but tend to take credit they haven't quite earned. Forgot to mention football. Love the sport and hope we can pull off a season.

You're mistaking liberal ideology for elected Democrats. I know it's a shocker, but Joe Biden isn't a Marxist. You're using the word "despise" wrong, and I'm not quite sure who "them" is anymore. And who said the economic gap is no longer a concern? Then again, you didn't read the article and you're off-topic in a thread that's already off-topic. If you'd like to bring your A-game over to the P&R thread, maybe we could figure this out.

You didn’t bother to read the article, did you?

In the 60s, that would buy an ounce of Mexican, give or take the stems and seeds.