Big interview list today: Lincoln Riley, Alex Grinch, Mason Cobb, Bryson Shaw, Christian Roland-Wallace, Calen Bullock, Solomon Byrd, Kyon Barrs, Jaylin Smith, and Jamil Muhammad.

As he does each week, Jeff went back through the film focused on the OL. Here were his takeaways and evaluations:

The pod is up!

We talk a lot of USC defense, Brenden Rice's emergence, the vanishing rushing attack in the second half, Max's favorite play design from the Colorado game and a look at the matchup with Arizona.

LISTEN HERE

Let’s cut to the chase. We are in a war between USA vs Russia. Don’t kid yourself. It’s a proxy war.

American diplomacy is non-existent. Not just failed. But non-existent.​

Must watch. Be informed:
Login to view embedded media Sachs urged that “This country is a war machine,” adding “Eisenhower told us about it with the military-industrial complex speech.”

“The main job of the president of the United States is to stop the war machine from making wars. And we are now in an escalation, heading towards Armageddon, according to the president,” Sachs further stated, referring to Joe Biden’s much criticised commentslast week.
“That’s not a spectator sport, that’s his job to keep us away from Armageddon,” Sachs asserted.

Click to expand...

So what do we think?!

Login to view embedded media

One common denominator that explains why previously successful societies implode is their descent into fantasies. A collective denial prevents even discussion of existential threats and their solutions.

Something like that is happening in the United States. Eight million illegal immigrants have entered the United States by the deliberate erasure of the southern border.

Apparently, the Biden administration sees some unstated advantage in destroying U.S. immigration law and welcoming in would-be new constituents.

Yet, the more the millions arrive, the more Joe Biden and his Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas flat out lie that “the border is secure.”

They both live in a world of make-believe, passed off to the American people as reality.

And the more the Americans are lied to that the border is secure, the more they poll—currently 77 percent—that it is not.

Biden apparently has reversed course and begun using the former pejorative “Bidenomics” as a term of pride.

He now praises this three-year effort to borrow $6-7 trillion, and spike interest rates threefold to 7% on home mortgages—even as prices on essentials like food and fuel have spiked 25-30% since he entered office.

The more that Biden brags about what he did to the economy, the more people poll—over 60%—dissatisfaction with his alternate reality of “Bidenomics.”

Consider natural gas and oil. The Biden administration waged war on both by canceling pipelines, drilling on federal lands, and entire oil fields.

When the price soared and the 2022 midterms neared, Biden suddenly begged formerly shunned illiberal regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela to pump all the hated oil they could to lower the price.

A desperate Biden drained much of the strategic petroleum reserve—he has yet to refill it—simply to lower the price of gasoline and thus win voters back to the Democratic Party.

When the midterms passed, Biden resumed his attack on once bad, then good, and now bad again fossil fuels—at least until the 2024 election.

Stranger still is the denial of the current crime wave in our major cities. Predators and thugs have turned once iconic downtowns into either war zones or ghost towns or both.

Smash-and-grab swarming of stores and matter-of-fact shoplifting are destroying commerce in our major cities.

Unsustainable stores either leave or shut down. Communities who vote for politicians who defund the police blame the stores for leaving—but not the criminals whose brazen thefts made it impossible to do business in the inner city.

Now modern-day pirates with impunity storm, sink, and rob boats of all kinds in the Oakland marina and estuary.

Leftwing journalists and activists, and even Democratic politicians, who all supported defunding the police, now cannot escape the resulting street violence and unleashed murderous predations.

Everyone knows the culprit is the post-George Floyd effort—with Biden administration complicity—to defund the police, end cash bail, institutionalize catch-and-release of criminals, and show more sympathy toward victimizers than victims.

Yet neither state nor local officials nor Joe Biden himself even admits to a crime wave. The more the public is attacked and avoids major downtowns, the more it polls furor over the crime wave.

The more our officials, in gaslighting style, claim such alarm is all in our collective heads, the more they themselves are attacked by the very criminals their policies empowered.

One if tge steals of the NFL draft came to visit the Trojan Family...Tuli!!!!!

Login to view embedded media

How would you evaluate the cornerbacks and what do you want to see from them going forward?

"I would say just like consistency of play. We've had some really good moments, some really strong individual plays. I feel like the group, we have a little bit more depth than we had last year. We're also in some ways maybe a little more unproven, but we definitely have more depth. I feel like that group is really primed to take off and play well the second half of the season. I think we all figured there was going to be a little bit of an adjustment period with that group. I mean, Blackmon obviously played so well for us last year and was such a mainstay. We do feel like some of these guys have progressed. I think the thing that you would love to see and what we're pushing to see here in the second half of the year here is finishing some of the plays. We have some really good length in that room, we have some guys that are starting to really get comfortable and we've had some opportunities to really finish some great plays and I think we're capable of that. So I think the consistency and then making some of the big plays we're capable of, because as you mentioned, we are going to get tested there at times like everybody is. When you can not just hold up but when you can make some of those plays yourself, it changes the context of anything. We absolutely have guys in that room capable of it.

"And then obviously I think the hope is too that we can stay a little bit healthier there. Even kind of fall camp and then through the first part of the year, I mean it's just been, we haven't had much consistency. I don't know if we've had one guy that's been available for every game, which has been, just kind of the lineup has fluctuated. And not so much the lineup from what you guys see on Saturdays, but just the practice, the consistency of practice being able to be there. Roland-Wallace is really the one guy that from really fall camp on has probably practiced every single day. And you can tell kind of with his consistency his play he's really starting to take off, and we need that certainly from Domani and Ceyair and Jacobe and Prophet, some of these other guys -- just the consistency in their reps and experience will add up because they do have ability. And they've all had some phenomenal, some great snaps this year. Need to get healthy, need to get consistent and when we get an opportunity to make some of the plays that we're capable making, we need to settle in and go make those plays because those are game-changing type plays."

There were six handoffs to RBs after halftime, what goes into that balance on deciding when to lean on the ground game down the stretch or trust the passing attack?

"Yeah, we didn't have as many plays after halftime. Just the simple math was part of it. We had a couple of big plays, we had two three-and-outs and then we had a turnover on a first play of a drive, so there wasn't as much of anything in the second half. And then, we've got to run the ball better -- we didn't run the ball very good, I mean, is pretty much the simple answer. I know I talked about it at length after the game, we've got to do a better job as coaches, we missed some cuts up front, we had a couple that were going to be big plays that we had bad snaps on, and then we obviously didn't do a great job finishing blocks up front. We've got to do it better and we've got to stay on the field. That's the No. 1 thing. We've shown we're certainly very committed to having a great run game here and we've been committed since the day we walked in the door here, and I think the results have spoken for themselves there. But we didn't do as good a job of it Saturday and we need to do a lot better job here this Saturday."

Building off that, where can MarShawn Lloyd continue to get better to feel comfortable trusting the run game more?

"Yeah, I mean, it's a double-edged sword. You've got to do it efficiently. You've got to be able to stay on the field. I mean, we have trusted him. He's gotten the bulk of the carries here the last few weeks. Again, when you're playing some of the low number of snaps that we've played, I mean, it's not like our starting tailback is getting 15 carries but we're throwing it 65 times. That's not, we have had a decent amount of balance there, we just weren't as efficient with it in the game the other day, which obviously would have been helpful for a lot of reasons so we want to do it better. We're still scoring a point or two, so I don't think it's broken, but we definitely need to do it a little bit better."

How do you balance the matuirty of being 5-0 but also not feeling you're good enough yet?

"Definitely get the question: first, 5-0 is good enough because you can’t do any better than that. I’ve tried hard to win six in five, but you still can’t do it. So 5-0 is plenty good enough. The question is the execution, has it been perfect? Is it going to need to get better? Of course. And that would be the answer regardless – I don't know what our average margin of victory is right now is, but if it were 15 points more, that would still be the same answer. You’ve gotta continue to get better. You’ve gotta own the good with the bad, you have to own both. I know that’s been our message, I know you’ve heard that from us, but that really is the truth and that’s really how we've been approaching it with our guys. Our guys, they want to continue to get better, they want to continue to play better. They understand that the season is a climb and there’s a lot left for this team in terms of fulfilling our potential and we want to keep taking steps there. So i feel like the team has been very bought in with it, they’re excited and appreciative to have won every single game that we’ve played that we also know just internally for us, we can absolutely be a lto better, there’s a lot out in front for this team that we’re going ot have to go take. Obviously people are not going to hand it to us. I think we’ve been very motivated. I think they’ve been very excited, I think they’ve practiced well. I think we’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks from being in some of these different situations as a team and I do feel like it’s strengthened our bond, it’s strengthened our resolve and the week of practice from what i’ve seen and the intent of this team to go attack those areas I think has been very apparent, so we’ve gotta go take that and go put that on the game field here in these upcoming SAturdays, but I like the vibe of this team, I like the desire of this team. They’re appreciative to be 5-0 but also very excited and motivated to continue to improve, which is right where we want them to be."

Dedich said Caleb is making more checks at the line, how do you take input from players during the week on gameplan?

"Yeah, it’s different with – we always ask opinions of our guys. Now, we don’t always listen to them, but we always ask. It comes in two different ways: you’ve got the younger, inexperienced players that you’re making sure that they’re comfortable and confident in the execution of it. Then typically it morphs into, like with some of our more experienced players like a Caleb or like a Justin, of it’s good to have ones that they really believe in and they really see. It tends to get more – it’s less like, a young player’s confidence and it’s more like, these guys have had a lot of reps, they know what they like, they kind of know what they’re good at, it can be a little bit more of an in-depth discussion I guess if you will. So yeah, our guys come up with some great ideas at times or great thoughts for adjustments. We’ve got some really smart players, so it’s good dialogue. I think with anything, you’ve gotta – there’s gotta be – there does have to be one decision maker at the end of the day. At the end, we’ve gotta make a decision and all go with it, but we have some great guys on really both sides. You see that more in year 2 across the program. We have experienced players now defensively that have been in our system for a few years that can provide some of that feedback to our staff defensively, same offensively. So I think those conversations, probably as a whole, feel a little bit different than they did 12 months ago."

Thoughts on the Big Ten schedule release, not getting to play the other West Coast teams every year?

"Yeah, yeah, I had a chance to look at it. I don’t have any serious complaints, there’s a couple of things on the sequencing of home and away, especially with some of the teams that are in our league, that we didn’t agree with, but at the same point, you understand, part of it you understand, it's not going to be just perfect for anyone and i think the west coast piece, just the way that it’s sequenced out where us and UCLA went in first and then the other two teams went in after that, I feel like it was going to be difficult to honor without having divisions and all of that, I just feel like it was going to be very difficult to honor, to try to fit that much west coast in when you have so many other people left to play. I get the one with UCLA because of the rivalry, the history and the sequencing of how we were accepted into the Big Ten. I just think it was going to be almost impossible to do some type of arrangement like that with the other two west coast schools and still get the coverage of our entire league. So I honestly felt like from the west coast piece, I think they did what they needed to do. The reality is we’re still going to play half of our games and in most years a little over half of our games on the west coast, so i don’t think we’re going to be hurting for it here. I thought overall, I mean, it’s kind of a new concept, there’s a lot we’re going to learn once we get into it. I think for the most part, other than some of the home and home or multiple away visits in a row, I thought it was pretty well done."

Ahhh, the PAC. Can't wait until the divorce is final!!

America's border war has begun: TODD BENSMAN's dramatic eyewitness report on Texas' invasion of a Mexican cartel island crawling with gang members and ringed with sniper nests... and it's all happening INSIDE the U.S.​

By Todd Bensman For Dailymail.Com 11:01 EDT 05 Oct 2023 , updated 12:00 EDT 05 Oct 2023

In the early dawn's orange glow, a TexasRangers commander briefs a heavily armed invasion force.

They're preparing to seize a remote, 170-acre Mexican cartel-controlled island in the middle of the Rio Grande River overlooked by sniper nests and potentially booby-trapped.

TRUMP= THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE U.S.


The Most Important Line in John Kelly’s statement

Oh, this should be fun! Watch the GOP members grovel at his feet, reaching up to kiss his ring. Can't wait!

Trump’s recent confession about the border wall underscores an inconvenient truth​

Republicans love giving speeches about immigration, while doing nothing about the issue
Oct. 4, 2023, 1:34 PM CDT
By Paul Waldman, author and commentator

When he ran for president in 2016, few of Donald Trump’s promises thrilled his supporters more than his pledge not just to build a wall on the southern border, but to force Mexico to pick up the tab. “And who’s going to pay for it?” he’d say at his rallies. The crowd would shout back joyfully, “Mexico!” It wasn’t about the money; the point was to conjure a fantasy of America standing tall and dominating our neighbor; their humiliation would be our glory.

A fantasy is just what it was, as Trump now admits. At a speech in Iowa on Sunday, he blurted out the truth. “When you hear these lunatics back there,” he said, pointing at the news media, “say, ‘Trump didn’t get anything from Mexico,’ well, you know, there was no legal mechanism. I said they’re going to help fund this wall, but there was no legal mechanism. How do you go to a country, you say, ‘By the way I’m building a wall, hand us a lot of money.’”

While Republicans have been talking about this problem for a long time, they haven’t done anything to solve it
.
This admission — and vindication of Trump’s opponents — will not produce a wave of reflection and reassessment among his supporters. But Trump’s confession comes at the same time that his rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination are trying to one-up him with their most preposterous proposals. In short, when it comes to immigration, the whole Republican Party has nothing to offer on what they claim is their single most important priority.

In fact, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Republicans are actually quite happy with the immigration system just the way it is. They love giving speeches about it, making campaign ads about it, shouting about it in Congress, shaking their fists about it on television, and organizing photo-ops at the Rio Grande. They repeat the words “open borders” like a mantra, threaten to impeach the secretary of homeland security, and tell everyone who’ll listen that America is being invaded by criminals and terrorists.

But while they’ve been talking about this problem for a long time, they haven’t done anything to solve it.

Gold Star father Khizr Khan: Trump ‘incapable’ of leading U.S. again​

Login to view embedded media ​

GOP guts federal subsidies for child care programs as families and providers scramble to cope

The party of "FaMiLy VaLuEs" and "It's About the Children!!!" is now responsible for 220,000 child care programs across the country losing critical federal funding, which may force as many as HALF to close their doors permanently. “It feels like they’re just setting everyone up for failure,” mourned West Virginia mom Kaitlyn Adkins, who doesn't know how she's going to be able to finish law school without child care for her kids. And there it is — Republicans obsessed with fetuses being carried to full term no matter the circumstances simply cannot be bothered to care the moment babies are actually born. It's a cruel and heartless ruse for the ages.

Staten Island Trumpers torment asylum seekers with loudspeakers and flashlights

Fanatic MAGA minions took time out of their busy days not making the world a better place but to torment families fleeing US-sponsored violence and poverty in South America, shouting "you're not wanted here," "you're not welcome," and "f*ck you" outside a school where 60 asylum seekers were given temporary shelter. One knuckle-dragger questioned aloud whether the immigrants were pedophiles.

The entire affair was capped off with a xenophobic speech from — why not — Newsmax host Johnny Tabacco, who admitted the screeching volume of the PA system was intentionally jacked up to cause maximum discomfort for the refugees inside. It is shamefully clear that, in fact, we are the ones not sending our best.

Yep, this is what you get if you vote for Trump!

Elon's banker backers basically beguiled by bozo's barely breathing buy

The seven banks that made the astonishingly poor decision to help Elon Musk wildly overpay for Twitter and then immediately run it straight into the ground are having a severe case of buyer's remorse...especially since it's becoming clear that Twitter, sorry, uh, X isn't even worth how much debt it has, let alone what Elon paid — which, we must remind you, was a price that he HIMSELF set ($54.20 per share because 420 BRO, like weeeeed man, puff puff pass my choom, get it?). If things get worse, which they definitely will, the banks will be forced to repossess the cratering social media platform. Hopefully they will be willing to meet the apparently unreasonable demands of Twitter users, which include "make it work" and "get rid of the Nazis, please!"

🤣

Mitch McConnell takes rare step, urges House to make a key change​

Mitch McConnell believes the House's rules are making it "impossible" for the speaker to do the job. He's pushing for a big change — and he's not alone.


Oct. 5, 2023, 7:43 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

As the top Senate Republican for nearly two decades, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has learned to respect the differences between Congress’ two chambers. The Kentucky Republican doesn’t much like it when the House gives the Senate advice on how to operate, and so McConnell doesn’t tell the House how it should conduct its business, either.

There are, however, occasional exceptions. Politico reported:

“I hope whoever the next speaker is gets rid of the motion to vacate,” the minority leader said Wednesday afternoon. He added that it makes the job “impossible.” ... As if to verbally underline his point, McConnell repeated his House counsel: “I hope whoever emerges insists on getting rid of the motion to vacate.”

Click to expand...

The GOP’s Senate leader isn’t the only one thinking along these lines. Semafor also reported:

As they look to pick their next speaker, some moderate Republicans are pushing for a major rule change to make sure Kevin McCarthy’s successor will be harder to topple. Their demand: Do away with the clause that lets any single member call a vote to remove the House’s leader from power — a procedural time bomb they warn could blow up the conference again unless it’s defused.

Click to expand...

I’m mindful of the fact that for much of the public, seeing the phrase “motion to vacate the chair” is utterly meaningless — typical voters don’t much care about legislative procedures — but as Kevin McCarthy can attest, it’s proven to be quite important.

Under the rules of the current Congress, as approved by House Republicans in early January, one member can force a vote on whether to fire a sitting House speaker. If a majority votes for the incumbent’s ouster, then the speaker is fired, and members have to choose a new one.

McCarthy fought tooth and nail to prevent this from happening, but in his desperation to get the speaker’s gavel, he caved to far-right members who wanted this threat hanging over his head.

The system worked exactly as intended: When McCarthy disappointed some of the extremists in his conference, they turned on him, exploited the motion-to-vacate opportunity, and ultimately forced him from his post.

As the dust settles on the dramatic developments, a growing number of Republicans have a simple plea: Change the rule so McCarthy’s successor can better do the job.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, for example, said he won’t support any candidate for speaker “until there is a commitment to reform the motion to vacate.” The Florida Republican added, “No one can govern effectively while being threatened by fringe hostage takers.” Similarly, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said, “That needs to go. That rule needs to change as part of any choice for speaker.” Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota said something similar on CNBC.

The Republican Main Street Caucus, which includes several members from competitive districts, condemned the current motion-to-vacate rule as a “chokehold on this body.”

For the record, Gimenez, Lawler, Armstrong and literally every member of the Republican Main Street Caucus voted to approve the current rules in January. They’ve apparently changed their minds after having seen the results of the system they helped implement.

McCarthy himself also appears to support an overhaul, despite negotiating the same rules that were used against him.

In theory, as the GOP majority in the House chooses new leaders, members could also approve a new rules package for the remainder of the current Congress. But in practice, Republicans would find themselves right back where they were in January: Right-wing members want the motion-to-vacate rules to remain unchanged because it gives them leverage over the next speaker.

Or put another way, some of the conference’s radical wing saw this week’s chaos as a feature, not a bug. These GOP members won’t accept a change because they see the status quo as working well — not for McCarthy, of course, but for themselves.

Republicans could try turning to Democrats for some votes, but the minority has little incentive to help Republicans clean up their own mess, and Democrats would likely ask for quite a bit in exchange.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Medicare Advantage overbills taxpayers by $140 BILLION a year

The privately run, government-funded Medicare Advantage program is overcharging US taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, an astonishing sum that could be used to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums or fully fund Medicare's prescription drug program.

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), an advocacy group that supports transitioning to a single-payer health insurance system, released a scathing report outlining precisely how MA bilks Americans out of billions year after year. "Medicare Advantage is just another example of the endless greed of the insurance industry poisoning American healthcare, siphoning money from vulnerable patients while delaying and denying necessary and often lifesaving treatment." the report said.