The candidates, who include Majority Whip Tom Emmer and GOP Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson, are set to make their cases before the Republican Conference on Monday.

Oct. 22, 2023, 2:38 PM CDT
By Summer Concepcion

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik said Sunday that nine candidates have joined the race for speaker after Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, dropped his bid last week.

Stefanik, R-N.Y., noted on X that the deadline to announce speaker bids was noon ET Sunday.

The GOP candidate forum is set for 6:30 p.m. ET Monday. Then, an internal conference vote will occur 9 a.m. Tuesday. Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has said his intention is to move to a floor vote “as soon as Tuesday.”

After his defeat on the House floor for a third time last week, Jordan’s speakership bid fell apart Friday after he lost a vote of confidence at a closed-door meeting of Republicans.

The internal, secret-ballot vote was 86 Republicans for Jordan and 112 saying they wanted to move on from him and go with someone else, lawmakers said as they left the meeting.

These are the candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring after Jordan dropped out:

Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota​

GOP Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson of Louisiana​

Jack Bergman of Michigan​

Byron Donalds of Florida​

Kevin Hern of Oklahoma​

Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania​

Gary Palmer of Alabama​

Austin Scott of Georgia​

Pete Sessions of Texas​

Is the same thing as the Notre Dame game. Both Notre Dame and Utah are very pedestrian teams. Not impressed at all with them but yet we make them out to be world beaters. We can't even play fundamentally sound football anymore. Just watch how we cover kickoff returns. Just so embarrassing how bad it is. We used to be the crown jewel of the Pac 12 now we are a middling program, who struggle with very basic football skills, technique. I want to know what the hell our team has been doing during practice. CLR and the coaching staff are stealing from USC and the fan base. They are frauds, I am so PISSED OFF!!!

There wasn't much uncertainty left, but Pete Thamel confirms, no Cam Rising for the Utes:

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Like most of you I’m sure, I watch a lot of football. After Branches long kickoff to the 11 yard line, there was about 1:50 seconds left. Knowing the other team only needs a FG to win and have 3 TO’s remaining, aren’t you supposed to just hand the ball off on the first play to at least make the other team use a TO. I see other teams do this literally every week. Knowing our defense can’t stop anyone, that should have been the only choice! SC could still have gotten a 1st down without scoring. It just seems that Rileys in game coaching should be better than it is especially since you get paid 10 million dollars a year to know this shit! I know you want to score at all cost but you had at least 3 more plays left and maybe more if you get the 1st down!

Trump spent four years cozing up to dictators

and making the world less safe.

President Biden is providing the moral leadership

we need in the White House.

He is an American President.

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Big Corporations making record profits need to share the wealth with their employees. Or, the housing market needs to crash like it has several times in the past.

Housing affordability drops and buyers shed buying power as home prices climb and mortgage interest rates hit long-time highs.


A "For Sale" sign in front of a house in Westwood, Mass., in 2020. Steven Senne / AP file


Oct. 21, 2023, 8:04 AM CDT / Source: NBC News
By Marley Jay and Jasmine Cui

A tough market for homebuyers keeps getting tougher as the combination of rising prices and climbing mortgage rates makes it even harder to afford a home, new data shows.

In spite of these challenges, people are still buying homes. About 4 million are sold every month. But to a shocking extent, rising mortgage rates and the shortage of homes for sale — which feeds rising prices and bidding wars — has weakened their financial position.

People today are borrowing significantly more money for homes at much higher interest rates than just a few years ago. Overall, a homebuyer’s dollar goes about half as far as it did at the end of 2020.

In December 2020, mortgage rates hit some of their lowest levels ever, with a 30-year fixed available for 2.68%. That was a steep drop from 3.78% a year earlier.

Today, government-backed lender Fannie Mae says the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 7.63%.

Prices have shot up as well. The median sale price of a single-family home is above $416,000 as of the second quarter of this year, up from just under $360,000 in late 2020.

By some measures, U.S. home price indexes are at all-time highs.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said that in late 2020, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical, newly sold home was around $1,100 in principal and interest. It’s now about twice that.

The NAR calculates that a buyer today needs to make $107,232 a year to afford that median home. That calculation is based on recent rates for a buyer who makes a 20% down payment and spends 25% of their gross monthly income on housing expenses.

That's somewhat conservative, as many people devote more than 25% of their budget to those costs. And home prices vary widely across the U.S. But it still shows how much harder it's getting to afford a house and feel financially secure.
Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“If you don’t make six figures, it's going to be really tough” to afford a home in many markets, Yun told NBC News.

Figuring out affordability​

Another way to measure the change: The NAR also puts out a monthly housing affordability index. A typical reading, Yun said, is 120 — meaning that a person making a median income has enough money to buy a home that's about 20% above the median price.

That figure has fallen from almost 170 pre-Covid to a preliminary total of 91.7 in August. That's the lowest reading since October 1985.

According to Yun, part of the problem stems from the housing bust of 2006-08, which kicked off the Great Recession and the global financial crisis. A lot of smaller homebuilders failed, the surviving builders got more conservative, and combined with rising regulatory costs, that has depressed building for a full decade.

That's one reason there are fewer homes for sale than usual. Another is that, in many cases, people who already own their homes and are paying mortgage rates in the 3% to 4% range don't want to sell and buy a new home at nearly 8%.

The difference between a monthly mortgage payment at 3% and one at 8% can be staggering. For a median-priced home that costs $416,000 with a 20% down payment, your monthly mortgage with 3% interest is $1,403. At 8% interest it's $2,441.

Many people are priced out of the housing market, which has also made it more expensive to rent. But there is at least some good news there, according to Yun.

"Thankfully, on the rental side at least, they are building apartments in many many cities," Yun said.

He added that there are some positive signs for homebuilders as well. Stock prices for companies like Toll Brothers and NVR — the parent company of Ryan Homes, NVHomes and Heartland Homes — have skyrocketed in the last year, meaning that investors want to give these companies cash that they can use to build more houses. That won't solve the affordability problem on its own, but it would likely help

Do we not have a better option at LB? I understand he's young but he really looks like a kid just running around getting cardio.

Perhaps now is the time to rename your weekly “First and Ten“ to “Third and Grinch” — just feels more appropriate. At Salt Lake and Cotton Bowl last year and then last night making certain the comeback lead was tossed away.

Games against non-power 5 schools shouldn’t even count.

Removing Nevada and San Jose St, this team is 4-2.

Stanford is horrible. No credit for that win. Colorado was all hype and minimal substance and that was a 1 possession game. ASU stinks and that was still a game late in the second half. Zona very very easily could have been a loss. Those are the only power 5 wins. And SC is 1-5 against the spread in those games too.

Yuck. What a total disappointment of a season. At least with Helton and Kiffin and Sark you kind of knew it would implode. This one was supposed to be different. But here we are again. Sigh.

Detroit synagogue president found stabbed to death outside home

Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue President Samantha Woll, 40, was found stabbed to death outside her Detroit home Saturday morning in the latest disturbing domestic attack in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war that broke out October 7. Woll's death comes five days after Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American, was brutally stabbed to death by his Islamaphobic landlord in Illinois and as law enforcement agencies across the country are warning of increased anti-Semitic threats in light of the ongoing conflict. The madness and heartbreaking bloodshed must stop.

Judge KOs More Trump Attempts to Stop Colorado Ballot Suit​

Mark Alfred​

Breaking News Intern
Published Oct. 21, 2023 8:32PM EDT

Donald Trump keeps trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to block him from the presidential primary ballot in Colorado—and he keeps losing. A judge has rejected his latest efforts, issuing a scathing assessment of his legal arguments. The suit contends that Trump is ineligible to run for president because of his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, citing a provision in the 14th Amendment—and Trump claims the provision isn’t applicable. Judge Sarah Wallace did not mince words: “Such an interpretation is absurd; the Constitution and its requirements for eligibility are not suggestions, left to the political parties to determine at their sole discretion.”

"In their blind loyalty to their mega-donors, Republicans' fixation on giant tax cuts for billionaires has created a revenue problem that is driving up our national debt," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in response to new Treasury Department figures.​

JON QUEALLY
Oct 21, 2023

(This will come as a shock to nearly no one paying attention, but massive, budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, ultra-wealthy, and mindbogglingly wealthy do not — we repeat DO NOT — trickle down and contribute to a robust economy that magically works for everyone. It's a debt-exploding ruse that punishes the overwhelming majority of Americans, generation after generation. Always has been, always will be.)

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday released new figures related to the 2023 budget that showed a troubling drop in the nation's tax revenue compared to GDP—a measure which fell to 16.5% despite a growing economy—and an annual deficit increase that essentially doubled from the previous year.

"After record U.S. government spending in 2020 and 2021" due to programs related to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, the Washington Postreports, "the deficit dropped from close to $3 trillion to close to $1 trillion in 2022. But rather than continue to fall to its pre-pandemic levels, the deficit unexpectedly jumped this year to roughly $2 trillion."

While much of the reporting on the Treasury figures painted a picture of various and overlapping dynamics to explain the surge in the deficit—including higher payments on debt due to interest rates, tax filing waivers related to extreme weather events, the impact of a student loan forgiveness program that was later rescinded, or a dip in capital gains receipts—progressive tax experts say none of those complexities should act to shield what's at the heart of a budget that brings in less than it spends: tax giveaways to the rich.

Bobby Kogan, senior director for federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, has argued repeatedly that growing deficits in recent years have a clear and singular chief cause: Republican tax cuts that benefit mostly the wealthy and profitable corporations.

In response to the Treasury figures released Friday, Kogan said that "roughly 75%" of the surge in the deficit and the debt ratio, the amount of federal debt relative to the overall size of the economy, was due to revenue decreases resulting from GOP-approved tax cuts over recent decades. "Of the remaining 25%," he said, "more than half" was higher interest payments on the debt related to Federal Reserve policy.

"We have a revenue problem, due to tax cuts," said Kogan, pointing to the major tax laws enacted under the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. "The Bush and Trump tax cuts broke our modern tax structure. Revenue is significantly lower and no longer grows much with the economy." And he offered this visualization about a growing debt ratio:




"The point I want to make again and again and again is that, relative to the last time CBO was projecting stable debt/GDP, spending is down, not up," Kogan said in a tweet Friday night. "It's lower revenue that's 100% responsible for the change in debt projections. If you take away nothing else, leave with this point."


In his tweet, Kogan offered the following chart to show recent and projected levels of both federal revenue and spending relative to gross domestic product (GDP):



In a detailed analysis produced in March, Kogan explained that, "If not for the Bush tax cuts and their extensions—as well as the Trump tax cuts—revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely, and the debt ratio (debt as a percentage of the economy) would be declining. Instead, these tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt since their enactment and are responsible for 57 percent of the increase in the debt ratio since 2001, and more than 90 percent of the increase in the debt ratio if the one-time costs of bills responding to COVID-19 and the Great Recession are excluded."

On Friday, the office of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) cited those same numbers in a press release responding to the Treasury's new report.

"Tax giveaways for the wealthy are continuing to starve the federal government of needed revenue: those passed by former Presidents Trump and Bush have added $10 trillion to the debt and account for 57 percent of the increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio since 2001," read the statement. "If not for those tax cuts, U.S. debt would be declining as a share of the economy."




Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said the dip in federal revenue and growth in the overall deficit both have the same primary cause: GOP fealty to the wealthy individuals and powerful corporations that bankroll their campaigns.

"In their blind loyalty to their mega-donors, Republicans' fixation on giant tax cuts for billionaires has created a revenue problem that is driving up our national debt," Whitehouse said Friday night. "Even as federal spending fell over the last year relative to the size of the economy, the deficit increased because Republicans have rigged the tax code so that big corporations and the wealthy can avoid paying their fair share."

Offering a solution, Whitehouse said, "Fixing our corrupted tax code and cracking down on wealthy tax cheats would help bring down the deficit. It would also ensure teachers and firefighters don't pay higher tax rates than billionaires, level the playing field for small businesses, and promote a stronger economy for all."

None of the latest figures—those showing that tax cuts have injured revenues and therefore spiked deficits and increased debt—should be a surprise.

In 2018, shortly after the Trump tax cuts were signed into law, a Congressional Budget Office (CBo) report predicted precisely this result: that revenues would plummet; annual deficits would grow; and not even the promise of economic growth made by Republicans to justify the giveaway would be enough to make up the difference in the budget.

"The CBO's latest report exposes the scam behind the rosy rhetoric from Republicans that their tax bill would pay for itself," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and now Senate Majority Leader, said at the time.

"Republicans racked up the national debt by giving tax breaks to their billionaire buddies, and now they want everyone else to pay for them."

In its 2018 report, the CBO predicted the deficit would rise to $804 billion by the end of that fiscal year. Now, for all the empty promises and howling from the GOP and their allied deficit hawks, the economic prescription they forced through Congress has resulted in an annual deficit of more than double that, all while demanding the nation's poorest and most vulnerable pay the price by demanding key social programs—including food aid, education budgets, unemployment benefits, and housing assistance—be slashed.

Meanwhile, the GOP majority in the U.S. House—with or without a Speaker currently holding the gavel—still has plans to extend the Trump tax cuts if given half a chance. In May, a CBO analysis of that pending legislation found that such an extension would add an additional $3.5 trillion to the national debt.

"Republicans racked up the national debt by giving tax breaks to their billionaire buddies, and now they want everyone else to pay for them," Sen. Whitehouse said at the time. "It is one of life's great enigmas that Republicans can keep a straight face while they simultaneously cite the deficit to extort massive spending cuts to critical programs and support a bill that would blow up deficits to extend trillions in tax cuts for the people who need them the least."

Biden’s pressure on Israel should match his warning about 9/11 mistakes​

In an unexpected move, Biden counsels Israel to keep its cool.


Oct. 18, 2023, 5:06 PM CDT
By Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor

Many Americans and Israelis have likened Hamas’ massacres in Israel on Oct. 7 to Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. That analogy has been used in service of arguing for a strong Israeli military response — or for showing no restraint whatsoever — as Israel wages war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The right in particular has invoked the memory of 9/11 as a way to describe the scale of the pain Israelis are feeling — and to justify the forcefulness of the Israeli government’s retaliation.

During a speech in Israel on Wednesday, Biden also brought up 9/11. But while he raised it as a way to express empathy with Israel, he also used it to warn of the perils of being led astray by vengeance.

“Justice must be done,” Biden said. “But I caution this while you feel that rage: Don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

The president invoked 9/11 not to give license to Israel to act brutally, but to counsel its government to act rationally.
He also gently applied pressure to Israel to adhere to a clear plan as it prepares for a potential ground offensive. "I’ve made wartime decisions, I know the choices are never clear or easy for leadership," he said. "There’s always costs. But it requires being deliberate, it requires asking very hard questions, it requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment of whether the path you’re on will achieve those objectives. The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas, Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.”

It was a refreshing change of pace. The president invoked 9/11 not to give license to Israel to act brutally, but to counsel its government to act rationally, strategically and with consideration for the effect those actions will have on civilians.


It’s unclear what Biden considers to be America’s post-9/11 mistakes, given that plenty of aspects of the so-called War on Terror might qualify. But the broader sentiment is correct. Sept. 11 was a terrible tragedy, but the subsequent groupthink in American establishment media and our political class led the U.S. into a bloodthirsty imperial rage that, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute’s estimate, led to the death of over 4 million people. It also served as the catalyst for an extraordinary erosion in freedoms at home, including invasive mass surveillance, racist and authoritarian detainment policies and the reported extrajudicial murder of U.S. citizens. The U.S. always had the option of responding strategically to international terrorist networks without launching forever wars or degrading civil liberties, but declined to do so.

By contrast, former President George W. Bush, who rarely touches hot-button political issues these days, recently piped up on the Hamas attacks, resorting to language reminiscent of his simplistic and belligerent post-9/11 rhetoric. Bush cautioned against “softness,” decried “isolationist tendencies” in both U.S. parties, ruled out negotiations, predicted that it’ll get “ugly for a while” and hoped to find out what Netanyahu is “made out of” over the course of an invasion of Gaza.

Unfortunately, Israel is currently gravitating toward Bush’s path, away from the more circumspect one urged by Biden. Israel is dehumanizing Palestinian citizens with racist rhetoric and pursuing collective punishment in Gaza by choking off food, water, medicine and electricity to its 2.3 million residents; and also with indiscriminate bombardments and forcible population transfers. While Israel has agreed to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through Egypt on the condition that it doesn’t help Hamas, it’s a minor concession amid a broader set of policies that are killing and starving Palestinian civilians en masse.

Of course, Israel is pursuing these unconscionable policies with the blessing of the U.S. As I’ve written about recently, the overwhelming emphasis of the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war has been to trumpet that the U.S. will support Israel no matter what it does. If Biden really wants to be a good friend to both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, he would work harder to pressure Israel to not succumb to the darkest temptations of its rage.

CNN released a disturbing voicemail that shows how the GOP's endorsement of political intimidation has empowered extremists.


Oct. 20, 2023, 3:13 PM CDT
By Ja'han Jones

On Thursday, CNN’s Jake Tapper aired a threatening voicemail message that was reportedly sent to the spouse of a Republican House member who opposes GOP Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for House speaker.

Jordan’s speaker hopes are cooked at this point, given the many holdouts who insist they’ll never vote for him. But he’s stayed resolute in seeking the nomination. Evidently a glutton for punishment, Jordan lost a third House vote on Friday. He later lost a secret ballot among Republicans, who are headed home for the weekend, and he seems no longer to be in the running for the spot.

As my colleague Steve Benen explained for the Maddowblog, Jordan and his allies seem to have miscalculated in backing a right-wing pressure campaign, promoted by conservative media, that’s encouraged people to call lawmakers who have opposed his speaker bid.

Some House members have reported receiving death threats and have said they’ve hired additional security to protect themselves and their families, which only appears to have made them more determined to oppose Jordan’s elevation.

Citing sources in the room at a tense House GOP caucus meeting, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported Friday that Ohio Republican Warren Davidson said the Congress members receiving threats have no one to blame but themselves. (I suspect this won’t win Jordan many converts, either.)

The message Tapper shared on Thursday gives a taste of the depravity some of Jordan’s backers have displayed in trying to flip his detractors.

In the profanity-laced message, the caller suggests the lawmaker is a part of the “deep state” for opposing Jordan’s speakership. The caller goes on to say that they and other backers of Jordan are “gonna f------ come follow you all over the place.” The rant continues, and the caller uses an anti-gay slur before ramping up the threatening rhetoric.

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At the risk of sounding like Rep. Davidson, whose tactics to coerce Jordan’s opposition seem positively mafia-esque, I think Republicans do deserve a degree of blame for the intimidation they’re facing (which is not to say that such tactics are excusable).

You may remember that in February 2022, the Republican National Committee chose to censure two Republican lawmakers — former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — for their efforts to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. In the official resolution, the party officials denounced the "persecution" of “legitimate political discourse,” essentially affirming to conservatives that menacing members of Congress — threatening them with violence, even — is an acceptable way to influence them. (Officials denied that that part of the resolution referred to Jan. 6, but the resolution itself was ambiguous.)

Which is to say, the current members of the House Republican Caucus are simply being consistent with the party's decision to officially condone, if not encourage, political intimidation and violence. Jim Jordan’s opponents just don’t like that these tactics are being deployed against them.

But according to their party, that's part and parcel of being a U.S. lawmaker.

The Chesebro and Powell plea deals could be a nail in Trump’s legal coffin​

Their guilty pleas have implications far beyond Georgia.


Oct. 21, 2023, 5:00 AM CDT
By Glenn Kirschner, MSNBC Columnist

In the last two days, the quest to hold accountable those who allegedly interfered in the 2020 presidential election has taken two dramatic and potentially far-reaching turns. Lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have decided to plead guilty and testify against their co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s sprawling RICO prosecution. The pleas could prove to be a proverbial nail in former President Donald Trump’s legal coffin.

Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts, while Chesebro pleaded to a felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Both were committed as part of a corrupt scheme to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia. Their co-defendants in that case include Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, among others. Although it’s not clear how much direct evidence the pair may be able to offer against their co-defendants, the guilty pleas affirmed that there was indeed a criminal conspiracy to corruptly interfere in the Georgia election. That is ominous for their co-conspirators and vindicates Willis’ theory of prosecution.

Powell’s prominence, in particular, in the president’s orbit after the 2020 election cannot be understated.

Their pleas have implications far beyond Georgia state lines. Given their proximity to Trump after the 2020 election, the guilty pleas could be important in special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump for election interference.

Powell and Chesebro were two of six unnamed co-conspirators in Smith’s indictment in that case. Together with Giuliani, Powell hopped from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, peddling wild election conspiracy theories and bringing bogus court challenges to keep Trump in power.

Powell’s prominence, in particular, in the president’s orbit during that period cannot be understated. Recall that Trump discussed naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud. That appointment was included in a draft executive order that also would have directed the military to seize voting machines in battleground states.



Powell was reportedly present at one or more Oval Office meetings at which these illegal, undemocratic schemes were allegedly proposed, discussed and — given the draft presidential order — nearly executed. To say Powell is likely to have incriminating evidence against Trump himself is an understatement.

What do Powell and Chesebro’s pleas tell us about the approaches they’ll likely take in connection with her criminal exposure in Smith’s case? Given that the special counsel’s indictment of Trump announced in a very public way that six co-defendants allegedly assisted Trump in interfering in the 2020 election, I believe it’s highly likely that those six defendants will be indicted and tried for their crimes — unless they plead guilty and cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Neither Powell’s nor Chesebro’s plea deal ends the possibility of imprisonment.

Given how intertwined the Georgia crimes are with the broader election fraud scheme — involving many of the same co-conspirators — it’s impossible to envision how Powell or Chesebro could mount a successful defense to the federal election crimes now that they've pleaded guilty to state election crimes. In short, in the opinion of this former career federal prosecutor, I would expect they either already are or soon will be formal cooperating witnesses in Smith’s 2020 election case.


None of this is to suggest that their testimony will necessarily be convincing. Cooperating witnesses, by definition, are criminals — they committed crimes, pled guilty to those crimes and agreed to testify truthfully against others — and rebuilding her credibility for a trial jury will be no easy task for prosecutors.

For example, there is plenty of video of Powell making outrageous — and ultimately false — claims of election fraud. Defense attorneys will vigorously cross-examine her along the lines of, “Were you lying then or are you lying now?”

But that is a routine attack on a cooperating witness, which prosecutors will anticipate. Indeed, Powell can establish not only that she was “lying then,” but that her lies were in service to, and perhaps even at the direction of, her co-conspirator Donald Trump. This would convert Powell’s lies into evidence that actually incriminates Trump.

However, there’s a more fundamental problem with — and ultimately a more fruitful attack on — Powell’s credibility: her sweetheart plea deal. Powell was indicted on multiple felony counts, with the lead count alone carrying up to two decades in prison. Yet she was allowed to plead guilty to a series of misdemeanors and did not receive a minute of jail time.

You can see how cross-examination of Powell might unfold: “Ms. Powell, you were facing the rest of your life in prison, but all you had to do was falsely implicate Donald Trump to receive an obscenely lenient plea deal. Ms. Powell, you would have said anything DA Willis wanted you to say to avoid jail, isn’t that right?” Prosecutors will need lots of hard corroboration — emails, texts, notes, recordings — for Powell and Chesebro’s testimony.

Furthermore, neither Powell’s nor Chesebro’s plea deal ends the possibility of imprisonment. As noted earlier, they’ll still face criminal exposure in the federal case. The Georgia prosecutors might have been willing to extend a probation-only plea deal to Powell and Chesebro. But I doubt the federal government will be quite so generous.

In the event that either pleads guilty and cooperates in the federal prosecution of Trump, there are compelling societal interests that militate in favor of a period of incarceration for crimes that were designed, in a very real and direct sense, to bring an end to our great American experiment. Crimes like that deserve more than mere probation. Not if we’re serious about deterring Trump and other would-be dictators from trying it all over again.

We didn't get any players after the game -- just Riley. His last two answers were very interesting, as he talked about the team at least being affected by outside noise, outside expectations. Before you pounce on that, hear him say it in his words -- I asked him what he meant by it and he gave a 3-minute response at the very end.

Video is almost up:

Common theme for 15 years. The school and the athletic department completely shvt the bed and expect the fan base to be ok with it. Sad for the players and their families.

which I actually would have said last week….
(but we all know how that went)

but, where we are now, if we cannot get a depleted Utah team….playing at home….
with what should be a real sense of URGENCY…..

well, this is where a would-be promising season (and Caleb’s last) begins to unravel.

I really don’t have any expectations at this point…..

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SC just getting torched these days…truth no longer matters

Jim Jordan's Speakership downfall complete after his own party humiliates him

Hollywood writers could not have scripted a more satisfying conclusion to the very public demise Jim Jordan subjected himself to this week, as a third crushing defeat in his quest to become the next Speaker of the House was followed by his party removing him as speaker designee by an overwhelming majority. Few men who have ever walked the halls of Congress deserved an ignominious ending like this more than the insurrectionist, election-denying, sex-abuse-enabling disgrace from Ohio.

I have two tickets for sale if anyone in the HB area is interested. Seats are near the tunnel $150

SC 34
UTAH 31

Alright, alright, so we got our noses bloodied last week...



...no matter! WE GOT THIS!

FIGHT THE HELL ON!