Our recruiting fence around Ca ...
- By jerrybed
- Trojan Talk
- 17 Replies
... has a few holes and is in desperate need of repair. We currently have only four CA Top 50 players committed, all of which are skill position players. Of these Top 50 players, there are five OL, seven LBs, and three DL, none of whom we are scheduled to sign.
Football Tajwar's First-and-10 film breakdown from Utah
- By Ryan Young
- Trojan Talk
- 27 Replies
The delay here is on me, being shorthanded yesterday and needing to get a tire(s) replaced before the drive to Berkeley.
Some really strong critiques here from Tajwar -- especially about Caleb Williams and the personnel decisions on defense (namely at linebacker).
USC.rivals.com
Some really strong critiques here from Tajwar -- especially about Caleb Williams and the personnel decisions on defense (namely at linebacker).
First-and-10: Top 10 takeaways from our film review of USC's loss to Utah
Our 10 most significant takeaways from our in-depth film review of USC's performance vs. Utah.
Matchup breakdown: Trojans look to get back on track against an inconsistent Cal team
- By Matt Moreno
- Trojan Talk
- 1 Replies
TrojanSports - Matchup Breakdown: USC looking to rebound against inconsistent Cal
Detailed matchup breakdown for USC-Utah.
usc.rivals.com
Cal has had a number of ups and downs this season and only found its solution at quarterback within the last few weeks. Slow down the Bears rushing attack and you win the game. Here's a detailed look at what to expect from the matchup tomorrow afternoon in Berkeley.
Football Weekly Roundtable: Staff predictions and perspective for USC-Cal
- By Ryan Young
- Trojan Talk
- 0 Replies
Pleas for more MarShawn Lloyd and more Raesjon Davis, among other thoughts today in the Roundtable:
USC.rivals.com
TrojanSports - TrojanSports Roundtable: Staff perspective and predictions for USC-Cal
Our staff predictions and perspective for USC-Cal.
USC.rivals.com
Economic growth so strong, Republicans are literally speechless
- By PanamaSteve
- OT Talk
- 9 Replies
Economic growth in the United States has been so strong lately that Republican leaders have literally found themselves at a loss for words.
Oct. 27, 2023, 10:27 AM CDT
By Steve Benen
In recent years, as job growth has soared in the United States and the unemployment rate has dropped to levels unseen in more than 50 years, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have responded to the news by ignoring the data. Month after month, the economy adds hundreds of thousands of jobs, and I eagerly await the reactions from GOP congressional leaders.
Invariably, the party finds itself literally at a loss for words.
It was against this backdrop that the Commerce Department released new data roughly 24 hours ago, pointing to robust economic growth in the United States over the summer (July through September). In fact, the gross domestic product reached 4.9% for the quarter — a level of growth unseen during Donald Trump’s first three years in office — exceeding expectations.
It was, by any fair measure, "stellar" news, made better when combined with recent data pointing to low unemployment and inflation rates that are dropping.
Naturally, I was curious how Republicans would respond to the news. A few options came to mind.
Maybe leading GOP officials would make the case that the robust economic recovery is nice, but President Joe Biden doesn’t deserve any credit. Perhaps they’d argue that it’s too soon to applaud good news since there’s still plenty of economic work to do. Maybe they’d argue that the United States economy is a massive beast, and it’s unrealistic to think a White House agenda is uniquely responsible for periodic shifts.
But as it turns out, Republicans went with an entirely different approach: They simply ignored the good news, as if it didn’t happen.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t bother to issue any kind of statement, and new House Speaker Mike Johnson was similarly silent — except to tell Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he believes the U.S. economy “is in the tank,” overwhelming evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Republican National Committee sort of acknowledged the GDP report — it issued a statement arguing that “Bidenomics is a failure,” which appeared to be odds with the news Americans had just received — though it made no mention of the actual data.
There’s no great mystery here. Party leaders have almost certainly concluded that if they were to comment on the good news, more Americans might hear about it — and that’s the last thing the GOP wants. There’s political utility in simply looking the other way.
But the Republicans’ silence doesn’t change the fact that the latest economic data is fantastic.
Oct. 27, 2023, 10:27 AM CDT
By Steve Benen
In recent years, as job growth has soared in the United States and the unemployment rate has dropped to levels unseen in more than 50 years, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have responded to the news by ignoring the data. Month after month, the economy adds hundreds of thousands of jobs, and I eagerly await the reactions from GOP congressional leaders.
Invariably, the party finds itself literally at a loss for words.
It was against this backdrop that the Commerce Department released new data roughly 24 hours ago, pointing to robust economic growth in the United States over the summer (July through September). In fact, the gross domestic product reached 4.9% for the quarter — a level of growth unseen during Donald Trump’s first three years in office — exceeding expectations.
It was, by any fair measure, "stellar" news, made better when combined with recent data pointing to low unemployment and inflation rates that are dropping.
Naturally, I was curious how Republicans would respond to the news. A few options came to mind.
Maybe leading GOP officials would make the case that the robust economic recovery is nice, but President Joe Biden doesn’t deserve any credit. Perhaps they’d argue that it’s too soon to applaud good news since there’s still plenty of economic work to do. Maybe they’d argue that the United States economy is a massive beast, and it’s unrealistic to think a White House agenda is uniquely responsible for periodic shifts.
But as it turns out, Republicans went with an entirely different approach: They simply ignored the good news, as if it didn’t happen.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t bother to issue any kind of statement, and new House Speaker Mike Johnson was similarly silent — except to tell Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he believes the U.S. economy “is in the tank,” overwhelming evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Republican National Committee sort of acknowledged the GDP report — it issued a statement arguing that “Bidenomics is a failure,” which appeared to be odds with the news Americans had just received — though it made no mention of the actual data.
There’s no great mystery here. Party leaders have almost certainly concluded that if they were to comment on the good news, more Americans might hear about it — and that’s the last thing the GOP wants. There’s political utility in simply looking the other way.
But the Republicans’ silence doesn’t change the fact that the latest economic data is fantastic.
Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump
- By PanamaSteve
- OT Talk
- 1 Replies
CHRISTOFACISM
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
The most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”
Jefferson—like Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—was a practitioner of deism, a view founded in the idea that the Supreme Being created the universe and then essentially took a step back, leaving natural laws to operate on their own. They believed religion should be a matter that was entirely between individuals and their God, and that it should play no role in governance.
Indeed, Jefferson’s views were even starker. He wrote in a letter to John Adams, “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of the virgin” would be seen as just another fable and described the religious views that descended from that fable as an “artificial scaffolding.”
Former President Donald Trump is greeted by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on February 4, 2020.
Thomas Paine considered much of the Bible to be more “consistent” with what might be called “the word of the demon” rather than that of God. Madison said that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together” and saw the separation of the two as essential to avoiding “the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries”—a sentiment that clearly resonates with our own times. Washington celebrated that the U.S. had at last created a form of government “that gives to bigotry no sanction.” Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about the pernicious nature of religious tests in government documents.
Yet here we are.
The Speaker of the House has radically different views. He represents a movement that is actively seeking to institutionalize the religious beliefs of evangelical Christians into law.
In fact, even as we see with chilling clarity how those with a similar motive have sought to infuse the law with their religious beliefs on the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country, Johnson may be the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic in our recent history—and yes, I remember that Mike Pence was, not so long ago, the Vice President of the United States.
The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms.
Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hugs newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on October 25, 2023.
Although Johnson was little known outside Republican congressional circles (and not that well known within them), he made it clear from his first moments as speaker who he was and what kind of speaker he would be. In his opening remarks, he even suggested it was divine intervention that made him the second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency. He said, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.”
He has developed close relationships including with Christian Dominionist groups like the “7 Mountains” New Apostolic Reformation effort appearing on broadcasts cited as one of their “favorites.”
The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy.
David Rothkopf
Published Oct. 26, 2023 2:41PM EDTThe most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Thomas Jefferson said he viewed with “solemn reverence that act of the whole of the American people” which established “a wall of separation between church and state.” George Washington approved a treaty that explicitly stated, “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” The very First Amendment in America’s Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The principal author of the Constitution, James Madison, in his treatise, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” described 15 reasons why the U.S. government must avoid backing any religion.
There is a reason the word “God” does not appear a single time in the Constitution. The founders were breaking with an England and Europe that were still in the thrall of the idea that rulers derived their powers from heaven above, “the divine right of kings.” But in the Constitution it explicitly states their view that the powers of government are derived “from the consent of the governed.”
Jefferson—like Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe—was a practitioner of deism, a view founded in the idea that the Supreme Being created the universe and then essentially took a step back, leaving natural laws to operate on their own. They believed religion should be a matter that was entirely between individuals and their God, and that it should play no role in governance.
Indeed, Jefferson’s views were even starker. He wrote in a letter to John Adams, “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of the virgin” would be seen as just another fable and described the religious views that descended from that fable as an “artificial scaffolding.”
Former President Donald Trump is greeted by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on February 4, 2020.
Thomas Paine considered much of the Bible to be more “consistent” with what might be called “the word of the demon” rather than that of God. Madison said that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together” and saw the separation of the two as essential to avoiding “the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries”—a sentiment that clearly resonates with our own times. Washington celebrated that the U.S. had at last created a form of government “that gives to bigotry no sanction.” Benjamin Franklin wrote at length about the pernicious nature of religious tests in government documents.
Yet here we are.
The Speaker of the House has radically different views. He represents a movement that is actively seeking to institutionalize the religious beliefs of evangelical Christians into law.
In fact, even as we see with chilling clarity how those with a similar motive have sought to infuse the law with their religious beliefs on the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country, Johnson may be the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic in our recent history—and yes, I remember that Mike Pence was, not so long ago, the Vice President of the United States.
The term Christofascism may seem inflammatory. It is not. It is intended to provide the most accurate possible definition of what Johnson and those in his movement wish to achieve. Like other fascists they seek to impose by whatever means necessary their views on the whole of society even if that means undoing established laws and eliminating accepted freedoms.
Christofascists do so in the name of advancing their Christian ideology, asserting that all in society must be guided by their views and values whether they adhere to them or not.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hugs newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on October 25, 2023.
Although Johnson was little known outside Republican congressional circles (and not that well known within them), he made it clear from his first moments as speaker who he was and what kind of speaker he would be. In his opening remarks, he even suggested it was divine intervention that made him the second in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency. He said, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority.”
He has developed close relationships including with Christian Dominionist groups like the “7 Mountains” New Apostolic Reformation effort appearing on broadcasts cited as one of their “favorites.”
Judge orders Ivanka Trump to testify in $250 million fraud case
- By PanamaSteve
- OT Talk
- 0 Replies
Judge Arthur Engoron agreed with the AG's office that her testimony is necessary, even though she's no longer a defendant in the case.
Ivanka Trump looks on as then-President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on March 20, 2020.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images file
Oct. 27, 2023, 10:02 AM CDT
By Dareh Gregorian and Erica Byfield
The judge overseeing the $250 million civil trial against Donald Trump and his company ordered the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump to testify in the case.
Judge Arthur Engoron said Friday she could not be called as a witness before Nov. 1, giving her time to appeal the ruling if she chooses.
Trump's attorneys had challenged New York Attorney General Letitia James' subpoena to Ivanka Trump, noting an appeals court had ruled earlier this year that she should be dropped as a defendant in the case over statute of limitations issues.
They contended the AG's office was trying "to continue to harass and burden President Trump’s daughter long after" the appeals court "mandated she be dismissed from the case."
They also argued that the AG waited too long to subpoena her, and argued the office doesn't have jurisdiction over her because she no longer lives in the state.
The AG's office countered that Ivanka Trump, a former White House official, still has information important to their case.
"While no longer a Defendant in this action, she indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims against the remaining individual and entity Defendants. But even beyond that, Ms. Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants and can be called as a person still under their control," the AG contended in a court filing.
The office said it wanted to ask her questions about Trump's former Washington, D.C. hotel, and noted she profited from the sale.
"Ms. Trump remains under the control of the Trump Organization, including through her ongoing and substantial business ties to the organization," the AG argued, adding that she "does not seem to be averse to her involvement in the family business when it comes to owning and collecting proceeds from the OPO (hotel) sale, the Trump Organization purchasing insurance for her and her companies, managing her household staff and credit card bills, renting her apartment or even paying her legal fees in this action. It is only when she is tasked with answering for that involvement that she disclaims any connection."
Ivanka Trump's siblings Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and their father are all expected to testify in the case and have been listed as witnesses by both the AG and the defense.
The AG is suing Trump for allegedly inflating his assets in financial statements to secure more cost-effective loans and insurance policies. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he has called a "witch hunt."
Ivanka Trump looks on as then-President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on March 20, 2020.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images file
Oct. 27, 2023, 10:02 AM CDT
By Dareh Gregorian and Erica Byfield
The judge overseeing the $250 million civil trial against Donald Trump and his company ordered the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump to testify in the case.
Judge Arthur Engoron said Friday she could not be called as a witness before Nov. 1, giving her time to appeal the ruling if she chooses.
Trump's attorneys had challenged New York Attorney General Letitia James' subpoena to Ivanka Trump, noting an appeals court had ruled earlier this year that she should be dropped as a defendant in the case over statute of limitations issues.
They contended the AG's office was trying "to continue to harass and burden President Trump’s daughter long after" the appeals court "mandated she be dismissed from the case."
They also argued that the AG waited too long to subpoena her, and argued the office doesn't have jurisdiction over her because she no longer lives in the state.
The AG's office countered that Ivanka Trump, a former White House official, still has information important to their case.
"While no longer a Defendant in this action, she indisputably has personal knowledge of facts relevant to the claims against the remaining individual and entity Defendants. But even beyond that, Ms. Trump remains financially and professionally intertwined with the Trump Organization and other Defendants and can be called as a person still under their control," the AG contended in a court filing.
The office said it wanted to ask her questions about Trump's former Washington, D.C. hotel, and noted she profited from the sale.
"Ms. Trump remains under the control of the Trump Organization, including through her ongoing and substantial business ties to the organization," the AG argued, adding that she "does not seem to be averse to her involvement in the family business when it comes to owning and collecting proceeds from the OPO (hotel) sale, the Trump Organization purchasing insurance for her and her companies, managing her household staff and credit card bills, renting her apartment or even paying her legal fees in this action. It is only when she is tasked with answering for that involvement that she disclaims any connection."
Ivanka Trump's siblings Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and their father are all expected to testify in the case and have been listed as witnesses by both the AG and the defense.
The AG is suing Trump for allegedly inflating his assets in financial statements to secure more cost-effective loans and insurance policies. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he has called a "witch hunt."