#THE FACT THAT ​IT WAS IMPROVED BY DANNY AND DONALD

[catboyglover]

happy epidemiology day

[mai-fanblog]

LAST AVENTURE OF DUCKTALES

Hello everyone, the show is over, we will miss it, remember it, etc.

Now I want to talk about the finale, how it was executed and so on. I know there are divided opinions with the finale, though fortunately they are as extreme as SVFOE. I'd like to break it down into parts, first the three acts, the use of characters, the use of ideas and the conclusions that were built throughout the series.

SPOILERS

First off, I feel it starts off super conveniently, as it begins with everyone going to Funzo to make an attack on the base, a rather lame explanation is given that Launchpad said the place while he was sleeping, that is Suavepad talking, this first act feels short until May and June acted later on. During the middle of the series they spent time on unnecessary stuff and felt filler or didn't handle it properly; although there were moments I liked in the first part like Fenton and Drake's first interactions in a direct way and Donald and Della's scene on the boat, anyway it doesn't take away from the fact that it started coincidentally. In the second act, the action starts when Webby and Huey go to the secret headquarters and the team goes there; it was good to divide them to make it more fluid, if there were more outstanding moments and if it managed to keep the attention until the plot twist that some people doubted. And in the third act, there were also exciting and incredible moments, however, the revelation about Webby can get to give some bad feeling in some, I rescue that the crew took a risk with an idea like that, it is also its biggest cons. The acts were good, the beginning is weak, but in the other two it works and becomes satisfying and doubt (I will explain later).

As for the use of the characters, they improved it and it's a little better than Moonvasion; since there are the right and necessary ones, the most outstanding ones are obviously the main characters, I still highlight Fenton and Drake and how they were their relationship with their superhero identities and remarking that Launchpad is their direct inspiration to fight crime, which is true and I really liked the final moment of Launchpad using the Gizmoduck suit; the villains were well used, highlighting Bradford, who's defeat was tepid compared to the previous two antagonists, Heron, who was shocking how he died, at least she died happy knowing that her boss (ex-boyfriend...I dunno) was evil for that betrayal and Steelbeak, who stole every damn scene with the fight against the LP team (wow that guy made me love him more).

(It's a shame they wasted Fethry and Gladstone here, I guess the writers didn't know how to use them the end).

The ideas they used were very questionable, the clone theme is very far fetched, if there was hint in some chapters about Webby's revelation, it comes to make shocking for some. The theme of May and June bothers me a bit, the idea on paper sounds interesting, in execution it's mediocre, unless you know them and April in the comics or the three Caballeros series, you possibly wouldn't like that idea, I don't like these versions of May and June. And I know Webby has direct inspiration from Daisy's nieces, but they got out of hand with the whole clone thing. And as I mentioned before, the idea of Webby being a clone of Scrooge is risky, which isn't bad, it gives a twist, this storyline reminded me of the characters of Wolverine and Danny Phantom, who have female clones (that's explains and I think it also happened, is that the Y chromosome that is to shape the male gender (XY) was changed by X that they became female (XX), if you want to know, google it). Although this is a double-edged sword, since it contradicts the message of the series, which is that your family is not defined by blood, but by your emotional and fraternal connection, something that still holds until we know that Webby is Scrooge's direct descendant and that loses all sense of what was built before.

To conclude, the ending of the reboot was acceptable, it is not bad or good, it was passable, it fulfilled what it proposed and gave it a final point; it could have been better in certain things like that rare revelation that was given and that also has wasted characters with a lot of potential. I had very high expectations and they were half fulfilled, because there were questionable moments that leave a sense of doubt.

It was entertaining to watch this reboot, I was even inspired to do unofficial stories from the east and I would like to exploit them well.

See you another time, I'll keep uploading DT drawings, but less frequently, because at the end of a series the interest goes down, I know.

CHAO

[twh-news]

What is the Multiverse? Five Must-See Alternate Timeline TV Episodes to Watch After ‘Loki’

Look, I get it — multiverse storytelling can be confusing. Marvel’s Loki streaming series is only the latest in a long line of stories that plays fast and loose with the idea of multiple or parallel timelines. Loki follows the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) after he gets involved with the Time Variance Authority, or the TVA, as they try to correct problems in individual timelines. This provides us a chance to see lots of variant Lokis (including our favorite chompy green boy) and opens up opportunities for a lot of zany storytelling that doesn’t necessarily have to impact the primary timeline.

The idea of multiple universes existing at the same time isn’t anything new. Some of the earliest examples date back to Norse mythology, which divided existence into nine worlds. DC Comics first introduced the idea of the DC multiverse in its comics in All Star Comics #3 in 1940, and Marvel later followed suit, starting with their What if? series in the 1970s. While the concept of parallel universes might feel a little daunting to contemplate on your own, these five television episodes will help you understand the magic of the multiverse.

“The Parallel” — The Twilight Zone

When it comes to television that changed the way we think, Rod Serling‘s The Twilight Zone is the forebear of them all. The original series ran from 1959 to 1964 and contained stories from science fiction greats like Ray Bradbury (Farhenheit 451) and  Richard Matheson (I Am Legend). Each episode in the anthology series told a different short story, most with the intent of exploring some political or social allegory.

In 1963’s “The Parallel”, Major Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) is orbiting earth in his space capsule when he suddenly blacks out and wakes up on Earth with no memory of how he got there. He’s uninjured, but the world he’s arrived in doesn’t quite match the one he left. His daughter suspects he’s someone else, his house suddenly has a white picket fence that his wife swears has always been there, and everyone keeps calling him Colonel, which matches his uniform but not his memories. He’s a little shaken until he comes to the conclusion that he’s in a parallel universe, and then takes steps to get back to his own timeline.

“The Parallel” marks the first instance of multiverse storytelling on TV. It doesn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking and is a middle-of-the-road The Twilight Zone episode, but it’s the first, which means it paved the way for everyone else to tell TV stories about parallel universes and doppelgangers.

“Mirror Mirror”/”Crossover” — Star Trek/Star Trek Deep Space Nine

Did I say doppelgangers? If there’s one franchise that has capitalized on the potential fun of meeting your alternate self, it’s Star Trek. In the “Mirror Mirror” episode of the original series, a teleporter mishap sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to a parallel dimension where everything is reversed. The Federation has become an evil Empire, Kirk is a tyrant, and Spock has a goatee (that’s how you know he’s evil). The episode started several tropes about doppelgangers (including the whole goatee thing), and paved the way for future Star Trek iterations to really go wild with the Mirror Universe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explored the Mirror Universe more than any other Star Trek series, with stories taking place there over five different episodes. The first of these, “Crossover,” is the most important and sets the stage for the later mirror episodes. In “Crossover,” Major Kira (Nana Visitor) and Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) have an accident inside of the wormhole near the planet Bajor, sending them to the Mirror Universe. It’s been decades since Kirk and co. crossed over, but things are still pretty backwards in the Mirrorverse. Instead of the Federation, there’s a coalition between the Klingons, Cardassians, and Bajorans. Terrans (a fancy word for Earthlings) have been enslaved. The space station Deep Space Nine is instead a mining operation, run by the alternate Kira, the Intendant.

There are few things in the world as enjoyable as watching Visitor play her double role. The entire cast really gets to go for it with their Mirrorverse personas, and you can tell they’re having a blast. The Mirror Universe in Deep Space Nine gave the actors a chance to explore their characters in new ways, and it provided more insight into their individual pathos. Sure, the Mirrorverse versions were the “evil” versions of themselves, but there were still versions of themselves. Kira is a strong leader with a dry sense of humor, regardless of whether she’s the former Bajoran freedom fighter or the Intendant. “Crossover” set up the following four Deep Space Nine Mirror episodes, including episodes where Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) must pretend to be his doppelganger and deal with the fact that his dead wife is still very alive in the parallel universe. Some of the episodes are silly fun, and some are a bit more heady, but they all get to explore sides of these characters that we’ve never seen before.

“Remedial Chaos Theory” — Community

The NBC sitcom Community frequently made its own riffs on popular tropes, and it had an utter field day with parallel universes. In the season 3 episode, “Remedial Chaos Theory,” viewers are treated to seeing six different ways the same evening could have played out. The friends, who met in a Spanish study group at their community college, are all celebrating Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) moving into a new apartment. When the pizza arrives, group leader Jeff (Joel McHale) suggests they roll dice to see who has to go get the pizza. Abed, who is sensitive to tropes, points out that Jeff is creating new timelines by introducing chance, and then we get to see each of them play out.

What “Remedial Chaos Theory” does is brilliant. It’s a bottle episode, all set in one location with no visible impact on the overall plot. However, by seeing how the situations change each time a single character is removed from the group dynamic, we’re able to learn so much more about the group as a whole. The episode gives us insight into the characters and their relationships by changing up the formula just a pinch and removing one element. In the Darkest Timeline, which leaves Pierce (Chevy Chase) dead and severely maims the rest of the group, it’s revealed that things fall apart without Troy in the mix. At the end of the episode, the prime timeline continues and it’s Jeff who has to go get the pizza. This ends up being the most positive of the timelines, which means maybe the group is better off without Jeff at all. It’s a great piece of character storytelling and even ends with the Darkest Timeline versions of Troy and Abed making felt goatees for themselves before declaring they are Evil Troy and Evil Abed.

“Rixty Minutes” – Rick and Morty

Community showrunner Dan Harmon clearly has a love for stories involving parallel timelines, so it’s no surprise that he expanded on those ideas in Rick and Morty, the adult animated series he developed with Justin Roiland. Rick and Morty is a kind of Back to the Future for twisted adults; it follows the adventures of alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez (Roiland) and his hapless grandson Morty Smith (also Roiland) as they travel through space and time. In the first season episode “Rixty Minutes,” Rick introduces the entire Smith family to the many parallel timelines that exist. He and Morty watch Interdimensional Cable in the A plot, which gives Roiland a chance for lots of fun improvisational gags, but the B plot is more interesting. In order to enjoy his cable watching, Rick gives Morty’s parents and sister a helmet that will let them see through the eyes of some of their alternate selves.

Jerry (Chris Parnell) finds a version of himself that’s a huge Hollywood player who parties with Johnny Depp. Beth (Sarah Chalke) finds a reality where she’s not a horse surgeon, but a human surgeon, like she always wanted. Their teenage daughter Summer (Spencer Grammar) discovers that she was an unplanned pregnancy and that her parents argued about whether or not to get an abortion. In the parallel universes, she either doesn’t exist or her life is hopelessly boring. This leads to a pretty massive existential crisis, but she’s stopped by Morty, who has already had his fair share of timey-wimey weirdness.

Morty takes Summer upstairs and shows her two dirt mounds in the backyard. He explains that he’s not the Morty from this timeline, and that he and Rick had to come here after things in their timeline got too bad. The Rick and Morty in this timeline had just died, so they slipped in unnoticed. Then, Morty gives Summer a bit of advice that shows he’s beginning to grow up a bit on his madcap adventures.

“Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?” he pleads.

The episode ends with the entire Smith family realizing that dwelling on possible alternate realities will only ever cause problems. It’s a testament to living in the here and now, and is one of the series’ most emotionally resounding moments.

There are dozens of shows with multiverse stories out there, from ’90s sci-fi staple Sliders to the later seasons of Supernatural. These five, however, helped expand upon the trope as a whole, and are worth checking out to improve your pop culture savvy. That, and they’re just a lot of fun.

[mahalidael]

I posted 31,095 times in 2021

22 posts created (0%)

31073 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1412.4 posts.

I added 111 tags in 2021

#heavenly bodies - 23 posts

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the most cursed fact i know abt fight club is that apparently project mayhem was based off an incredibly shit improv group chuck palahniuk w

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Why is that show called invincible anyway . Every post I've seen abt it just confirms that the dude is, in fact, extremely vincible

16 notes • Posted 2021-05-26 16:09:07 GMT

#4

my predictions for the remainder of 2021

april: a minecraft youtuber gets arrested for arson (either a hermitcrafter or a b-list dream smp member; someone notable enough that minecraft ppl go nuts abt it but you have no idea who this is)

may: someone tries to sell clear covid masks. like the generic blue masks but clear. everyone is so used to the normal ones that it flops, but the spotify ads are so aggressive that they end up as a meme

june: a new strain of doomer appears. they believe that the world is only getting worse and the only humane thing to do is to euthanize humanity. people are divided on whether or not to take them seriously or not bc it all sounds very supervillainy and they dont actually do anything. they are jokingly dubbed "kaboomers"

july: mcdonald's profits are in freefall, so as a desperate publicity stunt, they have donald trump cut the ribbon on a new location in trump tower. this does not help and joe biden refuses to comment

august: twitter lets trump make a new account. seemingly emboldened by mcdonald's "endorsement," trump immediately claims that he's still the president and tries to pass a bunch of executive orders via twitter. his account is removed again within hours. mcdonald's finally issues an apology

september: back to school commercials are trying to sell masks with cartoon characters on them, and one of them has a boy wearing a barbie mask. paul joseph watson jumps up alex jones's ass about calling the mask "adorable" but he... didnt, he called it "deplorable" but rather than admit that he misheard the statement, pjw just accuses infowars of "liberal doublethink" and quits. he is spotted 2 weeks later trying to hack it as a minecraft youtuber and is ratioed straight into hell

october: hackers attack krysten sinema and leak that she's a scientologist. tumblr users debate the morality of this action for like a week and then completely forget about it

november: the kaboomers suddenly reappear on the public consciousness when they try to evangelize to the right. unfortunately, most of the people they pick up are qanon washouts who hear the already dubiously moral "we should mercy kill the human race" and interpret it as "we should be allowed to kill whoever we want." there is a spike in newsworthy crime. this is met with disapproval by the og kaboomers for being "inefficient"

december: mike pence claims that he saw an ufo crash and catch fire there before the feds showed up and kicked him out. plot twist: it was a van full of meth. double twist: it was his van

18 notes • Posted 2021-03-12 02:37:35 GMT

#3

it is true, we shall be monsters

hey, everybody, i wrote a fic for @invisobang about dani and some clone boys! it's fun, and by fun i mean horrifying! if you also want to be horrified, check it out on the ao3 link below!

i worked with the lovely @this-is-z-art-blog and @hashtag-art who both made art for this! check it out either in the ao3 upload or here!

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”

Dani wakes up for the first time. Dani sets out into the world on her own. Here's everything that happens in between.

33,393 words. Content warnings: body horror, medical experimentation, Vlad being a shit parent, terminal and chronic illness.

20 notes • Posted 2021-08-28 12:03:45 GMT

#2

“Can I roll insight to see if this god is lying to me?” is such a raw quote on its own, which makes it hysterical that the context is Fabian trying to figure out whether a pirate almost shat in his mouth or not

60 notes • Posted 2021-04-15 19:18:44 GMT

#1

the magnus archives... was a workplace comedy

61 notes • Posted 2021-03-26 17:40:01 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[therebelwrites]

And so what the events of the last couple weeks really come down to is the *failure of integration* to improve the socio-economic standing of the descendants of Africans sold into slavery in the United States. (Don't believe me? Just watch.) Starbucks is, and has always been, a WHITE watering hole. The menu offerings are as overPRICED as they are overRATED; the food bland at best, the coffee blah (Having lived in a country world-renown for it's beans, I can say this!); the atmosphere nothing special at all. Add to this the fact that most of the locations are in overwhelmingly white areas, and--tada!--it becomes crystal clear that Monique aint their intended audience. (This aint anecdotal evidence; I've also done in-depth (boring ASS smh) graduate-level case studies of their business model--just trust me on this.) Yet, with Black people's continual psychological enslavement and need to garner white approval and prove their humanity--and equality!--by attempting to insert their Black bodies into every aspect of WHITE existence, you inevitably have situations where we are reminded that all that is for white, BY white aint meant to be BUY Black! Why sue your oppressor for entry into his place of commerce when you can--and should!--simply BUILD BLACK ENTERPRISE. Nordstrom Rack was never intended for BLACK (unless those Black backs were hanging from racks...) Blacks build house, home in segregated white bubbles, pay pretty pennies to send their kids to schools to be tokens, then are up in arms when racist flags are waved in school parking lots, racist e-mails sent from school servers. 'This is just an EYE-SOUL-LATED event', cry white school officials and Black parents alike. 'It's a good indoctrination system of education!' Jamal asks his white neighbors to be and SEE human, only to be summarily SHOT....But yall keep yellin, 'ISOLATED EVENT!' [Sigh] Donald Glover already TOLD yall he was but a child--ish--certainly no Danny Glover and yet yall wanna act surprised when he not-so-subtly reveals the shocking depths of his own self-hatred. The white token chosen to placate the minds, soles, souls of white people who agree that white police brutality against Black bodies is wrong--yet are not quite ready to surrender any REAL power, nor make reparations for wrongs left hanging underneath shady trees. No such thing as woke white and no matter how Childish, pro-BLACK does not bed its oppressor. How can a celebrity sellout sell salvation??? The bottom line is that there are some things that white American society are unwilling to share--nor should they be FORCED to. They, too, are entitled to their own private, social enclaves and semblance of a culture. What I can't understand is why some Black people incessantly argue otherwise!?

TheRebelWrites

[maumeetsworld]

Welcome to your tape, bitch

Oh. My. God. This show is the perfect example of how I am actively ruining my life with the conscious decisions I make. I spent one week hate-watching it mainly because I wanted to understand the whole controversy around it contribute to all the shitposting happening on Tumblr. So there I was, sitting on my couch, ready for some Netflix & Chill - the real kind, not the Grindr-enabled one - and then I heard Hannah Baker's voice, which led me to the following point:

1. How conceited is this girl?

I knew this was shit the moment I heard her saying she wasn't going to send her victimizers a podcast because she wouldn't make it that easy for them, so instead she sent them plain old cassettes. Bitch, seriously? You're dead, whatever makes you think that people who dgaf about you when you were alive, will do it now just because you took the easy way out? Next time you want to guilt-trip your classmates from the grave, at least wait till after they've contacted you through a Ouija board.

And don't even get me started on her self-proclaimed moral superiority. She blames Jessica for her death because she slapped her, but then Hannah witnessed her being raped and that didn't ring a bell on how shitty a person she was too? Like, please, you would have gotten a million tapes yourself had anyone else come up with the same stupid idea.

This brings me to the second point.

2. She was not alone

This show would have been remotely less annoying if Hannah had actually been isolated. In fact, they tried to go there by having her say how lonely, unpopular, and disliked she was, and how everyone was just trying to get her. Except they were not. In fact she made a fuckload of friends throughout the series. She was dating the jocks, experimenting with the Queen Bee, being all deep and intellectual with the gay guy, going to parties at the cheerleader's house, friendzoning the hot geek, and even having her own little version of The Breakfast Club with an Eminem wannabe.

And yet you're telling me that she was unpopular and nobody liked her? Yeah, OK, next.

3. Her reasons to kill herself are ridiculous

Somebody stole the drawing that some anon left in your compliment box? Heartbreaking. Was that a reason to kill yourself? Of course not! Well, on a second thought, maybe the fact that she went to a school where they had compliment boxes was.

Seriously, what were the writers thinking when they were working on this script? Did nobody think that this was stupid af? Suicide is never justifiable, but fuck, if you're going to do it, at least come up with a decent reason. Don't slit your wrists open over someone reading your anonymous poem in class, which, by the way, nobody even knew was you. There's a fine line between crying for help and stirring up drama just for the sake of it. Hannah Baker mostly dwelt in the latter.

4. None of this would have happened if she had not been actively looking for drama

Hannah was upset because the high school jock shared a pic of her undies. He then told the whole school that she was an easy lay. Outrageous. Then one of his friends tried to pull a Donald Trump on her (and grab her by the pussy) because, you know, the high school jock said she was easy, remember? All of that I get.

What I don't get is why over the course of the series she continued interacting with him and everyone else who was mean to her - according to her delusional ass, anyway - and even getting in a hot tub with them. I'm sorry, but that's not the behavior of someone who's deeply hurt and desperate for things to improve. That's the behavior of someone asking for it. No, I don't mean rape. Rape is never justifiable. I mean drama. She was asking for drama and if she didn't t get  it, she would create it.

5. The rape aftermath

OK, fine, the whole rape situation was not cool. Yet her blaming the counselor is what really pissed me off. Hannah, being the dumb ass teen that she is was, wanted justice - which I totally get. What I don't get is why the fuck would she even bother to go and make a scene at the counselor's office and then throw a bitch fit at him when he told her that she needed to move on? Yes, that is a shitty answer, but what was she expecting? He was a fucking counselor for fuck's sake, not Professor Xavier. He couldn't read your mind, girl. If you she truly wanted him to help, then she should have spoken up and spilled the tea on Bryce. Oh, no. instead she went crazy and stormed out of the room ready to do the job, but not before standing outside of the counselor's office hoping he would run after her.

The hell you think you are, Hannah? Cinderella? Who'd want to run behind a crazy, borderline psychotic teen with an attitude problem?

6. The Latin classmate

I'm not done hating on Hannah, but this guy got me raging almost as much as she did. Everything from his crappy personality to his outfit was just terrible, but the real mystery is what he even had to do with Hannah, and why the fuck does he pretend to be all wise and mighty? First of all, if he was that wise, he would have stopped dressing like Danny Zuko.

Also, let me get this straight: Hannah kills herself because in the end she has no friends, yet she entrusted this guy to see her tapes through till they reached the 13th person? Ahem, is this a plothole or just plain stupid writing? I wanted to vomit every time Pedro - whatever, I'm Mexican - would show up just to act all shady and remind pretty much everyone around - mainly Clay, Clay, Clay, and Clay - that they had all killed Hannah.

Hoe, no. Someone friendly enough to give her a ride home when she was pissed drunk didn't kill her, she killed herself. Well, rather the razor blades that she stole from her bankrupt parents' pharmacy did, but those are just details. Also, if Carlos - whatever, I'm Mexican - was such a good friend and concerned about everything that had happened to her, he wouldn't be dropping cryptic af messages, he would have taken the tapes to the police and let them deal with the jock. But no, of course he didn't do that because that would have required a writer to stop mixing vodka and Xanax and realize the show they were producing. No, instead he took the least sporty-looking character rock climbing because that's just how he rolls.

7. Clay

So the guy went from being the wallflower to taking justice into his own hands? What's his name again? Batman? I still don't understand how he's supposed to be all smart and yet not once, not even for a single second, does he stop and think that maybe, just maybe it's better to tell his parents, or any other grown up in fact, about what's happening and about how every other person wants to axe him. Like, I get it, you're angry, you're hurting, but you know what hurts more? That gap on your forehead, you know, the one you got after a car hit you?

Like, didn't anyone notice it? Am I the only one who can see it? Cos, girl, it's so big it makes the gender gap in the workplace look narrower in comparison. Go get stitches, like, now.

8. Where the hell are all the parents?

Underage drinking, tattoos, drugs, reckless driving, guns, teens with huge af scars all over their faces, like, where the fuck are all the grown ups? Are you trying to tell me that not even one adult noticed any of this? For fuck's sake, Clay's scar is putrid and so is half his face now, he's dying of an untreated infection!

9. The fandom

I cannot even begin to explain how annoyed I am at the people who think this is an accurate reflection of the suffering that many of them have gone through. You're wrong, and I don't feel bad saying it. Hannah had multiple opportunities to save herself if she had not acted stupid, dared to speak, and or seek help. She had loving parents, a hot geek ready to jump her, and apparently she was the best of friends with Jorge - whatever, I'm Mexican. No, if she killed herself was because she was starving for attention. She wanted to guilt-trip everyone and make them feel as shitty as they had made her felt except, guess what? She's not there to witness it.

10. The message

That's my issue with this whole fucking series. It plays with the idea of suicide in an almost hedonistic way, it's almost as if they wanted us to picture Hannah Baker laughing in Heaven - or rather in Hell cos she killed herself, obvi - at the sight of all these people suffering over her death and feeling remorseful the actions that led to it. Let me tell you something: Unless you become Casper, you will not get to see this.

To everyone thinking that suicide is as glamorous as 13 Reasons Why made it seen, it's not. You die and that's it. Sure, there will be people devastated by it - your parents - but that's it. There will be no Juan - whatever, I'm Mexican - sending tapes on your behalf or Clay growing a vagina in the middle of his forehead during his quest to uncover the truth. You'll be gone and that will be it.

In conclusion, 13 Reasons Why is a steamy pile of trash from start to finish and was clearly targeting all the dumb af teens who also thought that The Fault in our Stars is the epitome of modern literature. It's pretentious, it's boring, it's full of plotholes, and it will make you rage from start to finish. Needless to say, this is my opinion and that's about it. If you don't like it, well... Welcome to your tape, bitch.

[junker-town]

NFL offseason NFL power rankings: The Browns beat everyone else!

The Browns are your new offseason champs, but the ACTUAL champs aren’t far behind. We ranked the NFL’s most improved teams.

We aren’t completely finished with free agency. There are still a handful of star players available and a bunch of solid starters and role players, i.e. the signings that will probably end up making the biggest difference when the actual 2018 season starts. But we have been through enough of the offseason to crown this year’s offseason champs.

Congratulations, Browns! You finally won something.

These rankings represent the informed opinion of our staff about which teams have done the most to improve this spring, and not something like which teams are most apt to win the Super Bowl (see Browns, Cleveland).

1. Cleveland Browns

No team has had a better run through free agency than the Browns. They snagged an above average quarterback (Tyrod Taylor) to be their bridge guy, an outstanding possession receiver (Jarvis Landry), better cornerbacks and more. And they still have the first and fourth picks in the draft.

We can’t wait to see how Hue Jackson manages to turn this into a 4-12 season (which would at least be an improvement over last year).

2. Philadelphia Eagles

Michael Bennett’s right — Philadelphia’s defensive line really is the best in the NFL. Not only did the Eagles get Bennett from the Seahawks for a song, they also added Haloti Ngata on a one-year deal. They didn’t stop there. They swapped Torrey Smith, almost certain to be a cap casualty, to the Panthers for cornerback Daryl Worley, solid depth for the secondary. Linebacker Nigel Bradham got a five-year extension too.

3. Minnesota Vikings

Kirk Cousins was the grand prize of free agency, as weird as that is to say. Minnesota got its quarterback, for a fully guaranteed $84 million deal. The Vikings better make the Super Bowl, or Cousins’ contract is going to invite serious criticism.

Adding Sheldon Richardson to the defensive line helps them keep pace with the Eagles.

4. New York Jets

New York had a ton of cap space to work with and used it wisely. When the Jets didn’t land their white whale, Kirk Cousins, they still managed to add a top cornerback, Trumaine Johnson, and underrated linebacker Avery Williamson Quarterback is still likely a work in progress, but they certain addressed it — and likely will again after trading for the No. 3 pick. They brought back Josh McCown and added Teddy Bridgewater is a safe, low-risk way to make sure the position is set in 2018 and possibly adds a long-term option, too.

5. Los Angeles Rams

The Rams did most of their work the week before free agency, trading for cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib and slapping the tag on safety Lamarcus Joyner. That’s one helluva secondary, the kind Wade Phillips can leave on their own while Aaron Donald and the defensive line tear things up. Oh, and they might have a chance to sign Ndamukong Suh.

6. New England Patriots

Another narrow Super Bowl loss and a whole lot of talk about dysfunction in the locker room and in the front office isn’t going to change the fact that the Patriots are among the most consistent teams in football, and they should be viewed as such until the precise moment it’s proven otherwise. New England’s biggest moves for the new league year were all trades, as they acquired cornerback Jason McCourty (a nice replacement for Malcolm Butler), defensive tackle Danny Sheldon and wide receiver/kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson.

They also re-signed on two key special team players: Matthew Slater and Nate Ebner. The Belichickian Way.

7. Chicago Bears

Mitchell Trubisky didn’t have much help as a rookie — Kendall Wright led the team in receiving yards with 614. No wide receiver on the Bears even had more than one touchdown. So Chicago remedied that by signing Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Trey Burton. Adding receivers a year after drafting a quarterback is a strategy that worked for the Eagles and Rams, so there Bears were wise to follow suit.

8. Houston Texans

The biggest changes the Texans will see in 2018 will — hopefully — be no injuries to second-year quarterback Deshaun Watson and defenders J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus. But in addition to those returns, the Texans addressed two of their biggest concerns, the offensive line and secondary.

Tackle Seantrel Henderson and guards Zach Fulton and Senio Kelemete were added to help protect Watson. Houston also brought in two quality defenders: cornerback Aaron Colvin and safety Tyrann Mathieu. The latter signing is much higher profile and could really push the Texans over the top.

9. New Orleans Saints

Drew Brees was never going anywhere else, and the Saints made some positive strides in free agency to strengthen the team for another run or two at the Super Bowl. That includes signing defensive starters in linebacker Demario Davis, cornerback Patrick Robinson and safety Kurt Coleman. The Saints have been staring at their window potentially closing off and on for years, but it seems open, for now.

10. Denver Broncos

Last season, the Broncos started Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch, and Trevor Siemian at quarterback. In 2018, they’ll upgrade from the Cerberus of underthrown passes to Case Keenum, a player who ranked seventh in the league in passing efficiency last season. That alone makes them a winner, and while losing a still-effective, but expensive Aqib Talib to trade hurt, bringing Tramaine Brock over from Minnesota alongside Keenum should help. Brock isn’t a one-for-one replacement for Talib, but he’s just a year removed from being a useful starter with the 49ers.

11. Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers will pay a whole lot of money to keep Le’Veon Bell around for at least another season, but the most important part of that franchise tag isn’t the amount, it’s Bell’s talent: he’s really, really good. They also released Mike Mitchell, replacing him with a quality safety in Morgan Burnett, and brought in versatile linebacker Jon Bostic. They remain a strong team going into 2018.

12. Green Bay Packers

Jimmy Graham may finally give them the tight end they’ve been pining after since Jermichael Finley’s prime, and Muhammad Wilkerson should help address some of their defensive problems. However, the secondary still has significant question marks that weren’t helped when Green Bay traded starting cornerback Damarious Randall to the Browns in exchange for DeShone Kizer.

13. Buffalo Bills

Buffalo officially ended the Tyrod Taylor era a year after unofficially ending it, shipping the Pro Bowl quarterback to Cleveland in exchange for a third-round pick. They then made moves to ensure Nathan Peterman isn’t their only option behind center by signing AJ McCarron toward an inexpensive two-year, $10m contract to push the 2014 fifth-round draft pick this summer. They also shipped Cordy Glenn to Cincinnati in order to move up from the 21st to 12th pick in this year’s draft — a pick that, paired with their 22nd pick, could net a solid QB prospect via trade to the top of the first round.

But that’s not all. The Bills kept Kyle Williams in town for one more year, then added his replacement with Star Lotulelei — one of the best defensive tackles on the market. Trent Murphy will add some thump to the linebacker corps. And Chris Ivory, uh, got a two-year deal despite being washed. (All right, they weren’t all winners.)

14. Tennessee Titans

The Titans got burned by Dion Lewis last year, so they went ahead and signed him. The running back market is weird and some will say they overpaid, but the pairing of Lewis and Derrick Henry is the exact definition of a two-pronged, keep-them-off-balance attack. Lewis has a lot to prove, but so does their other big signing: cornerback Malcolm Butler, formerly of the Patriots and notable for being benched in the last Super Bowl for reasons that are still quite unclear. Tennessee is on the up-and-up.

15. San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers extended quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo before free agency opened — giving him the richest contract in the NFL, but also getting in before a slew of big contracts were signed. From there, they managed to bring in Richard Sherman, and negotiated a very team-friendly deal for what they believe is still one of the premium cornerbacks in the NFL. Add a young starting center in Weston Richburg and Kyle Shanahan’s newest “offensive weapon” in Jerick McKinnon, and San Francisco has a lot of reason for optimism in 2018.

16. Cincinnati Bengals

Losing long-time left tackle Andrew Whitworth in free agency last year was a huge setback for the offense. Recognizing that that Andy Dalton needs a wall around him, they traded with the Bills to get Cordy Glenn, smart move. They kept Tyler Eifert on a cheapie deal, and if he can finally get healthy, it’s a steal. Matt Barkley is the new backup QB, so that’s a strike against them.

17. Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers have had some good luck picking up offensive linemen, and after a very quiet first few days of free agency (Virgil Green and Caleb Sturgis, anybody?), they signed Mike Pouncey, formerly of the Dolphins. That should work out great for them, and is probably one of the better signings (and contracts) of the free agency period ... period. The offensive line was the biggest concern, and they addressed it well. Safety remains a concern, however.

18. Jacksonville Jaguars

Adding Andrew Norwell to the middle of the offensive line was a big coup for the Jaguars, and the biggest reason the team isn’t lower. But most of Jacksonville’s moves were designed around giving Blake Bortles an upgraded group of weapons — and it’s possible it was a complete swing and miss.

Gone are Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, and Marcedes Lewis. The replacements are Donte Moncrief, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, and Niles Paul. It would’ve been expensive to keep Robinson, but it’s tough to say Bortles options got better.

19. New York Giants

Rebuilding the offensive line is Dave Gettleman’s first priority and adding Nate Solder is a good start — especially because it means Ereck Flowers will move to the right side, potentially fixing both left and right tackle. But the middle of the offensive line needs more work than ever, now that Weston Richburg, Justin Pugh and D.J. Fluker all left. It’s also puzzling that the Giants opted to sign Jonathan Stewart, a declining, 31-year-old running back who is years removed from his best football.

20. Kansas City Chiefs

The offseason’s been a mixed bag for the Chiefs. They dealt Alex Smith, a capable starter they were ready to move on from, to Washington for a third-round pick and a starting cornerback, Kendall Fuller. But they got fleeced, or maybe they were just in too much of a hurry to deal Marcus Peters.

Sammy Watkins adds a bona fide No. 1 receiver to an already loaded offense, but they still have huge gaps on the defensive side of the ball.

21. Baltimore Ravens

Joe Flacco just had the worst season of his career, so Baltimore’s response has been to beef up his receiving corps ... with an aging Michael Crabtree and John Brown, who caught 38 percent of his targets with the Cardinals last fall. Those guys technically fill a need, so it could be worse, right?

22. Oakland Raiders

John Gruden began his first offseason back in the NFL with a vow to take football back to 1998. If moving backwards is the goal, the Raiders are off to a good start. Their biggest free agent move was replacing Michael Crabtree with an older Jordy Nelson. Don’t overlook the mass exodus in the secondary. They lost David Amerson, T.J. Carrie and Sean Smith. Among their replacements, Rashaan Melvin from the Colts, offers the most promise.

23. Carolina Panthers

The Panthers are probably still a playoff-level team, but they have serious consistency issues, and lost one of the best guards in the NFL, Andrew Norwell, to the Jaguars in free agency. They re-signed Julius Peppers, who is still playing extremely well, and also brought in Dontari Poe. Ron Rivera wants the Panthers want to be a defensive-led team, and their free agency reflects this. They did make a really sketchy move by trading a perfectly good starting cornerback in Daryl Worley to the Eagles in exchange for Torrey Smith, an underperforming receiver who is presumably there to catch overthrown passes and not much else.

24. Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons weren’t enamored with this year’s crop of free agents, and it shows. The only move they’ve made through the first week of the open market is to bring guard Brandon Fusco to shore up Matt Ryan’s protection. That’s helpful, but they’ll have to hope for a solid draft crop to make up for their early losses — namely wideout Taylor Gabriel and defensive linemen Dontari Poe and Adrian Clayborn.

25. Detroit Lions

LeGarrette Blount is at the age where him suddenly becoming ineffective wouldn’t be surprising, but for now it seems like a smart pickup for a Lions team that was completely incapable of running the ball in 2017. Unfortunately, they also lost some key pieces, including Tahir Whitehead and Eric Ebron. They also failed to sign Haloti Ngata, and signed DeShawn Shead. In other words: they’ll probably be about middle-of-the-pack again.

26. Washington NFL team

Swapping Kirk Cousins out and Alex Smith in won’t be much of a downgrade in 2018, but Smith will be 34 this season and came at the expense of a third-round pick and a useful cornerback in Kendall Wright. Four other free agents left behind Cousins, including starters Spencer Long and Trent Murphy. After Smith, the team’s biggest addition was Paul Richardson, who got a five-year, $40 million deal after a breakout 2017...pairing an emerging deep ball threat with an aging quarterback who, up until last year, has struggled to make big plays through the air.

27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs didn’t garner many headlines during free agency, for better and for worse: Fitzmagic returns as a solid backup to Jameis Winston (and a good locker room presence). Brent Grimes, who isn’t slowing down as he enters his mid-30s, is also back. Signing center Ryan Jensen could be their best moves, but he’s also only had one season as a full-time starter.

Yet, they didn’t do much to boost their biggest flaw last year: their lack of sack production. The Eagles were trying to unload Vinny Curry for a long time until they finally just released him. Beau Allen has great hair, but he’s not going to get after the quarterback.

28. Seattle Seahawks

It’s hard to gauge the Seahawks at this point. On one hand, they missed the playoffs in 2017 and on that same hand, they parted ways with a whole lot of players responsible for their success in year’s past. On the other hand, Pete Carroll has done more good than bad in Seattle, and the Ed Dickson signing is a sneaky-good one for Russell Wilson. The Seahawks still have plenty of great players and a competent coaching staff, but are they definitively battling with the Cardinals to stay out of the NFC West basement in 2018?

29. Indianapolis Colts

The only reason the Colts aren’t last is because they managed to trade down from the No. 3 spot in the draft and got the No. 6 pick, two second-round picks, and a 2019 second-round pick from the Jets in return.

Otherwise, what did they do? Not much. They took risks to get Andrew Luck (?) some weapons: Ryan Grant, who failed (?) his physical with the Ravens, and tight Eric Ebron. Who knows, maybe the former first-round pick will rebound after a disappointing career in Detroit. They also curiously jettisoned defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins — just 25 and still really good.

It’s clear the Colts are going to build through the draft this year. At least they’ve got the picks to do it.

30. Dallas Cowboys

Well, they kept DeMarcus Lawrence by using the franchise tag, which was hugely important. Other than that that, the Cowboys have ... uh, well, traded for a fullback and released Orlando Scandrick, who then signed with a rival.

The Cowboys don’t have much cap space, even after Travis Frederick restructured his contract. Maybe it’s all about the second wave of free agency?

31. Miami Dolphins

The biggest moves the Dolphins made were focused on freeing up salary cap space, but they didn’t spend much of it after doing so. Their biggest signing was to bring in receiver Albert Wilson, who should be a good fit but isn’t exactly a franchise-changing player. They also signed Danny Amendola, and seem primed to try and change their fortunes with a slew of slot receivers. They used the franchise tag on Jarvis Landry and then traded him to the Browns for fourth- and seventh-round picks. Does one Albert Wilson and one Danny Amendola equal one Jarvis Landry? Probably not.

32. Arizona Cardinals

Arizona cut ties with Tyrann Mathieu in order to be able to afford at $20 million deal to replace knee injury magnet Carson Palmer with knee injury magnet Sam Bradford. Backing him up with be human scarecrow Mike Glennon (two years, $8 million). Hopefully Larry Fitzgerald is content with catching 8-yard slants for the rest of his career.

[investmart007]

LAS VEGAS | Vulnerable US senator welcomes Trump in tight Nevada race

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/las-vegas-vulnerable-us-senator-welcomes-trump-in-tight-nevada-race/172859/

LAS VEGAS | Vulnerable US senator welcomes Trump in tight Nevada race

LAS VEGAS — Republicans’ chances of keeping their majority in the U.S. Senate have become shakier as races in red states like Texas have tightened, but the party’s most vulnerable member insists he’s bullish about his re-election.

The Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has faced tight races before but never lost an election. He’s now in the fight of his career to keep his Senate seat in a blue-trending state that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah. I’ll win,” Heller told reporters last week in Reno.

To win, he’s performing political acrobatics, aligning himself with President Donald Trump while trying to keep his distance from the scandals surrounding the president.

“Eighty percent of what this president has done has been very, very good, very positive,” Heller said. He listed the economy, low unemployment, jobs and trade among the president’s accomplishments.

“The other 20 percent … he has a reality show. I get it. It’s a reality show,” the senator said.

Heller, who once said he “vehemently” opposed Trump and returned one of his campaign donations, is set to hold his second campaign rally and fundraiser with the president Thursday and Friday in Las Vegas.

He’s formed an alliance with Trump after drawing the president’s ire last year when he held up Republican efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Heller now avoids criticizing Trump and refuses to comment on his tweets, saying if he did, it would be “a full-time job and I already have one.”

When asked if Trump is an asset or liability, Heller simply mentioned Trump’s planned visit to Las Vegas and said, “I’ll be there with him.”

“As far as I’m concerned, if he’s going to be — any president, any president that comes into Nevada, I’m going to be standing with them,” Heller said. “I think that’s a plus, I think that’s a positive with any president when they come into the state.”

The president saved Heller from a costly and damaging primary battle earlier this year by persuading a further-right primary challenger, Danny Tarkanian, to drop out of the Senate race and instead seek a House seat.

Heller is now in a very tight race with Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, a first-term congresswoman who stands to benefit from a wave of Democratic and female activism fueled by opposition to Trump.

To win, Heller has to get support from nonpartisans, who make up about 21 percent of the state’s active voters, while ensuring that Republicans, including those still resentful over his past criticism of Trump, vote for him.

Among the GOP, “I think everybody was angry with the fact that Dean Heller distanced himself,” said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a Republican campaign consultant in Las Vegas. “But Republicans, whether you are going to hold your nose and vote for Dean Heller, whether you’re one of those Republicans, I think at the end of the day, you have to look at those core values.”

Heller’s last re-election, in 2012, was razor-thin. He had a one-point victory over Democrat Shelley Berkley, a former state lawmaker who spent 15 years in Congress and ran with more name recognition than Rosen.

Heller also won that year despite Obama winning the state by nearly seven points.

But this year “is a different environment,” said Greg Ferraro, a Reno-based Republican political consultant and public relations firm owner. “Voters are probably paying attention more than they have in the past.”

Voters on both sides of the aisle know the Nevada race is key for Democrats trying to flip control of the Senate, he said, and the key question will be whether they view the race through a national lens and make it about Trump or whether they consider Heller’s record.

Heller acknowledged as much in an August interview with the Washington Examiner, saying that if Rosen “makes it about Washington, D.C., and Donald Trump, she knows she wins.”

Rosen has hammered Heller over the president’s immigration policies, the senator’s eventual support for Republican-led plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his role in crafting the GOP tax overhaul and his backing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“He’s spent the past year folding to President Trump instead of standing up for Nevada, and that’s why he’s going to lose,” Rosen spokesman Stewart Boss said in a statement.

While he’s aligned himself with Trump, Heller has focused his campaign on Nevada veterans, the improving economy and what he’s delivered while serving in the Senate since 2011. He’s painted his opponent as someone who sought a promotion after only six months in the House.

“She’s introducing herself to the rest of the state while he’s making the case that he’s been hard at work,” Ferraro said.

Heller has outraised Rosen so far, with $10.6 million in campaign contributions to her $9.2 million. But outside groups have poured $17 million into the race — about $10 million of which was spent to oppose Heller or support Rosen, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“At this point, we’re always neck and neck,” Heller said, noting he’s won his past nine elections and state and federal offices. “We get into October, and it has a tendency of breaking. Fortunately, first nine races have broken my way.”

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

[tophatal]

Not   Here  To  Be  Anyone’s  Stepping   Stone

So here   we  are  in the lead-up to  the  Christmas   schedule  of the      NBA     season  and   all  is  not  necessarily  well  for  a  number  of     teams around  the  NBA.    Reigning  NBA champions  the Golden   State   Warriors  are  the  best  team  in  the  league ,  even  if  their   present  record  doesn’t     reflect  that.   Until  they’re knocked  off their pedestal  then  they will  remain  the  bar  against   who everybody  else will  be  judged.   LeBron James remains  the  league’s best  all-round  player ,  albeit   that  the Cleveland   Cavaliers  are  now   having   some  teething issues  concerning  their  lineup.   Head coach   Tyronn  Lue  has  yet  to    figure   out  his   best   starting   lineup   among  his  team  of  highly  touted  stars. The Cavaliers themselves  have already   faced stern tests against some strong opponents early on in their schedule.

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Up next for the Cleveland Cavaliers will be a game against the Indiana Pacers on Friday 8th December, 2017. I’ve no doubt that the Cavaliers will be around for the NBA Playoffs, but I do believe this team might not be equipped to handle the improvement seen in several of their conference rivals if the Playoffs were to start today. While the Boston Celtics continue to take the league by storm , I am beginning to wonder if this Brad Stevens’ coached team are meant to be the real deal. Kyrie Irving is proving to be a force to be reckoned as he inspire the teammates around him. I do believe he has become a difference maker for the Celtics and I expect Boston to be more than an adequate match for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Boston’s bench has complemented the lineup and it might be among one of the many reasons they are so good this season. .

Brad Stevens will prepare his team for their next game when the Boston Celtics face the San Antonio Spurs on the road this Friday evening. This should prove to be one of the best games of the night on the schedule. I truly believe Brad Stevens is the best young coach in the NBA and his learning curve has vastly improved since he became the head coach of the Boston Celtics . GM Danny Ainge struck gold with his choice of hiring the former Butler coach.

I was once told that the Los Angeles Clippers were considered a legitimate contender for the NBA title during the tenure of Donald Sterling’s owning the franchise. Considering the Clippers’ playoff appearances were sporadic , I believe those claims were laughable to say the very least. This season the Clippers have struggled and the departure of point guard Chris Paul has left a massive vacuum on the roster . Head coach Doc Rivers and his coaching staff are at a loss to explain the Clippers’ poor record and it has become a talking point around the league. Over their last twelve games the Los Angeles Clippers have not been competitive at all and it paints a poor picture of a franchise now on the decline. There could be some drastic changes being made to the Clippers’ lineup if this team finds itself completely out of the playoff race by the trade deadline . Rivers and key members of the front office will have some decisions to make which would have some long-lasting and serious repercussions for the franchise moving forward. Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan are carrying this team but it’s clearly not enough given the dire circumstances they now face. .

In their next game the Los Angeles Clippers are due to face the the Washington Wizards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on the 9th December , 2017.

Carmelo Anthony has been a scoring champion in the NBA , two-time Olympic gold medalist , multi-time NBA All Star , but the one thing lacking on his resume’ are is an NBA championship ring. His tenures in Denver with the Denver Nuggets and then the New York Knicks has brought little personal or team success for the seasoned veteran. Having been acquired by the Oklahoma City Thunder the player seems to be more of a liability instead of being an asset for the team . Barely over .500 , with Paul George , Russell Westbrook and Anthony as part of the lineup it is almost inexplicable to explain the reasons why the team is failing. If it is not Billy Donovan and his coaching staff at fault , then the responsibility lies with the lackluster performances of the players themselves. Other than Russell Westbrook not one player on the roster is among the league’s top-twenty scorers in the NBA .

If the Oklahoma City Thunder are not in a position to challenge for a playoff berth by April then their chances of actually making an appearance is likely to diminish even more so. For the moment this Billy Donovan coached team will have to take it one step at a time , one day at a time. Up next for the Thunder will be a game against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday evening.

Say what you will, but LaVar Ball is certainly making a name for himself on the national pages of the nation’s papers as well as on the sports’ pages . Ball Sr has been in the midst of a spat with President Donald Trump and his playing a part in the release of his son, LiAngelo Ball a player with the UCLA Bruins’ basketball team. LiAngelo and two other teammates were arrested by Chinese authorities , after the trio were caught stealing from three department stores in Beijing , China. The Bruins program was in China as part of a goodwill gesture and to take part in a local tournament. The incident caught everyone off-guard, including the State Department , Athletics Department of UCLA , much to the embarrassment of the President and his entourage. In the aftermath of the players’ release , with the help of the US Embassy in the Chinese capital and officials of the State Department . It has to be said that LaVar Ball has not sought to reprimand his son for his felonious behavior. He has seen fit to be critical of the university , after they made the decision to suspend him indefinitely , but the patriarch has since decided to remove his son from UCLA altogether. LiAngelo Ball’s academic future doesn’t seem all that bright and I seriously doubt that he would be accepted by a Division 1 program or for that matter a D2 program in the NCAA . In all likelihood, any ambitions of being seen as a high draft pick in the 2018 NBA Draft will be placed on the back-burner . .

LaVar Ball’s eldest son Lonzo Ball is now making a name for himself in his rookie season with the Los Angeles Lakers . As things now stand , Lonzo and teammate Kyle Kuzma might be the only bright spots on a team still learning the ropes under their sophomore head coach Luke Walton . Over their last eight games the Los Angeles Lakers are a mediocre 2-6 and the teething pains are there for all to see. . It will be interesting to see how the this team maneuvers their Christmas schedule as this becomes one of the most pivotal times of the NBA regular season. Lonzo Ball and his teammates will next be in action when they face the Charlotte Hornets in a road game this Saturday (9th December).

A great deal is expected of the Houston Rockets this season and James Harden is simply looking to prove that his performances of last year as no fluke . Harden leads the league in scoring at this point of the season and his productivity for the Rockets has been scintillating to say the very least . The addition of point guard Chris Paul to the roster has been added bonus for head coach Mike D’Antoni and the franchise’s new owner , billionaire entrepreneur Tillman Fertitta .

I expect the Houston Rockets to be among the movers and shakers within the Western Conference this season and they are certainly one of the biggest threats to the continued dominance of the Golden State Warriors. These two teams are likely to be among the top contenders for the conference title at the end of this season if last season’s competitiveness was anything to go by. While many believe James Harden was a worthy candidate for League MVP and the fact he lost out to Russell Westbrook by a slim margin was a clear indication as to how good both players were over the course of last season .

James Harden could very well end up being this season’s League MVP if he continues at his current pace , though not yet matching the feats of last season. He’s clearly one of the most dynamic players in the league today , even if his defensive capabilities do come into question. Harden and the Houston Rockets have an upcoming game against the Portland Traiblazers which will be a Western Conference road match-up .

Steph Curry , Kevin Durant and the members of the Golden State Warriors might not be setting a blistering pace at present but if there’s one thing clear with or without either of their two big stars , this team remains among the best in the NBA . I am not about to suggest the two are interchangeable concerning the lineup , but in all honesty, any doubters of the Warriors are not that intelligent. Golden State will not be in action over the weekend, but the Warriors will return to the court on Monday night to face the Portland Trailblazers at home.

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At this point of the NBA season, which team has impressed you the most and which do you believe has been the biggest disappointment ?

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NBA   news

  NBA    divisional  standings 

NBA schedule 7th December

This month in NBA history

  Tophatal    ….. 12/07/2017

Not Here To Be Anyone’s Stepping Stone …. Not   Here  To  Be  Anyone’s  Stepping   Stone So here   we  are  in the lead-up to  the  Christmas   schedule  of the      NBA     season  and   all  is  not  necessarily  well  for  a  number  of   …

[writingsitcom]

Great Zombie/Train movies

So having claimed that Undead movies were long (un)dead, I watched TRAIN to BUZAN last night and my faith was resurrected. Leon Sung Ho’s 2016 Action thriller is superb jaw dropping entertainment in every way. All the elements are present, from the subtle hunts that outbreak is imminent (revived deer, roadside quarantine, bloodied hand on a train carriage) to the emotive story line wherein a negligent father takes his cute 6 year old daughter by Train to see his Ex-wife. It’s a visitation rights weekend with a difference as the train from Seoul to Buzan is somewhat plagued by the Undead - and it’s the running jumping clawing biting Undead too. We have long lost the shambling (’They’re coming to get you Barbara’) undead of the George Romero 1968 classic. What makes this great - apart from stunning effects (in particular when the dead just POUR out of smashed train windows, like rats or lice) is character. Gong Yoo is a Fund manger - a bad guy who needs to learn  a lesson about treating people like cattle. The CEO of a train company is on there too - and the pure selfishness of Capitalism is ably illustrated right to the mournful bittersweet ending. There are flashes here of 28 Days later (Danny Boyle) and of course, all those other great train movies. (excepting Snowpiercer, which, despite its flashy set pieces is just plain silly) 

Why I love train movies is that you have a contained environment for the human drama to function, whilst at the same time we are plummeting toward our destination. Burt Lancaster in The Train (1964) is a good place to start. As a French resistance Train worker, he is instrumental in re-routing a Nazi train that is trying to get all the purloined paintings from the Louvre back to Germany before the war ends. The French rather cutely mock up station names and banners to fool the pesky Huns that they are back in Naziland, when really they are still in France. It’s a cracking movie with a strong moral finish, loosely based on fact and mined later for Monuments Men with G. Clooney. 

There is of course the First Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery and later adaptations, all good in their own ways. This was back in the day when the mail was transported by train from Edinburgh to London. A shout out here to the classic poem ‘The Night Mai’l and its accompanying documentary footage, also to ‘Buster’, which features the 1963 robbery and proves Phil Collins can act when he’s not banging on about his divorce.  

Then you have Agatha Cristie’s Murder on the Orient Express, a classic of its era, with (spoiler alert) what is now the old saw of ‘they all done it’ The movie, with Ustinov, Mason et al showboating and grandstanding, does capture the idea of the Grand Tour, along with a sense of speed, pace, entrapment and danger. We pull exhausted into Venice. 

 Continuing the thrill of speed, there is the original ‘The Taking of Pelham 123′, which has Walter Matthau as the Droopy Jawed controller faced with a crazed loon who has taken a New York Subway Train Hostage. It’s out of control and heading for Coney Island with a  squishy death for all inside: A cracking (1974)  nail biting thriller only minutely improved in the remake starring Denzil Washington.

In Horror there is Terror Train, the  brilliant Amicus portmanteau (forget which one it was) where each passenger tells his/her tale only to discover in the end that they are on a....train to hell mwah ha haaaaaa....

Two personal favourites are 1972′s Death Line (Minaaadooors) with an outstanding performance against type by Donald (I can see that pin) Pleasance and and Chris Smith’s debut movie CREEP with sterling performances by Franke Potenta and Sean Harris (never more scary). 

There are others, for example,  HOWL: Sean Pertwee and werewolves), but if you really want  a terrifying train experience then just book a ticket on Southern Trains. 

Ayy thang yew. 

[bestnewsmag-blog]

New Post has been published on Bestnewsmag

New Post has been published on https://bestnewsmag.com/scientists-across-the-world-take-to-the-streets-to-demand-freedom-from-political-interference/

Scientists across the world take to the streets to demand freedom from political interference

The sector noticed mind strength take an exceptional form on Saturday.

From the Washington Monument to Germany’s Brandenburg Gate or even to Greenland, scientists, college students, and studies advocates rallied on an often soggy Earth Day, conveying a global message about clinical freedom without political interference, the want for ok spending for destiny breakthroughs, and the sheer cost of scientific interests.

They got here in numbers that had been large if no longer quite astronomical.

“We didn’t choose to be in this warfare, but it has come to the factor where we need to combat because the stakes are too excellent,” said Dr. Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania Nation University climate scientist who often clashes with politicians. President Donald Trump, in an Earth Day declaration hours after the marches kicked off, stated that “rigorous technology depends not on ideology, however on a spirit of honest inquiry and sturdy debate.”

Denis Hayes, who co-organised the first Earth Day 47 years in the past, stated the gang he saw from the speaker’s platform down the street from the White House became energized and “magical” in a rare manner, similar to what he saw inside the first Earth Day.

“For this kind of climate, that is a super crowd. You’re now not available these days unless you certainly care. This isn’t always a stroll inside the park event,” Mr. Hayes said of the occasion inside the park.

Dr. Mann stated that like different scientists, he could rather be in his lab, the field, or teaching students. but driving his advocacy were officials who deny his studies that indicate rising global temperatures. When he went on the degree, he obtained the largest applause for his easy commencing: “I am a weather scientist.”

In Los Angeles, Danny Lederman, the 26-yr-old director of digital media for the county’s Democratic birthday party, stated “We used to appearance up to intelligence and aspire to research more and do extra with that intellectual interest. And we have long gone from there to a society wherein … Our officials and representatives belittle science and that they belittle intelligence. And we really need a culture alternate.”

The rallies in greater than six hundred cities placed scientists, who generally shrink back from advocacy and whose work depends on goal experimentation, into a more public position.

Scientists said they were demanding about the political and public rejection of set up technology such as climate trade and the protection of vaccine immunizations.

“Scientists locate it appalling that proof has been crowded out via ideological assertions,” said Rush Holt, a former physicist and Democratic congressman who runs the Yankee Association for the Advancement of science. “It isn’t just about Donald Trump, but there is also absolute confidence that marchers are saying ‘When the shoe fits’.”

In spite of saying the march was now not partisan, Mr. Holt recounted it turned into only dreamed up on the Women’s March in Washington, a day after Mr. Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

However, the rallies were also approximately what technology does for The sector.

“The general public don’t know how a whole lot funding for the sciences helps them of their lives every day. Every medical leap forward, their food, apparel, our cell phones, our computers, all this is technological know-how-primarily based,” stated Pati Vitt, a plant scientist at the Chicago Botanic Lawn. “So if we forestall investment scientific discoveries now, in 10 years, something we would have had won’t be; we just may not have it.”

  Sparkling Stem Cells Assist Scientists Understand How Cells Paintings It’s tough to peer the underlying troubles with bare eyes, whilst the whole thing is going on easily. As soon as something is going incorrect, we observe it, irrespective of how vintage the problem has been there. Human frame isn’t any exceptional. Scientists are only capable of having a look at the cells, once they start performing bizarre. However, the reality remains, if they get the access to have a look at the healthy cells, they are able to make contributions lots to figure out how normal cells Work and what it would take to keep them wholesome.

The Allen Institute for Cellular Technology scientists has exactly accomplished that. They invented a brand new era so that it will genetically adjust human stem cells, so they glow! Sure, you heard it proper. The gene-editing generation is known as CRISPR/Cas9. The final intention of the research group of the Allen Institute was to Assist researchers to determine out how excellent-conditioned cells Paintings and what occurs when they begin doing sick.

The scientists inserted a genetic code into the cord tissue cells, in order that they invent fluorescent colored proteins within the nucleus in addition to in the mitochondria of the cells. when they attempted to observe the stem cells under a fluorescent microscope, they found them Glowing. The system guarantees a tool to observe how human stem cells Paintings in numerous organs.

Ruwanthi Gunawardane, The director of stem cells on the Allen Institute said, “We are seeking to Apprehend how the Cellular behaves, how it functions, however flooding it with some outside protein can truly mess it up”, he brought, “the CRISPR machine permits us to go into the DNA-the blueprint-and insert a gene that allows the Cellular to specific the protein in its regular surroundings. Then, thru stay imaging, we are able to watch the Cellular and Understand how it works.”

The manner of creating the stem cells illuminated may additionally sound easy but it required the crew to run via several methods to ultimately provide you with the full evidence tool. Preceding experiments showed the cells flooded with fluorescent proteins and the consequences have been doubtful pictures.

The gene-edited cord tissue cells may be utilized in some of the cases starting from improving on the regeneration manner in organs and tissues to monitoring and treating drug users. But, the Allen Institute scientists have already commenced implementing them to study coronary heart conditions. They used the illuminated stem Cellular lines to Recognize how otherwise stem cells act in heart tissues. They have brought acquainted sickness-inflicting adjustments to the stem cells with a view to recognizing the dissimilarities among the wholesome and dangerous circulatory structures.

Rick Horwitz, the govt director of the Allen Institute for Mobile Science said, “The quantity of scientists doing fundamental biology with wire tissue cells is low, But the hobby in the use of them to create ailment-in-a-dish models is developing explosively. We think these cells will greatly allow that Work.” He truly believes that gene enhancing becomes one of the most famous gears in stem cells medical research.

The group has already built five forms of Sparkling Cellular strains and has plans to create 20 stem Cell lines by way of the end of 2017. Every Cellular line might be unique and could come with a completely unique cellular pattern. The genetically edited cells are available to scientists around the arena.

A Tour of the Grandest Museums Around the sector If a person has been to invite me what the maximum important locations inside the global are, my solution could be easy. the arena’s maximum crucial places are the museums due to the fact this is in which we keep our records. this is wherein we examine from the beyond, renowned the honor of our ancestors and their lifestyle and make plans about the destiny on the same time. Museums can educate us so much, even about the present handiest if we appearance difficult enough. This text is for everybody who believes that museums can come up with the concept to live and for anyone who doesn’t as nicely. Here’s a listing of the world’s biggest museums which have the largest collection of ancient artifacts underneath one roof. And in case you’re a person who does no longer have an awful lot journey experience, have a observe some clean methods to shop for airline tickets

1. The Louvre, Paris This monument of Paris is the holder of the name for the world’s largest Museum freedom. that is positioned at the Proper Bank of the Seine of Paris. This museum homes a total of 35,000 items and includes gadgets that have been dated as prehistoric together with items part of the modern-day day 21t century records. This area is the second most famous place for vacationers to visit in Paris (the first one being the Eiffel Tower). This museum is likewise the house of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most well-known painting up to now – The Mona Lisa. Virtually well worth seeing even in case you’re no longer partial to records.

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art the second biggest museum of the arena and the biggest one within the United states of America of America, this museum is placed in The big apple. The gathering here includes approximately 2 million works and the museum has seventeen subdivided departments that control them. The building for this museum is near the Important Park. Going here, you get to gaze at works with diverse backgrounds (from painting and sculptures from Europe to antiques from the corners of Egypt). This museum actually has all of it.

three. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg This museum houses portions of Artwork and subculture in St. Petersburg Russia. It turned into opened by to the public in 1852 and became created through Catherine the Super in 1754. The gathering here consists of three million pieces.

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NFL Draft: Every team’s worst pick in the last 5 years

Some of these players aren’t even in the league anymore, while others are still hanging around trying to shed the bust label.

Every team makes mistakes in the draft, and this year’s draft will be no different. Sometimes players don’t pan out because of injuries, sometimes teams just make mistakes in their evaluation process, and sometimes the transition to the NFL is too hard for a rookie.

Every team gets it right sometimes, too. But when a team misses on a draft pick, no matter the reason for a player not living up to potential, teams can take comfort in knowing it happens to everyone at some point. It’s happened to some teams — like the Browns — on a regular basis.

Some of these players have washed out of the league entirely, and some are clinging to a chance that they’ll be able to shed the bust label.

Here’s a look at the worst draft pick for every team over the past five years.

Arizona Cardinals

OG Jonathan Cooper, 2013 first round

Cooper broke his leg in his first preseason and never recovered. Even when he was healthy enough to take the field, he never came close to living up to his status as a No. 7 overall pick. The fact that he was a throwaway piece in the Cardinals’ Chandler Jones trade says it all.

Atlanta Falcons

DT Ra’Shede Hageman, 2014 second round

Hageman was a bit of a reach in the second round, but his raw athleticism and speed coupled with his size made him an appealing prospect. Since he was drafted, Hageman had a couple of heated disagreements with former defensive line coach Bryan Cox at practice and during games, and he also faced charges in 2016 stemming from an alleged domestic violence incident. He had 18 tackles and two sacks over 12 games last season, and he was a healthy game day inactive a couple of times.

Baltimore Ravens

S Matt Elam, 2013 first round

Ozzie Newsome normally has a golden touch with drafts, so it’s rare to see him whiff this badly on a first-round pick. Elam was supposed to be Ed Reed’s successor at safety, but utterly failed as a starter and found himself warming the bench for most of 2016.

Buffalo Bills

QB EJ Manuel, 2013 first round

In a year with almost no can’t-miss quarterback prospects, the Bills made a foolish gamble reaching on Manuel in the first round. He was mediocre at best in 10 starts his rookie year, throwing 11 touchdowns to nine interceptions and recording a 77.7 QB rating. The Bills benched him for Matt Cassel and then Tyrod Taylor, and Manuel is now backing up Derek Carr in Oakland.

Carolina Panthers

WR Devin Funchess, 2015 second round

Funchess wasn’t a prolific college receiver, but his 6’4, 225-pound frame helped Carolina overlook the former tight end’s average production and athleticism. While he’s used that size to become a steady red zone target (nine touchdowns in his two seasons as a pro), he has yet to develop into the No. 2 receiver the Panthers thought they were pairing with Kelvin Benjamin. The former Wolverine has only 54 receptions in the NFL.

Chicago Bears

LB Shea McClellin, 2012 first round

McClellin was a piece of a Super Bowl-winning defense — with the Patriots. The hybrid defensive end/linebacker was versatile and productive at Boise State, recording 26 tackles for a loss and three interceptions as an underclassman. However, he struggled to find a true position in Chicago, getting reps at end and on the second level but never finding the kind of pass-rushing impact he’d had in Idaho. He made four starts with New England last fall and worked as a platoon linebacker under Bill Belichick.

Cincinnati Bengals

DE Margus Hunt, 2013 second round

The Estonian discus and shot put star was supposed to have a breakout year — or at least, that’s what the narrative has been seemingly every offseason since Hunt joined the team. Once things come together for the 6’8 giant, he’ll be impossible to stop. Did you see what he did in preseason? Unfortunately for the Bengals, it never came together, and in four years he tallied just 1.5 sacks before joining the Colts this offseason.

Cleveland Browns

Almost all their first-rounders

Honestly, take your pick. Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden in 2012. Barkevious Mingo in 2013. Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel in 2014. None of those players are on the roster today. Danny Shelton and Cameron Erving in 2015 aren’t looking too hot, either, while Corey Coleman was hobbled by a hand injury in 2016. You could write a book on the Browns’ disastrous draft decisions made this decade.

Dallas Cowboys

DE Randy Gregory, 2015 second round

Sometimes a failed drug test can drive an elite prospect’s draft stock down and turn him into an all-time bargain. Other times, it’s just a harbinger for a career filled with bad choices. Gregory is the latter.

Denver Broncos

RB Montee Ball, 2013 second round

Coming off a storied college career at Wisconsin, Ball had a promising rookie year with 4.7 yards per carry on limited snaps. However, it was all downhill from there. A groin injury wiped out most of his 2014 season and he got supplanted by C.J. Anderson on the depth chart. The Broncos released him in 2015 and he washed out of the league after a domestic violence arrest.

Detroit Lions

TE Eric Ebron, 2014 first round

Since 2004, there have been 11 tight ends taken in the first round of the NFL Draft. Seven have gone on to earn Pro Bowl honors. If Ebron continues to improve, he could push that figure to eight — but early returns on the athletic pass-catcher have been disappointing. The 250-pound red zone target has scored just seven touchdowns in his career, but has improved his overall yardage, reception, yards-per-catch, and catch rate in each of his last two seasons with the team.

What hurts about this pick are the players the Lions could’ve had instead. Odell Beckham Jr., Aaron Donald, Taylor Lewan, and C.J. Mosley were just a handful of stars all taken after Ebron in the 2014 draft.

Green Bay Packers

DT Jerel Worthy, 2012 second round

Worthy had promise, and the Packers saw that in him when Green Bay traded up to take him with the 51st pick in 2012. But injuries kept him from reaching that potential, and he only played in two games in 2013. The Packers cut bait and shipped him off to the Patriots, but he didn’t make it through roster cuts. Worthy is currently trying to get back up to speed with the Bills and played in 13 games for Buffalo last season.

Houston Texans

S D.J. Swearinger, 2013 second round

Swearinger spent two seasons with the Texans, and actually didn’t play poorly. He had over 70 tackles each season, and he added 10 pass deflections, a sack and three interceptions over those two years. But his attitude left a lot to be desired, and after Swearinger refused to play special teams because he thought his second-round draft status justified skipping it, the team cut him loose.

Indianapolis Colts

DE Bjoern Werner, 2013 first round

It didn’t help that the Colts shoehorned Werner, a traditional 4-3 end, into a 3-4 outside role, but he still didn’t do anything to justify his draft stock, with just 6.5 sacks in three seasons. Indy released Werner in 2016 and he announced his retirement this past January.

With football done, it looks like Werner is giving pro wrestling a shot — he recently had a tryout at the WWE Performance Center.

Jacksonville Jaguars

WR Justin Blackmon, 2012 first round

Trouble was on the horizon almost right away with Blackmon, who was arrested for DUI one month after he was drafted. Still, he was a pretty good rookie with 865 receiving yards and returned from a suspension in 2013 to have 326 yards in his first two games. Then he got suspended again and never returned. Even taking a third-round punter isn’t as bad as trading up to No. 5 for that.

Kansas City Chiefs

CB KeiVarae Russell, 2016 third round

The Chiefs drafted Russell last year, and he barely made it to mid-September. When Kansas City selected him, general manager John Dorsey raved about Russell’s toughness and his love for the game of football, but something went wrong along the way. All Andy Reid would say is that it was “the best thing for the Chiefs right now” to waive him, but throwing away a third-round pick is painful.

Los Angeles Chargers

LB Manti Te’o, 2013 second round

Even with the bizarre fake dead girlfriend saga, Te’o was touted as a high-end prospect and the Chargers seemingly got a steal taking him in the second round. Unfortunately, his Chargers run was defined by injuries and mediocre play. Te’o tore his Achilles last year and will have to fight for a starting job in New Orleans.

Los Angeles Rams

OT Greg Robinson, 2014 first round

Everyone knew Robinson wasn’t a finished product coming out of Auburn, an offense that barely had him doing any pass blocking at all. But he at least had the raw potential to iron out that part of his game in the right system and with good coaching. He got neither with the Rams. Instead of being the cornerstone of a rebuilt offensive line, he was just one more crumbling building block. He’s getting moved to the right tackle spot this year.

Miami Dolphins

LB Dion Jordan, 2013 first round

The Dolphins traded up to use the third overall pick on Jordan, and it turned out to be a waste. He was in Miami for four seasons, but spent six games in 2014 and the entire 2015 season suspended for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy. Jordan started one single game during his time in Miami and racked up three sacks. The Dolphins waived him, and he’s got another shot to live up to his potential after signing with the Seahawks.

Minnesota Vikings

OT Matt Kalil, 2012 first round

Kalil’s career got off to a strong start after being drafted by the Vikings with the fourth overall pick. But he went downhill from there, consistently allowing pressure and being flagged for penalties. Knee injuries may have contributed, and he had arthroscopic surgery on both knees following the 2015 season. A hip injury that required surgical repair sidelined him for most of 2016, and he’ll get a fresh start with the Carolina Panthers after signing with them in free agency.

New England Patriots

WR Aaron Dobson, 2013 second round

If you’re a wide receiver and Tom Brady can’t make you look good, you’re in trouble. Dobson was a curious pick out of Marshall University — a deep threat whose yards-per-reception decreased each year he spent in college. He never gained more than 689 yards in a single season with the Thundering Herd, but had strong measurables and looked the part of a No. 1 wideout.

Unfortunately for New England, he carried on a proud tradition of regrettable WR draft choices. Dobson had a solid rookie campaign after making nine starts, but soon fell out of favor while players like Kenbrell Thompkins and Brian Tyms usurped his spot in the lineup.

New Orleans Saints

CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste, 2014 second round

After Richard Sherman blew up and became a household name, it seems like every tall cornerback prospect has been hyped up as “the next Sherman.” Jean-Baptiste was one of those guys, but he never did anything of note and the Saints cut him after just one year. Naturally, he’s Sherman’s teammate now, having signed with the Seahawks to compete for a roster spot in training camp.

New York Giants

RB David Wilson, 2012 first round

The Giants have been looking for a true No. 1 tailback since Tiki Barber’s retirement. For a hot minute, Wilson looked like he might be the guy. The Virginia Tech product started slowly in his rookie season, but finished the year averaging five yards per carry and looking like a building block for the future. Instead, he struggled through the first five games of his sophomore year before suffering a career-ending neck injury.

He’s currently re-dedicating himself to the world of track and field, where he’s a triple jumper.

New York Jets

CB Dee Milliner, 2013 first round

The Jets took Milliner with the ninth overall pick, hoping he could fill the void left by Darrelle Revis’s departure, but injuries kept him from ever hitting his stride. The Jets waived Milliner with an injury designation after he was only able to play in eight games over the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Oakland Raiders

CB D.J. Hayden, 2013 first round

The Raiders knew Hayden was a risk when they drafted him out of Houston in 2013. The rangy cornerback nearly died after an injury suffered in practice left him with a torn vein near his heart. He came back and performed well enough to assuage Oakland’s doubts at that year’s combine, but the team overlooked one thing: he wasn’t that good of a cornerback.

Hayden feasted on lesser offenses in two years of junior college ball and two years in Conference USA, leaving a stark transition from amateur to professional football. In four seasons with the Raiders, he made just 25 starts and hauled in three interceptions.

Philadelphia Eagles

LB Marcus Smith, 2014 first round

Smith, a former quarterback who converted to defense while at the University of Louisville, was a force in college. He was a shadow of his college self after being drafted by Philadelphia with the 26th overall pick in 2014. Smith has zero starts for the Eagles over three seasons and has contributed just four sacks.

Pittsburgh Steelers

LB Jarvis Jones, 2013 first round

Jones was a first-round pick after leading the SEC in sacks in 2011 with 13.5, and then the nation in 2012 with 14.5. But in four seasons with the Steelers, his grand total for sacks came out to a whopping six. He developed into a decent outside linebacker in run defense, but his inability to rush the passer is the reason Pittsburgh let him walk in free agency and the reason why he only received a one-year, $2.25 million deal from the Cardinals.

San Francisco 49ers

WR A.J. Jenkins, 2012 first round

Just think, the 49ers could’ve had Alshon Jeffery or T.Y. Hilton, who went in the second and third rounds, respectively. Drafting receivers is always a crapshoot, but it stings when you miss on one with a precious round one pick. He was active for exactly three games as a rookie and targeted just once. The 49ers swapped disappointing, over-drafted receivers with the Chiefs a year later, sending Jenkins to Kansas City in exchange for Jonathan Baldwin, neither of whom happen to be in the league anymore.

In hindsight, the 49ers’ picks that year were a sure sign that Trent Baalke was in over his head as a general manager.

Seattle Seahawks

RB Christine Michael, 2013 second round

Michael was supposed to apprentice under Marshawn Lynch, then eventually step into his role as a bruising bowling-ball of a tailback after Lynch’s sudden retirement in 2016. Instead, he’s been traded once and released three times in just four seasons of NFL play. His most successful season came in 2016, where he started seven games for Seattle (who had traded him in 2015, re-acquired him, and then cut him despite solid numbers) and added valuable depth to the bombed-out cave once known as the Packers’ tailback platoon.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

K Roberto Aguayo, 2016 second round

The Bucs traded up to draft a kicker in the second round. Let me repeat that: the Bucs traded up to draft a kicker in the second round. A kicker who’s already facing veteran competition because he was so bad in his rookie season. GM Jason Licht has quietly built a solid roster in Tampa, but this is some serious red on his ledger.

Tennessee Titans

WR Dorial Green-Beckham, 2015 second round

Green-Beckham was one of the nation’s highest-rated recruits coming out of high school, but never had the kind of NCAA impact expected of a five-star athlete. He spent two seasons at Missouri before being dismissed from the program due to legal issues, gaining fewer than 1,300 yards through the air in the process. He spent the next season on Oklahoma’s sideline due to NCAA transfer rules, then declared for the 2015 draft where the receiver-starved Titans snapped him up.

Tennessee expected him to be their next Derrick Mason. He wasn’t even Kendall Wright. Despite showing flashes of brilliance, he was traded to the Eagles for sixth-man offensive lineman Dennis Kelly in 2016. Green-Beckham may still develop into an All-Pro, but it won’t be for the Titans.

Washington

QB Robert Griffin III, 2012 first round

Washington traded up to take Griffin with the second overall pick in 2012, and his first season was promising. After being named Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, injuries derailed his career and it never got back on track. Griffin lost the starting job in Washington to Kirk Cousins, and he spent a season mostly sidelined by injury in Cleveland. The Browns released him, and he’s still on the market.

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Online Amazon Reviews Posted by Friday April 14, 2017 written by Stella Carrier (images and text from Amazon.com)

Star Wars: A New Hope DVD A Brand New Beginning, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Star Wars: A New Hope (Amazon Video)I am glad to have got the chance to watch Star Wars: A New Hope yesterday (Thursday April 13). My husband watched some of the film with me and explained what was going on between the various characters involving Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) and other various character portrayals featured in the film. One scene that stood in my mind was how Skywalker pretty much forced into fighting early on in the film, and how his destiny became intertwined with Princess Leia and Han Solo after Obi Wan Kenobi (Alex Guiness) took Skywalker under his wing. I have to credit my husband for getting me interested in Star Wars and the aspiring writer in me is glad to have purchased the film (due to the information I can glean from creative plot sequences). Comment | Permalink Timber Creek Lodge, Season 1 DVD Price: $14.99 A Day In The Life Of, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Timber Creek Lodge, Season 1 (Amazon Video)I am glad to have taken a chance on purchasing Season 1 of Timber Creek Lodge. Episode 1 opens with the introduction of the crew to the Timber Creek in Whistler B.C. (Canada) Some of the following people featured in this episode; Lodge Manager Katy, Assistant Lodge Manager Jamie, Chef Nikita, Colston VIP Mountain Host, Mark Senior VIP Mountain Host, Cynthia VIP Mountain Host, Lodgehand Blake, Jenna Housekeeping/Server, and Louise Head of Housekeeping. The crew is preparing for a group of U.S. military males who are coming to Timber Creek Lodge to throw a bachelor party. The groom David is shown shortly after their arrival and Andrew is listed during the show to be the best man at his wedding. Some of the info shared during the show; Katy started her own company in grad school around 2007 and Nikita started cooking around the time she was 14 years old and became a sous chef by age 21. Comment | Permalink Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy DVD Price: $2.99 Comical, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (Amazon Video)I admit that I eventually decided to check out the film Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy after hearing the the funny dialogue from Will Ferrell on opening a version of the song Carry On by Kansas with his lines being a fresh faced 32 year old and one of his parents telling him there is still another year. Anyhow, it is easier to enjoy this film as long as it is understood that it is not meant to be taken seriously. The characters of Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner), and Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell) enjoy their life together as employees at a popular news station in San Diego California during the 1970’s. The men end up initially being far from accepting of Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) joining the team. Corningstone realizes that they did not even set aside an office for her when she tries to inquire about it to station director Ed Harken (Fred Willard). There are multiple celebrity cameos in the film from such celebrities as: Jack Black, Danny Trejo,Vince Vaughan, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Tim Robbins, Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller etc. Comment | Permalink The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency Offered by Random House LLC Price: $13.99 Informative, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency (Kindle Edition)The kindlebook of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple features details around December 5, 2008 with some of the various men who wanted to give advice to the successor’s of Obama’s 2008 Presidential election. Joshua Bolten, listed to be former President George W. Bush’s White House Chief of Staff is said to have helped to mastermind and spearhead the meeting. Some of the following men listed to have been there; Andrew Card who is listed to have been Bolten’s predecessor, Leon Panetta who also had political experience with his work during Bill Clinton’s time as President, Thomas F. McLarty Bill’s Clinton’s first chief of staff, John Podesta head of Obama’s transition team, Jack Watson who served during the last 8 months of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and who is listed to have set an obstacle course record in Quantico Virginia that stood more than twenty years. Other men referenced at the beginning; Ken Duberstein,Donald Rumself, former Vice President Cheney, Erskine Bowles being asked by people if his time in the White House was like the tv show the West Wing,historian Richard Smith, Bob Haldeman, Robert Reich who was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor etc. Comment | Permalink Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President Offered by Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc Price: $13.99 Complicated Circumstances That Shaped An Emotionally Resilient First Lady, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President (Kindle Edition)This kindlebook of Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President by Betty Boyd Caroli covers among some of the following details of Lady Bird Johnson’s life; how she got the nickname Lady Bird, Lady Bird Johnson’s father supposedly had a womanizing reputation and one of the children named Sugar was rumored to be one of love children of her (Lady Bird’s)father T.J. with a woman outside of his marriage, Lady Bird Johnson’s mother unexpectedly died young in her 40’s and under mysterious circumstances, being raised by an aunt after her mother’s death etc. Comment | Permalink Jackie Kennedy Onassis: The Biography of America's First Lady (Women in History Book 1) Price: $2.99 The Multi-Layered Life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Jackie Kennedy Onassis: The Biography of America's First Lady (Women in History Book 1) (Kindle Edition)This kindlebook of Jackie Kennedy Onassis: The Biography of America’s First Lady (Women in History) by Adam Brown is perfect for people who are curious about the life of Jackie Kennedy with such details as; through her stepfather’s contacts, she was able to get a job in 1951 at the Washington Times Herald enaring $42.50 a week. During this time she is listed to have interviewed Richard Nixon and covered the first Presidential inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She was listed in the kindlebook to enjoy going to various restaurants and parties around Washington D.C. One of the parties that she attended was arranged by a Washington correspondent for the Chattanooga Times named Charles Bartlett. It is listed that at this party was where she met her future husband John F. Kennedy. Comment | Permalink

Public Reviews Written by You Show:   Most recent reviews  Most recent comments    Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11-20 The Fantasy Fiction Formula Price: $11.69 Illuminating, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: The Fantasy Fiction Formula (Kindle Edition)This kindlebook of the Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester caught my attention as an aspiring writer who intends to explore fiction in my writing improvement goals. Among the following instructional details in this kindlebook; books typically run from 60,000 to 100, 000 words. However, she includes the caveat that some authors such as the writer affiliated with the Games of Thrones (George R.R. Martin)and another writer affiliated with multiple books such as the Dragon Reborn, the Eye of the World and A Memory of Light (Robert Jordan) create books containing between 150,000 to 200,000 words. Chester advises new writers to consider staying within 100,000 words or less with an explanation why. Additionally, Chester recommends planning the plot through extensively reading fiction works such as; Propp’s morphology of the fairy tale (1968), Chris Vogle’s The Writer’s Journey etc. Chester also includes a sample exercise to choose a favorite fantasy novel or go with the first Harry Potter book for writers undecided on their most favorite books. Chester also talks about dialogue and an exercise where a writer could think about the attitude and image they want their character to project and choose one page out of a novel of the type of desire dialogue and type it out. I am also fortunate in the fact that my husband loves to read various science fiction books and is supportive of my writing dreams. The reading more fiction idea, along with dialogue, reminds me to ask him for book reading ideas since he is a prolific sci-fi reader. Comment | Permalink Storyworld First: Creating a Unique Fantasy World for Your Novel Price: $2.99 Mesmerizing Kindlebook, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Storyworld First: Creating a Unique Fantasy World for Your Novel (Kindle Edition)I must preface my writing by making it clear that I am communicating as an amateur reviewer who enjoys writing as a fun hobby. This kindlebook of Storyworld First: Creating a Unique Fantasy World for Your Novel by Jill Williamson attracted my interest due to my intent as a writer to improve upon and add more extensive detail on the worlds I create in my writing. A few of the illuminating details included in this kindlebook;The emphasis on aiming to read books related to the types of worlds that an author desires to create. Williamson mentions cities and town references with examples such as Wizard of Oz the Emerald City,the planet Coruscant in Star Wars which is one big city, the city of the dead Hamunaptra from the Mummy film etc. Williamson also explains the why in the tips given for a writer to include landmarks in world-building with such as examples as the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, the USS Enterprise in Star Trek, the HogWart’s Caste, the Tardis machine in the Doctor Who series etc. There is also the mention of using creativity in drawing maps for world building and website links. The use of magic in world building is included, ways to explain the impact of the magic used in the world of the story, and examples of talents pertaining to magic; probability-the ability to predict the future andor alter it listed under intelligence, shape-shifting etc. Comment | Permalink The Hustler DVD Price: $2.99 Love and Risk Rolled Into One, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: The Hustler (Amazon Video)The Hustler film features the character of Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) who is extremely eager to take on popular pool player Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Things turn out differently than planned for him yet he does meet Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie) during the midst of all this. Felson also unknowing catches the intrigue of Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) during his game with Minnesota Fats. Gordon offers Felson a deal to help him turn his finances around, just with a major caveat. Additionally, to complicate matters, Felson actually cares a lot about Packard so he is pretty much forced to choose between the safe option that would give them more time together but with the caveat that his finances might stay the same andor get more challenging or go along with Gordon’s plan yet also risk what he (Felson)could be developing with Packard. Comment | Permalink Music For Lovers Only Price: $8.99 Distinctive, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Music For Lovers Only (MP3 Music)I admit that it is pretty personal how I came across this collection of Music For Lovers Only by Jackie Gleason. The music itself is very tranquil and relaxing. However, due to this music being more for relaxation, it is best to save it for such occasions involving just unwinding at home, before going to sleep etc. Comment | Permalink Office Christmas Party (Unrated) DVD Price: $14.99 Festive Comedy, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Office Christmas Party (Unrated) (Amazon Video)This film Office Christmas Party is another movie that is definitely not meant to be taken seriously. Zenotech employees Josh Parker (Jason Bateman) and Clay Vanstone (T.J. Miller) are close friends and two men who have much invested in the company. Their life is changed dramatically when Clay’s sister Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Anniston) threatens to close down the company which would also affect other employees such as Tracey Hughes (Oliva Munn), Mary Winetoss (Kate McKinnon), Allison (Vanessa Bayer) and other employees at Zenotech. Josh and Parker hatch a plan to strive to save the company by obtaining a business deal with Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance). Of course, there are also other actors/actresses featured in the Office Christmas Party film. Comment | Permalink Waterfall Price: $1.29 I’m Glad That This Song is Available on Amazon Because, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Waterfall (MP3 Music)I confess that I am still trying to decipher the full meaning of the song Waterfalls by Stargate feat. Sia and P!nk. From my perspective, it appears to be a unique electronic/dance love song of a person who has left a major impact on someone else. As many know, I access various online sources; Amazon, Youtube, Pandora, iheartradio to discover my music as well as local radio. I wish that I could remember if it was hearing the song from Pandora, iheartradio, or youtube that influenced me to eventually listen to this song more (maybe it was listening to it on Pandora?). Regardless, Waterfalls by Stargate feat. Sia and P!nk is great to listen to if you like electronic/dance club love songs. Comment | Permalink Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 53 [Clean] Price: $9.99 A Strong Eclectic Mix, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 53 [Clean] (MP3 Music)Now 53 is a perfect music collection to obtain because of the eclectic mix of music from the pop, dance, and rock music genres; Love Me Harder by Arianna Grande feat. the Weeknd, The Heart Wants What it Wants by Selena Gomez, A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay, Shut Up And Dance by The Weekend, Animals by Maroon 5, Beg For it by Iggy Azalea feat. M0, Trumpets by Jason Derulo etc. Comment | Permalink Starboy [Explicit] Price: $13.49 Amusing, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Starboy [Explicit] (MP3 Music)I am glad that this music collection of the Starboy by the Weeknd is available with an Amazon music subscription because it was listening to it through my subscription that influenced me to take a chance on purchasing the mp3 collection. Additionally, my husband likes Selena Gomez which I admit also indirectly influenced me to get this collection. Anyhow, like many others, I do enjoy the Starboy and Feel It Coming songs. However, this is also a collection where a person could also enjoy other songs on this collection due to the sense that much creative effort was put into each of the songs. I also like the Stargirl interlude that Weeknd featured with Lana Del Rey. Last, but not least, one of the other multiple reasons why I am glad to have obtained this collection is due to the thrilling club/dance vibe of many of the songs on this collection. Starboy by the Weeknd is also a perfect collection to get if you are familiar with his Worth It song from the Fifty Shades of Grey movie soundtrack andor his Can't Feel My Face song (due to the vibe of this music collection being in a similar playful manner as those songs). Comment | Permalink Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix) Price: $1.29 Elevating, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix) (MP3 Music)Call On Me by Starley (Ryan Ribeck mix) to me is an uplifting pop song about being there in a reliable way for someone else. The vocals to this song add to the strength and depth to the meaning of Call On Me. The music gives the song a perfect music mood that is right in time for the summer time. Comment | Permalink Cake Price: $0.69 If You Like the Cake by the Ocean Song, April 14, 2017 Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Cake (MP3 Music)I admit that I had heard Cake by Flo Rida & 99 Percent before through iheartradio and most recently Pandora. I still need to decipher the full meaning of this song, yet for some reason this song reminds me of the Cake by the Ocean song by DNCE. However, this song Cake by Flo Rida & 99 Percent is performed and created in a unique way because of the club and house vibe type of feel coupled with this song seeming to spend time with someone in a fun, harm-free, and carefree way. Comment | Permalink

[viralhottopics]

Burst your bubble: conservative articles on Trump’s address to Congress

The presidents first speech to a joint session of Congress seemed to have won over some liberal pundits, but a few conservatives were more discerning

As of Tuesday night, when Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress, he seemed to have recovered some esteem in the eyes of liberal pundits. This seemed largely to be based on the fact that Trump had reined in his style. Some conservatives were more discerning.

Meanwhile, there are real reasons to think that Trumps ambiguous, sometimes isolationist-sounding campaign rhetoric is fading into a conventionally hawkish posture on the war on terror. Some who were charged with implementing the policies of his predecessors are asking why.

And in the more exotic corners of the right, we find libertarians debating the ethics of denying the far right a speaking platform, and traditionalist Catholics donning hats for God.

Why did the Pseudo-Libertarians Bring a White Nationalist to ISFLC in the first place?

Publication: Notes on Liberty

Author: Like many libertarians, Zachary Woodman is an undergraduate student. (Sorry, Zachary, I couldnt resist). But in this post on the libertarian blog Notes on Liberty, he offers a pretty mature reflection on the prospect of a fascist creep in the libertarian movement.

Why read: Last week, Richard Spencer showed up at the International Students For Liberty Conference in Washington DC. He was swiftly tossed out but claimed that he had been invited by attendees. The openness of some libertarians to fascism, and the fact that Spencer thought that he might be welcome there or find new recruits, has led to some soul-searching among libertarians. As well it might the biographies of some major alt-right figures show that they found their way to fascism through anarcho-capitalist libertarianism. Woodman offers a painstaking, trenchant diagnosis of his own movement.

Extract: Not playing footsies with Nazis is the bare minimum for being ideologically tolerable, and not something to be celebrated. We need to recognize that the reason Spencer even felt comfortable showing up and the reason minor leaders in libertarian student organizations felt comfortable inviting him is a symptom of a deeper disease thats been in the making for quite some time. I do not know exactly how to address this disease, but the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that we have one.

Trumps Address to Congress

Publication: The American Conservative

Author: Daniel Larison is a consistent and principled voice against US foreign adventures. This is the major theme of his blog at the American Conservative.

Why read: When even liberal pundits are somehow concluding that Trumps ability to read from a teleprompter is inherently presidential, its worth noting that not all conservative pundits agree. Larison notes that Trumps speech was, rhetorically, much like his campaign rhetoric: blustering, braggadocious, and empty of specificities.

Extract: Trump entered office as a wartime president, but he had very little to say about this and said even less about why the US is involved in wars in multiple countries around the globe. The war in Afghanistan didnt rate a mention, and neither did the ongoing horror of the US-backed war on Yemen. I suppose the very thin silver lining to this is that he didnt announce plans to escalate US involvement in either country, but that doesnt mean he wont do that in both places. For all of Trumps rhetoric about peace, he gave no indication that he intends to end US involvement in any of the wars it is currently fighting or enabling. I assume that is because he has no intention of doing any such thing.

The Hat

Publication: The American TFP

Author: Anonymous, but the website is run by John Horvat III, a traditionalist Catholic intellectual who believes that modern society needs to be subjected once more to strict spiritual and temporal hierarchy.

Why read it: This is your weekly reminder that the right is, at times, just flat-out weird. The nameless author makes the case that a man wearing a hat in public is not a pointlessly retrograde gesture, but a sign of civility and spiritual dignity. Its a pretty convoluted defense of fedoras, but whatever works, I guess.

Extract: Just as a priest wears a biretta to express his mysterious power as mediator between God and men, so also a hat worn with dignity evokes gestures and attitudes that constitute a true social liturgy, necessary for human acts in a Christian society. In both the biretta and hat, a Catholic should look beyond the mere practical aspects and look for something which people who worship mundane practicality will call useless he must look for the principles that give the meaning of life and prepare the soul for Heaven (Plinio Corra de Oliveira).

Trump Delivers a Republican Case for Big Government

Publication: The Weekly Standard

Author: Michael Warren is a senior writer at the neocon organ the Weekly Standard. Hes also worked at other conservative flagships such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and National Review.

Why read it: Against the grain of the congratulatory assessments of Trumps address to the Congress on Thursday, many have rightly noted that Trumps speech contained many abhorrent proposals and was broadly similar to everything else he has said since his nomination as the GOP candidate. Warren picks up on another nuance: Trumps speech made a case for big-spending government, flying in the face of a half-century of Republican orthodoxy.

If they adhered to their principles, we might expect that more orthodox Republicans such as Paul Ryan would oppose this. Stop laughing.

Extract: But Trump also made a pitch for more infrastructure spending, paid family leave, and accessible and affordable childcare. And there was no talk of reforming Medicare or Social Security, nor of reducing the size and scope of government. He even seemed open to Medicaid expansion. Republicans in Congress won elections blasting federal spending projects and promising to fix unsustainable entitlements. But Tuesday found even House speaker Paul Ryan, the partys intellectual leader on domestic policy, applauding Trumps deviations.

America Has Misused its Power in the Middle East

Publication: War is Boring

Author: Maj Danny Sjursen is a US army strategist who used to lecture at West Point. In his books and journalism, he has presented a critical view of the United States generation-long, and still open-ended, commitment to war in the Middle East.

Why read it: This is a long, forensic and persuasive account of the failure of Americas Middle East policies, and the unlikelihood of improvement, by someone with practical experience in trying to implement them in theaters of war. He shows how US policymakers drew the wrong lessons from two crucial years – 1979 and 2003. The result has been a militarized Middle East policy which has only ramped up chaos in the region.

Extract: The State Department counted just 348 terrorist attacks worldwide in 2001 compared with 11,774 attacks in 2015. Thats right, at best, Americas 15-year war on terror failed to significantly reduce international terrorism. At worst, its actions helped make matters 30 times worse.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2mhxIUp

from Burst your bubble: conservative articles on Trump’s address to Congress

[viralhottopics]

Another Bogus Obamacare Argument From Donald Trump And Paul Ryan

If youve heard a Republican talk about the Affordable Care Act lately, then youve almost certainly heard that the law is imploding, collapsing, in a death spiral or a combination of the three.

Here, for example, was House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a Wednesday evening interview with Greta Van Susteren on MSNBC: Obamacare is collapsing under its own weight…. Its already going away. Obamacare is leaving.

President Donald Trump made similar remarks at a Republican Party retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday, when he boasted that acting quickly to repeal the law would do the Democrats a favor because the program was bound to fall apart on its own.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus pretty much every Republican with power in Washington right now has said something along these lines.

Of course, Republicans have been predicting Obamacares demise since it became law in 2010. But now that Trump is in the White House and the Republicans in Congress are proceeding with their plan to repeal the law, sooner rather than later, the argument has new political value.

If the programs collapse is imminent, as they say, then theres no point in worrying about the roughly 20 million people who now get coverage through the program. Because, under this scenario, no matter what Republicans do, those folks are going to end up without decent coverage.

And if the end result of repeal efforts is a disaster with millions more uninsured, millions more struggling with less reliable or less comprehensive coverage than they had Republicans can always say things would have been awful anyway.

The logic is sound. The premise, that Obamacare is unraveling, is not.

Why (Some) Obamacare Marketplaces Are Struggling

Obamacares marketplaces, where people without employer-based insurance can buy private policies, have certainly had some problems. But whether they are modest and fleeting or serious and ongoing, or somewhere in between, depends on whom you ask.

When the law first took full effect, with all the new rules for selling coverage, insurers had to guess at what policies consumers would buy and at what price. It turns out most of them misjudged the market, with some of them misjudging it badly. They ended up attracting fewer healthy people and more unhealthy people than they anticipated, leaving them with premiums too low to cover the big medical bills they were suddenly paying. The insurers lost money, and, by last year, they had enough data to see it wasnt a fluke.

A few carriers responded by withdrawing plans altogether (although a federal judge recently concluded that one insurer, Aetna, also had other motives). The rest increased premiums, sometimes severely creating a bunch of scary headlines and giving Republicans like Ryan and Trump the opportunity to bash the Affordable Care Act as an actuarial apocalypse. Frequently they would say the system was in a death spiral.

Many actuaries cringe at such references, because, as Danny Vinik noted recently in Politico, death spiral is actually a term they use to describe a very specific set of circumstances that cannot really exist with the Affordable Care Act, at least in its current structure. A death spiral happens when insurers must repeatedly raise premiums in order to cover losses from patients with high medical bills, with each new increase scaring away more healthy customers, thereby creating new losses and forcing the insurers to raise premiums again until eventually only very sick people willing to pay astronomical premiums stay with the program.

The Affordable Care Act is not really vulnerable to this because it offers financial assistance in the form of refundable tax credits, limiting what low- and middle-income individuals pay for basic policies no matter how high the premiums go. That basically guarantees that insurers will have a critical mass of healthy people paying premiums. As long as the individual mandate remains in place, imposing financial penalties on people who decline to get coverage, a death spiral is even less likely.

A more realistic possibility is that the market deterioration of the past year continues, with yet more insurers abandoning markets and those remaining raising premiums even further, to the point that only people with subsidies find it attractive.Itd be a lousy deal for the more affluent, and itd mean higher costs for the government.

This would represent a major failure of the law, and Gail Wilensky, a well-respected health economist who was director of Medicare and Medicaid in the George H.W. Bush administration, is among those who thinks its a very real possibility, given the state of the exchanges right now.

They are clearly still in churn and unstable as of now, the fourth year of enrollment, Wilensky told The Huffington Post. Little insurer choice and unaffordable premiums would be and sometimes is now the outcome.

Why The Markets May Be Stronger Going Forward

But even the pessimistic experts agree that its too early to know whether thats going to happen or, for that matter, where.

A key point the Republicans never mention is that Obamacare isnt one program. Its 51 programs, one for each state plus the District of Columbia. In states like Arizona and Tennessee, premiums spiked and insurer choice dwindled this year. But in states like California and Michigan, the markets are operating smoothly and most consumers shopping on the exchanges still have a wide variety of options.

[Critics] use the most problematic of the 51 markets and even specific instances within given markets, such as particular insurance companies or counties as evidence that all the exchanges are in trouble, says Paul Hughes-Cromwick, a health economist at the nonprofitAltarum Instituteresearch group. We believe the individual market does, in fact, need some help, but it is neither about to collapse nor do its problems mean that Obamacare is collapsing under its own weight. Hughes-Cromwick went on to call such arguments absurd.

In December, the White House Council of Economic Advisers published a report arguing that this years increases were largely a one-time correction. It noted, among other things, that this was the first year that insurers had a full years worth of data, based on claims that beneficiaries filed, on which to base premiums. This was also the year when a program designed to cover unexpected insurer losses during the early years of operation expired. (A second such program never paid out most of its money, because Republicans insisted on defunding it.)

Meanwhile, for all the talk about high premiums, they are right about where the Congressional Budget Office originally expected them to be. And, as a recent Urban Institute report showed, premiums are roughly on par or even a little cheaper than the premiums for employer insurance, once you adjust for the different levels of benefits.

Enrollment this year looks like it will be roughly even with last years enrollment or maybe even a little higher. If the marketplaces were crumbling, enrollment would be starting to fall. And just last month, S&P Global Ratings projected stronger insurer performance next year and even stronger performance the year after that.

As Paul Ginsburg, a prominent health economist at the University of Southern California, said, predictions of an imminent Obamacare collapse are totally at odds with the recent analysis from S&P, which shows the exchanges stabilizing, with insurers having experienced improved results in 2016.

Why The Real Threat To The Marketplaces May Be Trump

David Anderson, who until recently was an official at the UPMC Health Plan in Pennsylvania and is now an analyst at Duke Universitys Margolis Center for Health Policy, agrees. The Affordable Care Act is fundamentally stable in most states. Enrollment has been increasing and insurers are projecting better results. Insurers with effective strategies tailored to local demand for high-quality, low-cost health care have been able to show profitability on the exchanges.

Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton University, concurs. The exchanges are not collapsing on their own weight, he said. Jon Kingsdale, former director of the Massachusetts exchange and now a director at the Wakely Consulting Group, feels the same way. With national enrollment increasing each year since 2014 and a full decade of market stability under much the same reforms in Massachusetts there is little evidence for [Ryans] contention, Kingsdale said.

Of course, Kingsdale noted, making the argument that Obamacare is already collapsing does offer an obvious political advantage: Republicans can blame what they do in 2017 to destroy coverage for millions of Americans on the ACA itself. Republicans could accomplish this legislatively or maybe even through executive authority, by refusing to apply the mandate penalty or other elements of the law they dont like.

Its worth mentioning that even if Obamacare markets were imploding, not just in some states but all states, and even if that implosion meant there were no insurers left in other words, even if you imagine a scenario much worse than any expert takes seriously that would account for only a portion of the people getting health insurance through the program.

At least half and probably more of the newly insured are getting coverage through Medicaid, a program that the government operates and that wont be going anywhere unless, of course, Republicans decide to get rid of it.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2kzMulh

from Another Bogus Obamacare Argument From Donald Trump And Paul Ryan