( Editor’s note: Mixed into a rambling narrative about the current state of affairs in the NFL loaded with historical, music and pop culture references, Mr. Brutal makes his football picks. Bob Gaughan makes his too. It is called “The War of 1812 Football Prognostication” probably because he is Canadian, Bob is American and they have some huge unknown cross border stakes riding on their year-to-year competition. So get with the programme, honour the concept and enjoy the colourful Canadian flavour.)
Thursday, September 22, 2016
8:30 pm Eastern Time
Houston Texans (-1) @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS 40.5
The other night, the internet Twitterverse went weird over yet another imbecilic message from the Donald Trump campaign. This time, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a message showing a bowl of Skittles with a caption asking:
“If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful?”
( Don’t blame us for the non sentence first statement and the lack of capitalization on the brand name Skittles from this supposedly Ivy League educated “legacy” from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. )
Immediately, the company that makes Skittles released a statement explaining that they wanted no part of this nonsense and found it demeaning to have people compared to candy. The conservative Cato Institute, a very Libertarian organization then released the following analysis. They explained that it would take far more than a bowl to represent the actual danger ratio for an American citizen to actually be killed by a Syrian refugee.
The odds are 1 in 3.4 billion!
Instead of three Skittles in a cereal bowl, it would take the equivalent of three Skittles placed in one and half Olympic sized swimming pools filled with Skittles to represent a model of accurate proportion.
Next, the photographer who took the picture of the bowl of Skittles for the advertisement, David Kittos released a statement explaining that he didn’t give the campaign permission to use his photograph.
He himself is a refugee from Cyprus and fled in 1974. He said he would never support Trump’s political views, his childish, inaccurate analogies or the use of the image he photographed to be used against refugees.
Oh well, nice try Don Jr., but it’s still nice to see that the scum doesn’t form far from the mother pond.
We’d tell you to go back to doing something else, but that would probably put endangered species needlessly at risk. You and your cowardly brother shooting up the African continent to make sure the precious gene pool of big game continues to diminish unabated is as abhorrent, cowardly and disgusting as your “White Privilege” world view. In fact it is totally consistent with the dynamic.
Hope the flawed Trump family analogy catches on though, because we wouldn’t want any Syrian refugees coming to America. Really, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry.
Certainly they shouldn’t let any more men like “Abudul Fattah Jandali” into America. This Muslim Syrian refugee came to America and had a son.
And did this evil son commit a terrorist act? Disrespect the flag? Boo relentlessly at a Toby Keith concert?
No. He invented the fucking iPhone.
The same device Donald Douche-Bag Jr. sent his inaccurate, non approved, race-baiting tweet on.
During this Election, there has also been a lot of talk about building walls and barriers. Donald Trump has made the building of a wall along the Mexican border a key foundation of his run for the White House. It has taken on even more significance after he strategically abandoned one of his other inviolable, unquestionable, rock solid planks in the hull of the good ship “Make America Hate Again” campaign.
No sooner had we pointed out last week that the “Birther Movement” that this bombastic blowhard bully more or less created, constituted undeniable racism and indeed was evidence of “deplorable” behaviour or ideology,
…….. then the tangerine scam artist pulled the rug out from his simpleton converts and denounced the central hypothesis of the movement’s existence.
He announced that “President Obama was born in America! …. Period! …. End of Story!” ……. then he blamed Hillary Clinton and her campaign for starting the “Birther Movement” in their campaign for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008, …. then he took credit for ending the issue and ended with a possibly cryptic or more likely just another statement of unfiltered, random idiocy: “We all know what that means!”
It takes a certain kind of con man, possessing a certain stale hardness of balls to take credit for ending the debate on something that they themselves were most responsible for creating and definitely most responsible for promoting over the last half decade.
It was interesting to see CNN, which has kowtowed to Trump time and time again, start putting up “Fact Checking” blurbs on their screens during his actual speeches, denouncing his lies, pointing out when he is speaking untruths, incorrect facts or just being deliberately misleading.
A little late to the party, but one hardly thinks that the corporate media has started scrutinizing Trump on the spot because they have suddenly realized that they should be doing their job as journalists.
Also, nobody believes the corporate media has started scrutinizing Trump on the spot because they have suddenly realized that their habit of giving every insane, misguided, false flag, race baiting falsehood uttered by him or his campaign equal time is morally reprehensible.
Watching Wolf Blitzer & Co. perpetually serve up weak sauce analysis & therefore false equivalency of positions on the air waves is an irresponsible and dangerous practice.
No, the corporate establishment are far more scared that Trump is poised to win this damn thing and the string puller overlords who own and/or advertise their wares on CNN & all the other corporate networks are panicking.
They are not panicking because they believe he is bad in almost every sense for the average American. They don’t care that he courts the most racist, sexist, bigoted and dangerous people in the country with blatant lies and never-ending flip-flops and dishonest denials. They could care less that the rest of the world can’t believe the American people are supporting this abomination or the long term damage to the image and integrity of the United States.
No, what worries them is what always worries corporatism subscribing monopolists who masquerade as free market capitalists.
1.) Uncertainty
2.) Instability
3.) Volatility
This is why they spent hundreds of millions on the usual suspect lap dogs this election cycle who could probably be counted on to deliver and follow orders.
Some Examples:
A.) People like union buster supreme, Scott Walker, Republican Governor of Wisconsin. A man so unpopular, simple and charismatically challenged that he polled at 0% when he left the crowded Republican race. When the contest started, he had the deepest war chest, was the favourite and actually led in Republican polls with a 39% approval rating.
He is a very basic and compliant man. His thoughts on any issue are linear, shallow and scripted. His explanation that his bald spot was created by hitting his head on the kitchen sink while working under it to clear a clog sounded like a lame attempt at humour until people realized that he was serious. Somehow, his vanity won’t allow him to accept his genetic makeup.
A brief highlight of his campaign was the revelation that hit him after speaking to a New Hampshire State Trooper who told him people cross the Quebec and New Hampshire border without much security and therefore possibly terrorists could be coming in on a regular basis from “The Great White North.”
When a reporter, after hearing this, jokingly speculated whether a “Canadian” wall should be erected along the 5,525 mile long border, similar to the one Donald Trump was proposing along the 1,989 mile border with Mexico, ……. Mr. Walker speculated that it might not be such a bad thing to consider the idea.
Idiot.
B.) Jeb Bush. Donald Trump was right about one thing. Jeb Bush was certainly“low energy” during the campaign. He had the most big time corporate donors and after Walker was sent to the showers by the corporate overlords, the most money by far.
He also had hands-down the least enthusiasm generated amongst his followers.
Highlight of his campaign: The former Florida Governor getting kicked off the stage within minutes after he started to speak at a Nashua, New Hampshire Rotary Club meeting early in the campaign. The hosts and audience were already so bored by his speech, they became convinced that he could not win the nomination during the first primary.
Jeb left the stage with the memorable:
“They’re kicking me out the door! They’re kicking me out the Door!”
Jeb Bush gets cut off by his own hosts
Jeb Bush gets cut off by his own hosts
Jeb gets cut off by his own hosts at a Rotary Club lunch in Nashua, New Hampshire.
C.) Hillary Clinton. The big boys always hedge their bets with both parties and Mrs. Clinton is the establishment favourite. Can you ever imagine Wall Street and the Institutional political bag men backing Bernie Sanders? However, the corporate donors and insiders have miscalculated and underestimated this election unlike any other. Mrs. Clinton is seen as part of the establishment and her negatives outweigh her positives in a lot of angry voters’ minds.
Most importantly, she has little appeal to the young people who offered so much enthusiasm and momentum to the Sanders campaign & has failed to garner their support.
Highlight of the campaign so far: Correctly identifying the sad, bigoted nature of much of Donald Trump’s support base, then collapsing from her secret medical condition, probably a combination of Parkinson’s, MS, The Plague, Alzheimer’s, Pneumonia, Scarlett Fever & the Zika virus, ….. then rising from her death bed, backtracking on her accurate assessment of Trump’s followers and resuming her flatter than Crepe Suzette campaign all within 24 hours.
Well, congratulations Corporate America! Your inaction, corruption, stacking of the Supreme Court to get Citizens United passed and various other heavily lobbied laws to allow non competitive mergers and tax dodges has blinded you to the bigger picture.
Of course, despite the real world risks of having a thin skinned leader who might start a real trade or military battle over a texting insult in a Twitter war, Trump can be tolerated by them because has always been for sale.
So if the big money guys can handle more income inequality, the end of the EPA, and a Supreme Court so conservative on abortion, minority & voting rights that it would make Isis & the Taliban proud for the next 25 years, ….. they’ll probably come out okay. After they grease his little paws with the type of graft, bribery & kickbacks that he is more used to giving then receiving, anything can be accomplished.
It’s easy with a man who has no principles.
We can’t say the same for the press.
Like any good crypto-fascist, Donald Trump has a long list of enemies amongst the Fourth Estate and he is a thin skinned, petty man with a long memory.
Similar to Trump, Bill Belichick also has nothing but contempt for the press, free or otherwise. This week he went off ( well sort of ), and glared at a reporter who dared to ask him if the current injury to QB Jimmy Garoppolo meant the Patriots should sign another quarterback. With his typical condescension and dismissive arrogance he attempted to make the reporter feel smaller than Trump’s own glove size.
It was a legitimate query, but Belichik treated it as if the reporter was in need of psychiatric help. Mr. Warmth then proceeded to explain that Garoppolo is day-to-day and might start anyway Thursday night. He also, between yawns, explained that back-up 6’4,” 240 pound Jacoby Brissett from North Carolina State was the second coming of Russell Wilson, so the Pats were in good shape.
This is the first time since 2005 that New England was an underdog at home. Back then it was to the Colts and Peyton Manning when he was at his peak. Indianapolis ended up winning that game by three touchdowns.
It is hard to equivocate that and fathom the Houston Texans as a favourite in Foxboro, no matter if Scott Zolak is resigned at the last minute to be the starting signal caller for the Patriots.
The odds-makers opened this game with Houston as a three point favourite and it has fallen to one. It is like they are begging the public to take New England which appears to be happening. The Patriots got out to a big lead over Miami last week and had to hold on for the win. Houston’s defense was dominant, but their offense sketchy against the Kansas City Chiefs. With a short week, the Pats also have the home advantage where they almost never lose.
We’re really concerned about the Texans. Our confidence in their head coach Bill O’Brien is minimal and QB Osweiller has his limits.
Still, this could be a franchise making win for the “Dead Cow Heads.”
Brutal: Texans -1
Bob: Texans -1